Conference Information

Twenty-Third Annual Conference

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 18-19 May, 2012

General Information

We extend our warmest invitation to attend Music Theory Midwest's twenty-third annual conference to be held May 18-19, 2012 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Thanks go to Kyle Adams (Indiana University), who chaired the program committee, and to its other members: Christopher Brody (Yale University); Carla Colletti (Webster University); Alan Gosman (University of Michigan); Blair Johnston (Indiana University); Scott Murphy (University of Kansas), ex officio as MTMW President; and Eleanor Trawick (Ball State University).

Aleksandra Vojcic (University of Michigan), our chair of local arrangements for this conference, is delighted to welcome everyone to Ann Arbor. Our sessions will be held in the E.V. Moore Building on the North Campus of the University of Michigan.

Keynote Abstract

This year’s keynote address, “Analysis without Theory?” will be delivered by Robert Morris (Eastman
School of Music).

Location

All conference session will be held at the Moore building on the North Campus of the University of Michigan.

Earl V. Moore Building
School of Music, Theatre & Dance
1100 Baits Drive Ann Arbor MI, 48109

For directions and maps, please visit: www.music.umich.edu/about/facilities/directions.htm

Conference Events

The evening before the conference begins, MTMW’s second annual Pre-Conference Workshop, titled “Hearing Schemas/Schema Hearings," will be led by Robert Gjerdingen and Vasili Byros (Northwestern University). We’re pleased to announce that this workshop is full to capacity with participating students and faculty.

On Friday evening at 8:00, Ann Arbor’s intimate Kerrytown Concert House will host a “Concert and Conversation” with jazz bassist Rodney Whitaker. More information and tickets are available online at http://bit.ly/GXD6h3. Seating is limited—order your ticket soon if you are interested!

Travel

University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is primarily serviced by the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County International Airport (DTW), which is 25-30 minutes away from the hotel and the School of Music, Theatre & Dance on North Campus.

Intra-campus transportation throughout Ann Arbor is free on university's blue busses. (See mbus.pts.umich.edu). One of the main stops for the blue busses is at Pierpont Commons, across the street from the Moore building. Pierpont Commons is also the closest venue serving lunch. The stop nearest to the hotel is on Green Rd.

There is visitor and permit parking adjacent to the Moore building. Parking permits will be available upon registration. Friday permits will be $5. Saturday/Sunday parking will be free.

Accommodations

Music Theory Midwest has contracted a nearby hotel, Holiday Inn, at a special rate of $97 a night.

Holiday Inn Near the University of Michigan
3600 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor MI 48105

The hotel is easily accessible from US-23, Exit 41 and is 2.5 miles from the conference location. The negotiated rates are valid and rooms are held until April 26, 2012. A free shuttle from the hotel to the Moore building will be reserved for morning, lunch, and afternoon times. If you wish to ride the shuttle at a different point during the day, you must arrange so with the Holiday Inn. Among the amenities, the hotel includes free wi-fi, indoor/outdoor heated swimming pool, fitness center, and Avis Rental car reservations desk on premises. Visit www.hiannarbor.com or call (734) 769-9800 for more information and to make reservations.

Dining

Restaurants in downtown Ann Arbor (Friday dinner or Sunday brunch)

  • Zingerman's deli (422 Detroit Street; 734-663-3354; zingermansdeli.com).
  • Café Zola (112 West Washington Street; 734-769-2020; cafezola.com) offers an eclectic menu that borrows from French, Italian and Turkish cuisines -- like crepes, both savory and sweet, and Turkish eggs (with feta, spinach, tomato, olives and cucumber). Brunch, $20.
  • Pacific Rim (114 West Liberty Street; 734-662-9303; pacificrimbykana.com) Pan-Asian menu includes a delicate tuna tartare with taro chips, and pan-seared quinoa-crusted scallops (dinner with wine, $50).
  • Logan (115 West Washington Street; 734-327-2312; logan-restaurant.com) for Gruyère custard with caramelized onions and tomatoes or wild boar Bolognese (dinner with wine, $50).
  • Frita Batidos (117 West Washington Street; 734-761-2882; fritabatidos.com) serves Cuban specialties like fritas (spicy burgers of chorizo, black bean, white fish, beef or turkey on a soft brioche for $7 and $8), and batidos, fresh fruit shakes, with sweetened milk, crushed ice and the option of rum.
  • Blue Nile (221 East Washington Street; 734-998-4746 bluenilemi.com) has delectable vegetarian and meat dishes and combinations starting at $15.
  • Seva (314 East Liberty; 734-662-1111; sevarestaurant.com) is a vegetarian restaurant with full menu and great sangria.

