ABSTRACT. In times of continuously changing descriptions of places, localness, and originalities of performing arts and some essential patterns, one may ask for guiding structures and methods. I did extensive research among the Bidayuh people of the area in Padawan, Borneo, and had the great pleasure to instruct many students doing research which may make people dance who don’t want. While classical fieldwork may include all information, relevant outcomes may often appear non-historical regarding changing facts and demographic movements. We have to fundamentally ask for the following assumptions to be re-examined: • What is a place (where is its end or beginning? How can places be co-used/ What changed places and their essential features?) • What means local to a place among people of a) one group in its essential features or b) in a shifting way of group definitions among different people? (which features might be different and which ways were known before the ‘shifting’?) • What can be seen as an original fact from this viewpoint? (Is being local or familiarity with a place a specific quality/ Which role play demographic movements in this context?) • How can dance movements trigger knowledge that answers all these questions for oneself? My short and remotely prepared paper will consider these problems through an intense study of current literature and through similar questions in neighbouring disciplines such as philosophy and history collected in various ways. These disciplines also shape the main theoretical approaches to the topic that takes up the replacement of people of the upper Bengoh-Area in Sarawak on Borneo as an example. One outcome can be the better understanding of decision-making among performing artists and a better understanding of shifting group definitions among different people. Both outcomes may contribute to enrich the knowledge societies in which we have duties as observers and scientists.

ABSTRACT. The Yi language, which is believed to date back over 6,000 years, is one of very few of the ethnic languages found in China that is preserved both in oral and written forms. In 1957, the Chinese state sent intellectuals to Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture to collect and record the Yi meige. Meige is the general name for the Yi’s musical tradition, embracing folk songs, dances, and oral literature, all of which may be sung to the associated meige tune family. The collectors listened to meige singing, and then used the assistance of local translators to understand the meaning of the lyrics, which they wrote down in Chinese characters. Chinese versions of meige texts became the primary academic reference in this subject for the next 60 years, until two new versions of English translation came out in 2018 and 2022.

Based on my practical engagement with meige musicians and Yi linguists in Chuxiong in the last seven years, my proposal would explore three aspects of translation in the field of ethnomusicology. First, how do meige musicians and scholars, as local knowledge holders, feel, express, and negotiate their sensitivities towards colonial praxis/practice when they perform and explain their musical tradition to researchers whose first language is much more widely used in the nation or globally. Second, when Yi consultants identify issues in their reading of published meige texts, how can we explore whether this results from a mistranslation or from an alternative version of the song or oral narrative that reflects diverse or multiple layers of Yi knowledge and wisdom. Third, I would like to use the insights of the first two steps to consider from a decolonial perspective my practical methods and ethical considerations when translating meige lullabies into singable English while retaining the original meaning of these traditional songs.

ABSTRACT. "The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring" is an erhu solo piece composed by Hua Yanjun (1893-1950), a blind artist from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. In 1950, Chinese music historian and music theorist Yang Yinliu traveled from Beijing to Wuxi to record the piece. In 1978, Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa visited China and highly praised it after listening to erhu player Jiang Jianhua's performance. Since then, the artistic value of "The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring" has been recognized by Chinese people and has become a symbol of Chinese music. After 1980, the piece was adapted into dozens of versions for pipa, guzheng, piano, and harp solo, huqin quartet, Chinese traditional orchestra, and so forth. Significant changes have occurred to the original bass erhu solo version as well.

By comparing the various adaptations of "The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring" in different periods with the results of academic research at that time, I proved that the deformation of the piece was affected by the academic research on the piece. After 1978, the Chinese academic community's interest in "The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring" has been unprecedentedly high. More than 40 scholars have published articles in academic journals on its musical structure, articulation, temperament, and aesthetic significance and there are many disputes in the academic circles about the origin of its title and cultural connotation. However, there has been confusion and misinterpretation of historical facts during the debate. These confusing views have caused great trouble to Chinese musicians since the late 1980s, and have resulted in the phenomenon of "periodization" of version, speed, and articulation of the piece. By examining the changes in this piece, I explore the interactive relationship between musical performance and academics, as well as the modernization and Westernization of traditional Chinese instrumental music.

ABSTRACT. The past decade has seen a growing number of shakuhachi players, teachers, and instrument makers in China. Underlying the newly emerging popularity is a shared narrative among Chinese practitioners: Originating in the Tang dynasty, the shakuhachi – once lost in China – has returned to its birthplace and is regaining its recognition as a traditional Chinese instrument. On the whole, Chinese players tend to emphasize technical mastery, lineage and teacher-student relationship, and adherence to authoritative versions of pieces—in contrast to the more individualistic and spiritual approaches often seen in North America (Keister, 2004). Unlike Japanese practitioners, Chinese counterparts tend to be young, fond of a variety of music including popular and modern music, and less concerned with learning from multiple teachers. As interactions have multiplied between Chinese and international shakuhachi communities through exchanges, performances and workshops, novel understandings as well as misunderstandings have inevitably emerged. By exploring contemporary narratives, performances, pedagogical practices and perspectives within the Chinese shakuhachi scene, this research aims to develop a nuanced understanding of the instrument’s unique cultural localization and adaptation process in China from philosophical, historical, and commercial perspectives. The arguments presented in this paper are grounded in evidence and data collected through substantial fieldwork and interviews conducted in China, Hong Kong and Japan. We conducted interviews with over thirty Chinese shakuhachi players from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Additionally, we interviewed more than ten Japanese players and teachers. Chinese students studying shakuhachi in Japan were also included among our interview participants. Ultimately, by situating the shakuhachi’s recent proliferation in China within its dynamic social contexts, this study sheds light on the fluid and hybrid nature of musical exchange in East Asia and beyond.

ABSTRACT. Chihuocaoyan is a traditional musical community activity for social interaction and entertainment popular among Nisu people in Shiping, a county in Yunnan Province, China. Young people participate in this activity, singing songs for emotional communication, and eventually establishing romantic relationships. In 2017, This study found that this musical activity was also inherited in a small mountain village Dishi in the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan Province. Based on Dishi people’s collective memories, their ancestors migrated from Shiping to Dishi to avoid the strict military in Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). However, no academic research currently focus on the difference and interrelation between Dishi and Shiping. This study shows that Chihuocaoyan in these two places is quite different in lyrics, singing, melodic forms and musical structure nowadays. The Chihuocaoyan in Dishi remains some ancient elements, such as the lyrics are sung in Yi dialect, music structure and style is relatively simple. While the lyrics of Chihuocaoyan in Shiping are mainly in Mandarin, which has been deeply influenced by Han culture. Meanwhile, there are strict requirements for the number of words, sentence patterns, rhymes, and musical structure. Therefore, the Chihuocaoyan exists in Dishi should be the early form when ancestors of Nisu people moved out of Shiping. Marginal survival is a phenomenon in cultural transmission. It refers to the old forms of cultural complexes or cultural elements that remain at the borders of the transmission area and retain the initial form of the original place where they were spread out. As time flies, traditional music in Shiping has quietly changed, while in Dishi, a very small mountain village with over 3000 Nisu people, has been handed down. Therefore, people may migrate and relocate to a new homeland, but traditional music culture as a source of nostalgia will be passed down from generation to generation.

