Upon stepping onto the platform at Lancaster train station the day before the official commencement of the LancMAC/MSN conference, I met an American scholar (who had seen me poring over some scores on the way there) who asked: ‘are you speaking at MAC or MSN?’ The question (answered simply by ‘yes’) flagged up a potential issue for the meeting: how does one incorporate two established conferences into a single productive event which encourages exchange and interaction between the specialists in each field, and yet keeps both camps individually happy? » Read more: MSN/LancMAC 2011: Anne Hyland’s Review

The drawing together of the Seventh International MSN conference and LancMAC was a bold and highly successful stroke that found an appropriate venue in the impressive new contemporary arts building at Lancaster University. The conference was attended by over 150 delegates from 20 countries. The scale of the conference was exceptional in that the seven parallel periods were all comprised of five themed sessions. This gave an enormous amount of choice and surely allowed most delegates to find a route through these well-chaired sessions that was informative and relevant to issues in their own research. I consider two highlights of my own route below; but first, the plenary sessions. » Read more: MSN/LancMAC 2011: Ben Curry’s Review

The closing days of July brought together a diverse range of scholars and students for the Seventh International Conference on Music Since 1900 and the Lancaster University Music Analysis Conference. Held in the newly-opened Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts in Lancaster University, the conference opened with a plenary session, ‘Marking Time: On Contemporary Music and Historical Analysis’. This was a complex and intriguing discussion by members of the RMA Music and Philosophy Study Group, exploring issues of temporality in the analysis of contemporary music. It was followed by the first of the parallel sessions. As a member of the technical support team, I was scheduled to assist in ‘Form and Temporality’, in which resonances were apparent with the plenary session. » Read more: MSN/LancMAC 2011: Rebecca Thumpston’s Review

More than 150 delegates attended the combined International Conference on Music Since 1900 and Music Analysis Conference at Lancaster University. The conferences offered attendees the opportunity to hear papers covering a multiplicity of topics, a selection of concerts and a number of pieces related to some of the talks in a listening room to which delegates had access. Due to the plurality of subject matters, papers were categorised by theme, and sessions then ran in parallel. The plenary sessions included keynote lectures by Henry Klumpenhouwer from the University of Alberta, who presented a trio of vignettes offering different approaches to music and analysis, and Philip Bohlman from the University of Chicago, whose paper, ‘Analysing Aporia’, explored the analysis of silence, or the absence of sound, within music of various cultures. In this report, I will discuss a cross-section of the presentations in order to provide readers with a flavour of the diversity of topics covered over the four days. » Read more: MSN/LancMAC 2011: Marie Bennett’s Review