looking for expressive composers

January 14, 2009 5:46 AM

Does anyone know of any Europe based composers who are concerned with the relation between music and emotions, and who would also be good conference speakers?

This is a work related question. I am trying to get together speakers for a conference, but asking around it seems that nowadays composers are not especially interested in the expressive qualities of their music, preferring to focus on more formal innovations. Please give suggestions! I don't care how famous the person is, but given that this is a highbrow academic conference, they should hopefully be either based at a European university, or otherwise academically inclined. Composers in any (serious) music style would be acceptable.

posted by leibniz to media & arts (1 comment total)

Did you think of film composers? Film music is often built to enhance/establish emotions of a scene or in the viewer.

I don't have any names, but if you widen your criteria it might be easier to find someone? Some film composers have academic (compositional) background.

Also, perhaps there are som writers of film music books that might be interesting to you. They often talk about music and emotions from an academical/compositional point.

Btw, I get what you mean with "serious music composers" but it sounds a bit lame :)
posted by gmm at 8:30 AM on January 14