Fascicle 12: Musicology 2026

Theme: Composing / Creating in Exile

The Editorial Board of “Roczniki Humanistyczne”, Fascicle 12: Musicology is seeking contributions of high academic quality for the forthcoming 2026 issue: Composing / Creating in Exile.

Musicians — including composers — have been travelling abroad for centuries. Sometimes, their journeys are voluntary and short-term; other times, they are driven by necessity (political, cultural, etc.) and last for several years. In any case, every extended stay abroad, outside the borders of one's native culture, inevitably imposes modifications on the creative process, or changes in the way one interprets music. Sooner or later, choices must be made: importing one's original cultural baggage; a more or less complete break with one's past; one’s assimilation into the adopted culture; a blend of the two cultures; self-isolation in a closed world sui generis, or some other path.

Settling permanently abroad (possibly in exile) imposes numerous changes — whether psychological, artistic, commercial, etc. — and involves the implementation of strategies in one’s life (personal and/or professional) adapted to this new context. Music also carries traces of these experiences and bears witness to the changes and (sometimes radical) challenges that affect the artist far from his or her homeland. How can this be accounted for?

We particularly, but not exclusively, encourage submissions about a composer's/performer's life abroad and its artistic consequences:

- Being a foreigner
- Breaking away from one's culture of origin
- One’s assimilation into a new culture
- Being forgotten in one's own country / The feeling of statelessness
- Possible returns to one's homeland: Recognition or rejection?
- Contributions to the adopted culture
- The long history of composer-travellers / in exile
- Cultural transgressions
- "Educational" travel (in the form of a grand tour)
- Unfulfilled quests
- The questioning (or not) of the identity of the musician/composer/artist

We accept only unpublished papers of high academic quality, reserving the right to preselect articles in terms of both subject matter and editorial content. Contributions, which should follow the Chicago citation style and not exceed 30,000 characters in length (including abstract and references), should be submitted via the Open Journal System https://czasopisma.tnkul.pl/index.php/rh/about/submissions.

Preferred languages: English, German, French, Polish
Deadline for submission: 31 March 2026.
Dr Kinga Krzymowska-Szacoń (kinga.krzymowska-szacon@kul.pl) – Secretary