Conference: Magnified and Sanctified: the Music of Jewish Prayer
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.
CALL FOR PAPERS (see more)…
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, near 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.
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
Geraldine Auerbach MBE
T: 020 8907 1905 M: 07971 818 262
geraldine.auerbach@gmail.com