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Editorial: "Musicologues sans frontières" Author(s): Alexander Rehding Source: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 79, Fasc. 2 (2007), pp. 261-262 Published by: International Musicological Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25071291 . Accessed: 17/06/2014 15:19 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . International Musicological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Acta Musicologica. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.44.79.85 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 15:19:03 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Editorial: "Musicologues sans frontières"

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Editorial: "Musicologues sans frontières"Author(s): Alexander RehdingSource: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 79, Fasc. 2 (2007), pp. 261-262Published by: International Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25071291 .

Accessed: 17/06/2014 15:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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International Musicological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toActa Musicologica.

http://www.jstor.org

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Editorial: "Musicologues sans fronti?res"

Alexander Rehding Harvard University

For nearly eighty years now, Acta musicologica has

had internationalism emblazoned across its banner.

Such colors may appear to be the natural attribute of its status as the house journal

of the International Musicological Society. The internationalism of Acta musicologica,

however, has often been more than that; it has a long history of being programmatic.

Because of its special status, Acta musicologica?as well as its predecessors-in-spirit, the

Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft and the Sammelb?nde der Internationalen

Musikgesellschaft?have typically been acutely sensitive to the political dimension of

academic endeavor. Thus, the supporters of Quido Adler and Hugo Riemann chose

the Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft as a battleground to fight over the

historical and national pre-eminence of Viennese vs. Mannheim Classicism. One a few

years later, it was the same Riemann who, chastened by the dangerously narrow-minded

nationalism of the 1910s, called for a strengthening of the IMS to enhance international

relations and stop the catastrophe of the war. Such calls went unheard at the time: the

IMS fell victim to the powerful nationalisms that unleashed the First World War, and it

needed to be refounded in 1928.

In those days, needless to say, the field of musicology was shaped by a handful

of researchers: in 1928 the membership list of the IMS consisted of 192 subscribers, of

which about thirty were libraries. (Membership fees then were set at 5 Swiss Francs?the

amount was doubled within the first three years). Since then, the discipline has expanded

vastly, and the IMS has itself grown to unimagined dimensions. Acta musicologica evolved

out of the bulletin of the new IMS in 1931, when more space was needed for fully fledged

academic contributions. It was also at this moment of remaking, perhaps not coinci

dentally, that the timeless-classicizing Latinisms were introduced that characterize Acta

musicologica's design to this day.

Since those days, Acta musicologica has kept up with the increasing interna

tionalization of musicology and continues to be the only journal in the field to publish

articles in five major languages. As in 1931, a vital task for Acta musicologica is to provide a forum for an international exchange of ideas, and to bring institutional debates, which

Acta Musicologica, LXXIX/2 (2007), p. 261-262.

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Alexander Rehding, Editorial: Musicologues sans fronti?res

still largely happen within the framework of one language group, out of their national con

fines into the international domain. It is a great privilege for me to be presented with this

special opportunity to join Philippe Vendrix, who has already steered the journal across

international territories for the last half-decade, at the helm oficia musicologica.

What could such an international perspective, a "musicologie sans fronti?res",

look like? First, let's begin with a demographic point: most of the IMS members are clus

tered around a number of centers in Europe and North America, so it is no big surprise

that the majority of our contributions comes from the same geographical areas. (It might

be useful to add a reminder here that Acta musicologica considers submissions from non

members as well as from members of the IMS.) We would particularly encourage musicolo

gists from the under-represented areas to send us their work. Acta musicologica's main

languages of publication are English, French, Qerman, Italian and Spanish, but we will

make every effort also to consider submissions sent to us in a non-standard language.

Second, with the call for contributions from wider geographic areas we would

like to signal our openness to a wide range of areas of research, including those that

may not be the bread-and-butter topics of the discipline. Especially during our days of

increasing specialization, and the emergence of ever more journals for special interests

within the discipline, we would like to provide an inclusive forum where the purview of

musicology as a whole may be shaped and expanded.

Where the first two points have opened up a scenario that may appear like a

Babel of tongues and topics, it is particularly important that?as the metaphor goes?we

all speak the same language. As our third point, therefore, it is critical that we understand

each other and learn to appreciate methodological similarities and differences. Most

of our academic discourses still occur within a national framework; many of them only

make sense?think of the controversy over the New Musicology?within the institutional

context in which they occurred. In this situation it is all the more important to take care

to convey the big questions and issues to others. And to this, it seems, Acta musicologica

is ideally suited. For this reason we appreciate especially critical reflections that survey

recent publications or report on developments in a particular field from an international

perspective so as to communicate the state of the field to others.

It is in these three ways, then, that we hope to foster an increasingly inter

national dialogue. In many ways, none of this is startlingly new: Acta musicologica has

always been a forum for all aspects of musical scholarship, and it is the appropriate

venue for a confluence of ideas from the broadest possible background. Above all, we

will continue the course with which Philippe Vendrix has taken Acta musicologica into

the twenty-first century and which may, we hope, lead us to a truly international "musi

cologie sans fronti?res".

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