CFP: Challenging Musical Ontologies, RMA Study Day, Univ. of Nottingham, 23 Nov 2012

This RMA Study Day seeks to engage with conflicting yet complimentary dialogues regarding the possibility (or even non-possibility) of an ontology of music. In recent years there has been lively debate between diverse positions rooted in musicology and both continental and analytical philosophy; the purpose of this Study Day is to highlight these differences, whilst emphasising shared ground and suggesting ways forward. To this end, the Study Day – which is supported by the RMA Music and Philosophy Study Group
– will provide a platform for postgraduate students to present their research and to discuss challenges posed to, and possibilities inherent in, commonly held assumptions regarding musical ontology from an array of interdisciplinary viewpoints.

Topics for consideration

The question of musical meaning between musicological and analytical-philosophical
traditions and contrasts therein
New ontological proposals in the ontology of musical works
 ‘Early’ music as the root of modern ontologies
Composers as the traditional arbiters of what constitutes a musical work
The metaontology of music
 Videogames and indeterminacy (and the challenges they pose)
Historical and ethnographic perspectives
Phenomenologies of music
Popular music
Insights from outside of the humanities: scientific, sociological etc.

We welcome proposals of up to 250 words for 20 minute papers on any of these topics (interpreted broadly), or on any other topic relating to the theme of the study day (you should also allow for at least 10 minutes of questions). We also welcome proposals for entire themed sessions if applicants can provide three suitable papers and enough points for discussion. They should be sent to conference organiser Alex Kolassa at
challengingontologies at gmail.com and include the following: name, institution, email address and any particular audio/visual requirements.

The deadline for proposals and works is 30 August 2012.