Seventh Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Multipart Music

4-8 September 2023

Musicology and Cultural Heritage Department

of the University of Pavia in Cremona, Italy

Call for papers

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: November 1st, 2022

PLACE: Cremona, Italy

LANGUAGE: English.

THEMES

1. Multipart music, technology and social distancing

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we have witnessed a long period of social distancing that has made playing and singing in groups in-person impossible, be it in theatres, or in informal gatherings. School buildings were closed and even when opened again, many musical activities were forbidden. Teaching music became evermore challenging.

In the last two years we have had to cope with social distancing and teaching and gathering together online. Calendrical events, religious or not, like feast and festivals, had to be suspended or modified. Technology, which was already well established in our everyday lives, took place and space. How was multipart music affected in a more and more technological world and during and after this long period of social distancing?

We are interested in understanding if and how:

• new modalities of rehearsals and performance were born or were subjected to changes
• modalities of learning and teaching were modified (be it the internet or recordings or any other kind of remote teaching and learning)
• specific multipart music repertoires emerged online and why
• technology favoured intercultural exchanges
• scholars were able to carry out fieldwork

2. The body and embodiment in multipart music 

Multipart music performance is a form of social collaborative behaviour that requires participants to anticipate and adapt to each other’s actions. This is achieved through specialized and codified forms of social interaction. The operationalization of sensorimotor mechanisms that support such interpersonal coordination can reveal underlying social dynamics between performing musicians, as well as hierarchies of musical structures. The role of embodiment in the making and perception of multipart music, as well as in the formation of its musical and emotional meanings, can hardly be overestimated.

Among the questions to be discussed in this section are:

• How are these forms of interaction achieved?
• How to study and document them?
• How does embodiment contribute to conveying musical meanings?
• What is the role of embodiment in the processes of learning and teaching multipart music?

3. New research