Barbara Titus is an Associate Professor of cultural musicology at the University of Amsterdam. She is the author of two books  Recognizing Music as an Art Form: Friedrich Th. Vischer and German music criticism, 1848-1887 (Leuven University Press, 2016), and Hearing Maskanda: Musical Epistemologies in South Africa (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).

Barbara studied musicology at Utrecht University and gained her doctorate from Oxford University in the United Kingdom (M.St. Lincoln College [2000], D.Phil. St Anne's College [2005]). After her engagement with the Hegelian philosophical impact on 19th-century German music criticism for her doctorate, she shifted her attention from German metaphysics to South African street music (maskanda) in 2007, with the explicit aim to question the polarity that these two fields of investigation still seem to represent.

Her articles have been published in journals such as Acta Musicologica, Ethnomusicology, SAMUS: South African Music Studies and the Dutch Journal of Music Theory. Barbara is a research fellow at the Institute for Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC) in Kupang, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. She is the co-editor of the journal the world of music (new series). Moreover, she is a fellow at the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL) Community as well as a member of the advisory board for the journal Music Theory and Analysis.

From 2008 to 2013, Barbara worked as an assistant professor teaching European music history post-1800 at Utrecht University. During two extensive field trips for her research into maskanda in 2008 and 2009, she was a visiting professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. In the winter semester 2013-14, she was a guest professor at the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany. In the spring of 2016, she was a researcher in residence at the University of Vienna in Austria as a Balzan Visiting Scholar.

Barbara is the curator of the Jaap Kunst Sound Collection at the University of Amsterdam. In this capacity, she is an Executive Team Member of the NWO-funded project Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound) [2024-2028], and she was the Project Leader and First Principal Investigator of the JPICH-funded project Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS) [2021-2024]. Both projects renegotiate established understandings of heritage curation.

Key publications

* 2022. Hearing Maskanda: Musical Epistemologies in South Africa. London [etc.]: Bloomsbury (Music & Sound Studies)

* yamomo, meLê & Barbara Titus 2021. “The Persistent Refrain of the Colonial Archival Logic / Colonial Entanglements and Sonic Transgressions: Sounding Out the Jaap Kunst Collection” in Rasika Ajotikar (ed.) Postcolonial Sound Archives: Challenges and Potentials [the world of music (new series) 10/1], 39–70. 

* 2019. Dwelling in musical movement: Making a home through music, ed. Barbara Titus. Special issue the world of music (new series) vol. 8/1.

* 2016. Recognizing Music as an Art Form: Friedrich Th. Vischer and German Music Criticism, 1848-1887. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

* 2013. ‘“Walking like a crab”: Analyzing maskanda music in post-apartheid South Africa.' Ethnomusicology 57/2, 286-310.

Monographs

Titus, Barbara 2022. Hearing Maskanda: Musical Epistemologies in South Africa. London [etc.]: Bloomsbury (Music & Sound Studies). 

_____ 2016. Recognizing Music as an Art Form: Friedrich Theodor Vischer and German Music Criticism, 1848-1887. Leuven: Leuven University Press. 

 

Peer reviewed journal articles

yamomo, meLê & Barbara Titus 2021. “The Persistent Refrain of the Colonial Archival Logic / Colonial Entanglements and Sonic Transgressions: Sounding Out the Jaap Kunst Collection” in Rasika Ajotikar (ed.) Postcolonial Sound Archives: Challenges and Potentials [the world of music (new series) 10/1], 39–70.

Titus, Barbara 2021. "Hearing The Given and The Made in South African Maskanda Music" in Emily Hansell Clark (ed.) Audibilities of Colonialism and Extractivism [the world of music (new series) 10/2], 79-105.

_____ 2018. ‘El pasado es un país extranjero:  La práctica cultural de imaginar la música antigua’, transl. Patricia Rubio y Sánchez. Cuadernos del Seminario de Música en la Nueva España y el México Independiente  8, 6-15.

_____ 2018. ‘The ‘attentively silent’ presence of Jaap Kunst in the Society for the History of Netherlands Music (VNM)’. Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis LXVIII, 173-184.

_____ 2015. ‘Some Implications of Being Undone by Music: A Response to Christopher Ballantine’. South African Music Studies 35, 1-8.

_____ 2013. ‘“Walking like a crab”: Analyzing maskanda music in post-apartheid South Africa. Ethnomusicology 57/2, 286-310.

_____ 2008a. ‘Global maskanda, global music historiography? Some preliminary enquiries.’ SAMUS: South African Music Studies 28, 43-54.

_____ 2008b. ‘The quest for spiritualized form: (Re)positioning Eduard Hanslick.’ Acta Musicologica 80/1, 67-97.

_____ 2001. ‘The end of the arts? “Gegenwartsbewußtsein” in German music criticism.’ Dutch Journal of Music Theory 6/2 (May), 83-88.

_____ 1999. ‘Metamorfosen van een verborgen image: Een analyse van Morton Feldmans Three Voices (1982).’ Dutch Journal of Music Theory 4/1 (February), 1-14.

_____ 1997. ‘René Descartes’ Compendium Musicae (1618).’ Dutch Journal of Music Theory 2/3 (November), 204-212.

 

Peer reviewed volumes

Titus, Barbara (ed.) 2019. Dwelling in Musical Movement: Making a Home through Music. Special issue the world of music (new series) vol. 8/1.

 

Peer reviewed book chapters

Titus, Barbara, Shishani Vranckx & Bart Fermie 2024. ‘Knowing the World through Music’ in: John Koslovksy & Michiel Schuijer (eds) Music Performance Encounters: Collaborations and Confrontations. London [etc.]: Routledge (Research in Music), 183-204.

Titus, Barbara & meLê yamomo 2024. 'Rehearsing Decolonial Curatorship of Southeast Asian Sound Archives in Europe' in: Pepijn Brandon, Emma van Bijnen, Karwan Fatah-Black, Imara Limon, Wayne Modest & Margriet Schavemaker (eds) The Future of Dutch Colonial Past: Curating Heritage, Art and Activism. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 110-123.

Titus, Barbara 2022. “Tracing Earlines in Ethnomusicology” in: Mark Delaere (ed.) Noise as Constructive Element in Music: Theoretical and Music-Analytical Perspectives. London [etc.]: Routledge (Musical Cultures of the Twentieth Century), 54-71.

_____ 2021. ‘The West in musical retrospect: The historiographical implications of South African maskanda music’ in: Reinhard Strohm (ed.) Transcultural Music History: Global Participation and Regional Diversity in the Modern Age. Berlin: VWB (Intercultural Music Studies), 99-122. 

_____ 2016. ‘“There is that cry sometimes”: Negotiations and exertions of power in South African maskanda music’ in: Charissa Granger, Friedlind Riedel, Eva-Maria Alexandra van Straaten & Gerlinde Feller (eds) Music moves: Musical dynamics of relation, knowledge and transformation. Hildesheim: Olms, 107-133.

