Narrative Walks Through Music

𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂

The 15th Biennial International Conference on Music Theory and Analysis, organized by the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, will take place from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 October 2024 at the University of Arts in Belgrade. We welcome paper proposals on different aspects of musical narrativity, relating to music of any genre and historical period. T

he keynote speakers will be Joan Grimalt (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain), Michael Klein (Boyer College of Music and Dance, Philadelphia), and Michael Allis (School of Music, University of Leeds, UK).

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞

“Narrative Walks through Music” is a reinterpretation of the title of Umberto Eco’s books, Six Walks in the Fictional Woods. The woods serve as a metaphor for the narrative text. Eco suggests that the reader is the one who determines the pace of movement through a literary text and the speed of events within it. The conference title specifically calls on analysts to treat music as Eco’s woods and to provide their own insights as participants regarding possible questions related to the phenomenon of musical narrativity. Possible themes include:

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥

Narrative about music vs. narrative in music; musical narrativity as a distinct field in the science of music – yes or no; can music tell a story, and does it exhibit a narrative tendency; musical narrativity – properties, nature, and scope of research; musical theory/literary theory – literary theory/musical theory; at what point could we speak about the demarcation line between music and literature, and what distinguishes literary and musical signification.

𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬

Possible analytical phases – surface and depth levels of analysis; modalities of narrative analysis; actors, gestures, signs, elements, patterns, topics, themes, styles, cultural units, discursive connections through musical time and space, discourse, and meaning; recognizing musical narrative – levels of meaning, their hierarchical differences, and awareness of their existence; is musical narrative derivative or part of grammar; relationships between individual narrative elements and ways they merge into a whole; cultural significance differences within musical narrative and their transvaluation; the role of narrative archetypes in genre creation; the course of ‘events’ in music and its discursive power – analogies with natural language.

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 – 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐭, 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜

Is there a risk of ‘overinterpretative’ musical narrative, and where do the boundaries of interpretation lie; semantic contexts that involve a narrator in a musical work; narrative comments as part of grammar, the role of interpreters in interpreting and adding narrative comments; the importance of recognizing narrative fields in musical criticism; application of achievements in musical narrativity in contemporary performance practice; contradictions and conflicts in musical narrative – their reconfiguration through musical time in the listener’s consciousness; ‘exemplary’ analyst vs. ‘empirical’ analyst – the relationship between objectivity and subjectivity in interpreting musical narrative. And so on...

𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐬: 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟏𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒
𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞: 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

Proposal categories:
Papers (20 minutes maximum, with 10 minutes for discussion)
Panel discussion for 4 to 6 participants (15 minutes for each paper plus 30-minute discussion afterwards)

Proposal guidelines

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬:
The author’s name and affiliation
E-mail address
The title of the paper
An abstract (up to 300 words)
Keywords (up to 5)
A short biography (the education and research field, up to 150 words plus 5 representative publications)
Equipment Request

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧:
A title of a panel discussion
An abstract of a panel discussion (up to 500 words)
Keywords of a panel discussion (up to 7)
For each of the panel discussion participants: see the submission guidelines for the proposal of spoken papers
Equipment Request

𝐅𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬
Proposals should be sent as a single MS Word document and should be suitable for publication in the conference book of abstracts. Please send your proposal (in Word format, not PDF) to the following e-mail address: 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜.𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝟐𝟒@𝐟𝐦𝐮.𝐛𝐠.𝐚𝐜.𝐫𝐬
The official language of the Conference is English. The format of the conference would be twofold: online and in person, as a hybrid event. Conference fee: 80 €, 40 € online
All enquiries should be sent to the organisers at [email protected]

Kindest regards,
PhD Tijana Ilišević and PhD Srđan Teparić,
Conference coordinators