During the present academic year, a series of concerts and performances are taking place at the Autonomous University of Madrid. The repertoire of the whole series consists of piano transcriptions of well-known classical music masterpieces for orchestra. In the context of this cultural event, the coordinators have decided to launch the production of a collective volume of texts on questions concerning this kind of musical repertoire. These questions can be reduced to three main thematic categories.
The first set of questions is ontological: What is music? Is it that which is written on sheet music? Is it its real-time performance? Is it a concrete interpretation of the former? But then, what is the musical piece itself? Concerning transcriptions in particular, to which extent are they mere readings, and to which extent are they genuine creations? And if transcriptions are readings, what kind of reading do they involve?
The second set of questions is of an aesthetic nature: To which point does a musical piece preserve its identity? What are the necessary conditions for a faithful transcription? ¿Is the music piece still the version or transcription for piano? Can a transcription be understood as a version?
The third set of questions concerns the social history of music. Aren’t transcriptions useful tools, which have allowed us to understand a wide number of musical works – and to produce new music too? Why, when, and for which purpose are transcriptions made? What is the value that the academic world, as well as the wider audience, has given and currently gives to transcriptions?



We invite members of the academic community to send us their proposals for contributions to this issue, which will be structured around the following sections:
1) Philosophical foundations of music transcription: ontology of music, theory of the artwork, aesthetics.
2) Musicology: History, theory, and practice of music transcription for piano in the Nineteenth Century.

Works should follow the publication procedures of Bajo Palabra. Journal of Philosophy which are available on-line at:
http://www.bajopalabra.es/
The deadline to submit an article will be March 30th 2012. All submissions should be sent via email as an attachment (Word format .doc), indicating the subject matter as “Article to Bajo Palabra nº 8”, to the following email addresses:
revista.bajopalabra@uam.es; miguel.salmeron@uam.es; german.labrador@uam.es


Important dates:

30th June 2012: deadline for abstract submissions
11th August 2012: notification of accepted proposals
12th September 2012: deadline for submission of complete, final text versions
December 2012: publication of Bajo Palabra. Journal of Philosophy, no. 8