****Forwarded message from Kostas Chardas <[log in to unmask]>****

ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC STUDIES

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

Beyond the centres: Musical avant gardes since 1950

In memoriam Yannis Andreou Papaioannou (1910 – 1989)


Thessaloniki, 1-5 July 2010



The notion of the avant garde in music has stereotypically been linked  
with the post-1950 internationalisation of early 20th-century  
modernist ideas, while the historical and aesthetic delimitation of  
boundaries between the musical avant garde and post-modernism is still  
under discussion. The ‘mainstream’ historiography attached to the  
avant garde quite expectedly focuses on the idea of innovation in the  
music and theoretical texts of specific pioneers, and on notions such  
as universality and the significance of time as parameters affecting  
the appraisal of the work of art.


The approach of this International Conference, as inferred from the  
first part of its title (‘Beyond the Centres’) can be perceived  
either with regard to places, times and individuals (i.e. beyond the  
places, times and individuals that have defined the starting points of  
musical avant gardes), or with regard to dominant categorizations  
(i.e., beyond the dominant, centric, perceptions of the avant-garde  
irrespective of places, times or individuals).


Thus the aim of the Conference is twofold:

1)    To gather together research on widely unknown musical  
realizations of the notion of the avant-garde since 1950, and  
encourage the examination of multiple, heterogeneous currents built  
around the ideas of innovation and / or radicalism.

2)    To stimulate theoretical critical discussion on how the notion  
of the avant garde can be assessed today ‘from outside’ (beyond the  
centric generic ideas of the time of its formation) and embrace  
problematisation of the very premise of a unified term for the avant  
garde. In other words, to motivate the critical appraisal of the  
function, reception, realization and dissemination of what was or is  
considered avant-garde in different geographical and cultural  
contexts. In this respect, the examination of the pedagogic methods  
that were developed by institutions or individuals for the  
establishment and dissemination of avant-garde techniques is within  
the scope of the Conference.


Historical, analytical, ideological, political, sociological,  
cultural, interdisciplinary, anthropological and other approaches are  
all welcome. The broad thematic categories of the Conference can be  
summarized as follows:

-       Avant-garde techniques and aesthetics.

-       Avant garde and politics / ideology.

-       Compositional instruction, music theory and analysis and the  
avant gardes.


More specifically, the following list of possible thematic areas is  
intended not to be restrictive, but informative of the priorities of  
the Conference:

-       Definitions and musical realizations of the idea of the avant  
garde

-       ideological expressions of the avant garde

-       avant garde and institutions

-       avant garde and cultural identity

-       reception of the avant gardes

-       avant-garde pedagogies

-       utopias of the avant garde

-       avant-garde instrumentation – notation

-       avant garde and post-modernism

-       avant garde and experimentalism

-       avant garde and the perception of time / space

-       organicism and / or fragmentation in avant gardes.


The Conference is dedicated to the memory of Yannis A. Papaioannou,  
celebrating the centenary of the birth of the most influential figure  
in the dissemination of avant-garde ideas in post-1950 Greece through  
his musical, educational and institutional activities. In addition to  
being a stimulus for further research on Papaioannou’s life, music  
and ideas, the present Conference is inspired by the universality of  
his approach to music and teaching, thus aiming at a universal  
critical appraisal of different expressions of the notion of the avant  
garde.


The Conference is organized by the Department of Music Studies,  
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and will take place in  
Thessaloniki, Greece between 1 and 5 July 2010. The official language  
of the Conference is English.


Abstracts are invited for presentation in one of the following formats:

	• Papers (20 minute presentations)
	• Panels, of up to four individual papers (preferably with explicit  
reference to one of the three main thematic categories of the  
conference).

Abstracts must address the conference theme and clearly state the aims  
and methodological approach of the proposed paper(s). Abstracts for  
individual papers should be no longer than 300 words. Panel proposals  
should include a general 100-word description of the panel’s proposed  
theme, accompanied by individual 300-word abstracts for all paper  
contributions.


All abstracts should be submitted as e-mail attachments to Kostas  
Chardas ([log in to unmask]) or Danae Stefanou  
([log in to unmask]), by the deadline οf 30 November 2009,  
accompanied by the following information:

	• Name(s) and Institutional Affiliation(s) of Author(s)
	• Title of Proposed Paper or Panel
	• Proposed Format of Presentation (Paper or Panel)
	• Indicative List of Bibliographic References
	• Brief (100-word) CV of Main Author(s).

All submissions will be reviewed anonymously by a board of  
international reviewers. Papers will be published on the conference  
website and on CD-ROM, accompanying a printed book of abstracts.


Details of submission deadlines, registration, reviewing procedures  
and other updates will shortly become available on the conference  
website at http://web.auth.gr/btc.


Organising Committee

Demetre Yannou (chair). PhD. Professor, Department of Music Studies –  
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Nikos Athineos. Conductor. Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki  
Concert Hall.

Kostas Chardas. PhD. Lecturer, Department of Music Studies –  
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (appointment pending).

Michalis Lapidakis PhD. Associate Professor, Department of Music  
Studies – Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Evi Nika-Sampson. PhD. Associate Professor, Department of Music  
Studies – Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Danae Stefanou. PhD. Lecturer, Department of Music Studies –  
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Costas Tsougras. PhD. Lecturer, Department of Music Studies –  
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.


****End of forwarded message****

______________________________________

Dr J. P. E. Harper-Scott
Senior Lecturer
Department of Music
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, Great Britain
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Music/jpeh-s.html
______________________________________