_____ 2012a. ‘“Die Nachwirkung vorher verklungener Töne”: Eduard Hanslick und Friedrich Theodor Vischer über die Historisierung des künstlerischen Materials’ in: Detlef Altenburg & Rainer Bayreuther (eds) Musik und kulturelle Identität: Bericht über den XIII. internationalen Kongress der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung Weimar 2004, 3 Bde. Kassel: Bärenreiter.

 

Book reviews

Titus, Barbara 2020. ‘Review of “Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Aesthetics after Apartheid” by Louise Meintjes’ Ethnomusicology 64/1 (Winter), 174-178.

_____ 2016. ‘Review of “Music and Social Change in South Africa: Maskanda Past and Present” by Kathryn Olsen’ the world of music (new series) 5/1, 209-212.

_____ 2012. ‘Muziekwetenschap als ideaal en instituut’ Boekman: Tijdschrift voor kunst, cultuur en beleid 93 (Winter), 116-117.

_____ 2010. ‘Review of “Musically Sublime: Indeterminacy, Infinity, Irresolvability” by Kiene Brillenburg-Wurth.’ Dutch Journal of Music Theory 15/3, 219-225.

_____ 2004. ‘Review of "Gambling on Culture: State lotteries as a source of funding for Culture – the Arts and Heritage"’ Recources for Cultural Policy in Europe (RECAP).

 

Conference reports

Titus, Barbara 2015. 'Muzikale culturen uit lang vervlogen tijden: STIMU-Symposium' tijdschrift oudemuziek (tom) 30/4, 22-26.

Olwage, Grant & Titus, Barbara 2008. ‘African voices: The second conference of the South African Society for Research in Music, i: A post-conference conversation between Grant Olwage and Barbara Titus.’ SAMUS: South African Music Studies 28, 190-193.

Titus, Barbara 2007. ‘The South African Music Project Symposium: “Theorizing southern African music: Perspectives and conjectures”’. SAMUS: South African Music Studies 26/27, 175-176.

_____ 2007. ‘The first congress of the South African Society for Research in Music: “Musics, theories, practices: Focus on South Africa”, ii: An “outsider’s view”.’ SAMUS: South African Music Studies 26/27, 172-173.

 

Edited books

Staverman, Désirée 2012. De toneelmuziek van Alphons Diepenbrock: Concept, compositie, uitvoering, eds Barbara Titus & Ton Braas. Utrecht: Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis (Muziekhistorische Monografieën; 22).

 

Edited peer reviewed journals

Abels, Birgit [Editor] & Titus, Barbara [Co-editor]. 2014-present. the world of music (new series) 3-10 / 1 & 2.

Bergé, Pieter et al. (eds) 2014-present. Music Theory & Analysis 1-8/1 & 2 [Advisory Board Member].

Schuijer, Michiel & Titus, Barbara et al. (eds). 2006-2013. Dutch Journal of Music Theory 11-18 /1, 2 & 3. [Managing Editor and member of the Editorial Board]

 

Edited conference proceedings

Titus, Barbara (ed.) 2013. Selected Proceedings of the 14th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory ‘Nineteenth-century music theory’, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Schuijer, Michiel & Titus, Barbara et al. (eds) 2012. Selected Proceedings of the 13th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory ‘Muziektheorie en Onderwijs’, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

_____ 2011. Selected Proceedings of the 12th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

_____ 2010. Selected Proceedings of the 11th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory ‘Time, Temporality and Proportions’, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

_____ 2009. Selected Proceedings of the 10th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory ‘Music Theory and Performance’, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Moortele, Steven Vande & Titus, Barbara et al. (eds) 2008. Selected Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory ‘Improvisation: Analytical, Theoretical and Critical approaches’, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

 

Contributions to professional journals and broadcast media (selection)

Titus, Barbara 2024. 'Opini: Repatriasi Koleksi Jaap Kunst ke Nusa Tenggara Timur' Pos Kupang (21 August).

_____ 2024. 'Repatriasi Koleksi Jaap Kunst ke Nusa Tenggara Timur' LintasNTT (21 August).

Gandolahage, Rahul 2021. "Grote archieven koloniale geluiden amper toegankelijk" Interview with Barbara Titus and meLê yamomo, NRC Cultureel Supplement (25 February), C14-15.  

Hoebe, Marleen 2021. "Twee UvA’ers proberen beroemd geluidsarchief weer bijeen te brengen" nterview with Barbara Titus and meLê yamomo, Folia (7 May).

Savitri, Isma 2020. ‘Jaap Kunst yang terlupakan’ Tempo (18 January).

Titus, Barbara 2019. ‘Jaap Kunst dan Pentingnya Koleksi Musik Indonesia Miliknya’ in Melacak jejak Jaap Kunst: Suara dari Masa Lalu [Exhibition Catalogue 28 November 2019 – 10 January 2020] Jakarta: National Museum.

Titus, Barbara, Marleen Heins, Rokus de Groot, Bernard Kleikamp 2019. Obituary ‘Ernst Heins (1937–2019)’ SEM Newsletter 53/4 (Fall), 8-11.

Titus, Barbara & Honing, Henkjan 2017. Interview about cultural and coginitive musicology, Soundciety, Red Light Radio Amsterdam, 23 May.

Leeuw, Jules van der & Titus, Barbara 2015. 'Een vleugje antropologie in de oude muziek: STIMU-Symposium' tijdschrift oudemuziek (tom) 30/2, 36-41.

Hoogaerts, Guuz & Titus, Barbara, et al. 2015. 'Popdokters', VARA-Gids, 17 November.

Titus, Barbara 2015. 'Eventalk Festival Oude Muziek: Wie bezet(te) het Maagdenhuis?', NPO Radio 4 Festivaljournaal 23, 1 September.

_____ 2013. Elucidating Wolfgang Rihm’s Vigilia, AVRO Radio 4 Avondconcert, 6 February.

_____ 2013. Elucidating Wolfgang Rihm’s Vigilia, NCRV Radio 5 Schepper & Co., 27 January. 

_____ 2010. ‘Maskandi whitey: An outsider's view.’ South African Labour Bulletin 34/1, 63-65.

_____ 2009. Interview about maskanda research and participation. Ekhaya Arts Centre, Vibe FM Studio, KwaMashu Township, Durban (RSA), 19 September.

_____ 2009. ‘Een zacht geruis van gefronste wenkbrauwen' VPRO Radio 6 Tchongcast, 20 May.

_____ 2008. ‘Authentieke muziek’ Teleac Radio 5 Hoe? Zo!, 2 December.

_____ 2004. ‘Van saz tot Elvis: Het Amsterdamse Aslan muziekcentrum’ Akkoord 2004/3 (June), 10-11.

_____ 1997. ‘“Ik ben als een kind dat graag speelt”: Een interview met Wieland Kuijken’ Akkoord 1997/4 (September), 16-17.

