Brno Colloquium, Sept/Oct 2003: response to criticism (fwd)

Fri Apr 4 07:32:13 UTC 2003

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mikulas Bek <bek at phil.muni.cz>

Dear colleagues,

On 14 March we distributed the call for papers reproduced below.
Unfortunately the world has changed somewhat since then, and in
consequence we feel a need to make a small change to the punctuation of
the original text. This change is also prompted by a critique of our
proposal which has been published by a German colleague, Max Nyffeler, in
the April issue of the Neue musikalische Zeitung (available on the web at
http://www.beckmesser.de/kol/2003-04.html). He interprets our call for
papers through a vision of us in the Czech Republic as hapless victims --
of a devilishly clever US media policy, and of Mr. Rumsfeld´s cunning
flattery of gullible Eastern Europeans.

It may well be that these things take on different aspects in different
cultural contexts. So we would like to issue an explanatory note to the
call for papers.  We imagined that the quotation of terms like
"extraterritorial sphere" and "periphery" would have provided adequate
signals of an ironic context to our quotation of the label "new Europe".
Clearly, it has not done so, at least to some readers in some cultural
contexts. And no doubt it is the authors who are to blame rather than the
readers. So maybe we can make matters clearer for properly sceptical
readers by putting the word "honoured" in quotation marks, for the passage
in the original call for papers, "in those parts of Europe which have
recently been honoured with the title of the 'new Europe'", reads in
standard Czech "in those parts of Europe which have recently been
'honoured' with the title of the 'new Europe'". It is of course possible
that a standard German reading might have slightly different overtones.
But we do not really think so.

In fact a much more thorough and profound understanding of our intention
can be gained if one carefully studies the seventh chapter of Jaroslav
Hasek's novel The Good Soldier Svejk. It presents the edifying image of
Svejk in uniform in a wheelchair: "This man, again and again brandishing
his crutches, yelled, as he passed through the streets of Prague, 'To
Belgrade! To Belgrade!'" Indeed we should not overlook the fact that Hasek
in this passage is at the same time teaching a pleasant lesson about the
mediation of reality through the public media...

We believe that this misunderstanding need not result in another European
war, cold or hot. No doubt we Eastern Europeans have some of the naive joy
and crass stupidity proper to our status as children of Nature. Just the
same, any self-confidence that Mr. Nyffeler or anyone else discerns in us
is definitely not based on any supposed "honour" conferred on us in our
proud title of the "new Europe".  And in fact we think the critical voice
of Mr. Nyffeler bears exactly the patronising overtones which are the
proper topic of the conference. His "Vorverstaendnis" of our call for
papers is based on exactly the assumptions which we hope will be examined
more closely in September, and which we would like to discuss then. So we
hope you and he will join us then, and in the meantime the Euromusicology
list (at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/EUROMUSICOLOGY.html) is open for
any preliminary discussion of the issues.

> CALL FOR PAPERS
> 
> INTERNATIONAL MUSICOLOGICAL COLLOQUIUM BRNO 2002
> 
> NEW MUSIC IN THE "NEW" EUROPE 1918-1938: Ideology, Theory, and
> Practice
> 
> SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 1, 2003
> 
> The Institute of Musicology at the Masaryk University Brno (Czech
> Republic) will host its annual musicological colloquium once more in
> 2003. It will concentrate on "new Music" ("neue Musik"), musical
> modernisms and avant-gardes in those parts of Europe which have
> recently been "honoured" with the title of the "new Europe". In the
> past they have been called the "periphery" of Europe, an
> "extraterritorial" sphere (Adorno), the "Morgenland", Eastern Europe,
> or, less pejoratively, "Central and Eastern" Europe, and, least
> pejoratively, "Central Europe". (However, even this description
> involves an implicit charge of orientalism, as do all the others.) A
> German historian, Ferdinand Seibt, has highly praised the impressive
> political and cultural advance made in the European periphery at the
> beginning of the 14th century - a medieval periphery consisting not
> only of the Czech Lands, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and Serbia, but
> including also Spain, England and Denmark.
> 
> The topic of the conference focuses on musical life between the two
> World Wars in areas beyond the traditional "Abendland" - beyond the
> axis Paris-Berlin. Comparative analyses of particular concepts of
> modernism in music, accounts of the institutional contexts of new
> music, and aspects of reception history are of special interest.
> Nevertheless, comparative studies mapping the landscape of the "old"
> Europe are equally welcome, as are aspects of the history of the
> reception of peripheral music in the alleged "centre".
> 
> All prospective participants should submit a 300-word abstract by 31
> May 2003, together with a brief curriculum vitae, and their postal and
> e-mail addresses.
> 
> Presentations of papers should not exceed 20 minutes. Papers will be
> accepted in English and German. There are no interpreting facilities
> available in the conference rooms.
> 
> The active participants will be offered accommodation in an
> international hotel free of charge.
> 
> Further information will be progressively available on the web page of
> the Institute of Musicology of the Masaryk University Brno:
>         http://www.musicologica.cz 
> under the heading Kolokvium. There is a special e-mail address for
> colloquium business:
>         colloq at phil.muni.cz
> 
> Paper abstracts, and requests for information,should be addressed to:
> 
> Institute of Musicology
> Masaryk University Brno
> Arne Novaka 1
> CZ 602 00 Brno
> Czech Republic
> Phone and fax: +420 5 4112 1434
> E-mail: colloq at phil.muni.cz
> 
> In the name of the Board of the Colloquium
> 
> Prof. PhDr. Jiri Vyslouzil, DrSc.
> PhDr. Petr Macek, Ph.D.
> PhDr. Mikulas Bek, Ph.D.

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