The Serbian Society for Music Theory (SSMT; Srpsko društvo za muzičku teoriju /SDMT/), was founded on 12 September 2019 in Belgrade. The Society emerged out of efforts of the members of the Department of Music Theory of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, in developing and improving music theory – through their scientific work – in the immediate academic surrounding, as well as in contributing to the gathering of music theorists on a wider national level.
The Department, which activities stand behind the foundation of the SSMT, is uniqe both in Serbia and in the countries of the region: its work is in all its aspects defined within the scientific field of music theory; the bachelor, master and doctoral studies in music theory contribute to this unique position of the Department in the surrounding academic context. The members of the Department intensively participate in international symposia, they regularly publish their research in international magazines and scientific monographs. Since 2003 we have organized the conference Music Theory and Analysis. The continuous development of the conference led to its internationalization in 2007, and since 2011 it has been organized biannually. The results of the conference are available to the professional public through proceedings and peer reviewed collections of papers which are regularly published by the Faculty of Music and with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. This year 48 participants (37 from abroad and 11 from Serbia) coming from 12 different countries and Serbia, working in more than 30 different scientific and research organizations took part in the conference.
We would wish to expand these activities and to improve our scientific work through our engagement in Serbian Society for Music Theory. The Administrative Committee consists of seven professors – all of them with a PhD degree – of the Department of Music Theory of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Since the SSMT has just been founded, we are at the moment committed to presenting the aims and mission of our work to professional and scientific communities, as well as to building up our membership.
In addition, one of our important goals is to collaborate with similar societies and organizations from abroad. Working together with the colleagues from all over Europe, we would like to contribute both to the affirmation of music theory as an autonomous academic discipline and research field in Serbia, and to improving the music-theoretical thought on the international level.