_____ 1996. ‘“Tekst is klank is muziek”: Boudewijn Tarenskeen over muziektheater’ Mens & Melodie 51 (February), 72-75.

 

Conference papers

Titus, Barbara 2021. 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS)' Contribution to the Roundtable Archival Processes and Social and Historical Practices of Listening at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Conference Atlanta (USA) [online].

_____ 2021. 'Hearing the Given and the Made in South African Maskanda Music' Contribution to the Panel Audibilities of Colonialism and Extractivism at the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) Conference Bath Spa University (UK) [online].

_____ 2019. ‘Inscribing knowledge: Ethnomusicological recordings as texts and practices’ Written contribution to the workshop Sonic Entanglements: Sound, Archive, and Acoustic Historiographies in the Asia Pacific. University of Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2018. ‘Maskanda Epistemology: Some Implications of Articulating South African Knowledge on a Dutch Stage’ Individual paper at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Conference Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA).

_____ 2018. ‘Retrieving What and for Whom? Thoughts about Prospects, Opportunities and Impediments of Digital Sound Archiving’ Position Statement for the International Symposium Captured Sounds - Collecting, Storing, Sharing, Humboldt Forum, Humboldt Universität, Berlin (D).

_____ 2018. ‘Un/Disciplining Music: Maskanda Musicking in South Africa.’ First International Workshop Musicology without Borders, University of Bergen (N).

_____ 2018. ‘Musical Epistemologies and Musicological Disavowals: A South African Case Study’ International Conference Musicology in the Age of (Post)Globalization, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (USA).

_____ 2017. ‘Folded modes of musical knowing: Performing research in post-apartheid South Africa.’ International conference Researching Performance, Performing Research: Collaborations and Confrontations. Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2017. 'Inscribing knowledge: The hermeneutics of musical participant-observation.' International Conference Making of the Humanities VI. Somerville College, University of Oxford (UK).

_____ 2017. ‘Musical home-making and cultural domestication:  Uprootings and regroundings of South African maskanda performance.’ 13th Conference of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF): Ways of Dwelling: Crisis - Craft – Creativity. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (D).

_____ 2016. ‘Performing histories and embellishing identities: South African maskanda music on a Dutch stage’. Balzan Workshop-Conference: Places of Interaction: Histories of Music and Dance in India, Africa and South-East Asia: British Academy London (UK).

_____ 2015. ‘The past is a foreign country: The cultural practice of imagining  Early Music in the 20th century’ Keynote lecture for the  STIMU Symposium The Past is a Foreign Country, in collaboration with Early Music Festival (Festival Oude Muziek) Utrecht (NL).

_____ 2014. 'Musicologica, or, the ownership of (musical) knowledge:  A South African story’ International Conference on Cultural Musicology: Symposium in honour of Wim van der Meer, University of Amsterdam (NL).      

_____  2013. ‘Music analysis as participant observation: Maskanda discourse(s) in South Africa’, Seventh conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of Fort Hare, East London (RSA).

_____ 2013. Position statement concerning “Music, politics and the Academy”, Round table, Seventh conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of Fort Hare, East London (RSA).

_____ 2013. ‘“Come meet me half way”: Maskanda music as a Third Space of enunciation in post-apartheid South Africa.’ Expert meeting of the DFG-project group Moving Music. Meaning, Space, Musical Transformation, Musicology Department Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen (D).

_____ 2012. ‘A cry for lust or an ancestor calling? Intercultural analysis of aural experience’, International Study day Music and Science, Universiteit Utrecht (NL).

_____ 2012. ‘Music, movement, meaning: Maskanda performance in post-apartheid South Africa’, Conference of the International Musicological Society (IMS), Rome (I).

Titus, Barbara & Olsen, Kathryn 2011. ‘Double Take: A dialogue on Zulu popular music on a world music platform’, Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), Rhodes University, Grahamstown (RSA).

Titus, Barbara 2011. ‘Zulu Blues: Response to Iain Chambers “Mediterranean blues: Musics and critical melancholy”’, Postcolonial Studies Initiative (PCI), Universiteit Utrecht (NL).

_____ 2010. ‘Fieldwork on the doorstep: Shiyani's Ngcobo's Dutch Tour’, Joint conference of the International Musicological Society (IMS) and the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of Stellenbosch (RSA).

_____ 2010. ‘Towards a spatial theory of musical meaning: Maskanda performance in (post)apartheid South Africa’ Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Conference, Los Angeles (USA).

_____ 2009. ‘Representations of “Zuluness” in contemporary maskanda performance’, Third Conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban (RSA).

_____ 2009. ‘The utopia of phesheya (overseas) in maskanda performance in South Africa’ Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban (RSA).

_____ 2009. ‘Between Hanslick and maskanda: A musicological safari?’ Conference of the Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, Past, present and future of Dutch musicology, Universiteit Utrecht (NL).

_____ 2008. ‘Local identities going global: Maskanda, “Zuluness” and fantasies of Africa’ Second conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth (RSA).

_____ 2008. ‘“The bird among the arts”: Idealist aestheticians on music around 1850’, Symposium of the Nederlands Genootschap voor Esthetica (NGE), Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2007. ‘European and Zulu aesthetics in globalized maskanda music’, Conference of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE), Goldsmiths College – University of London (UK).

_____ 2007. ‘Globalized maskanda music between European musical aesthetics and Zulu musical practices’, Symposium of the South African Music Project, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, & First conference of the South African Society for Research in Music (SASRIM), University of the Free State, Bloemfontein (RSA)

_____ 2007. ‘Music and modernity: Reflections on the implications of Hegel’s ideal of “Kunstreligion”’, conference “Spiritual New Music: Between Fall and Resurrection”, Universiteit van Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2006. ‘(Dis)placing the wanderer musician: Global representations of contemporary South African maskanda music’, Herder & Music Symposium, Jesus College Oxford (UK).

_____ 2005. ‘An “aesthetic changeling”? Programme music and the authority of idealist philosophy in Germany’, Conference of the Royal Musical Association (RMA), University of Manchester (UK).

_____ 2004. ‘“Die Nachwirkung vorher verklungener Töne”: Eduard Hanslick und Friedrich Theodor Vischer über die Historisierung des künstlerischen Materials’, Internationale conferentie van de Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (GfM), ‘Musik und kulturelle Identität’, Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar (D).

_____ 2004. ‘“A truthful expression of the present”: Theodor Adorno’s dependence on 19th-century German idealist aesthetics’, Biennial Conference on 19th-century music, School of Music, Durham University (UK).

_____ 2003. ‘In the beginning is the end: Theodor Adorno’s dependence on 19th-century German idealist aesthetics’, Conference of the Royal Musical Association (RMA), School of Music, Cardiff University (UK).

