InternationalDebussy Symposium / Symposium international Debussy
“DEBUSSYTEXT AND IDEA” / “DEBUSSY : LE TEXTE ET L'IDÉE”
Thursday12th – Friday 13th April 2012
Gresham College, Londres, Angleterre
To celebrate the 150thanniversary of the birth of Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Gresham College and theInstitute of Musical Research of the University of London (IMR), The RoyalCollege of Music and the School of Modern Languages at Bangor Universitypresent an international symposium centred on the links between Claude Debussyand the literary and visual arts. Other collaborators in this initiative arethe Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies of the University of London(IGRS) and the Literature and Music Research Group of the Open UniversityFaculty of Arts.
The Symposium will run over twodays and take place in Central London at Gresham College, Barnard's Inn Hall,Holborn, London EC1N 2HH.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Presentations centred on themusic of Debussy with textual associations are warmly invited from scholarsworldwide as are papers concerned with his associations with the visual artsand the contextual ideas surrounding the composer's work. The symposium aims tobring together musical and literary scholars as well as those in the visualarts. Presentations in these fields do not need specifically to enter intodetail of musical analysis; papers essentially on the literature rather thanthe music are particularly welcome. Papers should be presented in English, andshould last no longer than 20 minutes (inclusive of musical excerpts and/orperformance, where relevant). The symposium will encourage extended discussionssurrounding each of the presentations. Audio and video equipment will be onhand as well as a grand piano.
Six sessions will focus on thefollowing themes:
‘Text without text' (pieces which areclosely linked with literary texts and visual imagery but do not present them:e.g. certain of the Piano Préludes; the Prélude à L'après-midi d'un faune,the Images)
‘From Text to Stage' (issues involvingDebussy's stage works from all points of view including visual and productionaspects)
‘Text into Song' (Debussy's Mélodies)
‘From Text to Performance' (issues of PerformancePractice in works of Debussy with textual associations)
‘Discarded Text' (presentationsconcerned with the many unfinished projects of the composer)
‘Beyond Text' (presentationsconcerned with wider contexts, ideas and particularly the visual arts).
The symposium will focus on theworks of Debussy and his texts and the ideas behind them. Papers on the moregeneral literary and artistic movements are also welcome. Presentations onDebussy's influence on, or associations with, other composers are beyond theremit of this symposium as are analytical and theoretical papers which are notin some way centred on literary texts or visual comparisons.
Proposals following the aboveguidelines should be submitted in English in a font size no smaller than 10point with a separate cover-page including the name, contact details andinstitutional affiliation (where relevant) of the proposer. (Papers will beassessed anonymously so names and affiliations should be restricted to thecover page). This should be followed by a brief abstract of the proposed paper(300-400 words), and a shortlist of previous publications. A concisebibliography should be appended, ignoring the principal general works onDebussy, and the whole (excluding cover page) should not exceed 2 pages of A4paper. Deadline for receipt of submissions 15 June 2011.
Pleasesubmit proposals by email, in an attachment including your full name andcontact details, to Mrs Valerie James: valerie.james@sas.ac.uk.
Further information
GreshamCollege
For over 400 years GreshamCollege has provided free public lectures in the City of London. Named afterSir Thomas Gresham, who built the Royal Exchange, it is modelled on the AntwerpBourse. Sir Thomas (1519–1579) traded cloth between England and the LowCountries.
Sir Thomas bequeathed money tohis College, and today holders of the original Chairs in Astronomy, Divinity,Geometry, Law, Music, Physic and Rhetoric continue to deliver the GreshamLectures. Sir Thomas had required the lectures to be not only in Latin but alsoin English and he used his will to crack the Oxbridge oligopoly by bribingseven professors to give lectures to the public, in English. The first holderof the Gresham Chair of Music, John Bull, was appointed by Queen Elizabeth I in1596, and has been more recently succeeded by a series of eminent Professorsincluding John Taverner, Walford Davies, Iannis Xenakis and John Dankworth. Thecurrent Gresham Professor of Music is Christopher Hogwood.
Gresham College was foundedshortly after the Collège de France in Paris, the Grandétablissement created in 1530 as an alternative to the Sorbonne.Neither institution awards degrees. Rather is Gresham College about ‘new learning'.Sir Thomas felt strongly that this ‘new learning' should be available to thosewho worked – merchants, tradesmen and ships' navigators – instead of solely togentlemen scholars.
Each year over 20,000 people cometo the College's 150 lectures and over a million Gresham lectures aredownloaded via the Internet. In an age concerned with making money fromintellectual property, Gresham College's ‘impact' agenda encourages the freeexchange of ideas and is one of the most potent intellectual houses on theinternet. Recently described as “The Modern Tudor Open University”, itsemphasis is on sharing knowledge, exchanging ideas, fusing old views andgenerating new insights. The College receives no government funding and it hasno conscripts: it is a community of people who come because they want to,because they find the lectures and seminars topical, informative and enjoyable.
All Gresham lectures andperformances are video-recorded. The lectures and/or the recordings are latermade available to the public as free downloads on the Gresham College websiteand other sites. By accepting an invitation to speak and/or perform, and inreturn for being appropriately acknowledged on the website, lecturers andperformers permit Gresham College to make copies and/or recordings of theirlectures and performances available to the public, and to retain such copiesand/or recordings for archival purposes, in perpetuity. Lecturers andperformers are responsible for ensuring that their lecture or performancecontains nothing unlawful and that no third party rights will be infringedeither by their presentation at Gresham College or by their being recorded andmade available to the public on the Gresham College website or other sites.
For further information visitGresham.ac.uk
University of London: School ofAdvanced Study
TheInstitute of Musical Research is one of the ten institutes within the School ofAdvanced Study, University of London. Its broad remit is to promote andfacilitate musical research of all kinds within and beyond the Higher Educationsector and to establish relationships with other disciplines across thehumanities and social sciences, both in the UK and beyond. It does this bypromoting collaboration between researchers within the University of London,throughout the UK and internationally, and to address the needs of thoseengaged in musical research, whether independent scholars, performers orcomposers, or affiliated members of universities, conservatoires, colleges andother music-related establishments.
TheIMR plays a national and international role in collating and disseminatinginformation relevant to advanced musical studies, events and research inthe UK; provides a focus for collaborative postgraduate training; providesa base for visiting scholars; offers a broad range of events, includingconferences, study days and research-based workshops and performances, wherepossible in collaboration with other institutions; maintains a programme oflectures and seminars to complement those already offered within the Universityof London and elsewhere; builds links with the music industry and professionsand with the wider public (increasingly in the field of performance practiceresearch); and works closely with Senate House Libraries to develop theexisting Senate House collection into a national Music Research Library and toenhance its research facilitation role.
Forfurther information visit sas.ac.uk
Organisingcommittee:
ProfessorRichard Langham Smith (RCM)
DrHelen Abbott (Head of French, School of Modern Languages, Bangor University,Wales)
Directorof the Institute of Musical Research
Co-ordinatorto organising committee Mrs. Valerie James (IMR)
Readingcommittee
RichardLangham Smith (as above)
HelenAbbott (as above)
MylèneDubiau-Feuillerac (Université de Toulouse II)
Françoisde Medicis (Université de Montréal)
HA/RLSApril 2011