All research involving meaning, description, and technological mediation of music can be related to musicology. However, the complexity of musical engagement in socio-cultural contexts engenders different networks of research and knowledge, with distinct interdisciplinary configurations, methods and specializations. Systematic musicology specifically deploys this methodological diversity so as to approach each musicological question with a distinct configuration of methods. In doing so, systematic musicology often bridges methodological foundations of sciences with the critical analysis from humanities. It promotes the study of aesthetics, semiotics, and cultural studies by incorporating empirical and data-oriented methods into the methodological framework. It relies on paradigms from different disciplines as diverse as the philosophy of aesthetics, theoretical sociology, semiotics, and music criticism, combined with strategies derived from empirical psychology, acoustics, physiology, neurosciences, cognitive sciences, computing, and others.
Unfortunately, the concentration of efforts on methodological diversity and broad research questions may lead students to superficial discussions, disconnected results or research that is alienated from the musical matter. One of the biggest challenges for researchers in systematic musicology, therefore, is to learn how to deal with the interdisciplinary nature inherent to their own field. Several questions are raised by this problem:
These questions, together with hands-on courses in writing, presentation, and conference skills, will be addressed in SysMus09.
PAPER SUBMISSION
Short papers in English (max. 2 pages) must be presented in one of the two formats: oral presentations or posters. The template required for formatting posters is available here. There will be a double-blind review process by a committee composed of advanced PhD students. Accepted papers and posters will have the opportunity to be extended until 6 pages and be published in our conference proceedings.
Submissions are solicited for spoken research papers or posters related to any subdiscipline of systematic musicology (using the same template). Suggested topic areas include, but are not limited to:
Go to the submission page.