_____ 2002. ‘Gegenwartsbewußtsein in German music criticism, 1848-1871: A Hegelian epistemology of change’ Conference of the International Musicological Society (IMS), K.U. Leuven (B).

_____ 2001. ‘The end of the arts? “Gegenwartsbewußtsein” in German music criticism’ Graduate Research Students’ Conference, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge (UK)

_____ 2001. ‘The end of the arts? “Gegenwartsbewußtsein” in German music criticism’, Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory, Koninklijk Conservatorium, Den Haag (NL).

 

Conference panels

Sri Margana, Widya Fitria Ningsih, meLê yamomo, Barbara Titus 2024. 'Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound).' Panel participation at the Winner Week of Indonesia-Netherlands Education and Research, Leiden University (NL).

yamomo, meLê, Barbara Titus 2022. Interview of meLê yamomo by Barbara Titus at the Symposium Archival Interactions: Performing Intersectional Counter-Archives, DAS Graduate School AHK Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2019.  ‘Sonic Entanglements: Sound, Archive, and Acoustic Historiographies in the Asia Pacific.’ Panel moderation for the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS) Conference, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (D).

Titus, Barbara, Citra Aryandari, Sri Margana, Viela Wiradz, Brian Trinanda K. Adi, Aris Setyawan 2019. ‘“Lari” Mengejar Jejak Etnomusikologi.’ Panel participation at the workshop Jejak Suara Tersembunyi:  Unpacking Jaap Kunst’s Collections on Music of Nusantara, Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta (RI).

Titus, Barbara, Kailan Rubinoff, Mimi Mitchell, Aimee Gonzalez 2018. ‘Ethnomusicologizing Early Music: Ethnographic Approaches to the Historical Performance Movement.’ Panel moderation for the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA).

Titus, Barbara, Oliver Seibt, meLê yamomo, Citra Aryandari 2018. ‘Asia as Method in Popular Music Studies.’ Performative Panel participation for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-DACH) Conference Pop – Power – Positions, Universität Bern (CH).

Titus, Barbara, Julia Kursell, Joséphine Simonnot, Reinier de Valk 2018. ‘MIARchive – Archiving Music, Digital Access, and the Ethics of Access.’ Panel participation at the International Symposium Captured Sounds - Collecting, Storing, Sharing, Humboldt Forum, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (D).

Titus, Barbara, Shishani Vranckx, Bart Fermie 2017. ‘Knowing the World through Music in Southern Africa.’ Panel organization at the international conference Researching Performance, Performing Research: Collaborations and Confrontations. Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam (NL).

Titus, Barbara & Birgit Abels 2017. ‘Dwelling in musical movement: Making a home both in and through music.’ Panel organization at the 13th Conference of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF): Ways of Dwelling: Crisis - Craft – Creativity. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (D).

 

Invited public lectures and discussions

Titus, Barbara 2024. 'Koleksi Rekaman Suara Jaap Kunst dan Pentingnya buat NTT' Institute for Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC), Kupang (RI).

_____ 2024. 'Het dekoloniseren van geluidsarchiven: Hoe en Waarom?' Rotary Club Den Haag Nieuwspoort (NL). 

_____ 2024. 'Decolonising Music Archives' Restorative Café #4 Dekolonisatie en structureel racisme: Een lastig debat. Openbare Bibliotheek Utrecht (NL).

_____ 2022. 'Suara dari masa lalu: Cerita tentang warisan NTT di Belanda' Taman Budaya Provinsi NTT, Kupang (RI).

yamomo, meLê and Barbara Titus 2021. 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives' Contribution to the panel Activism, Academic Research and Decoloniality at the conference The Future of the Dutch Colonial Past, Amsterdam Museum, Hermitage Amsterdam (NL). 

Titus, Barbara 2019. ‘“Lari” Mengejar Jejak Etnomusikologi.’ Invited contrbution to the workshop Jejak Suara Tersembunyi:  Unpacking Jaap Kunst’s Collections on Music of Nusantara, Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta (RI).

Titus, Barbara 2019. ‘Progressing the Past: A Short Cultural History of the Twentieth-Century Early Music Movement’, Position statement culminating into a round table discussion about ‘Expectations’ with Barbara Titus, (convenor), Heidi Erbrich, Zaynab Martin, Marilyn McDonald, Alida Schat, Joseph Tan, Mimi Mitchell. STIMU Symposium The Historical Violin, as part of the Early Music Festival (Festival Oude Muziek) Utrecht (NL).

Titus, Barbara 2018. ‘Jejak Suara Tersembunyi: Inventarisasi dan Perencanaan Pembukaan Koleksi Jaap Kunst’, Invited contribution to Diskusi Kelompok Terpumpun Etnomusikologi karya Jaap Kunst. With Hilmar Farid (Dirjen Kemdikbud), Citra Aryandari (ISI Yogya), Nusi Lisabilla Estudiantin (Museum Nasional), Sri Margana (UGM.) Kantor Balai Pelestarian Nilai Budaya (BPNB), Yogyakarta (RI)

Sunny Bergman et al. 2017. ‘Decolonizing World Music’ Panel discussion at the Amsterdam Roots Festival. With Sunny Bergman (moderator), Barbara Titus (University of Amsterdam), Tarim Nduma Flach (University of Color), Shishani Vranckx (Shishani & the Namibian Tales) and Bamba al Mansour (Blackstereo records), Oosterpark, Amsterdam (NL). 

Titus, Barbara 2017. ‘Pandangan dari luar’, Invited contribution to the regional film maker meeting Sarasehan Film Kepulauan. With Manuel Alberto (moderator), Citra Aryandari (Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta) and Koes Yuliadi (Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta). Institute for Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC), Kupang (RI).

_____ 2016. 'Zulu folk on a global stage: Some questions about musical authenticity' Music Talks Series. World Music Centre Grounds, Rotterdam, (NL).

_____ 2015. 'Wie bezet(te) het Maagdenhuis?' Eventalk Series Early Music Festival, Hertzzaal, TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht (NL).

_____2015. Discussion about music research for Art Music Today, Prawirotaman, Yogyakarta (RI).

 

Invited academic lectures

Titus, Barbara 2024. 'Koleksi Rekaman Suara Jaap Kunst dan Pentingnya buat NTT' Departement Pendidikan Musik, Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira, Kupang (RI).

_____ 2022. 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives' Departemen Sejarah, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta (RI).

_____ 2022. 'Sonic records as historical sources: Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives' SGN-dag Studenten Geschiedenis Nederland The Sound of History, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (NL). 

_____ 2022. 'Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives: Plans and Practices', KITLV-Jakarta Webinar Forgotten Collections: Exploring Southeast Asian Archives, KITLV Leiden, Jakarta (NL, RI).

