Session one: Publishing of Music

The Beginning of European Music Printing: A Music-Cultural Bombshell 

Tim Shephard (University of Nottingham) 

Large areas of the music publishing industry rely substantially on two technologies: music notation and music printing. Yet these technologies haven’t always been there: they had beginnings. Notation emerged as a minor part of a majority oral musical culture. Music printing (which, of course, relies on notation) began life as a small part of a manuscript culture. The development of music printing brought with it profound changes in the musical cultures of Europe. This paper will begin with a provocative retelling of the early history of notation and printing. It will then consider the impact of music printing in the first century after its invention in 1498, including a number of striking changes in the way music could be used and conceived: the spread of music notation beyond church and court; the creation of the art/notated – folk/oral divide; the beginnings of the modern ‘work’ concept; and others. I will conclude by inviting the audience to reflect on some unexpected parallels between musical cultures in pre-print Europe and the modern-day world. 

Editing electroacoustic music on magnetic tape: the variety of Invenzioni su una voce

Eveline Vernooij (University of Udine) 

The restoration of electroacoustic music on magnetic tape raises new questions for the editor. Numerous circumstances (artistical, tecnical and editorial) often lead the composer to revise the composition substantially, resulting in the emergence of a great number of different authorized versions that may pose considerable problems of authenticity and authoriality. In this context, which editorial criteria must be adopted in order to restore the composition in all its facets? These problematics will be illustrated in detail with the help of a significant case study: Invenzioni su una voce (1960), for voice and magnetic tape, by Bruno Maderna. The many authorized versions of this composition reveal a mobile work, a so-called "work in progress" not uncommon in Maderna's oeuvre. During the years it has been performed under different titles, either with live voice and magnetic tape or with magnetic tape only, and the latter has been subject to many modifications. In this context, the two published discographic editions, different from one another, each represent only one still moment of the composition's complex history. In light of these considerations, editing electroacoustic music on magnetic tape requires the formulation of new methodologies that will incorporate the specific characteristics of this compositional genre. This paper would like to present a new editorial approach oriented towards the restoration of the multiplicity inherent in this music. 

Digital Delinquencies: Cross Generational Perspectives on Music Downloading

Andrew Chatora (Institute of Education, London University) 

The advent and proliferation of diverse digital media platforms have greatly impacted on the distribution modes of music. Established business models within the music industries have been disrupted. The Internet, particularly the world wide web, has had a huge impact especially as it offers different affordances. Drawing on recently conducted focus groups, an online survey and individual interviews with intergenerational consumers, this paper will seek to address consumers’ uses of digital technologies and the potential threat of the recently promulgated Digital Economy Act. More specifically, the paper will address an often-neglected area: the rationalisations and ‘situated ethics’ advanced by consumers. Pertinent questions abound: how do consumers justify the ethics of music downloading and illegal file sharing? Is this a phenomenon unique to young generations only, as scholarship in the field tends to suggest? Are younger generations more Shifting Ground II: A Symposium on Music and Publishing Internet savvy than older generations, and do they have different ethical criteria? What are the implications of these emerging practices for regulatory policy and for the distribution strategies of the music business? 

Printed Music Publishing

Davo van Peursen (Head of Music Publishing at Music Center, the Netherlands) 

In a globalized world with an increasing amount of data available at fingertips, the role of music publishers gets unclear. How to survive? How to hold and increase attention? How to smooth the production process? And how to be prepared for the next steps in a gadget-world? The Publishing house of Music Center the Netherland (formerly Donemus) invested in a future-ready solution. MCN has put 12,000 titles by 600 composers online. Approximately 75% is available as PDF. (60.000 files, 800.000 pages). The Open Source Webshop offers 1) Page Previews (15 pages; 1/3 cut off) 2) Ordering of conductor-, study- (A4), or pocketscores (A5) and 3) PDF download. The only manual handling is to enter the right document properties in the PDF. The rest is done automatically, including pricing and preview rendering. PDFs are available without DRM and give a 30% discount. But all PDFs have a customer code entered as watermark on the fly when the order is confirmed. For a niche market for contemporary classical music, we reach our worldwide performers far more easily. PDF sales are now 50% of the sales of our new webshop. MCN expects its digital content will be used on iPads or digital stands. MCN has now created a portal where composers can also upload their scores and parts, meeting some minimal editing requirements and fill in all title information directly in our database. After a short editor check the PDFs are processed to our webshop. Full contract management is included too.