ABSTRACT. Okinawa, known as bridge of ten thousand nations, is constantly becoming new ‘place’ in changing “spatial moment” (Schendel 2015), music also has flowed and generated new forms and metaphors in ever-changing subjects, situations and spatiotemporal contexts. In the air of nationalism in 1990s, a new festival “Sanshin’s Day” centered around a musical instrument full of historical significance emerged, connecting homeland with world Uchinanchu (Okinawan) diaspora communities via onsite performance in Yomitan village and online performances of from global stages. I noticed during my fieldwork that the histories of utasanshin didn’t cast real ‘shadows’ on this festival. Apart from one symbolic Ryukyuan Classic Music tune, very few ancient folksongs and zero pop songs composed after 1990s were performed. Instead, many neo-folksongs composed between 1930s and 1960s were selected intentionally, and were performed in a style full of tiny vibration and falsetto. What message was delivered via this festivalised musical phoenomenon? Which layer of history was highlighted and called back? This paper, based on ethnography informed singing analysis, argues that festival-makers have no intention of performing “restorative nostalgia” (Boym 2001) via folksongs from Ryukyu Era (1372-1879) to construct a proudness of ancient history for Okinawan today. On the contrary, it highlights neo-folksongs from specific layer of history aiming to connect world Uchinanchu migrated after WWII and to trigger collective memory both onsite and online. On the stage of festival, a “site of memory” (Nora 1997), history is re-produced and becomes knowledge that constantly interacts with reality. Besides, I borrow a notion of “Callus Heart” (Wang 2022) to refer metaphorically their unawareness or avoid of identities conflict hidden in this history. Festival-maker and performer, “as historian”（Rancier 2014), consult sound archives, choose memory, and sing in specific nostalgic way, generating historical power for current peace vision.

ABSTRACT. In China, a long-established type of edge-blown aerophone with open ends known as the "Yunkong Di" (even-hole flute) exists. Crafted from bamboo with six nearly evenly distributed finger holes, these flutes possess an indistinct pitch system enabling players to play seven "diao" (tune system) with a single flute. Historically prevalent in diverse music genres, the Yunkong Di has been largely abandoned since the mid-20th century for not matching modern standards, now remaining in select folk music genres, such as Taoism music. Since 2022, my fieldwork has focused on the bamboo flute's evolution within Yangtze Plain folk music. This research aims to investigate the disparities in production and performance between the Yunkong Di and the contemporary flute, alongside the reasons for its obsolescence among modern musicians and persistence in specific music genres. Drawing on the analogy by Seremetakis and Stoller (1994:119), who describe the marginalization of outdated sensory experiences in modernization as "dust", I reflect on the Yunkong Di’s position as a relic of historical material culture, akin to a forgotten speck of dust. Using sensory memory as an analysis tool, I engage with artifacts and sounds to evoke a multisensory experience among my collaborators. I also learned to play and produce the flute as an apprentice and sought to understand and document the sensory practices and experiences associated with the Yunkong Di. This study reveals that the supporters of the Yunkong Di prefer the unique "flavour" and handiness of changing "diao" over the standardized contemporary bamboo flute. In contrast, contemporary flute players value standardized pitches and uniform expression to align with the composer's intentions and orchestral requirements. Collecting the dust of history enables us to observe a shift in the perception of traditional Chinese music from the parallelism of multiple senses to a singular pitch-centred form.

ABSTRACT. This paper is born out of my ongoing doctoral research project which is looking at maternal memories as remembered, performed, and transmitted across different cultures through sound and movement in the context of mass migration and displacement. In the geographical context of South Asia, a mothers’ memory is most often a migrant memory. Patrilocality is a relationship that is imagined for the woman by the father where she is born, and the conjugal family she is married into. Her home and idea of home is always in the making and hence remains a male designed space. The bond of marriage creates a physical displacement from a space that she felt like home, to a new space that she has to make a home out of and hence starts a journey of longing and nostalgia (Boym S., 2001). How do women remember and document their memories? For this paper the focus is on the immaterial remains of memory of our mothers and grandmothers like songs, dances, lullabies, and poetry recitations. The paper argues that mothers/grandmothers claim agency of their memories and their selves, through evoking these sounds in spite of the invisibility and generational loss of these memories. What is the role of music and dance traditions that emanate from our mothers and grandmothers? Can the sounds of memory and nostalgia of the maternal be seen as strategies of resistance? Tracing a personal history of migration of my grandmother from Bangladesh to India during the 1947 partition, the paper will describe and analyse personal family archives, aural documentation of lived experiences, interviews, and observations under the larger theoretical framework of choreomusicology (Stepputat and Seye, 2020), cultural studies, memory studies (Rhee 2020) as well as visual anthropology (Taylor 2003; Schneider 2011; Behar 1996). Thus, the paper also informs about the transformative possibilities and implications of working with diverse knowledge holders like our mothers and grandmothers, their knowledge systems, and ways of knowing.

ABSTRACT. As we enter the age where media is becoming an essential condition of technological beings, it becomes necessary to examine its subconscious and sensory effects on the human body. The presence of media has myriad effects on the human body and existence that surpass the bounds of representation and explicit cognition. The new articulation of the relationship between the human and technology leads to the radical repositioning of affect and sensation in imagining the political. The shift from understanding body as an original priori physical being to post-human technological bodies is based on affective resonance of technology on the human sensorium. This turn to affect configures a new discursive body is what Patricia T Clough calls the ‘bio mediated body’. The biomediated body exposes how digital technologies alter and expand subject matter of information itself into life producing a post biological body which is at the threshold of empirical and virtual. This performing body is at the receiving end of power hierarchies of the physical world and the informational control of the virtual. The existence of this body presupposes conditions of technology and generates knowledge and simulation accordingly. This new organization of body shifts the factors governing it from biological to extra-biological, archives its memory and provides a new landscape of experiencing thoughts, affect and sensations. This embodied form mediates the sensorium and exercises rationale including political thought. While digital activism employs activism on ground and through the virtual, it is still subjected to the diverse ecosphere of the virtual world and cannot rescue the biomediated body to return to senses. The most it can do is work towards a politicized media. However, this gesture of recording and transmitting news in student movements generated new possibilities for solidarity across time and space as well as opened up a new domain for theatricality. With growing technology when it has become impossible to separate and authenticate the real from the fake news- only the study of affect and the awareness of impact of new media on our embodied senses can we strive towards generate progressive political affective impact. With these concepts in mind, my paper focuses on configuration of this biomediated body and its affective impact in the context of resistance performances. My case studies are resistance performances of artists and activists from various feminist and student resistance movements of India for which virtual sites and new media are the most significant sites of resistance.

ABSTRACT. Focusing on the artistic practices of Minneapolis-based Ragamala Dance Company, this paper examines the complexities of making Indian dance in the North American concert dance world. Founded in 1992 and known for its multidisciplinary theatrical works rooted in the South Indian dance style of Bharatanatyam, Ragamala is the vision of mother-daughter Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy. By perceiving the inheritance of tradition as less a choice of continuity or change than the continuity of change within each practitioner, the Ramaswamys have actively promoted Bharatanatyam’s contemporary relevance and its versatility as a complex dance language. This core creative vision was first formalized by Ranee during Ragamala’s initial years of establishment and continues to be advocated by her daughters Aparna and Ashwini today. Drawing from the company’s extensive archival materials and a year-long ethnographic research on the artists’ in-studio practices and the social interactions they had with other professionals from the performing arts industry, in this paper I analyze Ragamala’s two representative works, Sacred Earth (2011) and Fires of Varanasi (2021), to explore how Ragamala artists have cultivated their creative agency––the will and the ability to problematize stereotypes, to chart a different route to carry on their inherited tradition in diasporic context, and to solve various problems in the collaborative process––through which a culturally-rooted art form has been not only infused into the American dance scene, but also made to speak to and be appreciated by contemporary audiences by affinity. The Ramaswamys’ audacious and creative practices present us with critical insights into understanding dance/art making in an increasingly pluralistic world––not necessarily representing a culture or a community, but turning toward questions about how it survives and thrives as an essentially creative practice, constant research and learning, and a very personal journey.

ABSTRACT. The bollo music-dance genre is considered the prerogative of the Krumen populations in Ivory Coast. Coming from a long and complex transatlantic history linked to the creation of Liberia at the beginning of the 19th century, the bollo is mainly practiced in the south-west of Ivory Coast. The modern popular form, mainly known under the name of "bollo super", which developed from the 1970s onwards, has been the subject of various appropriations by great Ivorian artists, such as Meiway for instance. Recently, several artists from different generations, and who are not necessarily Krumen, have produced music videos featuring the bollo genre. While the technical means of producing music videos today increase the possibilities of audiovisual mediations, we nevertheless notice a visual continuity between the clips of the 1990s and those produced in the digital era. Furthermore, other artists choose instead to use video formats made available by smartphones and certain editing applications to launch their tunes on social networks. By comparing the aesthetic choices of these recent audiovisual productions, from the most artisanal to the most professional, (notably in terms of image format, framing, editing, etc.), this paper interrogates the potential “videochoreomorphosis” of the practice conveyed by such videos. By observing how the video medium gives substance to the imaginations and representations linked to the bolo dance, it questions the capacity of digital tools to transform, move away from or on the contrary perpetuate certain lasting images.

