Michael Beckerman, a world-renowned musicologist specializing in Czech and Eastern European music, came to Prague as the keynote speaker at Sounding Czech, a conference on aural history organized by NYU Prague and The Center for European and Mediterranean Studies. The graduate conference addressed the role of sound and aurality in the histories of Bohemia and Moravia, bridging such diverse fields as musicology, history, literary and film studies, and oral history. It explored how the aural can contribute to historical knowledge.
Professor Beckerman is a leading expert on Czech composers; he has written books on Dvorak, Janacek and Martinu, and he is currently studying the music of Gideon Klein, a composer who wrote music in Terezin and died in a concentration camp. Last year he received an honorary doctorate from Palacky University in the Czech Republic, and he is also a recipient of the Janacek Medal from the Czech Ministry of Culture.
The goal of the conference was to investigate the relationship between sound and history, inviting academics to discuss such topics as the political uses of sound or music in a Czech context, the historical investigation of sites and moments in which sound or music has played an important role, the role of voice and voicelessness in Czech culture and history, Czech modes of sound transmission and audio technology, and language as a form of sound. It was organized by graduate students in history and musicology from NYU and University College London.