Call for Papers

ICTMD Study Group on Multipart Music

19–22 August 2026
Ljubljana, Slovenia

Language: English
Mode: Onsite in Ljubljana
Submission deadline: October 31, 2025

You are cordially invited to attend the Eighth Symposium of the ICTMD Study Group for Multipart Music which will be held on 19–22 August 2026 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in collaboration with the ZRC SAZU Institute of Ethnomusicology and support of the Imago Sloveniae.

Multipart music is a specific mode of music making and expressive behavior based on the intentionally distinct and coordinated participation in the performing act by sharing knowledge and shaping values.

Themes of the symposium

1. Borders, borderlands, and cross-border traditions
Musical traditions often articulate aspects of identity linked to geographical areas, as well as to complex and historically contested concepts such as “nation” or “people.” Conversely, linguistic and national contexts can (or have in the past) constituted cultural boundaries to dialogue, research, and knowledge production—particularly in borderland areas, understood here as zones of intersection between cultural peripheries that are often characterized by distinctive richness, complexity, and value.
Among the avenues we wish to encourage for reflection, we are especially interested in exploring the following questions: How can political and cultural notions of borders play a role in the transmission and practice of multipart music? In what ways do historically and culturally defined border contexts influence multipart music practices? Beyond superficial exercises in comparison, how might analytical engagement and dialogue as intercultural practice enhance both the understanding and performance of multipart music traditions?

2. Transmissions of multipart music
Multipart music practices rely on knowledge that is very often passed down personally, both vertically through generations and shared horizontally across groups or individuals. Within this process, teaching can foster the exchange of ideas and ensure that the heritage remains recognizable and vibrant. We ask among other questions: In the face of contemporary social, demographic, and technological changes, how do communities sustain these traditions through heritagization, innovative transmission methods, and cultural exchanges? How does teaching and other forms of transmission help keep the knowledge of multipart music alive, allowing it to adapt and thrive? How does transmission unfold when different media, technologies (incl. written and digital), or permanent/non-permanent resources are at play?

3. New Research: Welcoming new research on multipart music.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions can be in any one of the following formats:
1. Single papers are 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes of discussion.
2. Film/video presentations are 30-minute long sessions where a filmmaker introduces their recently completed film, and discusses it with the audience participants. As well, the film will be screened during the Film Festival that takes place during the conference.
3. Organized panels are group sessions lasting either 90 or 120 minutes, and they can include three or four thematically interrelated papers.
4. Roundtables provide opportunities for presenters to discuss a subject with each other and with members of the audience. Roundtables can be 60, 90, or 120 minutes long, and should include at least four but no more than five presenters.
The committee cannot consider proposals received after the deadline of October 31, 2025.
Notification for acceptance or rejection will be announced by December 15, 2025.


Please submit your proposal to yannick.wey@hkb.bfh.ch.

Publication
Participants will be invited to submit their papers for a peer-reviewed open-access publication.


Organizing Committee
Yannick Wey, Bern University of Applied Sciences
Giovanni Cestino, University of Milan
Alma Bejtullahu, University of Würzburg
Mojca Kovačič, ZRC SAZU Institute of Ethnomusicology
Jan Kern, Imago Sloveniae
Nino Razmadze, Tbilisi State Conservatoire