ABSTRACT. The title of the proposal reverses the meaning of the Latin phrase ‘verba volant, scripta manent’ emphasizing instead the importance of the persistence of oral tradition. In fact, my research is dedicated to the tradition of Holy Week of the Evangelists and Pregoneros of Doña Mencía (province of Cordova), which represents a unicum within the Iberian paraliturgical rituals, a legacy of medieval sacred representations. The peculiarity of the rite in Doña Mencía lies in the performance of pregones and sacred texts loudly, while four performers, portraying the four Evangelists, mimic the writing of what is proclaimed aloud. These characters are also present at the ceremony of Christ’s deposition from the cross on Good Friday, a ritual that is now almost disappearing and survives in very few countries around the Mediterranean basin. The tradition was at risk of being lost; therefore, it has been recently recovered by some scholars and enthusiasts of the town, relying on the only living witness, an elderly man who fortunately had an extraordinary memory and recorded the melody and texts. Today, the acts of the ritual are carried out by the Cofradía de Evangelistas y Pregoneros de Doña Mencía (Córdoba). My proposal delves into the history of this extraordinary tradition, as well as the explicit and implicit dynamics and motivations, which do not necessarily appear connected to devotion and religion, as emerged during my field research and interviews with the performers during the Holy Weeks of 2022 and 2023. The research also focuses on the importance of gesture and on relationship between oral tradition and writing and their role within the tradition of this ritual.

ABSTRACT. Brazilian traditional music is deeply rooted in authentic contexts such as religious communities, community venues, and festive events, where percussive sounds play a central role, either produced through musical instruments or body sounds combined with movements. Within these settings, the use of the body as a tool for musical learning is evident, as observed in studies on various Brazilian traditional music expressions. Drawing from a literature review on ethnomusicology, this article examines the process of musical transmission within the context of three traditional Brazilian musical expressions: samba, maracatu, and congado, which are characterized by collective percussion practices often performed in parades. Through an ethnomusicological lens, similarities in the methods of musical transmission across these three Brazilian traditional musical expressions are identified. These include observation, gesture and auditory imitation, corporality, onomatopoeias, and technological resources. This literature review sheds light on the musical transmission of Brazilian traditional music practice in its original context and highlights the significance of embodied practices in musical transmission within traditional cultural contexts.

ABSTRACT. A community dance project established in 2021 in the Costa Rican rural location of Los Santos involves fifteen women in the practice of improvisational dance and expressive techniques. Moreover, the creative process approaches life stories as sensitive material held in the bodies and explores the building of body-based narratives related to the territory. The practice of dance created new bonds among women, and creative movement allowed for the expansion of expressive possibilities. These actions are recognized by the women as the main results of the process, bringing new perspectives on themselves, other women, and the patriarchal dynamics present in this society. The article analyses the social and artistic process titled “From Within” from Suely Rolnik’s concept of micropolitics, concerned with gender issues within the community. Taking micropolitics as a keystone, the project is viewed as a subjectification device that promotes liberation through experimentation and opens new possibilities for women’s life choices. The analysis contributes to the concept of dance activism as a practice that operates on a micropolitical level through embodied micro actions that open channels for social change in everyday life.

ABSTRACT. Historically, men have taken the leading place in Latin American music, representing various traits of what is considered masculine and hegemonic. This process has silenced other voices not regarded as masculine or "masculine enough" in popular music. Some pieces in salsa show some problems with a masculine role model due to not complying with the requirements of the dictatorial figure of hegemonic masculinity. This research explores some implications of masculinity in the song "El cantante" by Héctor Lavoe. I'm trying to find an exploratory answer to the main question: How is masculinity performed in "El cantante"? The proposed analysis of this song results from applying a semiotic approach and ways of active listening and listening based on deconstructive praxis. The masculine normativity for Lavoe represented in the diegesis is related to hegemonic masculinity and the gender notion of being a man, not just a static category or definition but depends on the continuous enacting of stylized forms of being a gendered subject during his life. The protagonist's response to the problems in the song is to keep going and telling his suffering indirectly, using narrative tools to avoid direct confessions that can harm his own notion of masculinity. "El cantante" is a man who bears the consequences of enacting a musical persona instead of performing a complex gendered human being. That man shows the difficulties of being outside the rigorous hierarchical notion of masculinity in hegemony when "El cantante" himself is supposed to be the portrayal of that hegemonic masculinity.

ABSTRACT. In the vibrant context of the Maltese wind band tradition, numerous festive marches are composed every year, all vying for recognition. Among these, those adorned with catchy melodies, quickly attract the attention of the public and become a prominent part of the repertoire at the revered annual saint feasts celebrated across Maltese towns and villages. This paper delves into the intricate interplay between parody and the micro-history of a musical work by focussing on one such festive wind band march entitled ‘Victory’ that was composed by the Maltese composer Vincenzo Ciappara (1890-1979) to celebrate the victory of the Allies in World War II.

In particular, this paper will examine how the catchy trio of this jubilant march was borrowed and adapted by other local festive marches that were composed later and even ended up as the chorus of a Maltese election song. This song was first sung at a mass meeting in Valletta during the 1981 election campaign. Eventually, the song gained further local recognition when it was performed by a North Korean ensemble in Pyongyang on the occasion of a state visit by the then Maltese Prime Minister in 1984. At the centre of this exploration lies the concept of parody — a multi-faceted and multi-layered creative space that draws on the familiar to serve a myriad of purposes. Through the exploration of this space, the march under scrutiny emerges as a dynamic site of contestation where local traditions and politics intersect and even meet diplomatic intents.

ABSTRACT. On April 25, 2024, Portugal will celebrate fifty years since the 1974 Carnation Revolution, a non-violent military coup that ended the country’s fascist dictatorship in power since 1926. The revolution also signaled the end of Portuguese colonialism in Africa, as the military that led the coup was composed of disaffected conscripted soldiers fed up with the bloody conflicts. Nevertheless, the dominant memories surrounding the April 25 celebrations in Portugal reflect Portugal's release from the dictatorship, while Portugal’s relation to its long colonial history remains ambivalent. Musically, the celebrations are nostalgically sounded by the songs of 1960s and 70s Portuguese protest song, which have forged a canon of musical protest in Portugal. These songs are amplified in the primary April 25 commemoration, the march down the central Avenida da Liberdade, in which groups and associations from around the country come to Lisbon to participate. As signaled by the chant of one group in 2023—“Remember that April 25 started in Africa”—a counternarrative that seeks to highlight historical decolonization contests a whitened history of the revolution. Immigrants from former colonies have increasingly brought their own musical traditions to the festivities, such as Brazilian and Cape Verdean percussion groups, and these sounds intermingle with the dominant Portuguese soundscape. They manifest an attempt not only to decolonize the memory of April 25 but the subaltern status of postcolonial immigrants in contemporary Portugal more generally. Based on fieldwork at the commemorations from 2021 to 2024, in this paper, I examine how these groups musically contest revolutionary memory. Notably, and distinct from many cases of protest music, it is in this case through building affinities and solidarity with the local revolutionary tradition, rather than through a musical politics of indignation directed towards Portugal as a whole, that this musical politics of decolonization is manifested.

