Music and the British Empire in the Eighteenth-Century

April 9–11, 2026, Philadelphia, PA

Call for papers: American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

This session explores musical configurations of the British Empire during the long eighteenth century. Recently, musicologists have begun to adopt imperial frames to study eighteenth-century British musical cultures, an agenda which views the empire as a diverse whole. Such scholarship operates alongside but often separate from British imperial history, which has long understood how theatrical performance “helped consolidate a national andimperial culture that was being formed both within and beyond the nation’s borders” (Wilson 2022). Similarly, as Britons traversed the empire, they developed musical meanings and practices distinct from those in the metropole. Music formed empire in everyday life and at the structural level. This session invites proposals related to this imperial musical culture. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, musical expressions of British imperial identities, colonial knowledge attained through music, colonial and imperial places constituted through music, colonized people’s experiences with Western music and Britons’ experiences with indigenous music, and music, the family, and imperial domesticity.

Ultimately, this session aims to open interdisciplinary dialogues between musicologists, imperial historians, and other scholars of the British Empire.

Proposal guidelines may be found

Please use the submission portal to submit an abstract:

The deadline for submission is September 22, 2025.

Chair: Peter Kohanski (University of North Texas)

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Mercredi 3 Septembre, 2025