CALL FOR PAPERS

INTERNATIONAL MUSICOLOGICAL COLLOQUIUM BRNO 2006

"Darmstadt, Du Stadt meiner Traeume.: The International Reception of
Post-War Darmstadt as the Shangri-La of Musical Modernism

SEPTEMBER 25-27, 2006

The Institute of Musicology at the Masaryk University Brno (Czech
Republic) will host its annual musicological colloquium once more in 2006.
It will concentrate on the subject of the international reception of the
musical modernism that was propagated from post-war Darmstadt.

During the Cold War, many of the composers who made the trip to Darmstadt
and its summer schools were arguably seeking to realize a dream of
purifying music -- involving a reinterpretation of compositional practice
from first principles, to underlie any music deserving to be called
modern. Not all composers in the western bloc found such a dream
attractive. Yet, realizable or not, its radical appeal gained a political
edge, for it was frequently opposed officially in the eastern bloc as a
symptom of western decadence (with other models of true modernism being
proposed in opposition to it), and, like other aspects of western culture,
it often appealed to Soviet-bloc composers.

Now that the Soviet empire has crumbled, the dream has clearly lost its
hold on many composers and other musicians; it is amusing to see western
academics taking advantage of their new "freedom" to suggest that no one
ever liked modernist music anyway. So was the dream pure fantasy?  Was it
founded on a realizable programme?  Should anyone care?  How do the
various ways in which the Darmstadt dream was received internationally
cast light upon the multiple "modernisms" which we might now wish to
regard as valid? How far was the dream determined by politics?

We hope that papers offered for this colloquium may answer these and any
other questions that seem relevant, while immersing themselves in the
undoubted delights of a musical Shangri-La.

All prospective participants should submit a 300-word abstract by 31 May
2006, together with a brief curriculum vitae, and their postal and e-mail
addresses.

Presentations of papers should not exceed 20 minutes. Papers will be
accepted in English and German. There are no interpreting facilities
available in the conference rooms.

Active participants will be offered accommodation in an international
hotel free of charge. The papers will be published in print.

Further information will be progressively available on the web page of the
Institute of Musicology of the Masaryk University Brno:
	http://www.musicologica.cz
under the heading Kolokvium. There is a special e-mail address for
colloquium business:
	[log in to unmask]

Paper abstracts, and requests for information, should be addressed to:

Institute of Musicology
Masaryk University Brno
Arne Novaka 1
CZ 602 00 Brno
Phone and fax: +420 549497478
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

In the name of the Board of the Colloquium
Geoffrey Chew         Petr Macek      Mikulas Bek