The 32nd National Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia

26-29 September 2009 - University of Newcastle, NSW

All enquiries and proposals about the conference may be emailed to MSA-2009@newcastle.edu.au

Call for Papers

The Hunter Chapter of the Musicological Society of Australia warmly invites submissions for Individual Papers, Theme Based Sessions, and Panels or Workshops for the 32nd National Conference of the MSA, which will be hosted by Newcastle Conservatorium.

Individual presentations will be 20 minutes in length, and followed by 10 minutes of discussion. A total of 90 minutes will be allowed for collaborative sessions, including discussion which may occur at the end of, or during a session.

BRIDGES – Transformational journeys

Bridges can join, separate, shelter, traverse, imprison. As channels of communication, they may provide paths to liberation or discovery. Bridges are vulnerable, and subject to attack. They thus become sites of maintenance, defence and counter-attack. The entities that bridges join may be animate or inanimate, sentient or insentient, concrete or abstract, real or imagined. In human life bridges may be physiological, neurological, cosmological, social or cultural.

In personal, national and international politics, religion, race relations, sport, culture and society people use the bridge metaphor as they strive to reach others in the quest to build a more compassionate world. The bridge metaphor connects us to each other across time and space, across generations and species. It opens the path to conceptual transformations in understanding and practice.

Music plays a key role in communication and expression in our times, reaching into diverse modes of thinking and acting. Conference participants are invited to use the bridge metaphor as they consider their own music research and scholarship.

Suggested sub-themes include:

Sound bridges

• Bridges between elements of music structures
• Elements of sonic / acoustic design
• Other species as music makers.

Personal bridges

• Bridges to creativity / musicality / musicianship
• Bridges between the spheres of private and public music-making
• Bridges in (and between) brain, body and mind.

Cultural and social bridges

• Generational change in music traditions
• Bridges within and between music cultures
• Bridges between texts
• Bridges to the spiritual / cosmological
• Bridges between music, other arts and interdisciplinary research
• Bridges between research, scholarship and performance.

Proposals should include:

• Title of your proposed presentation
• Your abstract of up to 350 words
• Your name and contact details
• A list of equipment required for the presentation.

Please email proposals as an attachment, including your name in the file title, to MSA-2009@newcastle.edu.au by Friday 15 May, 2009. Make sure you include your contact details as well as the title of your paper in the abstract. Acceptance of papers and other proposals will be advised by 1 July 2009.

Conference Committee

Roland Bannister
Ian Cook
Helen English
Tadijana Ilicic
Philip Matthias
Michael McCabe
Anthea Scott-Mitchell
Rosalind Halton (Conference Convenor)

Grants, Scholarship and Student Prize

Updates will be posted on this page. Please note that all paper-givers are required to be financial members of the Musicological Society of Australia.

Plenary Speakers

To be advised.

Making up part of a panel or a performance

Proposals for lecture-recitals or other forms of presentations should be addressed informally in the first instance to the Program Committee for further consideration.

You may be able to put together part, but not all, of a panel for a session. If so, let us know when making your proposal. We can then suggest other participants to make up a full session, on the basis of submitted abstracts.

Performances – Please indicate if you would like to share a lunchtime or other time slot, for a performance that will illustrate a topic under discussion during the Conference.

Transport to Newcastle

Qantas and the budget airlines Virgin Blue and Jetstar all offer flights from major interstate Australian centres directly to Newcastle airport. Port Stephens Coaches offer transfer transport from the airport to the city centre. City rail trains run from Central station, Sydney, to Newcastle railway station. The nearest station to the conference venue is Civic.

Registration rates

The student registration will be held to 2008 rates: $65 for earlybird; $75 after 11 September. Ordinary membership registration: $150 Earlybird; $170 after 11 September.

Conference dinner

We are proud to announce that the conference dinner will be held on Monday 28 September at Scratchleys, one of Newcastle’s favourite eating spots at the picturesque head of the Hunter river – a few minutes walk from the CBD and the Conference venue. Renowned for its fine seafood cuisine, Scratchleys has offered for the occasion a variety of 3 course menus at the excellent cost of $60 per head: we highly recommend that you join us.

Saturday night entertainment

The Conservatorium on Saturday 26 September will be the scene for the season-concluding performance of Mozart’s great Singspiel, The Magic Flute, musical director Ian Cook, director Ghillian Sullivan, and featuring outstanding young Australian opera singers of the future. Delegates may book at discounted rates when registering for the Conference.

Visiting Newcastle

Newcastle sits on the traditional land and waters of the Awabakal and Worimi peoples. Its European history began as a convict coal-getting penal and military settlement in 1804. Coal and agriculture sustained the town and the Hunter Valley from the beginning, and continue as major industries. After an 80 year history, steel making is now a very much reduced industry. Visitors today experience our many fine beaches, the parks and restaurants on the foreshore of our working port, our wine growing hinterland, and the beauty of Lake Macquarie to the south and Port Stephens to the north.

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Last Updated: 7 May, 2009