ABSTRACT. Afrobeats is often maligned as misogynistic, materialistic, and apolitical (Rens 2021; Omojola 2023). In response, Paul Ugor argued that in Afrobeats, “the public staging of extravagant consumption and romance functions to announce the social accomplishments of an alienated, underprivileged generation” (2021, 156). In this paper, I present a case study of alienated and underprivileged refugee youths on the Greek island of Lesvos who use Afrobeats in order to connect to ideas of excess and pleasure. While media and scholarship regularly represent refugees as passive, childlike victims for whom agency and pleasure are inaccessible (Agier 2011; Dunn 2017; Hajdukowski-Ahmed Et al. 2009), I argue that politics of materialistic excess present in Afrobeats enables refugees to access an aesthetic of pleasure, momentarily transcending their status as passive victims. In a space where the right to pleasure is sidelined by immediate needs of safety and shelter, Afrobeats serves as an inspirational window to images of wealth and success. Using participatory observation and unstructured interviews with consumers and content creators, I build a picture of the role of Afrobeats in lives of young refugees. I contend that the sound of Afrobeats in the bars and clubs of Lesvos creates a liminal space of pleasure and hope where the role of refugee shifts from that of an exploited disenfranchised victim and into an agentive creative member of an artistic community.

ABSTRACT. The Indian Ocean slave trade moved Africans to unfamiliar places. Saidiya Hartman (2007) drew attention to the legacy of slavery in America. Her term “afterlives of slavery” is relevant globally and is manifested in manja, a performance which connects Sri Lanka to Africa. Catherine Cole (2020) asserts that embodied performance is key to understanding injustice. This presentation views manja as a way of understanding the injustices of the past. Manja speaks to the pathos of enslavement, and its continuity as a healing ritual throughout the colonial era is significant as is its absence from the colonial archives. A muted minority negotiates its niche in Sri Lanka’s multicultural tapestry through performance. Lyrics, mostly in a critically endangered “Portuguese” are key to the continuity of manja (de Silva Jayasuriya, 2022). Links to Africa are evident through call and response where the lead singer interacts with the ensemble, the polyrhythmic patterns produced by the percussionists and the embodied choreographies. Loss of bonds with the homeland through traumatic forced migrations are rekindled through manja, a lived heritage. The dynamics of manja illustrate how heritage is recreated and adapted during migration to external factors such as economic challenges.

Bibliography

Cole, Catherine. 2020. Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

De Silva Jayasuriya, Shihan. Safeguarding Afro-Sri Lankan Intangible Cultural Heritage. In: Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Eds: Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya, Mariana Pinto Leitão Pereira and Professor Gregory Hansen. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2022).

Hartmann, Saidiya V. 2007. Lose your mother: a journey along the Atlantic slave route. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ABSTRACT. The Kalabari of the Niger Delta have unique funeral rites within their culture that incorporates music and dance as a mark of final honour for the dead. The funeral rites have experienced lots of transformation as a result of different external influences of which oil spilled environmental pollution is a major factor. Diverse studies from different theoretical orientations have investigated the effects of oil spilt pollution in Kalabari land, particularly as it affects the economic activities of the people. However, the consequence of the oil spilt pollution on the music performance of the rites as a crucial aspect of the culture of Kalabari people has not received adequate research attention. Thus, this study set out to address the intersections of music, culture and environmental concerns that affect the funeral rite music of the Kalabari of the Niger Delta, in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study examines how the elements of mourning and lamentation within music, dance and rituals have been affected by environmental degradation. An ethnographic design was adopted for this research which involves participant observation, oral interviews and focused group discussion as instruments for eliciting data. Findings show that the oil-spilt environmental pollution has strong negative effects on the sonic production of the musical instruments used for the funeral rites of the Kalabari people. The study also reveals that the environmental pollution of the communities posed a strong emotional effect on the participation of the indigenous people of Kalabari in their funeral rites practices. This study argues that music is a powerful tool for explaining environmental degradation within the funeral rite of Kalabari culture and could help advocate environmental and cultural sustainability.

ABSTRACT. In 2019, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo announced that Jakarta would no longer be the capital of Indonesia in the future, with a 10-year plan to transfer all government offices to the new capital city. Situated on the east coast of the island of Borneo, the future planned capital city of Nusantara is set to replace sinking and polluted Jakarta as Indonesia's political center by late 2024. Our research reveals that indigenous voices have been excluded from the capital draft bill discussions. The location of the new capital also overlaps with 162 current coal-mining concessions covering 203,720 hectares, three times the area of Jakarta. These concessions' owners are large conglomerates with close relationships with national elites attached to the inner political circle of Widodo’s administration. Additionally, conflict between indigenous locals and migrants, particularly those from Java, will likely arise. With an estimated 1.5 million people, the national state civil apparatus will be the dominant group of incoming migrants to Nusantara when the new city is established. The massive number of new migrants can potentially distort local economies and markets, especially regarding housing and food, as well as other horizontal conflicts commonly found across indigenous communities in Indonesia. Previously, notable conflicts between the central government and local communities in Aceh and Papua have resulted in violent insurgencies that have lasted for many decades, particularly regarding mining issues like oil and gas in Aceh and copper and silver in Papua. The Indonesian Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM) has underlined there is a lack of transparency and poor public participation in the process of identifying land to be granted to concession holders in exchange for concessions that have been reclaimed. The potential of disenfranchising or displacing locals whose land is caught up in these exchanges could potentially generate wider social conflict in the future. These significant omissions of the participation of indigenous communities in the resettlement process contradict the vision of Nusantara as a new capital city that is smart, green, beautiful, and sustainable.

ABSTRACT. Scholarship on popular music have centered on city spaces and city life with little attention paid to environmental degradation and the need for sustainability. Only few have come to the knowing that music can be used as a tool to mitigate the environmental issues we are faced with at local and global levels. The whole world is fast depreciating as a result of man's activities in it, some of which are carefree and careless activities, and these have resulted in environmental degradation, and only few seem to be concerned about this state. This paper delves into the underexplored intersection of music and environmental activism, particularly focusing on the impact of limestone exploration on environmental pollution and degradation in Ewekoro local government area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Drawing upon ecomusicology as a theoretical framework, this study examines how music can be used as a platform to highlight and mitigate environmental challenges. It further employs ethnographic methods including interviews, musical analysis, and textual analysis to explore the musical narratives surrounding limestone exploration and its environmental consequences in Ewekoro. By analyzing songs by selected Nigerian artists like Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Ebenezer Fabiyi Obey, this study reveals how music can serve as a powerful medium for community mobilization and environmental advocacy in local and global communities. The significance of this research then lies in its contribution to ecomusicology by shifting attention to environmental themes within musical practices. This underscores the need for increased attention to environmental themes in music scholarship. This study further highlights the potential of music as a catalyst for promoting environmental sustainability and resilience, suggesting pathways for future research and practice in leveraging music for environmental activism and change.

ABSTRACT. In an increasingly globalized culture, our ecology and its sustainability are constantly reminding us of how it has become more of an ethical phenomenon than a natural one. The concern for a sustainable ecology and its potential relationship with the world can be understood through analyzing the performative binaries between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. 'Festivals' in contemporary times have become one of those performative spaces where art, aesthetics, and politics work together towards change and become fields where the ethical concern towards the ecosystem can become a natural concern. Through examining the curatorial processes of the Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) in Goa specifically, but in principle the curatorial structure of various dance festivals within India, this paper will critically look at how institutions and funders that enable festivals, have not been able to generate environmentally conscious intentions through their curatorial processes. Through the selection of locations and the scoring of the performances, SAF and other festivals in India, create an evocative duet between the event and its immediate ecology. But the question is to find whether the concerns of the ecology have ever become a natural one or an ethical one for the curator or the dancer? The critical intervention through this paper presentation will be to highlight the different curatorial crises that stands at the intersection between safeguarding the ecology and re-presentation. It will attempt to find approaches to examine how the curation of dance within contemporary festival scenarios in India can create a particular mode of ecological knowledge.

