JMM 1, Fall 2003, section 1

EDITORIAL

It is with great pleasure that we bid you welcome to the premier issue of JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning, which made its official Internet debut on December 23, 2003.

The following introductory passage has been posted on our homepage www.musicandmeaning.net since August 2003, when we began to publicize the launching of this new Internet journal:

The Journal of Music and Meaning is an on-line peer-reviewed journal for multidisciplinary research on music and meaning. The editorial profile of JMM accommodates an inclusive plurality of methods and disciplines and welcomes contributions from a variety of fields, such as: philosophy, mathematics, physics, musicology, medicine, acoustics, neurology, theology, literary studies, philosophy of science, music pedagogy, computer science, semiotics, sociology, linguistics, religious studies, anthropology, psychology, biology, education studies, music therapy, culture studies, etc. JMM aims to bridge the gap between various studies in meaning and signification and areas of research in music. JMM especially encourages any multidisciplinary research on meaning that is able to challenge conceptions of music, or research that explores the notion of meaning by the study of musical phenomena.

There are a few remarks which we would like to add, now that the first issue is a reality. In this first issue we have striven to demonstrate

1. the range of topics embraced by JMM;
2. some of the various ways in which an author may appear in JMM – as a double-blind peer-reviewed contributor (see Marc Leman's article "Foundations of Music as Content-Processing Science"), as an invited contributor (see Jerrold Levinson's "Musical Thinking"), as a book reviewer (see Paulo C. Chagas' review of Eero Tarasti's Signs of Music: A Guide to Musical Semiotics), or as a researcher interested in presenting work-in-progress in the form of a research report as is the case with Felipe Otondo's contribution "Using Convolution to Blend Brass Timbres";
3. the way in which the Internet's potential for multimedia presentation formats can enhance presentations of research work within music-and-meaning studies, which otherwise are doomed to the silence of the printed page, without losing the rigor associated with research and scholarship traditionally published within print media;
4. the wide range of functionalities which JMM has developed (and will continue to develop) for use by contributors and readers.

With regard to 2) in the above, as the reader can see, the category to which a contribution belongs is clearly indicated in the journal. To enlarge upon remark 3), we would like to point out that, although none of the contributions to the current issue included video segments, this functionality has been provided for as well. Lastly, with respect to remark 4), many titles, subtitles and otherwise marked portions of text are "live". Instead of a long list of explanations of functionalities, we prefer to extend the invitation: Let curiosity guide your use of the mouse! Quite a few instructions and tips appear under the button entitled "Reader's guide" to help you to get acquainted with JMM. We would encourage all readers to take a look at this guide at some point in their explorations, so as not to inadvertently overlook any of the journal's features. Last, but not least, we call to your attention the presence of discussion fora in connection with the various departments within the journal. We hope that these fora will be widely utilized and encourage our readership to do so.

JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning is an outgrowth of NTSMB: Netværk for Tværvidenskabelige Studier af Musik og Betydning/Network for Cross-Disciplinary Studies of Music and Meaning. NTSMB was officially founded September 1, 2001 on a two-year grant from the Danish Research Council for the Humanities (SHF), and became an independent association when by-laws were voted upon and accepted at a general assembly during the NTSMB-conference Music and Intermediality November 14, 2003, held at the University of Southern Denmark at Odense. Those interested in the activities of NTSMB since its inception are welcome to visit the website at www.humaniora.sdu.dk/~ntsmb, where, along with other information, conference programs are available.

The editorial staff would like to take this opportunity to thank the Danish Research Council for the Humanities (SHF) for providing the financial support for the establishment of NTSMB and — as part of this support — for enabling the founding of JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning.

The editorial staff wishes also to thank the associate editors, who on many occasions have provided us with their expertise in the widespread field of music-and-meaning-studies.

We hope that this first issue will attract a large group of international readers and contributors. Please be aware that the deadline for submitting material for peer review to the next issue of JMM: Journal of Music and Meaning is April 6, 2004. The deadline for submitting book reviews is April 20, 2004. The deadline for researchers who wish to submit research reports concerning work-in-progress is April 20, 2004.

We look forward to hearing from you.

With best regards,

Cynthia M. Grund, Editor-in-Chief
Kasper Eskelund, Managing Editor
Mikael Aktor, Webmaster