Music as an action (and not as an object)
The conference "Musicking Collective", organized by the Bern University of the Arts, explores interrelationships between contemporary music and collectivity. The link to the stream will be published shortly before the event.
"Music is not a thing, but an activity, something that people do." Musicologist and composer Christopher Small uses this almost iconic phrase to explain the meaning of his neologism "musicking". According to Small, the essence of music lies not so much in musical works as in the collective action of a group of people. He therefore considered it necessary to transform the noun "music" into a verb. The resulting neologism has now acquired a far wider range of meanings than the German verb "Musizieren", for example. The international symposium "Musicking Collective", which will be hosted by Bern University of the Arts from 15 to 17 December, will address very different aspects of this dazzling term: aesthetic phenomena and concepts, creative processes and, last but not least, socio-cultural and political frameworks. However, "Musicking" will not only be reflected upon theoretically at the event, but also put into practice.
"Partisans" in concert
In the evening program, the HKB is joining forces with the local new music scene. The event "partisans en concert" on December 16 at the PROGR in Bern is a mixture of concert, panel discussion and project presentation: In the first part of the evening, renowned performers will play pieces from the local contemporary music repertoire, including a Swiss premiere alongside tried and tested "classics". The program makes it possible to experience the diversity of contemporary music practice in Bern in terms of both content and form.
In the second part of the evening, a recently launched initiative to found a platform for critical reflection on contemporary music will be presented: In the summer of 2020, a group of people from both practice and theory formed in Bern to revive an echo chamber that had since been shut down. With the discontinuation of the Magazine dissonance/dissonance a strong journalistic voice on contemporary music that has shaped the Swiss discourse for many years fell silent at the end of 2018. The PROGR is now set to symbolically launch a successor project in the form of a new online journal: Under the label partisan notes will soon be launching a web portal for the international publication of content on contemporary music. In this context, members of the editorial team will discuss "Music Journalism 2.0" with colleagues from other genres in a panel discussion.
Link to the event via
