Writing Music. Iconic, performative, operative, and material aspects in musical notation(s)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Matteo Nanni
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 323246075

The topic of the research project outlined in the following is a theory of music writing. In a productive interplay between a critical evaluation of current debates on a general theory of writing on the one hand and a source-based reference to concrete musical issues on the other, the project follows a dual strategy combining disciplinary and interdisciplinary elements. First of all, special attention will be paid to those historical, cultural, and systematic contexts of musical writing(s) that are marked more strongly by the phenomenal fragility of transitions in media than by the (supposed) stability of modern European musical notation: The of phenomena concerning the oldest written documentation of music can be rewarding in the same measure for developing a theory of music writing as theoretical reflection on the latest notational experiments, the study of in musical sketches and compositional drafts is just as promising as an examination of the specific textual status of performance material harbors just as many important insights for a comprehensive theory of music writing as the discussion of digital possibilities for the descriptive and prescriptive documentation of musical events. Second, the project takes advantage of an epistemological shift in theoretical approaches and research interests in the interdisciplinary discourse of writing and literacy toward phenomena concerning the visual presence of writing, the materiality of the written work, and the cognitive and explorative significance of writing by considering those aspects of this discourse that evade the pure referentiality of music writing as a mere medium of communication from within the writing itself, as it were, and evoke, enable, and theoretically ground new facets of interpreting our written cultural heritage. The project thus tackles two distinct desiderata of fundamental research in the humanities, art history, and cultural studies. On the one hand it aims at providing a missing link in the theoretical construct of the current discourse of writing as a transdisciplinary topic of research. On the other hand the research project aims at producing a sorely needed theoretical grounding for numerous philological, analytical, theoretical, and historical considerations within musicological theory formation. Assuming the epistemological necessity of a fundamental theory of music writing, the research project thus inquires into the epistemic possibility of such a theory, which should be sufficiently concrete to adequately account for the heterogeneous plurality of the relevant phenomena but at the same time sufficiently general to serve as a point of departure for a discussion of more global aspects of the topic.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, Switzerland
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Federico Celestini; Dr. Simon Obert; Professor Dr. Nikolaus Urbanek