CALL FOR PAPERS
(DL December 1, 2022)

Song genres in social and cultural contexts
51st International Ballad Conference of the Kommission für Volksdichtung
May 29 – June 2, 2023, Helsinki, Finland

”Words are always situated; they cannot naturally occur but in context, and they cannot naturally recur without reference to prior occurrences and prior contexts” (Foley 1995: xi). In a performance of a song, the genre conventions provide much of the information that make that song anticipated, understood, and relevant in the given performance context. For example, the audience of a ballad will be able to situate the murders and miracles in the narrative realm of the genre and interpret motifs and symbols as part of the specific language of that genre.

Song genres direct the coding and decoding of meaning in performance because they lean on shared understanding of the anticipated thematic area, function, interpretation frame, and expressive means – which are carried over by the performance history. Genres are thus intrinsically social and cultural constructions, and a singer’s choice of a genre, such as ballads, also pertains to what that genre stands for in the community. Yet genres are not monoliths but co-exist in interchange with other genres, they change in time and through creative individual acts.

Today, some singers continue a long-standing oral tradition while others participate in revival movements which often also involve new elements such as formal education, archive work, new stylistic features, and new kinds of performance platforms. Study of contemporary singers’ practices and trajectories can bring significant knowledge of the unchanged elements of a song tradition as well as of its changes.

Our focus on the song genre is methodological rather than theoretical: we hope that contributors will frame their presentation with reflection on how the specific subjects studied (a song, a theme, a performance, a singer’s repertoire, etc.) are related to the genre and what that genre represents in its social and cultural context in the chosen time, area, society, and/or singing community.

We welcome proposals including, but not limited to, the following sub-themes:

History: songs, song genres and their conventions in a given country, area, or language;
Significance: how and why a song genre is meaningful in/representative of a community;
Singers: the role of a song genre in a singer’s repertoire or trajectory;
Change: how new styles, environments, performers, etc., challenge or change genre conventions;
Revival movements: the role of a song genre and its changes in singing revival movements.

Proposals with abstracts of 250–300 words and a short biographical note should be sent by 1 December 2022 to .

The acceptance of proposals will be informed by 15 December. Paper proposals are welcome in the three official languages of the KfV (English, French, German). We ask all the accepted presenters to provide an outline of the presentation in a PowerPoint or similar in English.

The registration fee will be 60 €. There is some information for travel and accommodation options in the conference website www.finlit.fi/balladconference. For more information, please contact .

The conference is organised by the Finnish Literature Society, folklore studies and history at the University of Helsinki and folk music at the Sibelius-Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. The home page of the International Ballad Commission (KfV) is at https://www.abdn.ac.uk/kfv/