Musical Modernity, the Beautiful and the Sublime

Conference: Musical Modernity, the Beautiful and the Sublime

The University of Aberdeen and the SOUND festival, Aberdeen, Scotland.
30-31st October 2015

Theodor Adorno noted the difficulty of creating new art that can be beautiful in a truthful way, eschewing any response to musical modernity that would allow its easy assimilation in terms of the traditionally beautiful. For Jean-François Lyotard, the arts for the last century have no longer been concerned primarily with the beautiful but rather with a renewed concept of the sublime. This dissociation of the beautiful from the modern in Adorno and Lyotard contrasts strikingly with Helmut Lachenmann’s revalorisation of the beautiful and his distinction of ‘humanity’s legitimate and profoundly rooted demand for art as the experience of Beauty, and its false satisfaction and alienation in the form of art “fodder” manufactured by the bourgeoisie and preserved in a society of repressed contradictions’ (Lachenmann 1980, 20). Out of this polarity of the modern as the moment of the sublime (Lyotard) and the possibility of a ‘rescued’ concept of the beautiful (Lachenmann), participants are invited to offer twenty minute papers on any aspect of musical modernity in relation to the beautiful and/or the sublime. The sublime has become a rich source of reflection in critical theory, with alternative conceptualisations from Lyotard, Derrida, Lacan, Zizek, Marion and others, and following Simon Morley’s categorisation, the contemporary sublime has been related to the unpresentable, transcendence, nature, technology, terror, the uncanny and altered states. While the sublime has not enjoyed attention in music studies comparable with what it has stimulated elsewhere in the humanities, this conference will provide a forum for musicological, theoretical and philosophical reflection in conjunction with a series of musical performances.

Proposals considering any of the following are welcomed:

Musicological papers considering any aspect of modern/contemporary music in relation to the sublime and/or the beautiful.
Philosophical/Critical theory papers developing thinking on the beautiful and/or the sublime in relation to any aspect of musical modernity.
Philosophical/Critical theory papers which do not deal explicitly with music but which develop thinking on the sublime and the beautiful in ways that may relate interestingly to musical modernity.
Papers considering musical modernity, politics and the sublime.
Papers considering the extent to which musical modernity concerns the sublime (Lyotard) or a reconstituted notion of beauty (Lachenmann).

Abstracts should be c. 400 words and should also contain first and last name of presenter, title of proposed presentation, institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number and email address.

Proposals must be received no later than 1 June 2015 and should be posted to e.campbell@abdn.ac.uk.

Proposals will be blind reviewed by two or three members of the conference committee, depending on the areas covered in the proposal. Notification of acceptance will be sent to applicants by 12th June 2015.

Keynote Speakers:

James Williams (Professor of Philosophy, University of Dundee)
Brice Pauset (Composer, Lecturer in Philosophy at Berlin’s Freies Universität and Professor of Composition at the Institute for New Music in the Musikhochschule Freiburg im Breisgau)

Confirmed performers:

Ensemble Alternance (Paris, France) featuring works by Brice Pauset, Raphaël Cendo and Ricardo Nillni.
Ian Pace (piano) featuring works by Helmut Lachenmann and Pascal Dusapin.

Conference Committee:
            Edward Campbell
            Fiona Robertson
            Peter Nelson
            Björn Heile
            Phillip Cooke
            Pete Stollery

Programme

Conference Programme

Conference: Musical Modernity, the Beautiful and the Sublime
The University of Aberdeen and sound festival
Aberdeen, Scotland.
30-31st October 2015

Thursday 29^th October

17.00-19.00

Registration

MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen

18.00

Reception

Room 047 MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen

19.30

Performance:

The Locked Door by Gemma MacGregor

Butchart Recreation Building

University of Aberdeen

Friday 30^th October

09.00-10.30	SESSION 1 CHAIR: Mark Hutchinson, York St. John University	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
	James Davis, University of Birmingham 'The passage from the sublime to the beautiful in György Ligeti'
	Varvara Gyra, Paris University VIII ‘Jani Christou: « aesthetics » or meaningful art?’
	Mauro Fosco Bertola, Heidelberg University ‘The Trouble with the Bee-Keeper: Hans Werner Henze’s Aristaeus (2003) and the Žižekian Sublime’
10.30-11.00	BREAK	Room 047, MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen
11.00-12.30	SESSION 2 CHAIR: Lauren Redhead, Canterbury, Christ Church University	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
	John Dack, Middlesex University Pierre Schaeffer’s ‘eccentric sounds’: A (re)evaluation
	Suk-Jun Kim, University of Aberdeen Sublime spaces in electroacoustic music practice and attempting to return to place
	Geoff Palmer, University of Aberdeen A shared beauty? Reflections on the interplay between natural and artistic beauty in the context of a contemporary string quartet.
12.45-13.30	PERFORMANCE: Ensemble Alternance Raphaël Cendo Rokh	King’s College Chapel, High Street, University of Aberdeen
13.30-14.30	LUNCH	Room 047, MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen
14.30-16.00	SESSION 3 CHAIR: Larson Powell, University of Missouri, Kansas City	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
	Lauren Redhead, Canterbury, Christ Church University Monstrosity, Abjection and Entfremdung: Beauty in Atonal Music
	Mark Hutchinson, York St. John University Stairways in the Dark: Sound, Syntax and the Sublime in Haas’s in vain
	Ashley Woodward, University of Dundee Sublime Aesthetic of Musical Postmodernity
16.00-16.30	BREAK	Room 047, MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen
16.30-17.45	KEYNOTE ADDRESS 1 Tim Ingold, Professor of Anthropology at University of Aberdeen Six Propositions on Beauty	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
18.30-19.30	PERFORMANCE Ian Pace, piano Pascal Dusapin Schnell (UKP) Pascal Dusapin Etudes	King’s College Chapel, High Street, University of Aberdeen
8pm	CONFERENCE DINNER	MUSA 33, Exchange Street, Aberdeen

