[Antares Boyle]

Dear group members,

In the survey following our 2020 meeting, a majority of respondents indicated interest in the IG organizing a special session proposal for SMT 2022. To do this, we would need to choose a topic, determine the program committee, and send out the CFP in late summer or early fall 2021. The program committee would then select participants by November 2021 so that the group proposal can be drafted in time for the Jan 15 2022 proposal deadline. We’d like to use this space to gauge whether there is still interest in this idea and potentially choose a topic. Here were some of the suggested topics from the survey:

• A topic on underrepresented composers
• Joint plan with members or interest groups of the other societies (2022 is joint AMS/SMT/SEM)
• 2022 is the Xenakis centenary, Chinary Ung, Meredith Monk, Ingram Marshall and (the late) Radilescu turn 80, lost of people turn 75 ….
• new rhythmic issues in music since 1945.
• Serialism
• Xenakis (100 years in 2022)
• diversifying post-tonal pedagogy (expansion/continuation of this year’s workshop themes)

Please feel free to comment below with additional topics or endorse one of those topics. Looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts!

Best,

Tara and Laura

[Amy Bauer]

I have been vocal about my support for workshop-type presentations in the past, but I realize that lightning talks are the most common structure for the IG meetings. Here is one compromise that fills in the gap: summary discussions of the general techniques common in any of the anniversary composers. It would be very useful, for instance, for presenters to give a general introduction (not simplistic, but not limited to a single piece) to the work any of the composers listed. Or we could focus on someone who has not received their due (I would put Ingram in that category).

[Antares Boyle]

Hi Amy, thanks for your thoughts! To clarify, this isn’t for the interest group meeting itself—this would be for a special session proposal that would go through the normal SMT proposal process. If accepted, it would be a normal paper session that is “sponsored” by the IG. This is something a few of the IGs have done in recent years. The special session could be in an alternative format (a workshop, lightning talks, etc.) or in the standard SMT format of three or six thirty-minute slots with twenty-minute papers.

Speaking for myself, I really like the idea of a session on undergrad post-tonal pedagogy—perhaps inviting a series of papers reconsidering/reframing the goals/methods of that course (these papers could address diversity issues like our 2021 workshop, but also issues such as whether/how we should still teach canonic topics like pc-set theory and serialism, how to historicize different -isms, theory vs. analysis, etc.) I don’t recall any sessions on post-tonal pedagogy in recent years and I could see a session like that attracting broad interest and many proposals from outside of our group. It’s not specifically a post-1945 topic, but I think members of our group would bring an interesting perspective to it.

On the other hand, the composer/analysis focused topics recommended above are all very exciting too! Xenakis seems an obvious choice. And I like the “New Rhythmic Issues” theme because it’s broad enough to attract a variety of proposals, although it might be challenging to unify them under a session rationale.

[Keith Salley]

Hi everyone,

long-time listener, first-time ‘caller’ . . .

I like Antares’s ideas about pedagogy, and think that a session on that
would be timely—whether it’s carefully limited to post-1945 or not. So,
I’ll second that.

Maybe Xenakis waits until next year, where he hits that nice, round number?

[Matthew Schullman]

Hi, all,

I, too, am in favor of a pedagogy-focused, Post-1945-sponsored session, especially if it’s broadly conceived (as it currently seems to be).

Hope you’re all well!

[Chris Segall]

I really like the Xenakis session idea! I don’t know much about Xenakis’s music, and I’d love to learn from people who have studied it. (Sorry Keith—Xenakis was definitely born in 1922.)

The pedagogy idea is great, too. I could contribute a proposal to be considered for that session, something I couldn’t do for Xenakis.

Would either session work jointly with AMS and/or SEM? I’m intrigued by that suggestion from the initial list. And I find Amy’s suggestion to present accessible introductions to different composers’ music valuable as well.

Best,
Chris

[Keith Salley]

(Right, Chris—had meant that the Xenakis celebration could wait for 2022.)

[Chris Segall]

Got it! Sorry, I misunderstood the source of confusion. I think this discussion is to plan a session for the 2022 conference.

Best,
Chris

[Keith Salley]

Oh geez, yes. That’s on me. My apologies. The IG I attend most often is
still working out it’s 2021 activities . . .

[Laura Emmery]

Hello everyone and thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Tara and I discussed some possibilities and this is what we propose:

• 2021 Post-1945 IG meeting: Diversity and Inclusion in the Pedagogy of Contemporary Music Analysis workshop with Robert Hasegawa
• 2022 SMT Special session on pedagogy
• 2022 Post-1945 IG meeting: lightning talks on Xenakis

Let us know if this sounds OK.
Laura (and Tara)

 

 

[Noah Kahrs]

The overall three-event plan sounds wonderful! My one thought is that for the 2022 IG meeting, I don’t think we need to set a format yet. Amy Bauer is skeptical of lightning talks as noted above, and I’m not sure there how many people are working on Xenakis and would want to submit, so something more workshop-like might be a better fit. But of course it’s quite early to be worrying about the specific format of an informal meeting a year and a half from now.

[Laura Emmery]

Thanks, Noah. You are absolutely correct–the format of the 2022IG is open and it won’t be planned for a while (actually, it will be planned by our new leadership team since Tara and I will be stepping down as co-chairs after this year’s meeting.)

Laura

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