The MPSG ‘Conversations’ series, opens spaces to collaboratively and constructively explore ideas across a range of musics and philosophies. All ‘Conversations’ sessions are free, online, and open to all.
Music Analysis and Musical Subjectivity
Wednesday, March 26 | 5 – 6:30pm CET | Online
Prof. Nikki Dibben (University of Sheffield)
Dr Benedict Taylor (University of Edinburgh)
Prof. Derek Matravers (The Open University)
This sessions is co-chaired by Ardi Echevarria and Dominik Mitterer.
Reassessing Romantic Music Aesthetics
(RMA MPSG Panel Discussion)
Wednesday, 26 February, 2025 – 16:30-18:00 (UK time) │Online
How should we view Romanticism’s contribution to the aesthetics of music, and its legacy to modern musical culture? Answers to this question have long begun by assessing the significance of Romantic instrumental music, particularly Beethoven – in continuity with this repertoire’s place in today’s concert halls. Abandoning an older idea of Beethoven as ‘the man who freed music’, music historians are now more likely to talk of the ‘iron rule of Romanticism’ (Richard Taruskin) and its ideological promotion of the ‘mysteries of an elite art’ (Stephen Rumph), reflecting a more critical view of the classical music culture that began to solidify c.1800 and continues up to the present. This panel discussion attempts to go beyond such interpretations by considering Romantic music aesthetics in a broader frame of reference. Romantic critics embraced opera, incidental music, melodrama, song and church music as well as symphonies. Far from being uniformly elitist in outlook, they considered ‘the people’ as an active force in aesthetics – whether from a left- or right-wing political perspective – and their poetic language frequently concealed a deep engagement with contemporary philosophy, its bold re-evaluations of religion and myth, and its theorisation of knowledge, emotions and rhythm in relation to music.
The featured speakers for this session are:
- Dr Katherine Hambridge (Durham University)
- Dr Tomás McAuley (University College Dublin)
- Dr Matthew Pritchard (University of Leeds)
This session is chaired by Prof. James Garratt (University of Manchester).
Music, Philosophy, and Time
Wednesday, January 29, 2025 | 7 – 8:30 pm CET | Online
Dr Clare Lesser (Independant Researcher)
Dr Bruno Forment (Orpheus Instituut)
Prof. Jonathan Shannon (Hunter College and the City University of New York)
This session is chaired by Dr Férdia Stone-Davis.
Music and Phenomenology
Wed, 29th May 2024 16:00 – 17:30 UK time (online)
- Stephen Amico (The Grieg Academy, University of Bergen)
- Judy Lochhead (Stony Brook University)
- Harris Berger (Memorial University)
The session is chaired by Friedlind Riedel (Bauhaus-University-Weimar).
Music, Philosophy, and Politics
Wed, 28 Feb 2024 16:00 – 17:30 UK time (online)
- James Currie (University at Buffalo, State University of New York)
- Marie Thompson (Open University)
- Naomi Waltham-Smith (Oxford University)
Sound, Philosophy, and Listening
Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:00 – 17:30 UK time (online)
- Amy Cimini (UC San Diego)
- Eldritch Priest (Simon Fraser University)
- Julian Johnson (Royal Holloway, University of London)