ABSTRACT. This conceptual paper considers approaches to local earth system hazard study using transdisciplinary sound mapping. It argues that engaging with local sonic events using community-based mapping of sounds and sonic practices in conjunction with disciplinary study in the sciences, social sciences, and the arts can contribute to developing new approaches to preparing for, managing, and responding to specific hazards. Sonic mapping uses listening to identify and analyze characteristic features of an acoustic landscape (Serafin). Popular in curated sound installations and online sound maps of local and global sites, sonic maps direct attention to how space is both sensed and experienced (Duffy) and mapping can also be used as a practice for identifying, organizing, and sharing local knowledge. Sonic maps that are developed through partnerships to anticipate and characterize earth system hazards are informed by collective knowledge drawn from diverse sound sources, reflective of spatially and temporally situated local knowledge about human nonhuman sonic scenes. Such new forms of sonic mapping may be useful, for example, in rural Mongolia where the winter dzud, a compound earth system hazard encompassing drought, extreme cold, heavy snow, ice, and strong winds, occurs with increasing frequency, killing millions of animals in many winter seasons. Early warning systems that rely on technology to address prediction have been partially successful but drawing on collaborative future-making by employing interactive frameworks to sonically map these earth system events can actively engage impacted residents working collaboratively with geographers, landscape ecologists, anthropologists, and ecomusicologists. Data produced can become frameworks for sensory and experiential maps that hold information useful for addressing sonic warnings, to support adaptive practices, and new knowledge sources. Alternative futures require changes to well-established scientific systems and when driven coproductively, and fueled by imagination, can pave way for locally led more ecologically sustainable futures.

ABSTRACT. The Duakor community, a minority fishing community in Cape Coast, Ghana, has developed a unique identity in terms of ethnicity, language, and cultural practices within the dominant Fante context. Despite the abundance of research on Anlo musical traditions, little is known about the fishing songs of Anlo migrants, particularly those living and working among culturally different majority ethnic groups. This study aims to explore the complex interplay between the Duakor community and their surroundings, focusing on the role of fishing songs in conveying the community’s relationship with their natural environment, highlighting the challenges they face due to environmental changes, evoking a deep sense of belonging and connection to the place, and reflecting the community’s efforts to maintain their cultural identity. Employing qualitative research techniques, including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions, this study seeks to understand the significance of fishing songs in the Duakor community. The findings suggest that fishing songs serve as a means of cultural identity and resilience for the community, offering solace, unity, and a sense of agency in the face of environmental difficulties. These songs highlight the challenges faced by the community due to environmental changes, such as overfishing and pollution, and reflect their efforts to maintain their cultural identity within a culturally different majority ethnic group. Based on the study’s findings, I conclude that fishing songs are a crucial aspect of the Duakor community’s cultural identity and resilience. Measures should be taken to protect the community’s natural environment and cultural practices, including their fishing songs, in order to preserve and promote the community’s cultural heritage.

ABSTRACT. At the end of 2023, I released an album titled Ephemeral, which included an improvisation-based composition of mine based on how I sonically related to a particular bird of the riroriro (grey warbler) species. While riroriros are found throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, my location in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington was in proximity to the Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne Ecosanctuary, whose establishment in the 1990s has led to a proliferation of birdlife in the city, where I began hearing this bird’s song. I decided to write a scholarly article about the sonic relationality between the bird and I at the heart of the composition, and its connection to Zealandia’s work. But I also wanted to engage with a broader audience about how sound connects humans to the overlapping worlds of many species, and about how attention to multiple ways of listening might assist humans in viewing their species as one among many. When I released Ephemeral on Wellington-based label Thelonious Records, I decided to engage directly with Zealandia to pursue what might be mutually beneficial ways of promoting the ecosantuary, my project, and the broader idea of arts engaging with Zealandia. This paper is a reflection on my public engagement with Zealandia in the promotion of the album and of the scholarship associated with it. Grounding the project in ecomusicology and sound studies literature, I discuss relational and economic processes of marketing, publicity, social media campaigns, and video/audio production as they shaped my labor and the labor of others (including staff at Zealandia), which resulted in a reel on Zealandia’s Instagram and a post on its blog. Perspectives from critical ethnography inform the paper, as I reflect on promoting a posthumanist stance amongst hegemonic structures that shape institutions such as not-for-profit charitable trusts, academic institutions, and entities of the music industry.

ABSTRACT. Recent literature on “endangered music” has drawn on linguistic and ecological parallels to assess vitality, or the current level of activity of a genre, and sustainability, or the degree to which activity can be continued in the future. In this research report we consider dāphā bhajan as a potentially endangered musical tradition.

Dāphā bhajan is a participatory genre of Hindu–Buddhist devotional music, sung by groups of farmers and other singers from the Newar ethnic group in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The repertoire has a 400-year history. Performance is deeply integrated with local neighbourhood communities, but owing to recent disasters (the 2015 earthquake, the 2020–2022 Covid-19 pandemic) and ongoing cultural changes its sustainability is in doubt.

In 2022–2023 the authors conducted a survey of 47 dāphā groups, from different parts of the Valley, to investigate the performers’ perspectives. We found that groups showed resilience in recovering from the recent disasters, the main effect of which was to exacerbate ongoing systemic problems. Chief among these is the difficulty of recruiting and training new members, given the demands of time-consuming traditional training methods and costly initiation rituals on individuals and communities. Innovative solutions are helping some groups revive the recruitment and training process. But a range of other interconnected issues also emerged, from competing interests to loss of funding sources, from attrition of musical knowledge and repertoire to dispersal of neighbourhood communities.

We conclude that although many groups exhibit continuing vitality and integration with the local communities in which they are embedded, their dependence on traditional models may be unsustainable without a degree of change. Recent initiatives by local supporters are beginning to highlight these issues by drawing attention to the historical importance, cultural significance and social value of the tradition.

ABSTRACT. The Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 represents the most significant phase in the nation's history of emergence. Yet the influence of musical resistance in national identity formation during the war remains scarcely documented. This paper investigates the impact of patriotic songs aired by the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (Free Bengal Radio Centre) on reviving Bengali nationalist sentiments in the psyche of the freedom fighters of 1971. The research was conducted using qualitative methodology with in-depth semi-structured interviews and textual analysis of secondary materials. The research findings suggest that the identity evoking passionate lyrics and intense melodies of the songs fostered a profound feeling of solidarity and determination in the thoughts of the freedom fighters, greatly motivating them to engage in the struggle for their homeland. In addition, it indicates that the patriotic songs broadcasted by the radio station instilled a spirit of resistance throughout the general population, surpassing divisions based on social class, religious beliefs, race, gender, ethnicity and so on. The paper acknowledges the role of the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra and identifies it as the 12th sector of the Liberation War due to its transmission of signals and codes through patriotic songs, which served as indications for the freedom fighters in guerrilla operations. Furthermore, the study highlights the significant contribution of the Voice soldiers in resonating with the shared awareness of Bangladesh, as well as demonstrating the efficacy of music as a tool for social change and justice. As far as the implication of this research is concerned, it possesses sufficient strength to lead the path for future research in disciplines such as music, politics, conflict analysis, war and strategic studies, among others.

ABSTRACT. The 1918 creation of Yugoslavia threatened to diminish the discrete traditions, languages, and political powers of Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Anxieties over erasure were particularly acute in Slovenia, the smallest of the three, which feared its role in the new nation would be secondary to its neighbors. Faced with the disappearance of their homeland, Slovenians living in America asserted and amplified their national heritage through social and cultural organizations. In Cleveland, Ohio, the largest enclave outside of Slovenia, cultural activity accelerated, evidenced by the formation of two dramatic societies: the Ivan Cankar and Lilija Dramatic Societies. Both companies formed in 1919 and embraced a backward-looking Slovenian nationalism by upholding folk tales and folk songs that were created and preserved during the nationalist movement of the nineteenth century.

In this paper, I examine two representative productions of these groups: The Wild Hunter (1902) and Patriot from America (1920). Both exhibited similar nationalist themes and motivations, including pastoral settings and songs from folk music anthologies compiled between the 1860s and 1890s. Building on Matthew Gelbart’s work on folk music and cultural nationalism, I argue that these two dramatic societies upheld established folk texts, rather than create new ones, because of their long-standing designation as emblems of national identity. I likewise invoke Brian Axel’s and Vijay Mishra’s “diasporic imaginary” to explain how, after the trauma of seeing their homeland subsumed under a new national identity, these companies tapped into an idealized and largely imagined vision of Slovenia. The productions’ folk songs and costumes reflected a bygone agrarian lifestyle, and their plots drew on pastoral themes far distant from the steel mills and rail yards of Cleveland. Although focused on Slovenia, my analysis ultimately demonstrates how emigrant diasporas exploit folk music to craft visions of home, both real and imagined.

