Since at least the nineteenth century, Western concert music has been used by divergent political and social causes as a rallying point, as model, and as a potent communicator of personal and group identities. Brahms's music, for example, has represented the political ideals of Vienna's Liberal bourgeois community (Notley, Brodbeck) and the upward social mobility of Black musicians in the United States after the Civil War (Thurman), while also being upheld as apolitical when treated as "absolute music" in the aftermath of World War II (Beller-McKenna). This conference seeks to explore these and other ways that Brahms, his music, and the music of his circle have come to communicate personal and group identities since the late nineteenth century and the ways that different groups have addressed questions of belonging among those who engage with Brahms and his music as scholars, performers, and listeners.
We welcome proposals on any aspect of Brahms and his music, but we are especially interested in proposals dealing with topics such as:
• Reception and uses of Brahms and/or his music in political/social causes
• Researching, teaching, and performing Brahms in the 21st century
• Race, gender, sexuality, and class in the performance, analysis, and reception of Brahms’s music
• Brahms in global and cross-cultural contexts
• Brahms and his music in colonial and postcolonial contexts
• Brahms and public scholarship and outreach
• Analysis: new voices, new methodologies
In collaboration with the Mendelssohn Network, we also invite proposals for a joint session exploring the relationships between public and private perceptions of the Mendelssohns and Brahms in the nineteenth century and beyond. Proposals might address common themes and compositional procedures in these composers' music, aspects of a shared reception history, Brahms's engagement with the music and musicians of Mendelssohn's circle, etc.
Proposals are due by midnight EST on 6 April 2025.
Full details on the submission requirements and process are available at https://americanbrahmssociety.org/
Decisions will be announced in June 2025.