Main topic: Today’s Music Memory

This year, the NCMM invites contributions focusing on the wide-ranging theme of Today’s Music Memory and its related aspects. Memory is a fundamental element in the processes of music creation, performance, reception, and study. As the musical landscape evolves quickly, the methods of remembering and engaging with music from both past and present eras become increasingly significant.

The study of today’s music memory encompasses a large range of contexts and disciplines, including live performances, recordings, traditional scores, digital archives, personal memories and collective histories. This theme facilitates an in-depth examination of the mechanisms through which contemporary music is remembered, preserved, and transformed, and how these mechanisms influence our current understanding and experience of music.

Our focus encompasses the archiving and preservation of contemporary musical works and performances for future generations, along with the challenges and innovations inherent in both digital and physical archiving practices. We invite submissions that examine how music contributes to the cultural memory of communities and societies, and the roles of nostalgia and tradition in contemporary music. Additionally, we seek insights into how composers and performers engage with memory in their creative processes, and how musical memory is embedded in the structure and interpretation of contemporary works.

Another significant area of investigation concerns the influence of new technologies on how we remember and interact with music. What impact do streaming services, social media, and other digital platforms have on musical memory? Additionally, contemporary listening habits, including repetitive listening, curated playlists, and algorithm-driven content recommendations, are areas of interest. We also aim to explore the globalization of music and its influence on collective and individual musical memories, and the implications this has for cultural identity and diversity.

The role of music education in teaching and preserving contemporary musical memory, along with the adaptation of pedagogical approaches to an evolving musical landscape, are key topics in the field. Comparative studies on historical and contemporary practices of remembering music, and the insights derived from these comparisons, are encouraged. Furthermore, we welcome research from cognitive science on the processes involved in music memory and the potential applications of this knowledge to the study and practice of contemporary music.

In the context outlined above, we invite submissions from researchers, musicologists, composers, performers, teachers, philosophers, and other scholars engaged with contemporary music. We would particularly encourage students, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career academics to submit proposals.

NCMM general topics:

The conference welcomes papers on a wide range of topics related to contemporary music studies and practices. We invite submissions on any aspect of the field, including but not limited to: composition, music and technology, auditory perception, music history, analysis and theory, musical genres and practices, and cultural issues.

    1. Musical Composition Practices, Performance and Reception:
      1. Composition techniques and technologies, including new instruments and unconventional tools and means.
      2. Real-time composition and interactive music, including live coding, electronic, interactive and computer music.
      3. Collaborative composition, free improvisations and open composition.
      4. Practice-based research in music, including composition, performance and collaborative musical activities.
    2. Music History, Theory and Analysis:
      1. What challenges does contemporary music present for musical analysis and history?
      2. What new paradigms, theories and techniques are emerging in contemporary music?
      3. What is, or should be, the balance between theory and practice in musicological methodologies, and what should it be?
      4. Does contemporary music require new techniques, methodologies and specifically designed tools, or are existing ones sufficient?
    3. Philosophy of Music and Aesthetics:
      1. Which philosophical perspectives can be applied to analyse the aesthetic and technical transformations in contemporary music?
      2. What insights can be gained from the epistemological, semiotic, and phenomenological studies of contemporary music?
    4. Musicology, Intertextuality and Authenticity:
      1. How should intertextuality and authenticity be discussed in the context of contemporary music, and what issues should be considered?
      2. What are the most appropriate critical, systematic and empirical musicological methodologies and practices for contemporary music?
    5. Auditory Perception and Cognition:
      1. Issues in music cognition, semiotics and the experience of contemporary music.
      2. Exploring the relationship between the composer’s intentions and the perceptual experience of music.
    6. Musical Sound Transcription, Representation and Notation:
      1. What new questions does contemporary music raise regarding transcription, representation and notation?
      2. How can different musical sound representations become tools for artistic creation and research?
      3. What are the new tools and methods for the transcription and representation of sound?
    7. Sound Technologies and the Music Industry:
      1. Genres and stylistic diversity.
      2. The influence of industry and technology on musical aesthetics.
      3. Broadcasting and sampling: repetition and variation as pathways to creating a musical hit.
      4. The relationship between popular music and other contemporary arts.
      5. Musical issues arising from Internet communities, collaborative compositions, and telematics.
    8. Music and Image:
      1. What are the implications of music and “moving images” in TV, cinema, the Internet, and other forms of multimedia?
      2. What challenges does musicology face in the context of music for video games?
    9. Sound Art, Installations and Exhibitions:
      1. What is the appropriate musicological discourse for music outside the concert hall?
      2. How should sound art and music/sound installations be studied in a musicological context?
      3. What is the role of music in museum exhibitions?
    10. Soundscape and Sound Ecology:
      1. How should soundscapes and sound ecology be discussed within a musical context?
      2. How can virtual auditory spaces be created, sound ecology be considered, and sonification be employed?
    11. Documentation and Preservation of Musical Heritage:
      1. What challenges exist in preserving and documenting contemporary musical works?
      2. How and why is the performability of some contemporary musical works challenging and occasionally not viable?
    12. Music and emergent cultures and societies, cultural heritage, and inclusive societies:
      1. Anthropology, cultural and cross-cultural studies in contemporary music.
      2. Issues of diversity, plurality, multicultural resources, hybridisation, and local music in a globalised world.
      3. What problems arise concerning music criticism, and the sociology of music and culture?

Special Contest for PhD Student Proposals:

  • Overview: We are pleased to announce the first contest for PhD student proposals. This contest offers an opportunity to showcase your research, receive recognition, and enhance your academic career.
  • Evaluation Criteria: A special committee will review the PhD accepted proposals and select the three best ones based on pertinence, originality, and rigor.
  • Proof of Status: Proponents should prove they are PhD students.
  • Rewards for Winners:
    • Free conference registration.
    • Guaranteed publication in the Nova Contemporary Music Journal.
    • Special highlight of your paper and article.
    • Professional support to improve your manuscript in order to meet the Journal standards, if necessary.

Guidelines for Submission

Important Dates:

  • Deadline for submission: Thursday, October 31, 2024, midnight EST.
  • Notification of acceptance: December 15, 2024.

Requirements:

  • Abstract: Presented in English (500 words maximum, including 2 to 3 keywords).
  • Author Information:
    • Name(s), organisational affiliation (if any), contact address, telephone, and email address.
    • A short biography (up to 150 words).
    • A list of main publications (up to 10 entries).
    • Indication if you are a PhD student or not.
  • Publication-Ready: The abstract and short biography should be ready for publication if the paper is accepted.

Submissions from students and early-career postdoctoral researchers are particularly encouraged.

Submission Process:

  • All proposals must be submitted to the ConfTool Conference System.
  • The link to access the platform will be available on September 1, 2024.

Paper Presentation Guidelines:

  • Each paper presentation will be 20 minutes (including a 5-minute discussion). Papers are to be given in English.
  • Standard presentation equipment will be provided, including a video projector and stereo sound system. Please bring your own VGA or HDMI connector, as well as a mini-jack output adapter if it is not included on your device.
  • A computer will be available in the conference rooms.

Articles Publication:

Accepted papers presented at NCMM2025 are eligible to be published in the Nova Contemporary Music Journal after an evaluation of the final article.

Contact :

For submission issues or any other questions, please email us at: ncmm[at]fcsh.unl.pt