[AMS-announce] CFP: Musicological Film Studies: Sources, Bibliography, and Editions, Los Angeles, Feb 2009

[Announcements for the AMS]

Musicological Film Studies: Sources, Bibliography, and Editions

A Symposium in Association with the Cinematic Arts Library of the University of Southern California and the Southern California Chapter of the American Musicological Society

Date of symposium: February 26-28, 2009

Deadline for proposals: October 1, 2008

        Though the study of music in film has grown significantly in recent years throughout the humanities and in cognitive science, source studies in the field are relatively few in number.  This symposium offers a forum for musicologists and librarians to examine and discuss these sources and their usefulness for analysis, performance, and criticism.

        Musicological interest in film spans more than half a century.  Led by Frederick Sternfeld, the first formal coalition of American musicologists and librarians determined sixty years ago to support and promote the study of film scoring as an art form by making available conductor scores, film scripts, and 16mm prints of films to educational institutions. For a decade scholarly articles by American musicologists appeared in Film Music Notes, the first magazine devoted to the subject, and in The Hollywood Quarterly (now Film Quarterly), the first American scholarly film journal.  The Committee was disbanded in 1956 when Sternfeld left Dartmouth College for Oxford University.

       Following that scholarly interest in film music and its materials went into a period of decline, while ironically at the same time there was a significant development in the world of recorded music: the advent of the "soundtrack" album. Other than themes (published or recorded), these commercial recordings made from the movie studio "music tracks" were the only form in which music from movies was available to the public. While "soundtracks" proliferated and gradually gave rise to an aficionado musical subculture of collectors, in time the word "soundtrack" became synonymous with film music or film score and was eventually appropriated by scholarship outside musicology, mainly in film studies but also in sociology. By the late 1980s work on music in films as a subject of scholarly inquiry began to blossom anew, largely in response to the influential writings of film scholar Claudia Gorbman. Only in the last decade has the musicological study of film begun to emerge as a
  fiel
d of its own, particularly because of its appeal to younger scholars as one aspect of media culture.

        Two pressing needs have become apparent among scholars engaged in source studies and those interested in editing and publishing film score editions, whether for study or concert performances: increased availability of sources (e.g., scores and parts) and bibliographic access to them.  In addition, editing film music for publication poses specific aesthetic and conceptual challenges to musical philology and musicography that need to be addressed collectively. Besides these needs the cultural role of the soundtrack-including its dissemination and reception apart from a film-has created a bibliographic retrieval problem of immense proportions.  The Symposium will respond to these scholarly and performance issues with panels and roundtables consisting of musicologists, information scientists, music librarians, archivists, performing musicians, professional orchestrators, legal specialists on copyright, and publishers.  We invite source studies and papers addressing what m
 ethod
ologies of 21st century musical historiography bring to the study and analysis of sources, as well as reports for panel discussion on such topics as:
 
        * The impact of soundtrack recordings, home video, and digital technology on film music study
        * The current status of online finding aids and other bibliographic resources such as The
            Union Catalog of Motion Picture Music project
        * The future prospects of online digital libraries of sources
        * The history and activities of the College Committee on Film Music and those of the Music
            Library Association Film Music Roundtable
        * A survey of existing published source studies in film music
        * Factors in determining what constitutes an Urtext of a film score
        * Performance practice issues in film music

Organizing Committee: Michael Pisani (Vassar College), William H. Rosar (University of California, San Diego), Jane R. Stevens (University of California, San Diego, and President of the Southern California American Musicological Society Chapter), James Wierzbicki (University of Michigan, and Executive Editor of MUSA), Mariana Sontag Whitmer (University of Pittsburgh, and Executive Director, Society for American Music), James Zychowicz (A-R Editions), Richard Smiraglia (Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University), Tobias Plebuch (Humboldt-Universität Berlin), Catherine Cooper (University of Southern California School of Music), and Steven Hanson (Cinematic Arts Library, University of Southern California).

Please send a 150-word abstract describing your paper or panel topic, as well as A/V needs, BY OCTOBER 1 to Michael Pisani at mipisani at vassar.edu.