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SASS Conference 2023: Nordic Art Music and the Modern Age


  • University of Texas at Austin 110 Inner Campus Drive Austin, TX, 78705 United States (map)

Fein collaborates with baritone Colin Levin and other artists in a series of lecture-recitals and panel discussions focused on Nordic Art Music.

The extensive repertory of contemporary Nordic Art Music has begun significant integration into the greater microcosm of contemporary World Art Music, similar in fashion to the other noteworthy bodies of both instrumental and vocal music. The musical works of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands each have begun to garner great interest outside of their countries, and subsequently have begun to disseminate. When introduced even in incidental fashion there is immediate presence of the striking individual nature, not to mention the great beauty, within the vast repertory. The literature emerges pointedly in how it diverges from the compositional trends in other World art music traditions: Nordic composers respond to the idiomatic qualities of their language incomparable to those traditions who similarly assimilate the vernacular of folk traditions. The specific traits of the phonetic sounds of the languages, especially in connection with the oral accounts of the history and folklore, often shape the tradition. At present time Nord Art Music has reclaimed its position amongst its European counterparts, and in many circumstances, significantly surpassed them.

            This stream is to focus on themes of Nordic Art Music in the Modern age, and welcomes papers, lecture recitals, or full recitals that could include the following themes: 

  • The relationship between contemporary Nordic poetry and composition

  • The promotion of gender-equity through Nordic composition in the Modern Age

  • Nordic LGBTQIA+ compositional trends

  • The relationship between Art Songs of the Romantic Era and the Modern Era

  • Nordic Phonetic studies in the Modern Age

  • Contemporary Nordic Vocal Literature

  • The relationship between contemporary Nordic Humor and Art Music

  • Contemporary composition that focuses on everyday life

  • Nature and its relationship to Modern Nordic Art Music

  • Diverging trends in contemporary Nordic String Quartet composition

We especially encourage composers, musicologists, and performers of Nordic Art Art Music to submit to this stream. If proposing a lecture-recital or full-recital, please detail the compositions, the performers, and the performers’ biographies. 

Previous
Previous
April 14

Bargemusic Here and Now Series: Songs from The 40@40 Project / Laura Strickling and Daniel Schlosberg

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Next
May 12

Liederabend: Fein & Levin @ Scandinavia House