_____ 2022. 'Sounding out the Jaap Kunst Collection', Vossius Seminar The Political Agency of Sound: Colonial and Anticolonial Sound Archives in the Shaping of the Humanities, Vossius Center for the History of the Humanities and Sciences, University of Amsterdam (NL). 

_____ 2022. 'Decolonizing Sound Archives in Times of a Pandemic', Guest lecture in the context of the SoundKnowledge Symposium Field Research and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Asian Pacific Region: Building New Knowledge through Music and Sound,  Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (D).

_____ 2021. 'Intersections of ethnography and historiography in the constitution of sound archives from Indonesia' at the Symposium Rethinking the History of Indonesian Music, University of California, Davis (USA).

_____ 2020. 'Sonic Entanglements on Tour: Visiting Colonial Sound Archives in the Early Twenty-First Century' The Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, New York (USA).

_____ 2019. ‘Sonic Entanglements on Tour: Visiting colonial sound archives in the early twenty-first century’ Colloquium Transnational Life Writing. Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (NIOD), Amsterdam (NL).

_____ 2018. ‘Jejak Suara Tersembunyi: Membuka Warisan Jaap Kunst (1891-1960)’ Brainstorming kolaborasi riset tentang sejarah dan etnomusikologi Nusantara, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Yogyakarta (RI).

_____ 2018. ‘Performing Zulu history on a Dutch stage: Maskanda music, fabulation, and the disavowals of humanities scholarship.’ Colloquium Series Music Matters: Performing Music through Culture, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL).

_____ 2016. 'Maskandaforschungen in Südafrika' Universität Wien, Musikwissenschaftliches Institut, Guest lecture in Geschichte und Methoden der Ethnomusikologie (A).

_____ 2016. 'Maskanda and globalization: Commercial and political dimensions of a world music style.' Univerzita Karlova v Praha, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Musicology (CZ).

_____ 2016. 'Recognizing music as an art form: Friedrich Theodor Vischer and German music criticism, 1848-1887' Univerzita Karlova v Praha, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Musicology (CZ).

_____ 2016. 'Discussion forum on Cultural Analysis' Univerzita Karlova v Praha, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Musicology (CZ).

_____ 2016. 'The past is a foreign country: The cultural practice of imagining  Early Music in the 20th century’ Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Seminario de Música en la Nueva España y el México Independiente (MEX – via Skype).

_____ 2015. ‘Etnomusikologi: Oleh dan untuk siapa?’ Diskusi Keilmuan, Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI), Yogyakarta (RI).

_____ 2015. ‘“The guitar speaks its language” Music and meaning in South African maskanda practice’ King’s College, University of London, Colloquium Series (UK).

_____ 2015. ‘Intellectual Autonomy as Profit and Privilege: Reflections on Democracy and the Humanities.’ University of Amsterdam, Lecture Series I am Human. Think! Perspectives for an endangered species. (NL).

_____ 2015. ‘Music and meaning in South Africa’ University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, Guest lecture for the BA Arts and Humanities programme (NL).

_____ 2014. ‘Who is the maskandi? Historiographies of South African maskanda music’ Orpheus Academy, Ghent, Instruction at PhD Workshop (B).

_____ 2014. ‘Maskanda performance in South Africa’, Amsterdam Conservatory, Minor African music (NL).

_____ 2014. ‘“The guitar speaks its language” Music and meaning in South African maskanda practice’, K.U. Leuven, Colloquium Series (B).

_____ 2014. ‘Essentialist and constructivist approaches in discourses of cultural identity’, Tilburg University, Instruction at PhD Workshop (NL).

_____ 2013. ‘Resisting cultural commodification: Maskanda music as discourse of power in post-apartheid South Africa’, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Colloquium Series (D).         

_____ 2013. ‘Islam, music and body politics in contemporary Indonesia’, Utrecht University, Guest lecture for the Music history post-1800 course (NL).

_____ 2012. ‘Wie heeft de Zoeloe blues? Zuid-Afrikaanse maskanda in mondiaal perspectief’, Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Universiteit Utrecht – Workshop for the Antropologendag Muziek over Grenzen: Etnomusicologie in een gemondialiseerde wereld (NL).

_____ 2011/12. ‘Gender roles in contemporary maskanda performance in South Africa’, Gender and Ethnicity Programme, Universiteit Utrecht – Several guest lectures (NL).

_____ 2010. ‘Multiple maps and incompatible utopia’s: Maskanda performance in (post)apartheid South Africa’ Universiteit van Amsterdam – Colloquium series musicology programme (NL).

_____ 2010. ‘Maskanda performance in South Africa’, Amsterdam Conservatory – Guest lecure in African Music Course (NL).

_____ 2009. ‘Who's playing with identities? Postcolonial consciousness in the context of maskanda performance’, Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity (CCRRI), University of KwaZulu-Natal (RSA) & School of Music, University of KwaZulu-Natal  – On the Off Beat Seminars (RSA).

_____ 2009. ‘A globalized locality: 'Zuluness' in contemporary maskanda performance’, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles – Musicology Seminar & University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – Ethnomusicology Seminar (USA).

_____ 2009. ‘Ein Zulukunstwerk oder ein europäisches Artefakt? Musikästhetische Betrachtungen über die globalisierte Rezeption südafrikanischer Maskandamusik’, Universität des Saarlandes  – Saarbrücker Kolloquium zur Musikwissenschaft (D).

_____ 2008. ‘Maskanda overseas: Some preliminary enquiries’, Stellenbosch University  – Musicology Colloquia & School of Music, University of KwaZulu-Natal  – On the Off Beat Seminars (RSA).

_____ 2008. ‘Zulu identities in globalized maskanda performance’, Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity (CCRRI), University of KwaZulu-Natal (RSA).

_____ 2008. ‘Muziekgeschiedenis als exercitie van de Geest: De idealistische erfenis van Hegel’, K.U. Leuven – Three guest lectures in the MA musicology programme (B).

_____ 2007. ‘Who needs “world music”? European musical aesthetics and Zulu musical practices in South African maskanda music’, University of Southampton  – Music Research Seminar (UK).

_____ 2007. ‘Beyond Self and Other: Tracing histories of western music in globalized maskanda performance’, Universiteit Utrecht – Utrecht Colloquia in the Musicologies (NL).

_____ 2007. ‘Diabolus in musica / De duivel in de muziek’, Universiteit Utrecht – Introductory lecture for the BA Musicology programme (NL).

_____ 2007. ‘The musical anthropology of Johann Gottfried Herder’, Roosevelt Academy, Middelburg – Guest lecture in the BA Arts and Humanities programme (NL).

_____ 2007. ‘Zwervend erfgoed: Representaties van Zuid-Afrikaanse maskandamuziek’, Universiteit van Amsterdam – Colloquium series musicology programme (NL).

_____ 2006. ‘Music as the devil: A legitimization crisis in 19th-century German music criticism’, Universiteit van Amsterdam – Collegium Musicologicum (NL).