ABSTRACT. As it is known, traditional lullabies are one of the ancient genres of human beings, and they deeply reflect national musical identity. Besides their multifunctional effects on babies (such as psychological, physiological, and other treatment methods) that are fixed by 21st century science, they are also the oldest method for transmitting knowledge from generation to generation. So it is not only a song to put babies to sleep, but also a way of education and to keep the memory and history of a nation. The issue is vital when it is about a nation that was migrated, displaced, or expulsed. The Armenian people experienced the loss of their historical homeland at different stages due to historical and political issues. In our paper, based on concrete samples, we will show how a lullaby, consciously or subconsciously, became a method for transmitting information and history, in general, knowledge. Those samples are manifestations of traditional lullabies as a historical knowledge and memory transition in the Diaspora environment after the 1915 Genocide and also after the war unleashed by Azerbaijan in 2020, after which 120,000 ethnic Armenians were deported from the homeland where they have lived more than 5,000 years. It was a result of the post-Soviet conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenians preserved their culture after the Genocide, which was recorded during the 20th century in different countries by different ethnographers. A few years ago, one of the biggest private collections by musicologist-ethnographer Bedros Alahaidoian was sent from the USA to Armenia, where we found unique lullaby samples. After the last displacement, we have also done field work and found that Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh today keep their traditional art as a homeland symbol. My research shows that in both cases lullaby is a genre for preserving national identity and transmitting history.

ABSTRACT. Numerous figures in Hong Kong’s Cantonese opera industry have emphasised the importance of attracting non-Chinese audiences to sustain the genre’s vitality. Efforts to appeal to this demographic have included providing translations of performance texts in English, offering accessible online platforms for purchasing tickets, and hiring foreign talent. While these solutions may seem beneficial at first glance, this paper outlines how they have produced several issues for the Cantonese opera industry that undermine its intended effort of sustaining the opera. Firstly, translating play scripts has risked standardising performance texts in a manner that contradicts the genre’s ethos of improvisation. Indeed, structuring improvisatory processes poses a significant issue for the sustainability of the opera because performers regard its improvisational performance standards as integral to the genre’s authenticity and identity. Secondly, acquiring translations of performance texts requires significant alterations to the business model of Cantonese opera. This is because translations are costly, and performances are produced primarily through wealthy patrons who look to reduce expenses so that they can make a profit. Subsequently, the networks of patrons that can afford translations are those that depart most radically from the genre’s standard business operations. Finally, efforts to improve the opera’s accessibility for non-Chinese speakers through offering online ticketing platforms and hiring foreign talent have been criticised by local opera enthusiasts as producing obstacles to their procurement of tickets and perpetuating a colonial mindset. In all, this paper presents how the seemingly beneficial actions taken to improve the accessibility of Cantonese opera for non-Chinese audiences pose a threat to the opera’s sustainability prospects by restricting improvisatory performance standards, transforming business practices, and alienating local audiences.

ABSTRACT. Previous soundscape studies in Singapore have given considerable attention to the negotiation and contestation of ethnic and religious practices in public spaces under colonial and postcolonial governance (Lee 1999; Sykes 2015; McCallum 2017; Andaya 2018). However, how such processes involved with military bands, often seen as unchallenged sonic emblems of state power and authority, remains underexplored. This paper examines how the soundings of military bands and their echoes within the urban soundscapes of postcolonial Singapore have potentially become focal points for contesting state-promoted moral and cultural ideologies. Using echo as a metaphor, this study delves into the sonic modulations of military bands as both a colonial legacy of the modern nation-state and an aspect of contemporary neo-colonial projects, examining how their sounds resonate with imperial undertones (Hidalgo 2023; Nicolaïdis, Sèbe, and Maas 2015). The metaphor extends to the acoustic phenomenon of echoes representing frustrated communication—where meanings are distorted and lost over space and time, often going unheard when they return (Weidman 2015). Two case studies from fieldwork conducted in March and April 2024 illustrate how these nuanced meanings of echo are woven into contemporary military band practices in Singapore. The first case investigates a school marching band whose soundings and practices, though internalised as symbols of resilience and pride, provoke contention as disruptive noises and echoes in a quiet neighbourhood. The second case focuses on a local composer who sampled nostalgic sounds from his childhood urban soundscapes in his concert band work commissioned by the Ministry of Education, utilising these echoes to negotiate with the state’s control over cultural production. This analysis uncovers the layers of meaning associated with military bands within the contested soundscapes of postcolonial Singapore. It also suggests a more nuanced understanding of sound and music as mediums of socio-political discourse and negotiation.

ABSTRACT. The earliest discovered "banjo" hails from the former Dutch colony of Suriname, taken by Scottish soldier John Stedman in the 18th century. Enslaved peoples in the Americas crafted the instrument and employed it in musical creation across the Caribbean, eventually making its way to the US and Europe. Initial accounts of the instrument are narratives written by white colonialists, many of whom ignorant regarding its operation and utilization. Their attempts to understand it amounted to racist notions about the Other’s cultural output as “primitive”. In the process, they mistook the banjo’s role in religious gatherings to be a mere form of "perverse" entertainment, or offered failed attempts at notating rhythms disregarded as too "otherworldly". As it arrived in the US, it was further incorporated into Black string traditions that laid the foundation for what is now known as “folk” or “country”. In the mid-19th century, it becomes subject of ridicule as white minstrel performers appropriate it in their shows.

The “Stedman banjo” can currently be found at the World Museum in Amsterdam. Here, it remains positioned alongside other looted items, taken by white men who had little knowledge about origin, culture, or descent. In recent years, the Dutch government has made attempts at returning these pieces, but a concrete plan to offer due satisfaction is yet to materialize. Here, I argue that the banjo’s journey provides insight into the denial of creative expression authored by colonial subjects, allowing myths of cultural poverty to take hold. The instrument created growing dialogues between marginalized communities as it provided means for survival and community-crafting in the deadly realms of coloniality. Today, whether museums and their passivity vis-à-vis looted objects or recording industries promoting heavily commodified genres like “folk” as white idiom, Euro-American institutions continue to contribute to the erasure of this legacy.

ABSTRACT. Since 2021, Myanmar fell into a political crisis that put the nation under a military regime. A long period of uprising and resistance disrupted the lives of people living in Myanmar. In February 2024, the Burmese government issued new conscription law, drafting young men from age 18 to 35 to fight in the battles against ethnic minorities armed groups. The prolonged escalating tension has impacted the lives of Burmese musicians. Throughout the past four years, Burmese musicians are facing difficulties in continuing their profession due to the economic crisis, pandemic, and social changes that impact performance opportunities. Martial law imposes curfews in the cities, making festivals and activities a challenge, including fear regarding the freedom of expression. Many musicians have given up their careers and sold their instruments. The ones who continue have to modify their performance to accommodate the new society. This includes reducing the number of instruments in the ensemble and shifting the function of music to gear towards wedding events rather than festivals and ceremonies, along with changes in the venue of performance. The recent law pushes musicians to the edge. Many escapes their homeland to avoid being drafted into the army, bringing the disruption in Burmese performing arts to a crisis point.

This research aims to examine the performance situation of Burmese traditional music and theatrical arts, including the spiritual ritual of Nat Pwe and music teaching and learning under the Burmese military government and the new conscription law. Fieldwork is done through in-depth interviews with musicians and ensemble directors who are currently residing in Myanmar and musicians who seek shelter outside the nation.

