Doctor Sally Macarthur

Biography

Sally Macarthur is a senior lecturer in music at the University of Western Sydney. She has researched and written on topics to do with ‘new’ classical music, women’s music and music in spiritual and cross-cultural contexts. Her recent articles appear in Radical Musicology (2008), Australian Feminist Studies (in press, 2009) and Cultural Studies Review (in press, 2009). Her books include Feminist Aesthetics in Music (Greenwood Press, 2002), a co-edited volume, Intercultural Music: Creation and Interpretation (Australian Music Centre, 2006) and with Cate Poynton, Musics and Feminisms (Australian Music Centre, 1999). Macarthur is currently writing a single-authored monograph entitled Composing and Decomposing Women in Music which offers a feminist-Deleuzian critique of the practices of ‘new’ (classical) music. It argues for a new theoretical approach that seeks to de-emphasise the individual ego at the heart of musical creation. Macarthur was recognised by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Griffith Institute for Higher Education and Queensland University of Technology in 2007 for fostering an interest in research among her undergraduate students. In 2008, she was highly commended as a member of the Music Research Supervisor’s Group for Excellence in Postgraduate Research Training and Supervision in the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

critical musicology, twentieth and twenty-first century music, feminist studies, cultural studies

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Grants / Current Projects

Research Projects

Composing and Decomposing Women in Music (current)
Investigating ‘Newness’, ‘Originality’ and ‘Innovation’ in Recent ‘New’ (Art) Music and popular Music by Women Composers (current)
Listening (current)
Rethinking School Violence (2007-08, with B. Davies, K. Robinson, S. Linnell, and R. Morelos)

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Awards and Recognition

Recognition (2007) by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (University of Melbourne), Griffith Institute for Higher Education (Griffith University) and Queensland University of Technology for teaching-research nexus (TRN) in the creative arts (citation in The Teaching-Research Nexus: A guide for academics and policy-makers in higher education).

Highly commended (2008) as a member of the Music Research Supervisor’s Group for Excellence in Postgraduate Research Training and Supervision in the UWS Vice-Chancellor’s Awards

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Publications

Books
Macarthur, Sally, Composing and Decomposing Women in Music (forthcoming, 2010)
Macarthur, Sally, Crossman, Bruce and Morelos, Ronaldo (eds), Intercultural Music: Creation and Interpretation (Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 2006).
Macarthur, Sally, Feminist Aesthetics in Music (2002) Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Pp207
Macarthur, Sally and Poynton, Cate (eds), Musics and Feminisms (Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1999).
Macarthur, Sally (ed) Proceedings of the New Music Australia Conference 1992 (Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1998).

Book chapters
Macarthur, Sally (2007) ‘Women, Spirituality, Landscape: The Music of Anne Boyd, Sarah Hopkins and Moya Henderson’ in Fiona Richards (ed) The Soundscapes of Australia: Music, Place and Spirituality (Aldershot: Ashgate Press), 51-74.
Macarthur, Sally (2006) ‘The Cultural Work of the Musical Work’ in Sally Macarthur, Bruce Crossman and Ronaldo Morelos (eds), Intercultural Music: Creation and Interpretation (Sydney: Australian Music Centre), 14-26.
Macarthur, Sally and Schaffler, Rosemary (2004) ‘Visions of a New Spirituality in Australia: The Music of Anne Boyd’ in Ruth Martin and Graham Hair (eds) Loose Canons: Conference Proceedings of the Women’s Music Festival. (Amaroo, ACT: Southern Voices), 121-139.
Macarthur, Sally, ‘Performance Rites: AMEB, or not to be?’ in Macarthur, Sally and Poynton, Cate, eds. Musics and Feminisms. Sydney: Australian Music Centre, 1999.

Journal articles
Macarthur, Sally (in press, 2009), ‘Women, New Music and the Composition of Becomings’, Cultural Studies Review (accepted 28 November 2008)
Macarthur, Sally (in press, 2009), ‘A Thousand Dissonances: Music Research and the Nomadic Female Composer” Australian Feminist Studies
Macarthur, Sally (2008), ‘A Becoming-Infinite Cycle in the Music of Anne Boyd’, Radical Musicology, 3, http://www.radical-musicology.org.uk/2008.htm.
Macarthur, Sally (2007) ‘Gender and the Tertiary Music Curriculum in Australia’, Music in Australian Tertiary Institutions: Issues for the 21st Century, http://www.nactmus.org.au/NACTMUS2007/musical_culture_of_australia.html
Macarthur, Sally (2007) ‘A Musical Woman in a Man’s World: Rebecca Clarke – Review Essay’, Musicology Australia: Journal of the Musicological Society of Australia, 28
Macarthur, Sally (2006) ‘The Beautiful, Disgusting and the Sublime: An Essay Review of Gender and Aesthetics, Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education’, 5/1 http://www.siue.edu/MUSIC/ACTPAPERS/v5/Macarthur5_1.pdf 1-12.
Macarthur, Sally, ‘Lesbian Politics and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir’ in Denis Crowdy, Shane Homan and Tony Mitchell, Eds., Musical In-Between-ness: The Proceedings of the 8th IASPM Australia-New Zealand Conference (Sydney: UTS, 2002).
Macarthur, Sally, ‘Love and Passion in Alma Mahler’s Ansturm’ in Peter Platt, Comp. and Ed. Predictions and Inaccuracies: Collisions of Musical Histories Approaching the Millennium. Sydney: Sydney Chapter of the Musicological Society, 1999.

Professional Publications
Macarthur, Sally, “Raising the Platform for Women”, Music Forum 12/2 (Feb-Apr 2006): 40-43.
Macarthur, Sally and Schaffler, Rosemary, ‘Visions of a New Spirituality in Australia: The Music of Anne Boyd’, Postwest 19 (2001):45-49.
Macarthur, Sally, ‘Dissonances: Reflections on Music Research and the Academy’, Postwest 15 (1999): 49-54.
Macarthur, Sally and Knowles, Julian, ‘Arts in the Age of Economic Rationalism’, Postwest 14 (1999): 14-17.
Macarthur, Sally, ‘Is Feminism Past the Post?’, 2MBS-FM Guide Jul (1999): 8-10.
Macarthur, Sally, ‘Women’s Music: A Measure of the Beautiful?’, Sounds Australian: Women and Music: Checks and Balances 51 (1998): 4-5.
Macarthur, Sally, Guest Editor, Sounds Australian: Women and Music: Checks and Balances 51 (1998).

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