_____ 2006. ‘Who needs classical music?’, Onderzoeksinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur, Universiteit Utrecht – Guest lecture in the Research Master programme (NL).

_____ 2005. ‘Muzikaal formalisme: scheldwoord of geuzennaam?’, University of Amsterdam – Guest lecture for the BA musicology programme (NL).

_____ 2005. ‘Faust en de psychoanalyse van de programmamuziek’, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen – Guest lecture for the programme Algemene Cultuurwetenschappen (NL).

_____ 2003. ‘An “aesthetic changeling”? Programme music in the context of Friedrich Theodor Vischer’s aesthetics’, Faculty of Music, University of Oxford – Graduate Students’ Colloquia (UK).

_____ 2001. ‘Hegel, Hanslick and the problem of a musical “aesthetics of feeling”’, Amsterdam Conservatory – Guest lecture in the Music History and Aesthetics Course (NL).

 

Academic blogposts

Titus, Barbara 2024. 'The Future of the Dutch Colonial Past' Response to Piet Emmer's review of Pepijn Brandon, Emma van Bijnen, Karwan Fatah-Black, Imara Limon, Wayne Modest & Margriet Schavemaker (eds) The Future of Dutch Colonial Past: Curating Heritage, Art and Activism. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

_____ 2023. '[Sound Bite] Jaap Kunst – Flores' on meLê yamomo's website Sonic Entanglements: Listening to Modernieties in Sound Recordings of Southeast Asia, 1890-1950. 

_____ 2021. '[Sound Bite] Jaap Kunst – Urbinasopèn (1932) - Nieuwe vragen en gedeelde wetenschap' on meLê yamomo's website Sonic Entanglements: Listening to Modernieties in Sound Recordings of Southeast Asia, 1890-1950. 

Personal details

dr. Barbara Titus

Associate Professor of Cultural Musicology / Universitair Hoofddocent (UHD), 1.0 fte, permanent position

Department of Art and Cultural Studies (K&C), Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)

University of Amsterdam (UvA)

E b.titus@uva.nl            Website: http://barbaratitus.nl/ 

• Curator of the Jaap Kunst Sound Collection, Musicology Leerstoelgroep, University of Amsterdam
• Executive Team Member, Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound), 2024-2028.
• Co-Editor of the journal world of music, new series –  (1 & 2) ISSN 0043-8774
• Research Fellow at the Institute for Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC), Kupang
• Former Project Leader and Principal Investigator, Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS), 2021-2024.
• Fellow at the African Studies Centre (ASC) Community, Leiden University.

Languages

Dutch – native speaker

English – fluent, written and spoken

German – highly proficient, written and spoken

Indonesian – proficient

French, Italian, Latin – good command

Zulu – basic communication skills

 

Education

2000–2005 D.Phil. (Doctor of Philosophy) in musicology, St Anne’s College, Oxford University

Thesis: ‘Conceptualizing music: Friedrich Theodor Vischer and Hegelian currents in German music criticism 1848–1887’ [Thesis approved without corrections]

Supervisor: Dr Bojan Bujić, Magdalen College

Examiners: Prof Reinhard Strohm, Prof Robert Pascall

1999–2000 M.St. (Master of Studies) in musicology, Lincoln College, Oxford University

Thesis: ‘The “unspecific meaning” paradox: Form and content in the musical aesthetics of Friedrich Theodor Vischer (1807–1887)’

Supervisor: Dr Bojan Bujić

1992–1997 MA (“Doctorandus”) in musicology, Utrecht University

Thesis: ‘Absolute music as an ideal: The romantic roots of post-war serialist aesthetics’  [In Dutch]

Supervisor: Dr Paul van Emmerik

1986–1992 Grammar school (“Gymnasium”). Equivalent of baccalaureate in:

Dutch, English, German, Ancient Greek languages, Music, History, Geography, Mathematics

 

Scholarships and prizes

2024 Member of a team securing a NWO Subsidy of EUR 363,000.- for the project Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound) 

2024 Member of a team securing Decolonial Futures seed grant money from the University of Amsterdam for the project Digital Restitution of the Jaap Kunst Collection 

2021 Project Leader and Principal Investigator of a team securing a JPICH Subsidy of EUR 650,000.- for the project Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS)

2020 Member of a team securing a Comenius Leadership Grant of EUR 500,000.- for a combined BA programme of the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam (AMMA)

2018 Discretionary bonus from the Department of Art & Cultural Studies (K&C) for extraordinary services to the musicology leerstoelgroep, University of Amsterdam 

2015 Balzan Musicology Visitorship 2015-16 for the research project The West in musical retrospect: South African maskanda music as historiography

2015 Amsterdams Universiteitsfonds (AUF) Subsidy for the project Klinkend Erfgoed

2013 KNAW Research Stipend for the research project Zulu Blues and Islamic Swing

2012 Aspasia Research Stipend for the research project Zulu Blues and Islamic Swing

2011 KNAW Conference Subsidy for the international conference Negotiating the West Music(ologic)ally

2008 & 2009 Fieldwork funding from the Research Institute for History and Culture, Utrecht University (OGC)

2001  Research grant, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

2000–2003 Balfour Studentship, St Anne’s College, Oxford University

2000–2003 Studentship, Faculty of Music, Oxford University

2000–2003 Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Award

1999 Erich and Rochelle Friedmann Prize, Lincoln College, Oxford University

1999 Award Genootschap Noorthey, The Hague, Netherlands

 

Employment

Academic positions

* University of Amsterdam (UvA), The Netherlands

2013 – present Associate Professor (UHD) of Cultural Musicology at the Department of Art, Religion and Cultural Studies, 1.0 fte, permanent position.

* Georg-August-Universität (GAU), Göttingen, Germany

2013 – 2014 Guest Professor in Cultural Musicology for the Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar (temporary replacement for Prof Birgit Abels) (Wintersemester)

* Utrecht University (UU), The Netherlands

2008 – 2013 Assistant Professor (UD) of Musicology at the Department of Media and Cultural Studies, 1.0 fte, permanent position.

* University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban, South Africa

2008 & 2009 Visiting Professor at the School of Music, 1.0 fte (1 July to 1 November)

* Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany [not taken up]

2008 Lecturer at the Institut für Musikwissenschaft, 1.0 fte, fixed term (1 year), followed by a Juniorprofessur with ‘Habilitation’.

