Conference: Speaking of Music

Speaking of Music

When: Friday and Saturday, 20-21 February 2009
Where: Fordham University, New York, NY
How do we speak of music and its effects? What is the sense and meaning of sound? Although these questions are asked in every age, the answers are always and obviously provisional, for they say as much about the questioner as they do about the medium of music. In this two-day colloquium, we wish to ask these questions anew, but not because we hope to answer them once and for all. Rather, we hope in the first place to discuss the avenues of questioning that might be fruitful at a time marked by the dissolution of boundaries between musics and between disciplines. Second, we hope to use the question to reflect on our own disciplines, both on their high achievements and on their possible limits. The participants in this colloquium come from musicology and music theory, from philosophy, political science and literary studies, and from cognitive science. The four half-day panels are organized thematically and deliberately cross disciplines.

Audience participation in discussion is highly welcome. For times and further information, please see the website http://www.speaking-of-music.com/.

Participants: Per Aage Brandt, Kiene Brillenburg Wurth, Keith Chapin, Andrew Clark, Matthew Gelbart, Christopher Gogwilt, John Hamilton, Lawrence Kramer, Jairo Moreno, Jean-Luc Nancy (in absentia, paper to be read), Laura Odello, Alexander Rehding, Tracy Strong, Peter Szendy, Saander van Maas, Lawrence Zbikowski