Nova Contemporary Music Meeting (NCMM) is a biennial, 3-day international conference focused on a variety of questions relating to music since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Music today is more diverse than ever before. The diversity of genres, practices, techniques, technologies, systems of distribution and forms of reception places it in a new context in which the foundations of previous assumptions are being shaken and new paradigms are emerging. Music, past and present, is now ubiquitous in our society, from the concert hall to the museum, from the media to public spaces, to private listening through headphones. As a result of each of these and other situations, the study of music is now challenging and depends on a variety of artistic and scientific fields.

In this context, the NCMM was conceived as a contribution to the development of multidisciplinary and collaborative research in the field of contemporary music. It consists of a research meeting that brings together researchers, musicologists, composers and performers working in different fields related to contemporary music. With a special focus on the articulation between musical practices and research activities, whether theoretical or practice-based, NCMM aims to respond to the current challenges of contemporary music in its artistic and research practices, providing a platform for proposing, discussing and disseminating knowledge in a variety of fields.

Each edition will focus on a special main subject, but NCMM conference comprises a set of permanent topics related to contemporary music studies and practices.

1. Composition, Performance and Reception

  1. Composition techniques and experimental practices
  2. Electronic music, live coding, and interactive systems
  3. Collaborative composition, improvisation and open forms
  4. Practice-based artistic research
  5. Performance and reception of contemporary music

2. History, Theory and Analysis

  1. Historiography and analysis of contemporary music
  2. New analytical paradigms, methodologies, and tools
  3. Theory and analysis of present-day repertoires
  4. Relationships among analysis, history, and artistic practice
  5. Critical approaches to contemporary musical forms and practices

3. Philosophy and Aesthetics

  1. Philosophical and aesthetic approaches to music and sound
  2. Ontology, embodiment, mediation and musical meaning
  3. Technology and the transformation of musical aesthetics
  4. Semiotic, phenomenological, and epistemological perspectives

4. Musicology, Intertextuality and Authenticity

  1. Intertextuality, quotation, appropriation
  2. Authenticity and authorship
  3. Critical, empirical, computational, and systematic musicology
  4. Interdisciplinary musicological methodologies  

5. Auditory Perception and Cognition

  1. Music cognition and listening practices
  2. Perceptual approaches to contemporary music and sound art
  3. Relationships between listening and compositional intention
  4. Cognitive and embodied approaches to listening and sound

6. Notation, Representation, and Transcription

  1. Contemporary notation and representation systems
  2. Graphic, alternative, and experimental notation
  3. Computational transcription and score analytical tools
  4. Sonic representation in artistic creation and research

7. Sound Technologies and Music Industries

  1. Recording, production, broadcasting and distribution technologies
  2. Digital infrastructures, technological innovation, and professional practices
  3. Metadata, interoperability, and technological standards
  4. Copyright, licensing, and rights management
  5. Internet communities, telematic performance, and networked collaborative music environments

8. Music and Image

  1. Music for film, television, video games and multimedia
  2. Audiovisual and intermedial practices
  3. Relationships between music, sound, image and moving media
  4. Critical approaches to audiovisual music and sound

9. Sound Art, Installations and Exhibitions

  1. Sound art and music beyond the concert hall
  2. Curatorial, exhibition, and installation practices
  3. Music and sound in museums and public spaces
  4. Musicological approaches to sound installations
  5. Critical approaches to audiovisual music and sound

10. Soundscape and Sound Ecology

  1. Soundscape studies and acoustic environments
  2. Sonic ecology and sustainability
  3. Spatial sound, virtual auditory spaces, and immersive environments
  4. Environmental sound practices and sonification

11. Documentation and Preservation of Musical Heritage

  1. Archives and documentation strategies
  2. Preservation of contemporary musical and sonic works
  3. Performance documentation and performability
  4. Digital preservation, technological obsolescence, and archival infrastructures

12. Music, Culture and Society

  1. Music, sound, identity, and cultural transformation
  2. Diversity, plurality, and inclusion in musical practices
  3. Cultural heritage, hybridity, and global circulation
  4. Sociological, anthropological, and cross-cultural approaches to music and sound
  5. Cultural studies, music criticism, and the sociology of music and sound practices