Local Information

Local Arrangements Chair: Aleksandra Vojcic (University of Michigan)

Some may find the following guide interesting: travel.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/travel/36-hours-in-ann-arbor-mich.html

Call for Papers

Deadline: 17 January 2012

Music Theory Midwest is pleased to be holding its 23rd annual conference on May 18-19, 2012 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The program committee invites proposals for individual presentations on any area of music theory and analysis. This year, we especially welcome papers addressing the music of twenty-first century composers. The submission deadline is January 17, 2012.

Music Theory Midwest also has a tradition of encouraging papers on composers, musicians, or compositions celebrating significant anniversaries in the year of the conference, and welcomes proposals for special sessions devoted to a particular topic. Among those with anniversaries in 2012 are: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (b. 1562), Giovanni Gabrieli (d. 1612), Frederick Delius (b. 1862), Claude Debussy (b. 1862), Jules Massenet (d. 1912), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (d. 1912), Irving Fine (b. 1912); as well as Beethoven's Seventh and Eighth Symphonies (composed in 1812), Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (premiered 1912), and Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (premiered 1912).

Please read the following instructions carefully. Submissions not conforming to these requirements will not be considered.

INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS:
Papers should be planned for presentation in twenty minutes, followed by ten minutes for questions. No author may submit more than one proposal, and work that has been published or accepted for publication prior to the submission deadline will not be considered. Likewise, we will not accept proposals that will be presented at national conferences prior to the MTMW meeting. Proposals should consist of an anonymous abstract of no more than two pages (no more than 25 lines per page, one-inch margins, 12pt font), with the title of the presentation given at the top. Footnotes and endnotes are included within the two-page limit, and should also be in 12pt font. Up to two additional pages of supplementary materials may also be included.

SUBMISSIONS:
Submissions will be accepted electronically at http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/mtmw/submit. (Paper submission is also possible; please email the program chair for information regarding paper submission.) Cover letter information will be entered directly into the online form. The abstract must be in .PDF form. Supplementary materials may be included in the same .PDF file as the abstract, or sent as separate files, but all .PDF's should be submitted at the same time. Authors are responsible for producing files that will display and print clearly (please use embedded fonts), and for editing the file metadata to insure anonymity.

SPECIAL SESSIONS:
Proposals for special sessions are welcomed. These are exempt from the page limit and will not be anonymous; the names of the organizer and all participants should be included in the proposal. Special sessions should be unified in a way that is not normally characteristic of sessions assembled by the program committee from individually submitted papers. Anyone wishing to propose a special session is asked to contact the program chair via email at kyadams(at)indiana.edu well in advance of the proposal deadline.

KOMAR STUDENT AWARD:
The Arthur J. Komar Award for best student paper will be presented at the conclusion of the meeting. Student presenters who wish to be considered for this award must identify this in their cover letters. For the purposes of this award, "student" status terminates with the receipt of a terminal degree or employment in a full-time position. Additional information about the Komar Award can be found at: www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/mtmw/komar.html

NOTIFICATION:
Those submitting proposals will receive notice of the Program Committee's decision by early March, when the preliminary program for the conference is assembled. Those whose proposals are accepted will be asked at this time to submit a 250-word abstract suitable for publication in the program booklet. In some cases, the Program Committee may request that a presentation be given in a format other than the usual twenty-minute paper. Music Theory Midwest expects that those who submit proposals will be able to attend the conference. If at any time after submitting a proposal you learn that you will be unable to be present on May 18-19, 2012, please contact the program chair immediately to withdraw your proposal from consideration or suggest an alternate presenter. Please do not wait until the Committee's decisions are announced; doing so could cause complications affecting the entire conference program.

