Without music, life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Music makes our lives undeniably better and brighter. Not only that, but “making music is a fundamental part of what it means to be human,” so it is no surprise that musicology, is a fundamental element of Humanities. SSRN has welcomed music research to our Music Research & Composition Network (MRCN) since 2011, but something was missing.

The essence of music can not be fully captured in words. When words aren’t enough, music needs sound and we think composers will be happy to learn SSRN accepts audio files.

Music repositories and digital journals are generally in text form, frequently with notated musical examples. With the possibility of audio submissions to accompany paper submissions, SSRN is providing a unique opportunity to composers, educators, and scholars to have their work represented in more than one medium. Commenting on and reviewing such materials will become a distinctive feature of SSRN’s outreach.

At the moment, MRCN eJournals are divided into eJournals for scholarly and educational work on the one hand, and creative, compositional on the other. Reviewing original compositions will become vastly more accessible through this feature, while scholars and educators can now think of writing papers with a listening reader in mind.

– Andre de Quadros, MRCN Network Director

We are excited to include text and audio side by side and for the possibilities this creates for music scholars. Now, you are off to the races … Oh! Doo-Dah! Day!

NOTE: To submit an audio file, email Music@SSRN.com. The audio file should be in AIFF, WAVE (WAV), FLAC, ALAC, OGG, MP2, MP3, AAC, AMR, or WMA format, and no larger than 5GB. Your email should include your submission’s title, authors (and affiliations), abstract/summary of the work and PDF (if applicable).