Newsletter Nr. 12 from 12th March 2012

Dear Colleagues and Friends,


In this edition of the MCS Newsletter you will find information about our next Study Day and also our next Workshop, which will look at the role of music in right-wing extremism. In addition, there is a brief report from our last workshop, and an introduction to the newest member of the group.


1. MCS Study Day, 25 April 2012
Our Study Days offer a chance to read and discuss relevant and recent literature on the topic of music and conflict. The Study Day is open to all, but for organisational reasons we ask you to register by sending a mail to mcs-info@uni-goettingen.de by Friday, 20 April. Further information on the texts to be discussed will be available from early April. The Study Day will be conducted in English.


2. Workshop “White-Power Music: Germany in the World”, June 2012
Our next workshop looks at the role of music in the rightwing-extremist scene. Though the focus is on Germany, the presence of several international scholars aims to provide an opportunity to discuss this issue in a larger, international context. More information will be provided in our next newsletter.


3. Report from the workshop “Music in the missionary activities of the Jesuits in Spanish and Portuguese America, 1540-1773”
This workshop took place on 20 January 2012 in the Department of Musicology, and feature a number of well-known researchers in this field. Prof. Franz Körndle (Universität Augsburg) gave a general introduction to music in Jesuit missionary work and its importance for the missions, while Prof. Jerzy Skrabania (Hochschule St. Augustin) explored this further using the example of the Chiquitos mission in what is now Bolivia - an area in which the influence of the Jesuits can be felt right up to the present day. Dr. Jutta Toelle (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) focussed on German-language missionary reports, which are characterised by a one-sided perspective on the music of the “pagans” and discussions of efforts of cultural education on the basis of the catechism. Finally, Prof. Marcos Holler (Universität Florianópolis) offered an insight into Jesuit missionary practice in Portuguese America, including the phenomenon of Portuguese oprhans being shipped to Bahía in order to inspire indigenous children of the merits of Christianity through music.
The workshop offered an opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange with the result that all those who participated gained new perspectives, be they music-historical, missions-historical or sociomusicological in nature. The lively and debate that characterised the closing discussion demonstrated that the topic of music in colonial history, and in particular music in the foreign missions, needs to be pursued further with a view to better understanding the sociocultural conditions of “cultural transfer” as it was practised, sometimes very consciously, in the era of European expansionism. A further forum for such discussions will be offered by the 15th International Congress of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, which will take place in September of this year in Göttingen: several of the workshop participants will return to Göttingen for a symposium entitled “The Journeys of Music” to be organised by MCS researcher Christian Storch.


4. New member of the Research Group
In January of this year we welcomed Dr. Férdia Stone-Davis as the newest member of the Research Group. Férdia conducted her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Cambridge and also studied recorder performance at Trinity College of Music. She will be responsible for the editiorial coordination of the MCS book series and will also conduct research into the music of the Jacobite movement in the 18th century, with a special focus on English Jacobites.

Further information on the research group can be found on our Website:
Research Group "Music, Conflict and the State" Homepage


Best wishes,

The Research Group “Music, Conflict and the State”