Saturday 31^st October

09.00-10.30	SESSION 1 CHAIR: Phillip A. Cooke, University of Aberdeen	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
	Ewa Siemdaj, Academy of Music in Kraków The Category of Beauty in the works of Witold Lutosławski and Andrzej Panufnik
	Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz , Academy of Music in Krakow Polish music after Karol Szymanowski. The relevance of Beauty
	Krzysztof Cyran, Academy of Music, Kraków The Beautiful and the Sublime as key values in contemporary Polish sacred music
10.30-11am	BREAK	Room 047, MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen
11.00-12.30	SESSION 2 CHAIR: Isabella van Elferen, Kingston University London	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
	Larson Powell, University of Missouri, Kansas City The Time of Sublimity: Necessary and Possible Futures
	Adrienne Janus, University of Aberdeen A coincidence of contraries: Beckett, Stockhausen and the minimalist and maximalist sublime on and around the events of May, 1968.
	Edward Campbell, University of Aberdeen Charting the beautiful and the sublime in musical modernity
13.00-13.45	PERFORMANCE Ian Pace, piano Brian Ferneyhough Quirl Helmut Lachenmann Serynade Brice Pauset Étude	King’s College Chapel, High Street, University of Aberdeen
13.45-14.30	LUNCH	Room 047, MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen
14.30-16.00	SESSION 3 CHAIR: Ashley Woodward, University of Dundee	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
	Andreas Vejvar, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna Vladimir Jankélévitch: ‘From music to silence’
	Isabella van Elferen, Kingston University London The Lure of Timbre Paradoxical Realism between the Sublime and the Grain
	Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi Musical Composition and Fractures. Leaving Traces in Material, Technique, and Thought
16.00-16.30	BREAK	Room 047, MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen
16.30-17.45	KEYNOTE ADDRESS 2: James Williams, Honorary Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University, Melbourne; member of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute for Citizenship and Globalization.	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
17.45-18.30	PLENARY (closing discussion)	Room 055 MacRobert Building University of Aberdeen
19.00-20.00	PERFORMANCE Ensemble Alternance Geoffroy Drouin Cinq méditations sur Le Bernin Ricardo Nillni Wipe, Boom, Wipe Brice Pauset Euridyce	King’s College Chapel, High Street, University of Aberdeen
	DINNER/EVENING FREE

The conference and the performances are funded by Diaphonique

Diaphonique, a franco-british contemporary music fund supported by the Institut Français, the SACEM, the Bureau export de la musique, the British Council and Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication

Musical Modernity, the Beautiful and the Sublime, organised in partnership with University of Aberdeen, sound festival and Centre for Modern Thought.

Registration

Registration

Registration for the conference is now open. Please click the link below to visit the payment page.

Registration Fees - Full conference package below includes tickets to all conference performances, attendance at all the conference addresses, a conference pack, teas, coffees, lunches and the conference dinner.

Full conference - £110
Student rate for full conference - £70 students
Day rate - £55
Student day rate - £35

We would be obliged if you could send payment by 1 October 2015. Please contact us if there is a problem with this.

Cancellation charges: After 1 August, 50%; after 15 September, 75%; after 15 October, 100%.

Online Registration

Related Events

Related Events

Date	Time	Performer	Works	Venue
29-Oct	7.30pm	University of Aberdeen students	Locked Door by Gemma MacGregor	Butchart Recreation Centre
30-Oct	12.45pm	Ensemble Alternance	Raphaël Cendo Rokh	King’s College Chapel
30-Oct	6.30pm	Ian Pace, piano	Pascal Dusapin Schnell (UKP) Pascal Dusapin 1er février 2007 Pascal Dusapin Etudes	King’s College Chapel
31-Oct	12.45pm	Ian Pace, piano	Brian Ferneyhough Quirl Helmut Lachenmann Serynade Brice Pauset Étude	King’s College Chapel
31-Oct	7pm	Ensemble Alternance	Geoffroy Drouin Cinq méditations sur Le Bernin Ricardo Nillni Wipe, Boom, Wipe Brice Pauset Euridyce	King’s College Chapel

Accommodation

Accommodation Information

Delegates receive a special rate during the conference in the following hotels.

Copthorne hotel:

£50.00 – single room per night (Bed and Breakfast)
£65.00 – double / twin occupancy per night (Bed and Breakfast)
When booking, reference ‘sound festival’.
Emails can be sent to reservations.aberdeen@millenniumhotels.com or call the hotel and ask for reservations on 01224 630404.

Address:
122 Huntly Street
Aberdeen, AB10 1SU
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0) 12 2463 0404
Website: http://www.millenniumhotels.co.uk/copthorneaberdeen/

Aberdeen Northern Hotel

£79.50 – per person (Bed and Breakfast)

Address:
1 Great Northern Road
Aberdeen
AB24 3PS
Scotland
Phone: +44 (0)1224 483342
Website: http://www.aberdeennorthernhotel.com/

Douglas Hotel

£49B&B per single room,
£62B&B per double room for sole/double occupancy
To book, please contact Steph Knox via email: reservations@aberdeendouglas.com or phone 01224 630404. Make sure to mention you’re attending sound festival to get the special rate.

Address:
43-45 Market St
Aberdeen
AB11 5EL
United Kingdom
Phone:
Website: http://www.aberdeendouglas.com/

For information about other accommodation available in Aberdeen: http://visitaberdeen.com/accommodation/