After previous annual conferences in Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon, Turin and Ottawa, the IMS study group “Music and Media” (MaM) organized a two day conference in Dijon, France, in collaboration with the Université de Bourgogne and Université de Rennes 2. Via an open call, academics, practitioners and postgraduate students were invited to submit papers and/or panel proposals on the following areas of interest, including (but not limited to):

-Rewriting music for film;
-Early French cinema (productions in Épinay-sur-Seine a.o.);
-Film noir;
-Jazz as soundtrack;
-Methodologies for the study of film soundtracks.

Proposals in both English and French were welcomed.

The conference took place on July 1 and 2 in the Amphithéâtre Scelle of the University of Burgundy. Seven sessions were programmed around the following topics: Voicing / Rewriting; Jazz as Soundtrack; Mediated Images and the Language of Music; From Ads to Opera; Mediated Music for Younger Audiences; Alternative Scenes; On the Dark Side: (Neo-)Noir and Horror. Next to panel discussions, twenty papers were presented by scholars from eight countries in Europe and North America.

Dr. Philippe Gonin delivered a key note talk entitled ‘Jazz et cinéma ou les représentations de noirs et du jazz dans les films promotionnels et les cartoons des années 1930. Points et contrepoints’.

The program committee of the 6th annual meeting of the Study Group was formed by James Deaville (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), Laurence Le Diagon-Jacquin (Université de Rennes 2, Université de Bourgogne), Michael Saffle (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg) and Emile Wennekes (Utrecht University).

The 2015 MaM meeting will take place in Vienna (November 25-28), in collaboration with the Institute for Analysis, Theory and History of Music (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). The theme of this joint conference will be ‘War of Media – Media of War:
 The Importance of Music and Media for Propaganda in Times of Change’.

Prof. Dr. Emile Wennekes, Chair MaM
http://www.studygroupmam.com