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MUSICOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

31/01/2013

Musical Form and Embodiment in Post-Soviet Russian Popular Music

COLLOQUIUM MUZIEKWETENSCHAP
Stephen Amico

February 21, 2013, 15:30-17:00
Universiteitstheater, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, zaal 3.01

Abstract:
How can the connection between musical form and an explicitly corporeal apprehension of and relationship to music be theorized?  Focusing on Russian popular music, and drawing upon the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Alphonso Lingis, I will begin by offering an overview of several salient formal attributes of post-Soviet popsa and related genres which contribute to a relative homogeneity of style, specifically in contrast to “Western” pop.  Thereafter, rather than analyzing such musical forms as contemporary instances of ideological standardization in service of the creation of the acquiescent post-Soviet citizen, I will propose that known and ubiquitous sounds and structures, in the context of both decades-long discourses of the body, as well as the eradication of social and ideological foundations, allow for and engender a formation of an embodied and experiential sense of self and place.

23/01/2013

AUDITORY MEMORY AND SOUND ARCHIVES FROM THE LATE-NINETEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT

AUDITORY MEMORY AND SOUND ARCHIVES FROM THE LATE-NINETEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT
Workshop - 18 February 2013 (Potgieterzaal, UvA)

The current project seeks to investigate the term “auditory memory”, which has been largely neglected in memory studies in favour of visually-oriented arts of memorization, with their long tradition within rhetoric (ars memorativa). A central concern is to what extent different forms of sound memorization have become relevant in science, art and media technology from the late-nineteenth century to the present. The project will especially focus on how sound has been stored and archived with the aid of different media technologies, material cultures and bodily techniques, and how each of these forms of auditory memories has generated a specific form of “cultural heritage of sound”.

Organized by: Carolyn Birdsall, Manon Parry and Viktoria Tkaczyk
Funded by: Onderzoekszwaartepunt Cultural Heritage and Identity, Volkswagen Foundation

Due to the limited space for extra participants, please register by email before 10 February: soundarchives.amsterdam2013@gmail.com

14/01/2013

Different Voices: structure, manipulation and meaning in the sampler-based compositions by Steve Reich

COLLOQUIUM MUZIEKWETENSCHAP
Maarten Beirens

24 januari 2013, 15:30-17:00
Universiteitstheater, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, zaal 3.01

Abstract:
In my examination of some of Reich’s sample-based compositions, I will focus on some interesting complexities both on the narrative and on the structural levels. These include the tension between on the one hand the ‘documentary’ sense of objectivity in incorporating the voices of different speakers, each with his own background and opinions, and on the other hand the authorial ‘voice’ of the composer. Secondly, the manipulation of samples either by appropriating the material while taking it out of its original context, or by literally modifying and electronically altering the samples. Finally, these compositions display a remarkable approach to musical structure, as the literal meaning of the texts and their melodic and harmonic material both become factors in determining the musical structure.