The Undisciplined Muse: Music among the Fields of Knowledge University of Chicago 29-30 May 1992

Abstract

On 29 and 30 May, 1992, the University of Chicago Humanities Institute sponsored a conference devoted to discus405 sion of the study of music. The theme was designed to fit with that of the University's centennial celebration, Knowledge, and explored many of the issues raised in the book Disciplining Music, recently published by The University of Chicago Press. This event was another in a series of discussions looking critically at the study of music, begun in 1986 at Cornell University, and continued at the 1987 AMS convention. In their Preface to Disciplining Music, editors Philip V. Bohlman and Katherine Bergeron described how conversations begun in 1986 had proliferated around the topic of disciplining music, leading to the publication of the book. As this most recent conference demonstrated, conversations are still proliferating. Indeed, the wealth of ideas and issues that were raised during the two days of discussion was so rich that I shall only be able to cover the central topics in this report. The Chicago conference brought together scholars from various disciplines concerned with the study of music: the panels included representatives from historical musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, anthropology, and philosophy. The inclusion of scholars from outside musicology proper returned the discussion to its broadly interdisciplinary context. Further, the presence of a significant number of scholars with international affiliations in the panels and in the audience extended the viewpoint of the recent discussions beyond the purview of American musicology.