* University of Amsterdam (UvA), The Netherlands

2006 – 2008 Lecturer in Musicology at the Department for Art, Religion and Culture Studies (September 2006 & 2007 to February 2007 & 2008)

* University of Oxford (Oxon), United Kingdom

2001 – 2003 Teaching assistant for the Faculty of Music, 0.2 fte

 

Research projects

2015 – present              Sounding Out Dutch Colonial Heritage: Jaap Kunst in the Dutch East Indies

In my capacity as curator of the Jaap Kunst sound archive at the University of Amsterdam, I coordinate an international team of Indonesian and Dutch musicologists, historians, anthropologists and performance studies scholars who aim to investigate, disclose and critically approach the material and intellectual legacy of ethnomusicologist Jaap Kunst (1891-1960) and his successors, kept at the University of Amsterdam (photographs, film, correspondence, manuscripts, field notes, teaching material), the Phonogrammarchiv Berlin (sound recordings) and the Museum Nasional in Jakarta (musical instruments) from the Indonesian archipelago. This initiative has culminated in the JPICH-funded research project Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives (DeCoSEAS) [2021-2024], coordinated by me and meLê yamomo as well as the NWO-funded research project Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound) [2024-2028].

Methods: archival research, online crowd sourcing, archive location visits, historic-recording location visits (Lesser Sunda Islands, Nias, Java, Bali) encompassing qualitative interviews and (auto)ethnographic documentation and reflection

Theoretical frameworks: postcolonial theory, archive studies, history of science

 

2008 – present                  Hearing Maskanda: Musical Epistemologies in South Africa

In 2022, my book about the South African music genre maskanda, often marketed as “Zulu blues”, was published with Bloomsbury Press. I address the divergent ways maskanda is heard, analyzed and conceptualized by those who participate in maskanda practice in current South Africa, after centuries of colonial imposition and decades of apartheid rule. Rather than treating maskanda solely as a performance or entertainment practice, I regard it as a mode of knowing engendering forms of (sonic and vocal) eloquence, ideas, sensibilities, historiographies, critiques, and reconfigurations of time and space in which I – a white female researcher from Europe – participated between 2008 and 2018 during almost annual fieldwork visits of one to four months.

Methods: participant observation, qualitative semi-structured interviews, autoethnography, eurogenic music  analysis, discourse analysis

Theoretical frameworks: postcolonial theory, musical epistemology, eurogenic music theory, theories of embodiment

 

2000 – 2005                  Conceptualizing Music: Hegelian Currents in German Music Criticism 1848–1887

In the mid-nineteenth century, Hegelian aestheticians insisted on art’s conceptual clarity – which put music in an awkward aesthetic position. However, they also adapted Hegel’s aesthetic system on which this insistence was based. These adaptations turned out to be decisive for the development of nineteenth-century music criticism, to such an extent that music critics used them to point out musical content that safeguarded music’s autonomy as an art form. This research unravels the network of music critics and philosophers, including not only Hegel, but also Friedrich Theodor Vischer, Franz Liszt, Franz Brendel and Eduard Hanslick, whose works shaped public opinions of music. The research has been published by Leuven University Press.

Methods: archival and literature study, eurogenic music historiography, discourse analysis

Theoretical frameworks: German-Idealist philosophy and aesthetics, music history, history of ideas, history of science

PhD Supervision

Completed PhD Thesis Supervision

Mitchell, Mimi. “The Revival of the Baroque Violin. An Oral History”, defended on 23 January 2019.

Erickson, Rebecca. “Middlebrow Musical Misogyny”, defended on 3 March 2021.

Capitain, Wouter. “Postcolonial Polyphony: Harmony and Dissonance in Edward Said’s Musical Deliberations”, defended on 8 September 2021 [cum laude].

Montoya-Alzate, Juan David. "Caribbean Palimpsests: Music and Heritage in Northern Colombia', defended on 8 July 2024.

Current PhD Thesis Supervision

Bezemer, Cas. “Inscribing Sonic Space between Body and Ether: Epistemological Modalities of Media, Embodiment and Speculation in the Art of Ryoji Ikeda”

Bostancı, Emine. “The Development of Instrumental Music in Ottoman/Turkish Maqam Music”

Gosfield, Avery. “Fare Musica Antica (Ebraica): Reinventing a Usable Past” in collaboration with docARTES.

Ishida, Noriko. “Sanskrit Metres in Old and Modern Javanese: A Study of their Musical and Literary Features”

Ritz, Lennart. "Klangspuren aus dem Pazifik: Klangepistemologien im Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv"

Trinanda Kusuma Adi, Brian. "Ki Ageng Qithmir: The Making of Eco-Cosmological Music in the World of Anthropocene"

Vilela, Rui. “On the Politics of Listening: The Anticolonial Sound Archive”

PhD Exam Committees

University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, Leiden University, University of Groningen, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban), Nelson Mandela University (Port Elizabeth), Columbia University (New York)

 

Juries and selection committees:

Research audits

2014: Member of the External Audit Committee for the accreditation of Codarts – University of the Arts Research Programme, Rotterdam.

2012: Reviewer for the National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa.

Scholarship and grant selection

2015: Member of the ASCA PhD Finishing Fellowship Committee

2012 – 2015: Member of the FWO Expert panels Cult 3 (History, Art History and Archeology) and Cult 2 (Arts, Art History and Literature), Flemish Fund for Scientific Research, Belgium

2012 – 2018: Member of the Board of the dr. Catharine van Tussenbroekfonds, selecting Dutch female scholars for grants enabling research visits abroad.

2007: Member of the jury for the Jan Pieter Heije Thesis Prize for the Royal Society for Music History in The Netherlands (KVNM)

Peer review

2015:  Member of the jury for the STIMU Young Scholars Award, Utrecht Early Music Festival Symposium

2013 – present: Member of the Advisory Board of the journal Music Theory and Analysis (MTA)

2006 – 2013: Peer reviewer for the Dutch Journal of Music Theory (DJMT)

2011:  Member of the committee selecting paper proposals for the international conference Negotiating the West Music(ologic)ally, Universiteit Utrecht.

2006 – 2008: Member of the committee selecting paper proposals for the 9th, 10th en 11th Conferences of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory (VvM)

Student admission

2009 – 2013: Member of the selection committee interviewing prospective music students for the Research Master in Musicology, Utrecht University.

2002: Member of the St Anne’s College selection committee interviewing prospective music students for the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford.

 

Organizational and administrative activities

Executive positions

2013 – 2021: Programme coordinator for the BA Musicology programme at the University of Amsterdam

2013 – 2015: Chair of the Educational Board for the BA Musicology programme at the University of Amsterdam

2013 – 2016: Delegate of the Board for Exams for the BA Musicology programme at the University of Amsterdam

2013 – 2016: Member of the Graduate School of Humanities' Board for Exams for all Humanities MA programmes at the University of Amsterdam 

2012 – 2013: Chair of the Educational Advisory Board for the BA and MA Musicology programmes at Utrecht University.

2010 – 2012: Programme coordinator for the BA and MA Musicology programmes at Utrecht University.

2006 – 2010: Treasurer of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory (VvM)

2001 – 2002: Chair of the Oxford Chamber Choir

Conference organization

2019: Co-organizer and convenor (with meLê yamomo [UvA]) of the workshop and tour Sonic Entanglements:Sound, Archive, and Acoustic Historiographies in the Asia Pacific

2018: Organizer of the ASCA Seminar Aurality: Musical Modes of Knowledge Inscription.