ABSTRACT. The recent March 2024 displacement of the Ata (or called “Ati” as an appropriated group name) from their heritage village to temporary shelters, once more kindled the fire on the once-thought settled issue of land claim in Boracay, Philippines. This island as seat of international tourism for its stunning beauty as a white sand beach, is replete with stories of displacement, danger, loss and struggle. The first settlers of Boracay, the Ata (Magos, 2012) went through the validation process as required by the Philippine government to reclaim a small sliver of their ancestral homeland. As researcher and invited advocate, I became part of the process through the recall and documentation of their traditional songs and dances (Muyco 2014, 2015), some of which were memory-shelved through the years of “othering” by the island’s belated locals and visitors. In this conference presentation, I discuss the old and newly composed songs of the Ata in their renewed struggle. I posit that despite of the validation process, the government titling of the ancestral land was well-intended but consequently problematic, affecting the Ata community and has effects on the systemic ancestral land titling(s) among indigenous peoples, at large. I frame my argument within the frame of “glocality”, bringing in the voices of the affected natives and at the same time reflecting on how globalization theories contribute, if not, enriched in the particularity of the Ata experience.

ABSTRACT. After 10 years of development of and research on dance as intangible cultural heritage, the Museene danser project has become a concept of knowledge dissemination, methods, guidelines for curation of social dance in Norway, facilitation and storytelling to the general audience in museums in Norway.Today this is also done throuhg the EU funded project Dance- ICH, that I am the project leader in. I will discuss what the main methods use in Museene danser are, and how they together make the concept Events of practice exhibition. I will also debate how this concept can be an example on what Nina Simon defines as a social hub in her book Participatory museums. I will show how the large audiovisual archive of Norwegian centre for traditional music and dance is just as relevant today as 50 years ago. Through dissemination and communication, we can make the dance heritage relevant and sustainable for the future generations. The keys are how this can be done by inclusion, and not exclusion, in closed dance heritage communities. I will summarize the research done during the project and present insight through analysing the methods of curation used in 6 different exhibitions made from 2015-2024. Through these exhibitions I have worked with different methodologies, facilitation of heritage communities, mentoring of museum- and dance networks, curation of exhibition design and content, curation of events of practice, teaching dance as ICH to museum pedagogues, pupils and teenagers, and communication and dialogue with different groups of the general audience, as visitors, students, school classes, immigrant groups and the sami people to mention a few. I will also briefly discuss why and how museums should be a part of the important network of communities, groups and individuals that are the core of the UNESCO Convention of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, research on artificial intelligence has become an unstoppable trend. However, when it comes to AI in the field of music, Scholars are more focused on composition, like Sono or SkyMusic. However, there remains controversy over whether AI-generated works possess innovation and artistic merit. In contrast, the potential of AI in the preservation and inheritance of musical culture has received less attention. Therefore, this study aims to explore the role that artificial intelligence could play in the preservation and protection of music culture. The United Nations initiative for the protection of intangible cultural heritage has been proposed for over 20 years. However, many musical cultures and performance techniques still face the dilemma of disappearing. One important reason is that much of the inheritance still relies on oral instruction, without forming a systematic and logical teaching system, still maintaining the traditional "teachers demonstrate, students imitate" form. This teaching model requires lengthy accumulation, especially when it involves improvisational content. This less efficient teaching mode to some extent hinders the inheritance of traditional music culture in contemporary society. In addition, Over the past 20 years, researchers have recorded a lot of audio and video materials, documenting numerous musical scores. However, these rich resources have not been effectively revitalized and have become more like museum exhibits. Therefore, this study will adopt an interdisciplinary research approach, utilizing existing audio and musical score data, through deep learning techniques, speech recognition, and other artificial intelligence technologies, combined with audio analysis techniques, to provide new perspectives for the inheritance and preservation of traditional music.

ABSTRACT. This presentation aims to explore the dissemination and development of guqin in the Digital Age, using the famous self-media account "Guqin Clinic" on the Bilibili platform in China as a case study. Utilizing emerging scientific and technological advancements and integrating various elements of traditional Chinese culture, the "Guqin Clinic" made audiovisual videos of the "guqin/traditional music + traditional clothing" mode in 2019. These videos quickly gained popularity both domestically and internationally on the internet, sparking the trends of "Chinese traditional music fever" and "Hanfu craze". However, in recent years, the development of the "Guqin Clinic" has encountered some bottlenecks. This reflects not only symptomatic issues of the current era, such as the conflict between Fordism and post-Fordism cultures, but also highlights the key problem of balancing popularization and specialization in the process of traditional cultural dissemination. While several individual scholars have conducted researches on the "Guqin Clinic," they are limited to give simple introductions. There is still a lack of systematic analysis regarding the history of the "Guqin Clinic", the approaches it uses to promote guqin and the problems it has encountered. These are precisely the areas that this study seeks to explore. This presentation aims to gain insights that can be beneficial for better inheriting and disseminating traditional Chinese cultures in the digital age through the case analysis of the "Guqin Clinic". This is where the value of this research lies.

ABSTRACT. There is a need for DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture and digital technologies research in the creative economies of traditional music in the Global South. This case study explores how DIY culture and digital tools impact Mbira traditional music instrument entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe, focusing on Harare and Gweru. It investigates how Mbira traditional music instrument producers draw on DIY Culture and digital tools in their businesses. As such, the case study examines their career experiences and practices to determine the DIY culture traits and the digital technologies they employ when producing, marketing and distributing the instruments. The research contributes a new understanding of DIY culture and digital technologies in Mbira traditional music entrepreneurship research. It also demonstrates how one can use accrued capital to position oneself in the field. The study also advocates for better policy development by illuminating the potential of traditional instrument production to contribute to national economies in the Global South.  This case study draws on diverse data sources, types, and research methods, including document analysis of significant texts, in-depth semi-structured individual interviews, observations, paraphernalia, videos, and photographs. It uses purposive sampling and the snowball method to select participants who produce Mbira traditional music instruments and academic experts in the field. Inductive and deductive content analysis will use participants’ words and concepts emerging from the data and reviewed literature to analyse, interpret and present collected data as thick descriptions. The study’s analytical frameworks include triangulating the impact of contextual factors, accumulated capital and existing typologies of DIY culture traits and strategies on the instrument producers’ careers.

ABSTRACT. This study presents a style of Xhosa traditional vocality called Ukombela. In Xhosa, the term "Ukombela" describes a certain vocal method or traditional singing style that is used when cultural Xhosa music is performed at various Xhosa cultural ceremonies and rituals. Specifically, I am curious about ways this stylistic aspect has recently permeated in contemporary music genres as a memory as well as an invocation on the bandstand.

Over the years, several musicians (especially Xhosa musicians  such as Thandiswa Mazwai, Siya Makuzeni, Thandeka Mfinyongo,Gloria Bosman and others) have been drawing from Ukombela style of singing to enhance and strengthen their own compositional and improvisational styles .

This study highlights Ukombela as a singing style and sonic signature that has been instrumental in allowing musicians to embed and disseminate cultural music memory as well as ways to express music thinking and creative expressions while collapsing conventional musical ideas. 

The overarching objective of this study is to investigate how, among other things, the many ways that Xhosa musicians articulate their styles are influenced by ukombela as a memory.

I argue that Ukombela has played a significant role in musicians’ development of a personal style and sound, and also plays a role in how musicians sound are situated and operate in their practices . 

Yet little is known about Ukombela as a singing style and its contribution to South African music aesthetics, especially in academic literature. This thesis intends to address this gap.  As part of a larger liberatory heritage that occasionally manifests itself as an invocation on the bandstand, I contend that ukombela is an African musical practice that has shaped through memory the sound of numerous musicians.

The infiltration of Ukombela in contemporary music styles denotes sensibilities of spirituality,memory,identity, place and lineage. As such, the idea of a "bandstand invocation" demands further consideration.  It poses intriguing queries regarding the relationship between music and memory.

This study additionally examines the musical and cultural construction of the concept of "South African contemporary music" through an analysis of works by Thandiswa Mazwai, Siya Makuzeni, and Thandeka Mfinyongo.

