Call for Participation – International Symposium: Current Conceptions of Discursive Musical Practices in the 21st Century Call for Papers Meetings & Events NEW

Call for Participation – International Symposium

Musical Interpretation
Current Conceptions of Discursive Musical Practices in the 21st Century 

7 October (evening) – 10 October 2027 | Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin), Kammersaal

Today, the concept of musical interpretation is no longer associated exclusively with performances of Western Art Music and the (written) musical work. Interpretation may also be understood as an integral part of other musical practices, particularly those that are not (or only partly) based on notation. These include, for instance, oral traditions that draw on pre-existing musical models, as in various forms of “popular” music, as well as hybrid practices combining oral and written traditions and making use of reduced forms of notation, such as figured bass or lead sheets. This is particularly relevant to practices that have achieved unprecedented reach through digital media of the 21st century—and that themselves become objects of interpretation in these contexts. From this perspective, musical interpretation may be understood as taking place wherever music is conceived as a form of reference or engagement.

In this broader sense, musical interpretation can be understood as a discursive practice: musicians and listeners attune their senses to the sounding event and, in doing so, engage with one another and negotiate meaning. If interpretation is understood as an act of communication in this way, it can be examined from the perspectives of a wide range of communities and disciplines. Alongside musical practice and music-related research, perspectives from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cultural and media studies, gender studies, Digital Humanities, and, in particular, Artistic Research are playing an increasingly important role. Yet despite its considerable potential—not least in terms of sociopolitical engagement—no concerted effort has so far been made to bring these perspectives together.

An international symposium will take up this aim, responding to the recent establishment of numerous programmes in Artistic Research and doctoral studies at universities in German-speaking countries. The symposium will simultaneously inaugurate the multimedia, open-access book series Studien zur musikalischen Interpretation | Studies on Musical Interpretation, published in association with Logos Verlag Berlin and the FID Musikwissenschaft. Conceiving musical interpretation as a meeting ground for artistic practices and for research in music and beyond, the series seeks to offer a comprehensive reassessment of the concept of musical interpretation for artistic and scholarly research—35 years after the publication of Hermann Danuser’s edited volume Musikalische Interpretation (Laaber, 1992).

The symposium languages will be German and English.

Possible Topics and Areas of Focus:

1. Concept Formation and Intellectual History: What does it mean to think of a musical event in terms of “interpretation”? How does interpretation relate to concepts such as “reproduction”, “rendition”, “performance” or “presentation”? Why has interpretation hitherto been associated predominantly with 19th- and 20th-century “Western art music”, while “performance” or “presentation” have become established terms for other musical practices? What role does the “audience” play in this context?
2. Discursive Artefacts and Media – Corpus Research and Editing: Where, and through which elements, does interpretation emerge as a discursive practice? What are the objects of interpretation—scores, audio recordings, video, and so forth—and how might more abstract elements, such as figures, gestures or poses, also come into play? To what extent can non-notated artefacts, such as sound recordings, be read as “primary texts” (Allan F. Moore), and what implications does this have for our understanding of music? Can, for instance, a sound recording acquire the status of a “work”? What mediating and colouring roles do the new media of the 20th and 21st centuries play in these processes? And what follows from this for the relationship between interpretation and musical editing?
3. Artistic Practice: How can reflection on musical interpretation and its underlying structures enrich artistic practice—and vice versa? What role does implicit knowledge (“tacit knowledge”) play, and how do embodied practices contribute to the formation of such knowledge? To what extent does musical interpretation depend on different physical capacities and conditions? Is, for instance, the choice of fingering already an act of interpretation?
4. Postcolonial Perspectives: To what extent is “interpretation” shaped by social constructs such as background, gender and education? Where do parallels and differences emerge in relation to non-European written musical traditions (i.e., Japanese shakuhachi practice) and to oral, discursive musical practices? The spaces in between are of particular interest here: can we speak of “interpretation” when engaging with hybrid practices, such as early music or jazz?
5. Artificial Intelligence: In an age of AI-generated music, algorithmically curated playlists and AI-assisted discussions, musical interpretation is increasingly becoming a matter of probabilities and majorities. How does this transform the discourse surrounding and through music? Does it lead to a narrowing of perspectives or to the hardening of opposing positions? To what extent does AI open up new perspectives, forums and discursive practices? Methodological questions are also welcome: can AI, for instance, play a role in distant listening—the computer-assisted generation and analysis of large datasets in corpus-based research?
6. Applications and Broader Implications: How might insights from research into musical interpretation be applied beyond the field itself, for example to social practices such as political communication, mediation, music therapy and diplomacy, or to products of social media, such as the animation of virtual environments? What role does musical interpretation play outside primarily musical settings?

Formats:

The symposium aims to bring together the diverse forms of research and practice involved in musical interpretation on an equal footing. To this end, we will experiment with a structure organised into thematic sections corresponding to the areas outlined above, within which theoretical, analytical and practice-based contributions can be placed in dialogue with one another. Each contribution will be followed by 30 minutes of discussion. The following formats are envisaged:

1. Traditional paper / presentation (20 minutes)
2. Lecture performance (30 minutes; rehearsals in the Kammersaal at the Berlin University of the Arts will be possible on 7 October)
3. Project presentation (30 minutes)
4. Open format (up to 30 minutes)

The following formats may also be submitted as standalone programme contributions:

1. Poster presentation as part of a curated gallery walk
2. Workshop (up to 90 minutes)
3. Concert contribution / concert programme

Submission Guidelines:

We warmly invite proposals of up to 300 words, accompanied by short CVs of up to 100 words, to be submitted by 10 January 2027 to the following addresses:

Frithjof Bömcke-Vollmer, University of Paderborn:
frithjof.boemcke.vollmer@uni-paderborn.de
Arabella Pare, Karlsruhe University of Music / Orpheus Institute, Ghent:
pare@hfm-karlsruhe.de
Kilian Sprau, Berlin University of the Arts:
k.sprau@udk-berlin.de

The contributions and accompanying materials will be published as Volume 5 of the peer-reviewed series Studien zur musikalischen Interpretation | Studies on Musical Interpretation in Open Access, in cooperation with Logos Verlag Berlin and musiconn.publish.

Travel expenses and accommodation for the duration of the symposium will be covered.