Schedules
Introduction
Selected Abstacts
Pre-registration

Introduction

For the first time in Malaysia composers, ethnomusicologists, pedagogues and music students as well as anyone interested in the topic of contemporary Asian music and its wider implications will have a chance to meet and discuss on issues related to Asian music and its roots.

We bring you a rollcall of the region's leading composers to talk about various issues whether compositional, philosophical or sociological, that a modern composer may encounter in his artistic journey. In the course of the delivery the composers will also play exerpts from their compositions. Each paper will end with a Question & Answer session where you can engage with the speaker on the topic of delivery.

Highlights include Prof Dieter Mack's paper which promises to shed some light on the impact of the gamelan that continues till this very day in the art of a Western composer, and how an Asian composer may find his or her place in such a phenomenon, and Dr Jonas Baes' thoughts on the composer's social responsibilities and how that can shape their work, while on a more practical level Dr Hoh Chung Shih will demonstrate the use of electronic software as an additional tool for composers who are in search of new sounds and ways of expressing their musical ideas.

Venue & Time:

The conference will be held in Conference Room 2.7 at Segi College University Kota Damansara campus from 2pm - 5pm from Friday 27 - Sat 28 Nov. Sign in at the Registration Counter at the entrance to Auditorium A starting 1.45pm. You need to have preregistered.

SELECTED ABSTRACTS

Dr Jonas Baes (University of the Philippines)
"Weeping crocodiles" and "imagined communities" out from the Philippines: power, "naturalsness" and the agency of musical performance.

Abstract:

In the last fifteen years, I have made various experiments on the manner by which my music compositions are to be performed. Attempting to aestheticize social theories such as 'structuration,' [Giddens], 'simulacrum' [Baudrillard], and 'imagined communities' [Anderson], I have explored various performance modes that either involved the audience or drew out the cultural, the social and/or the individual 'recursive' qualities of a musician's musical language. In this lecture, I am retrospect of those approaches to performance and address the question, HOW IS THE CREATION OF MUSIC POTENT AS A VEHICLE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE, ESPECIALLY IN ASIA? The talk will be interpersed with musical and video examples of my music.

Prof Dieter Mack (Vice-President, University of Music Lübeck, Germany)
Composing in a bi-cultural environment – a European composer and the gamelan experience

Abstract:

After years of post-Adorno-historicism in which it was clear that - "…The rules are not created arbitrarily. They are configurations of historic pressures on the musical material…"* – the time has now come to acknowledge other "pressures" with a more spacial character. In this special area, Indonesian gamelan music has increasingly played a significant role for Western composers since the late 19th century in various ways.

And yet, I can say that my own personal occupation with another culture or its respective forms of musical expression has never resulted from an over exposure or fatigue with the European world, it has therefore never been a form of escape or a search for “non-European fresh meat” (Helmut Lachenmann). My own interest was exclusively based on genuine curiosity: I simply wanted to learn more about the life, mentality and thoughts of other people.

However, learning does not necessarily mean compensating for artistic shortcomings. Since my creative beginnings, it was self-evident to me that historical responsibility could not be the sole measure for my artistic and cultural orientation. I am also convinced that to live and learn in the present time is of utmost importance for us, especially in a time of globally disseminated simplifications and superficialities.

Differentiation and cultural differences have to be continuously cultivated and in some cases they have to even be re-established. The experience of diversity and the other, the experience of another history of art, and the chance to look at one’s own culture critically from an outside perspective and through the filter of another culture, all that has become of higher importance for me than an exclusively critical or dialectic discourse within in the boundaries of my own culture.

*Theodor Adorno on Schoenberg's dodecaphony, in: Philosophie der neuen Musik (Philosophy of New Music), Frankfurt 1958, page 61.

REGISTRATION

Entry to the Conference is free, but you are required to preregister latest by 25 November 09 to secure your place, as seats are going fast. We will not be responsible if you are not admitted to the conference, or given the Conference materials, because you have failed to preregister by the deadline.

FREE PASSES to the 3 days of concerts will be given to the next 20 persons who pre-register following the email below, starting today 20 Nov 2009.

To preregister, simply send an email to klcmf09@malaysiancomposers.com with the email subject heading "ASIAN COMPOSERS CONFERENCE REGISTRATION" with the followings details of EACH participant:

1. Name of participant
2. Age of participant
3. Contact number
4. Occupation & Organisation OR
   If Student, Name of school
5. What is your interest in attending the conference

Note: Programme details may be subject to change without notification