Music and the Art of Seduction
Amsterdam, May 2005

Music and the Art of Seduction
3-day music conference
University of Amsterdam
19-22 May 2005


From 19 to 22 May 2005, the Music Department of the University of Amsterdam and the
Dutch Society for Ethnomusicology and World Music Arnold Bake will host a three-day
conference on Music and the Art of Seduction.  The meeting focuses on music, song,
and dance as tools of sexual seduction and courtship.  This covers musical courting
and seducing in a great many different cultures and genres, from oral traditions to
contemporary music and dance.

Many people respond to music very physically: they internalize the rhythms and
melodic figurations up to a point where they find themselves synchronizing, swaying,
dancing, marching, getting into trance, or indeed, experiencing sexual excitement.  
The conference in Amsterdam focuses on all the possible situations in which this
musical power to enhance social cohesion is employed specifically in the service of
sexual seduction.

The subject invites a wide range of different approaches: sociological,
musicological, biological, psychological, anthropological.  The shared point of
departure for all these perspectives is the "how" and "why" of music's power to
establish a sexual rapport between people.

Does music play a role in sexual selection?  To what extent does music guide mating
in various cultures?  Can music be viewed as a supportive factor which helps to mould
the social framework in which sexual relationships sprout and develop, also in
circumstances where sex is primarily a disruptive force, a realm of competition,
fights and quarrels?  And if so, how does music achieve this power?  What are the
specific tools that musicians and dancers employ?  To what extent is musical
seduction typically a female or male (or androgynous) affair?  Is eroticism in music
culture-specific?  Does music, like sex, go deeper than culture?

Topics and issues of this meeting might include:

Biological and evolutionary roots of musical courtship
Musical flirting in traditional oral cultures
Dancing and singing courtesans, past and present
Music, dance, and seduction in religious societies
Erotic music, popular mass culture and the videoclip
Sexual heroes in popular music
Music and youth sex culture
Music and orgies
Love songs and temple festivals
Eroticism in film music and classical music

Abstracts:

We welcome abstracts for 25-minute paper slots by students and scholars of
musicology, ethnomusicology, anthropology, popular music studies, performance
studies, cognitive sciences and other related fields. Advanced scholars and
postgraduate students who submit a proposal are requested to list two (or more)
titles of publications which they have already written on this (or a related) topic.
Panel proposals (for three or four speakers, maximum 90 minutes) are welcomed, in
which case we ask for a short description of the panel topic as well as for
individual abstracts by the panel participants. Abstracts must have reached us before
25 April, 2004.

The Programme Committee is led by Wim van der Meer (University of Amsterdam) and by
Frank Kouwenhoven (Bake Society).  You can send your abstracts, maximum 300 words per
contributor, to:

	Music and the Art of Seduction,
	Bake Society,
	c/o Department of Anthropology,
	Leiden University,
	P.O. Box 9555,
	2300 RB Leiden.
	Email: info@abake.nl
(this is also where you can direct any further enquiries about the conference).  For
regular updates on this initiative you can also consult the Bake Society
website: www.abake.nl.

For further information:
Email: info@abake.nl
Bake Society website http://www.abake.nl

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