Session two: Publishing on music

Dancing To Architecture 

Rob Chapman (University of Huddersfield) 

The quote that writing about music is like dancing to architecture has been variously attributed to Frank Zappa, Martin Mull, Lester Bangs and Charles Shaar Murray, among others. Drawing upon a 30 year career as a songwriter, cultural historian, radio broadcaster, music biographer, journalist and academic my main contention will be that the old truism about dancing to architecture is not problematic per se. There is some pretty funky architecture to dance to. Unless you are using very precise technical terminology (which is, for most of the time, only really of any use to fellow practitioners) all writing about music deals in similitude and is to some extent adjectival, metaphorical, analogous. Dancing to architecture is not the problem. It all depends on how well you dance and how good the architecture is. 

Music webzines – acts of defiance in a digital age?

Rob Horrocks and Matt Grimes (Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University) 

What role do specialised publications play in the consumer’s experience of music and the shaping of its meanings? This paper explores this relationship through the pages and practices of music fanzines, in their print and online incarnations. Our analysis focuses on the specificities of ‘anarcho-punk’ and ‘indie-pop’ fanzines of the 1980s, exploring the variety of discursive practices constructed around and constructing these genres. Our concern is with the role of fanzine as arbiter of taste and in the construction of, variously: identity, Shifting Ground II: A Symposium on Music and Publishing community, sub-cultural capital and musical scenes. Of primary concern is the fanzine as a site where discourses of authenticity, defiance and opposition are constructed and embodied. While it may appear that the practices and associations of the printed fanzine have simply migrated online, we evaluate the continuities and disparities between these incarnations and the role that they play in musical consumption. Our investigation seeks to find whether these discourses around authenticity and ideology are perpetuated in websites that self identify themselves as webzines. 

Writing a life: locating the human in a virtual world 

Lucy O’Brien (Goldsmiths University) 

Is the music biography in crisis? With this paper I would explore the impact of the Internet on writing music biography, and whether the ‘hypermediacy’ of the virtual world is changing its format and function. As Ann Oakley wrote, “The enterprise of biography inhabits a liminal world at the intersections of fact and fiction, (social) science and art, objective narrative and personal life story.” This liminal world is expressed in the wilder reaches of rock biography with its history in the ‘60s counterculture press, ‘gonzo’ journalism and punk. British music writing has always been fuelled by a spirit of inquiry and experimentation with form. The most memorable stories are those where the writer has travelled out of their comfort zone to ‘inhabit’ their subject - whether it’s Charles Shaar Murray tracking down the ghost of Robert Johnson in Mississippi for his Hendrix biography, or Fred Vermorel throwing himself in the ditch where one of Kate Bush’s drunken ancestors had died. Writing biography involves going on a journey; one that is physical, embodied and in many respects, arduous. In this paper I would explore how my experience of research and writing has changed since I did Dusty in the 1980s, to the women of She Bop in the ‘90s, to more recently Madonna: Like An Icon. Internet technology has made it easier to make smooth, direct connections - but cyber speed is no substitute for the smell of jasmine in LA or a gay nightclub in the freezing winter suburbs of Detroit. I’m now working on a proposal for Lady Gaga, and want to conclude with how cyber identities and global pop marketing make the task of locating the human being behind the music even more challenging. 

Prophets of Doom and the Doom of Profit: Music Criticism in the 21st Century

Christopher Dingle (Birmingham Conservatoire) 

The imminent demise of Classical Music Criticism, like that of Western Art Music itself, has been predicted repeatedly in certain quarters. The perception is that apparent changes in cultural priorities on the one hand, and significant developments in the media on the other, are resulting in a catastrophic decline in Classical Music coverage in the press. Shifts in listening habits and a transformation in engagement with old and new media are certainly having an impact. The rise of blogging and the supposed democratization of comment are challenging the hegemony of the specialist critic. Critics as a breed are generally regarded as, at best, an annoyance, so their demise might be a tempting prospect. However, composers, performers, publishers, promoters, record companies and the general public all read and, in some way or other, make use of reviews published primarily, though not exclusively, in newspapers and specialist magazines. This paper briefly examines the nature and implications of some of the current threats, both perceived and real, and places them in context. More importantly, perhaps, it notes the methodological challenges in providing a sense of perspective in this area that rely on more than anecdotal evidence; challenges that are beginning to be addressed through the British Classical Music Criticism since 1945 project, hosted by Birmingham Conservatoire. Finally, rather than attempt to predict whether the days of the specialist critic are numbered, the paper considers what this might mean for music publishers and those who rely upon them.