AHRC “Care for the Future” Theme, Performing the Jewish Archive
University of Leeds, UK, Tuesday 16 – Friday 19 June 2015
For the first time in Britain an International Academic Conference is being devoted to the music of Jewish prayer. Internationally acclaimed scholars in Jewish liturgical music will lead the programme presented jointly by the School of Music, University of Leeds and the Academic Wing of the European Cantors Association. The conference is organised in association with the international research project Performing the Jewish Archive, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
- Professor Emeritus Eliyahu Schleifer, Professor of Sacred Music and Director of the School of Sacred Music at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem
- Professor Mark Kligman, Professor of Jewish Music University of California, Los Angeles
- Professor Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, Research Professor, Tufts University, nr Boston
CALL FOR PAPERS
The English music scholar Percy Scholes wrote in the Oxford Companion to Music: ‘Throughout the ancient history of the Jewish people we find music mentioned with a frequency that perhaps exceeds that of its mention in the history of any other people. Music not only impresses itself on the daily life of the Jewish people through religious observance, but it is a dominant feature of the Jews’ cultural expression of their own milieu over centuries and more recently of the wider community in which they live. Music for the Jews is an indelible part of their existence’.
This conference will explore recent research into aspects of Jewish liturgical music. This could include Hebrew Psalmody, Cantillation, Jewish modes and melodies, Piyyutim, Missinai Tunes and synagogue composition, both cantorial and choral in areas where Jewish communities have flourished across the globe and through the centuries. It will also examine current trends and issues and the interface between Jewish liturgical music and the musics of the wider Christian, Muslim and other societies.
Proposals for 20-minute papers with 10 minutes for discussion (which may include relevant musical presentations) are invited. Papers that make use of original archival sources, or that reinterpret known sources, will be particularly welcome, though all relevant areas of investigation will be considered. We also invite suggestions for round table sessions of c.60 or 90 mins.
THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE CONFERENCE IS ENGLISH. It is envisaged that selected papers will be published in a volume of proceedings.
PLEASE SEND AN ABSTRACT OF up to 300 WORDS by 10 November 2014, to the Conference Director, Dr Stephen Muir S.P.K.Muir@leeds.ac.uk. Your proposal should include the title of your presentation, your name and institutional affiliation and contact details, and a biography of up to 150 words. Please indicate whether your presentation includes live or recorded musical illustrations, and the technical support required.
THE PROGRAMME COMMITTEE will make its decisions by 10 December 2014, and contributors will be informed soon thereafter.
SABBATH AND EUROPEAN CANTORS CONVENTION All delegates to the International Conference are invited to join with the European Cantors Convention in special choral Sabbath with guest cantors and choirs on Friday night 19 and Saturday 20 June. Delegates might also like to attend the Convention which will take place immediately following on Sunday 21 and Monday 22 June.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, please contact the Conference Director Stephen Muir S.P.K.Muir@leeds.ac.uk (Information about the programme, registration fees, travel and accommodation will be announced by the end of December 2014). Bursaries covering all or part of the conference fee may be offered to students.
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Dr Stephen Muir Senior Lecturer in Music, School of Music University Leeds
Dr Alexander Knapp Head, ECA Academic Wing. Research Associate, Department of Music SOAS University of London (retired Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music, SOAS),
Dr Malcolm Miller Associate Fellow of the Institute of Musical Research, University of London
Geraldine Auerbach MBE Conference coordinator
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD INCLUDES
Keynote speakers:
Professor Emeritus Eliyahu Schleifer – Jerusalem
Professor Mark Kligman – Los Angeles
Professor Rabbi Jeffrey Summit – nr Boston
and
Professor Philip Bohlman – Chicago
Professor Edwin Seroussi – Jerusalem