Leonardo Music Journal 28: Introduction

Abstract

LMJ in 1997, he articulated several goals for the journal. One was to have a theme for each issue—a difficult challenge but one that he maintained consistently throughout his long tenure. The cutting-edge themes he designed created connections between existing research initiatives and also encouraged new efforts and voices. He also encouraged new voices by bringing greater diversity and inclusivity to LMJ. He encouraged submissions from underrepresented regions, most dramatically with “Southern Cones: Music out of Africa and South America” [1]. He supported the research of younger scholars with “<40: Emerging Voices” [2] and strove for gender balance in the journal and on the editorial board. In addition, he actively included nonacademics to write, curate and contribute recordings. This demand for diversity of voices supported his aim for diversity of ideas, and he brought a wide variety of works inspired by and dependent upon interdisciplinarity to an expanded LMJ community. One could say that the blurring of lines between sound, art and music that we take for granted in the field today is partly due to Nic’s editorial foresight. While I only worked with Nic for a short time, starting on the LMJ editorial board in 2012, I was deeply impressed by his creativity as an editor but also by his modesty— which saw him often call his interests “fringe”—and by his generosity to researchers and respect for history and rigor. While this issue is without a theme, it nevertheless moves forward many of the themes explored by LMJ over the years.