June 24-25, 2027 on Zoom
The topic of the 2027 biennial online symposium is an exploration of music as knowledge, including music’s connection with science and technology. Music and science have been intertwined for centuries in Britain, with particular strengths emerging in research on acoustics in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, the establishment and musical interests of the Royal Society, the longest established scientific society, not to mention important treatments of music in psychology, instrument design, and tuning theory, among others. In the twentieth century, moreover, Britain led the way in developing technologies for disseminating music, particularly through the BBC’s cultivation of radio and television, as the network pioneered the public service model and offered the first transnational TV broadcasts across the English channel.
This conference explores British attitudes towards music, technology, and science, very broadly construed, including but not limited to topics such as:
• Music within the quadrivium and natural philosophy
• Music as a form of knowledge-building
• Music and scientific institutions
• Scientific discourse and musical practice, education, and artistic production
• Technologies of dissemination and creation: printing press, recording, broadcasting, digital media, AI
• Instruments and technologies of sound production, acoustics
• Music, medical science, and the body
• Music, the natural world, and the environment
• Music, science, and empire
• Music and the digital humanities
The keynote address will be given by Prof. Linda Phyllis Austern (Northwestern University) who has written extensively about music, science, and knowledge in Britain, including in her recent book, Both from the Ears and Mind: Thinking About Music in Early Modern England (University of Chicago Press, 2020).
We invite contributions that investigate the symposium topic in a variety of biographical, theoretical, cultural, and artistic contexts, as well as any other concept related to the understanding of music and scientific knowledge in Britain. Please submit an abstract (250‒300 words) and a brief biography (100‒150 words) for a paper presentation of 20 minutes’ duration by November 30, 2026 to nabmsa2027@gmail.com.
We also encourage the submission of roundtable or panel proposals for 90-minute sessions on any of the themes. For panels please submit 250-300-word abstracts for each paper plus a brief overview of the panel (c.150-200 words). For roundtables please submit a 250-300-word abstract for the sessions a whole, plus 150-200 words describing each participant’s contribution to the topic. There is no registration fee associated with the conference, though all presenters will need to join NABMSA in order to present.
Feel free to contact the organizing team with questions at the conference email address: nabmsa2027@gmail.com