The Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group (MPSG) aims to provide a distinctive, long-term forum for those with an interest in music and philosophy to share and discuss work, in the hope of furthering dialogue in this area.
Since the beginning of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies’ examining of youth cultures in the 1970s, there has been significant debate regarding approaches in how best one can unpack notions of formation, analysis and definition. This has led to the development of what is often termed as ‘post-subcultural studies,’ which has drawn upon a new lexicon of terms, such as ‘scene’...
Wed, 13 October 2021 | 17:00 – 19:00 GMT+1 | Panel
Chair: Alex Douglas
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Wed, 6 October 2021 | 12:00 – 2:00pm GMT+1 | Panel
Chair: Ariana Phillips-Hutton
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Wed, 29 September 2021 | 5:00 – 6:30 pm GMT+1 | Lecture Aaron Ridley: Song as a Whole Like many recent aestheticians, I find the view that song is a simple conjunction of words and music insufficiently holistic. Here, I defend a strong version of holism against several of the weaker varieties to be found in the literature, and argue that only the strong version is able to do justice to the...
8th Conference of the Royal Musical Association Music & Philosophy Study Group Department of Music, King’s College London, July 2022 (dates TBA) The RMA Music and Philosophy Study Group warmly invites session and paper proposals for this two-day international conference. The event will offer an opportunity for those with an interest in music and philosophy to share and...
Wed, 14 July 2021 | 17:00 – 19:30 GMT+1 MPSG online series | Panel ‘To exhibit means to fix, to present, to hang on the wall, to mount. An exhibition lets the viewer take in the works in their immobile position, returning as many times as they wish. Music is transient, unfolding in time, in the moment just past – thus speaks to us from our memory. Yet to preserve this separation – exhibited art...
Wed, 7 July 2021 | 17:00 – 19:30 GMT+1 | MPSG online 21 | Panel This session raises questions against the background of the world’s recent turmoil. How does openness get inflected, displaced, and silenced by institutional structures (financial as much as aesthetic and political)? How might a critique of institutions and institutional dialogue help to square the relationship between disciplinary...
First session of the RMA Music and Philosophy Study Group Online Series 2021 Brian Kane Listening & Technique Wed, 16 June 202118:00 – 19:30 CEST Scholars in music, philosophy, and sound studies often consider listening to be a technique—one that is shaped by both the individual capacities of listeners as well as entrained social norms. Starting from that premise, this paper will attempt to...
The Auralities network at the Centre for Research on the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the RMA Music and Philosophy Study Group, is pleased to present: Decolonising Music Studies: A RoundtableWednesday, 2 June 20212:30 pm BST Alexander Douglas (Cambridge); guest convenorDiljeet Kaur Bhachu (Royal Northern College of Music)Shzr Ee...
With regret and after careful consideration, the RMA MPSG committee has made the decision to cancel our biennial conference MPSG2021. We had hoped that progress with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic would have permitted us to hold the conference in person in July 2021, but continuing uncertainty surrounding international travel arrangements over the next few months makes this impossible. MPSG 2022...