The 21st volume of the English-language journal "Musicology Today", published since 2004 by the Institute of Musicology at the University of Warsaw and the Polish Composers' Union, has been released on the Sciendo platform (De Gruyter). Twelve scholarly articles by researchers from Nigeria, Georgia, Latvia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Poland are available in open access at the following link: https://sciendo.com/issue/MUSO/21/1
The present issue of Musicology Today is dedicated to forms of musical communication whose aim is to perform various non-aesthetic (i.e. economic, political, social and / or therapeutic) functions. Most of the texts are the fruit of the International Interdisciplinary Conference "Music on the Periphery of Aesthetics. Between Politics, Business and Wellbeing" (6–7 June 2024), organised by the Institute of Musicology (Faculty of Culture and Art Studies, University of Warsaw) in partnership with the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies (University of Warsaw).
The conference programme covered three main thematic areas:
- music and politics (i.e. music and war, music in political campaigns, protest songs, and music in totalitarian regimes);
- music and business (i.e. music in sonic branding and audiomarketing, artificial intelligence and music);
- music and wellbeing (i.e. music in/as professional therapy, acoustic ecology, and wellbeing).
A major group of articles included in this issue deals with the subject of ‘music and politics’ as viewed from contemporary and historical perspectives, including the current war in Ukraine (Iryna Tukova). Papers on political problems, written by Katarzyna Naliwajek, Michal Ščepán, Mariusz Gradowski, Gvantsa Ghvinjilia, Michał Piekarski, Baiba Jaunslaviete, Charles Onomudo Aluede and Agatha Ngozi Abdullahi, are complemented by texts analysing various aspects of ‘music and wellbeing’. The authors of those latter (Joanna Surma, Sylwia Makomaska, Eka Chabashvili, Maya Virsaladze, Alexander Chokhonelidze, and Joni Asitashvili) present their topics in the context of contemporary challenges.
We hope that the present issue of "Musicology Today" will provoke further discussion on the various topics outlined in the texts and initiate in-depth international research conducted within joint interdisciplinary projects.
Sylwia Makomaska, Guest Editor
This publication has been co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.