2015: Curator (with Jed Wentz) of the international STIMU Symposium in collaboration with the Utrecht Early Music Festival (Festival Oude Muziek) The past is a foreign country, 28-30 August 2015, TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht.

2011: Organizer (with Rachel Beckles-Willson [RHUL]) of the international conference Negotiating the West Music(ologic)ally, 11-13 April 2011, Universiteit Utrecht.

2008: Co-organizer of the ‘Music Theorist in Residence’ for the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory (VvM) – Prof Kofi Agawu, Princeton University.

2008: Co-organizer of the 10th Conference of the Dutch-Flemish Society of Music Theory (VvM), Conservatorium Maastricht/Hogeschool Zuyd.

2002 – 2003: Organizer of the Graduate Students’ Colloquia, Faculty of Music, Oxford University.

2001 – 2002: Co-organizer of the Graduate Students’ Exchange Conference University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, King’s College – University of London, Royal Holloway – University of London.

 

Musicianship

Singing (1993 – present):

The Netherlands:

* Vocaal Ensemble Venus, specialized in contemporary composed music.

New compositions (dedicated to the ensemble) from Wolfgang Rihm and Calliope Tsoupaki, among others.

* Ars Nova Trajectina (early music ensemble of the Musicology Programme), specialized in European music from 1300 to 1650

* Utrecht Dome Choir (Utrechtse Domcantorij) and Capella Occento

* Collegium Musicum Amsterdam (CMA), specialized in early music. 

Fringeconcerten in the Utrecht Early Music Festival (1997), European tour with scenic performance of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (1998), European tour with Bach’s B-minor Mass (2000).

England:

* Mensural notation singing group supervised by Prof. Margaret Bent, All Souls College Oxford

* Chapel choir of Lincoln College Oxford

Evensong in o.a. York Minster (2003), St Paul’s Cathedral (1999) & Canterbury Cathedral (2000)

* The Oxford Chamber Choir, New Chamber Opera Studio (New College Oxford), Voces Intimae Oxford

Maskanda Practice South Africa (2008-2009):

* Rehearsals and performance with Skho Miya en her group Abagqugquzeli in Durban.

* Lessons in maskanda guitar from Shiyani Ngcobo in Durban and Josefa Nkwanyana in Mandeni, Tugela.

Balinese Gamelan Practice  (2015 – present)

* Balinese Semar Bandhana group consisting of musicology students and lecturers of the University of Amsterdam playing on a semar pagulingan instrumentarium, led by Anak Agung Bagus Gede Krishna

Oboe (1987 – 1998):

* Ars Floreat Amsterdam – Consisting of members of national radio orchestra’s

* Consort De Kleine Johannes – Baroque orchestra of Universiteit Utrecht

Taught courses  (B = Bachelor, M = Master)

Oxford University (Oxon), Utrecht University (UU), University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (GAU), University of Amsterdam (UvA)

 

Musics of the world

World music and globalisation (UvA) B

A musical journey around the world: A methodological introduction into the musicologies (UU) B

Music and Identity (UKZN, UU, GAU) B

Indonesian music and culture (UvA) B

South African music and culture (UvA) B

‘Ida y vuelta’: Travelling music (UU) Research M

Non-western concepts in western music after 1945 (UvA) M

Knowing the World through Music (UvA) M

 

Music(ologic)al disciplines

Sound as a Method for Decolonial Research (UvA) M

Cultural Musicology (UvA) M

Theorizing music in society (UKZN) M

Musical epistemologies (UvA) M

Information technology in musicology (UU) B

Core problems in current musicology (UU) B

Sound and rhythm in language and music (UU) B [in collaboration with Linguistics Department]

Canon of research in the arts (UvA) Research M

Research strategies (UvA) B

 

History of western music

History of western music 800-1800 (UU) B, 1600-1900 (UU) B, and 1890-1950 (UvA) B

‘Undanceable dances’: Case studies in music history 1100-2000 (UU) B

‘Madrigalisms’: The sixteenth-century madrigal (UU) B

The early German lied (Oxon) B

Nineteenth-century opera (Oxon) B

Transformations in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music (UvA) M

 

PhD Supervision

Completed PhD Thesis Supervision

Mitchell, Mimi. “The Revival of the Baroque Violin. An Oral History”, defended on 23 January 2019 at UvA.

Erickson, Rebecca. “Middlebrow Musical Misogyny”, defended on 3 March 2021 at UvA.

Capitain, Wouter. “Postcolonial Polyphony: Harmony and Dissonance in Edward Said’s Musical Deliberations”, defended on 8 September 2021 [cum laude] at UvA.

Montoya-Alzate, Juan David. "Caribbean Palimpsests: Music and Heritage in Northern Colombia', defended on 8 July 2024 at UvA.

Current PhD Thesis Supervision

Bezemer, Cas. “Inscribing Sonic Space between Body and Ether: Epistemological Modalities of Media, Embodiment and Speculation in the Art of Ryoji Ikeda”

Bostancı, Emine. “The Development of Instrumental Music in Ottoman/Turkish Maqam Music”

Gosfield, Avery. “Fare Musica Antica (Ebraica): Reinventing a Usable Past” in collaboration with docARTES.

Ishida, Noriko. “Sanskrit Metres in Old and Modern Javanese: A Study of their Musical and Literary Features”

Ritz, Lennart. "Klangspuren aus dem Pazifik: Klangepistemologien im Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv"

Trinanda Kusuma Adi, Brian. "Ki Ageng Qithmir: The Making of Eco-Cosmological Music in the World of Anthropocene"

Vilela, Rui. “On the Politics of Listening: The Anticolonial Sound Archive”

PhD Exam Committees

University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, Leiden University, University of Groningen, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban), Nelson Mandela University (Port Elizabeth), Columbia University (New York)

Instructive contributions to PhD Workshops at the Orpheus Academy, Ghent (B) and Tilburg University (NL)

Supervision of bachelor and master theses and tutorial work, Utrecht University and University of Amsterdam

Incidental (guest) lectures at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Yogyakarta; Indonesian University of the Arts (ISI), Yogyakarta [RI]; Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira (Unwira), Kupang [RI]; University of Stellenbosch [RSA]; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) [USA]; University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles [USA]; National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City [MEX - via Skype]; University of Vienna [A]; Charles University, Prague [CZ]; University of Saarland, Saarbrücken [D]; King's College London (KCL) [UK]; University of Southampton [UK]; KU Leuven [B]; Orpheus Academy, Ghent [B]; Tilburg University [NL], University College Roosevelt, Middelburg [NL]; Groningen University [NL]; Conservatory of Amsterdam (CvA) [NL]