The New Lexicon I.
Philosophy of Music Theory [research group]
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PROGRAMME FORMAT
Stage I | Articulation and Presentation | November 2026
Stage I consists of two online seminars devoted to the presentation and critical articulation of participants’ theoretical practices, current projects, and principal research questions. Each participant or group presents work in a form appropriate to the inquiry: analytical studies, conceptual frameworks, diagrams, texts, annotated scores, recordings, software, databases, pedagogical materials, research notes, or other documentation.
The purpose of this stage is not to demand a philosophical position, but to render the assumptions of each practice visible. Participants identify the objects their work constructs, the concepts and categories on which it depends, the forms of evidence it recognises, the methods through which it proceeds, and the stakes it carries. Discussion will attend to relations between theoretical claims and analytical procedures, representations and perceptual experience, local findings and general propositions, and the internal logic of a project and the wider contexts through which it becomes intelligible.
Peer response will help participants distinguish productive questions from premature closure, clarify terms that are unstable or ambiguous, and identify lines of inquiry to advance the work. By the end of Stage I, each participant will have established a provisional account of the philosophical premises of their theoretical practice and a set of questions for development.
Stage II | Critical Inquiry and Development | February 2026
Stage II consists of two online seminars devoted to collective inquiry into the grounds, methods, scope, limits, and functions of philosophy of music theory. The seminars move between shared questions and the demands of participants’ projects. Rather than treating the field as a pre-existing discipline with fixed boundaries, the group will examine what such a field might need to become, which problems it should address, and which forms of inquiry can respond to the realities of contemporary theoretical practice.
Inquiry may encompass ontological questions concerning the identity and modes of existence of musical objects; epistemological questions concerning what theory knows, how it establishes evidence, and how its claims may be justified; aesthetic questions concerning form, experience, judgement, and value; ethical questions concerning representation, relation, and consequence; technological questions concerning computation, mediation, and agency; institutional questions concerning pedagogy, legitimation, access, and authority; and political questions concerning the conditions under which theoretical knowledge is produced, circulated, and recognised.
Participants will develop analyses, models, texts, and research projects through sustained discussion and reflection. The purpose is not to force every project into a single philosophical vocabulary or conventional academic form, but to strengthen its conceptual precision, methodological coherence, and communicability. Each participant will formulate provisional trajectories for further development, including claims to be tested, concepts to be refined, evidence to be reconsidered, and forms of presentation to be prepared before the public residency.
Stage III | Public Presentation and Exchange | June 2027
The programme culminates in research presentations, lectures, and public discussions at the seventh Bled Contemporary Music Week in Bled, Slovenia. This stage brings the work developed through the online seminars into a wider artistic and intellectual context. It also places theoretical claims beside the practices of making, performing, and listening that they seek to describe.
Participants will present the questions, methods, propositions, and outcomes of their research in forms appropriate to their practices. The emphasis is not confined to reporting completed results. Public presentation is understood as a further stage of inquiry: an opportunity to test arguments, compare modes of explanation, encounter new responses, refine language, and consider how theoretical knowledge changes when it enters a shared discursive space.
The Bled residency creates a concentrated setting for exchange among theorists, composers, researchers, performers, and audiences. It enables participants to situate their projects in relation to broader debates, develop lasting intellectual and professional relationships, and contribute to an international discourse on the concepts, methods, responsibilities, and possibilities of music theory within musical and academic cultures today.
DATES
MENTORS
PROGRAMME FORMAT
RESEARCH PREMISE
WHY THE NEW LEXICON?
CENTRAL QUESTIONS
WORKING METHOD
PARTICIPANT VALUE
WHO THE PROGRAMME ADDRESSES
TOWARDS MULTIPLE PHILOSOPHIES OF MUSIC THEORY
APPLICATION
APPLICATION FORM AND
PARTICIPATION FEES
The New Lexicon program is produced by .abeceda Institute
.abeceda [Institute for Research in Art, Critical Thought and Philosophy], a public-benefit NGO and non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing contemporary artistic practices and critical inquiry. Through its innovative programmes, .abeceda has gained international recognition as one of the leading platforms for contemporary music and artistic research in the Adriatic region and across Europe: www.abeceda.io