Global Blake Symposium: Musical Afterlives
is a one-day symposium exploring the musical settings of Blake's poetry as well as his inspiration on classical and popular artists.
When: 4 November 2024
Where: Online Event
Keynote Speaker: Barry Miles
If Horatio’s famous quote “Ut pictura poiesis” seems incontrovertible when we look at William Blake’s illuminated books, “Ut musica poiesis” could be the next unquestionable truth when one comes across the thousands of musical renderings inspired by Blake’s verses.
As posed by one of the greatest Blake scholars, G. E. Bentley Jr., his work is more than a topic or theme for music, it is, above all, reason for music. So much so, that today William Blake is one of the most celebrated English-language poets set to music, having inspired a myriad of renderings, ranging from Hubert Parry's classical hymn Jerusalem (1916) to Patti Smith's panegyric In My Blakean Year (2004). The answer to such popularity is not an easy one. There is a conjunction of factors that may help to explain the extensive use of his work by artists who revolutionized the artistic scene in the second half of the 20th century, which encompasses form, content and the profound transformations of his literary reception over the years. This unordinary phenomenon suggest that Blake's ideas and aesthetics resonate with the crises and issues of the modern and contemporary world, having found in the digital and multimedia context of the 21st Century a breeding ground for further expansion.
The aim of this symposium is to present a comprehensive discussion of Blake's reception in music in order to understand not only the genesis and motivations of the phenomenon, but also its endurance in the digital age, when multimedia and intermediality play a central role in the dissemination of literature. It also encompasses the articulation of word, sound and image in the appropriation of his work, which ranges from album covers and posters to music settings. We welcome proposals for papers of 20 minutes on Blake’s Musical Afterlives.
For more information and further details please visit: https://globalblake.com/symposium-musical-afterlives/
Call for Papers Deadline: 31 July 2024
Abstracts of up to 500 words along with a short biographical note (50 words in the same document) should be sent to music@globalblake.com.
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