Review of music literacy strand of the Oxford Music Analysis Conference (July 2023), Society for Music Analysis

ABSTRACT

This review provides a summary and discussion of the ‘Music Literacy’ strand (day 1) of the Society for Music Analysis's OxMAC conference (University of Oxford, July 2023). The review highlights how the ever-expanding range of musics currently studied in higher education calls for an increasingly multifaceted understanding of the term ‘music literacy’. This was explored at the conference through presentations focusing on diverse aspects of music literacy, including its relationship with music technology, popular music, music pedagogy, musical hermeneutics and musical traditions grounded in the concepts of vibration and timbre. The review contextualises these presentations by outlining how they relate to wider current debates within music education at a variety of levels as well as the agenda of the Society for Music Analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Music literacy
• music analysis
• music education
• music technology
• sikh music theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rebekah Donn

Rebekah Donn is currently reading for a PhD in Music Education at Edinburgh Napier University under the supervision of Prof. Zack Moir and Bryden Stillie. In addition to her studies, Rebekah is an associate lecturer on the BA (Hons) music programme at Edinburgh Napier University and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Rebekah is a student representative for the Society for Music Analysis and has also conducted research for the Society.

Daniel Elphick

Daniel Elphick is a researcher on Russian and East-European music, politics and music analysis. Dan is a Fellow of the Centre for Russian Music at Goldsmiths, University of London, a member of the editorial board for DSCH, the Shostakovich Journal, and the Communications Officer for the Royal Musical Association. His first book, Music Behind the Iron Curtain: Weinberg and his Polish Contemporaries is available from Cambridge University Press.