Program Committee

Kyle Adams (Indiana University), Chair

Christopher Brody (Yale University)
Carla Colletti (Webster University)
Alan Gosman (University of Michigan)
Blair Johnston (Indiana University)
Scott Murphy (University of Kansas), ex officio
Eleanor Trawick (Ball State University)

Pre-Conference Workshop

Pre-Conference Workshop: Hearing Schemas/Schema Hearings

Thursday, 17 May, 2012
Application Deadline: Saturday, 14 January 14, 2012

Music Theory Midwest is pleased to announce its annual Pre-Conference Workshop, led by Professors Robert Gjerdingen and Vasili Byros of Northwestern University. Unlike the workshops at many other conferences, MTMW's workshops are not restricted to students but are open to faculty participation as well. The workshop will be held on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 17, 2012, immediately prior to the annual meeting on Friday and Saturday, May 18-19. Details of the workshop are given below.

Description: This workshop will explore the concept of a schema from psychological, pedagogical, analytical, and historical perspectives. The word-play in our title suggests two larger themes to be addressed along these lines: 1) The psychological mechanisms and pedagogical strategies involved in perceiving a musical prototype and 2) What constitutes and what is gained by a schema-oriented hearing of a particular work or passage in analytical, historical, and cognitive terms. Preparation will involve a selection of readings on the schema concept by the workshop presenters as well as by Leonard Meyer, in addition to at-home listening as preparation for exercises we have planned for the day of the workshop. The primary goals are to examine the issues underlying category membership, acquisition, and recognition (hearing schemas), and the interpretive and cognitive consequences of this re-cognition process (schema hearings). Though our discussions and analyses will focus on eighteenth-century corpora and texts, the methods and concepts will serve as adequate preparation for examination of the schema concept in other repertoires and time-periods. We encourage participants to bring questions or problems to the table that address the potential broader historico-stylistic application of the concept.

Eligibility: All interested students (graduate and undergraduate) and faculty are encouraged to apply following the instructions below. Participants are not required to reside in the Midwest region. The only restriction is that students and faculty from the workshop leaders' home institution (Northwestern University) are not eligible. The workshop will be limited to 15 participants, and it is anticipated that a minimum of 10 of the 15 positions will be reserved for students.

Cost: The workshop is free, but participants will be required to be members of MTMW at the time of the conference, to register for the conference, and to pay other related costs such as travel and hotel expenses.

Application Procedures-Students: Submit a statement of no more than 500 words, in .pdf, .docx, or .doc format, describing your background and the reasons for your interest in this workshop. Your statement should indicate your institutional affiliation and your academic status, but do not include your name in the statement itself, as the statements will be read blind. Submit the statement as an email attachment to Stan Kleppinger, MTMW Secretary, at skleppinger(at)unl.edu In the body of the email, include your name, institutional affiliation, academic status, mailing address, email address, and telephone number. The workshop leaders will select the student participants after reading the statements.

Application Procedures-Faculty: Send an email indicating your interest in the workshop to Stan Kleppinger, MTMW Secretary, at skleppinger(at)unl.edu. Include your name, institutional affiliation, academic status, mailing address, email address, and telephone number. Faculty participants will be selected randomly from those who have applied.

Application Deadline: Saturday, January 14, 2012. Workshop applicants can expect to receive notification of acceptance decisions by mid-February. Questions may be directed to Stan Kleppinger, MTMW Secretary, at skleppinger(at)unl.edu

Komar Award Committee

Lee Blasius (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Chair

Ramon Satyendra (University of Michigan) and Re

Online Program

The online program can be found here once it is available.