I form part of this lineage as a Xhosa born singer, in terms of my articulation and improvisational technique, I am heavily influenced by the vocal style of Ukombela. For someone like me, who started off performing South African contemporary music and then became engrossed in jazz studies, ukombela offered a framework for jazz in many ways. I grew up surrounded by Xhosa cultural singing traditions and this memory informs my approach to my practice especially on the bandstand.

ABSTRACT. The speech surrogacy practice of the dundun and bata indigenous Yoruba master musicians, integral to the sacred and secular musical practices of the Yoruba people in Southwest Nigeria lacks thorough documentation. The paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the music and communication methods of the Yoruba people through an exploration of the drum languages of the dundun and bata. It delves into the authentic musical and linguistic elements of the drum languages as forms of communication in selected performance contexts, also to the skills needed to perform on the instruments. This paper employs a combination of ethnographic research approach, interviews with master musicians, analysis of traditional performances, and recordings of drum languages to investigate the musical and linguistic elements of the drums. By this, the paper underscores the intricate communication systems and cultural significance embedded in the speech surrogacy practice of the dundun and bata. It advocates for continued research and documentation efforts necessary to preserve the complex communication systems of the Yoruba and cultural importance of the speech surrogacy practice associated with these drums.

ABSTRACT. Music practice in Africa/Nigeria and indeed Igbo land is a rather complex system that goes beyond the ideals of sound generation to reflect deeper concepts, notions and creative principles that may not be appreciated without an informed knowledge of the cultural norms. Quite often, integration of theory, pedagogy and practice as the depth of indigenous musical knowledge of the Igbo seems less understood by researchers and practitioners. This is problematized in this study. Perceptions of African music as devoid of theory and pedagogical principles bring to the fore this notion and is crucial to this study to probe the creative/performance process of Africa using the example of the Igbo of Nigeria. Is Igbo music practice devoid of theoretical and pedagogical underpinnings? Could there be principles driving creative musical practices in Igbo land? Where might such principles be located in the cultural scheme of music practice? Might there be a sense of oneness of theory, pedagogy and practice in Igbo musical activities? This paper attempts to address these issues through the application of field discussions with music practitioners in the culture, probing existing literature and combining same with first-hand experiences of the authors as culture-owners and practitioners. The discourse underlines the perceived long-standing philosophy of oneness of theory, pedagogy and practice as the encompassing process of music creativity, education, heritage and presentation among the Igbo of Nigeria.

ABSTRACT. After “carving” no less than ten celebratory part-songs, I can assert that composing a commemorative Ghanaian choral piece requires ingenuous artistry. For, crafting an effective commemorative song that marks a congregational milestone, for example, requires the evocation of cultural indexes associated with the people, place, and time of the celebrants to serve as building blocks for the composition. In this paper I explore the auditive iconicity (Agawu 2024: 44-48), both sonic and linguistic devices I used as pre-compositional resources in composing “Dzidzime Yeye Nade Adzogbe Yeye” (“A New Generation Must Pledge a New Vow”). These include northern Ewe traditional music genres, proverbial sayings, formulaic expressions for welcoming arriving guests, conceptual metaphors as thought, and natural and artificial Alavanyo soundscapes including biophony or sounds of the biome. I explain my attention to history, geography, and sensitivity to the emotional terrain of Covid-19 as partial determinants of creative choices. Further, I use this paper to argue that creative ethnomusicology may not require only the application of findings from new research in creative work. Rather, a composer may draw on their cumulative knowledge of their culture in composing a piece that is rife with ethnic sonic homologies. In the spirit of the currency of autoethnography and the importance of researcher’s own individual perspectives in postmodern ethnography, I hope my paper will be critically instructive. Clips for the video-recordings of the Anniversary will legitimize the paper.

ABSTRACT. The discussion about whether pentatonic scales followed a developmental trajectory which predates diatonism was a question that tantalized ethnomusicology. Such a notion has been firmly doubted under the light of criticism that each musical style has to be examined in its own environment in order to understand its particular nature and functionalities. This research started in the area of Western Greece and its environs (in Western Greece and later in Northern Epirus in Southern Albania, a region with significant plurality in its musical dialects. It revealed that the pentatonism of this area enables the interval of the fourth to develop out of a basic trichord (consisting of two minor thirds) with a “flexible” semitone on the top of it that gives birth to the later systems of hemitonic and anhemitonic pentatonism. This developmental path of progression, also found in “hidden forms” in the Ancient Greek Musical Writings suggests the potential for a late emergence of diatonism. This research does not seek to establish universal conclusions. Rather, it is specific to the cultural and geographic contexts it examines: in this case in Greece, Albania and Vietnam. What’s significant, as revealed through collaboration among three researchers from Europe and Asia, is the discovery of similar musical functionalities across regions of the world which appear to have very little in common. Similar functionalities in the musical language can be found in a different area of the world in Northern Vietnam among the polyphony of the Nung population group. These functionalities can offer new insights about the creation of the two main forms of pentatonism (hemitonic and anhemitonic). Could this be a case of poly-genesis, and if so, how did it come about? Does social context play a significant role, or is language a determining factor, leading to similar processed occurring across different regions of the world? These results question firmly the theory of the circle of the fifths, presenting a new model developed in the course of interaction stemming from societal, cultural, and potentially linguistic origins.

ABSTRACT. This presentation investigates how music in early 20th century Azerbaijan reflected and shaped emotional responses during the Spanish Flu pandemic amidst the region’s broader context of internal and external conflicts, including wars and massacres. Drawing upon Scheer’s Practice Theory, Small’s Musicking Theory, and Bourdieu’s Habitus Theory, as well as theories such as Hybridity, Revival, and Globalization, the study combines perspectives from historical musicology and ethnomusicology to examine music's emotional, cultural, and socio-political roles during crises. Utilizing various sources including written literature such as articles, diaries, and historical documents, alongside audio/video recordings, images, and music notes, the study also places an emphasis on oral history through ethnomusicological fieldwork. This approach leverages generational accounts and archival research to delve into representations of musical expressions and collective memories of the pandemic and other crises. The presentation contributes to broader discussions on Indigenous knowledge, environmental challenges, displacement, and societal resilience, making it relevant and engaging for the diverse audience of scholars and artists attending the conference. By advocating for collaborative efforts across disciplinary boundaries, this research underscores the significance of integrating diverse theories and methodologies to enhance our comprehension of music’s role in times of crisis.

ABSTRACT. This presentation proposes an approach to research on musical instruments beyond conventional organology, highlighting the importance of social contexts and the symbolic power of instruments in representing communities and identities. Dawe (2012) emphasizes the physical and metaphorical nature of instruments, incorporating values, politics, and aesthetics of musical communities. Rancier (2014) and Qureshi (2000, 1997) discuss the capacity of musical instruments as repositories of social memories. Bates (2018, 2012) argues about the social life of instruments, emphasizing the intrinsic relationship between musicians and their instruments in the formation of national identities.

However, despite the clarity of concepts related to the social memory of instruments, there remains a gap in understanding the instrument as an individual object that aggregates meanings and personal memories of its owner or a restricted group of people.

Over the past three years, I have been conducting field research on the ‘viola toeira’, a traditional Portuguese chordophone associated with the city of Coimbra during the 20th century. During this period, I have actively participated in the revitalization movement promoted by the Museu da Música de Coimbra (MusMusCbr).

This process begins with the construction of replicas of museum ‘violas’, followed by repertoire selection (including arrangements and new compositions) and culminates in musical performances by a dedicated ensemble. This study involved building a ‘viola’ and participating as a musician in the ensemble. I acted as an active member, collaborating in creation, assisting in rehearsals, and performing concerts.

From this perspective, the present study observed how musical instruments aggregate meaning through the construction of memories since their conception, both as singular objects and when integrated into a broader organological group.

Thus, the aim is to contribute to a broader understanding of musical instruments, exploring the dimensions of social, collective, shared, and individual memories that permeate their existence and practice.

ABSTRACT. In 2022, the Musicology Department of the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing, China) introduced a compulsory course for master's and doctoral students titled "Multi-musicality and Transcultural Music Practice," which is built upon the established elective courses in world music practices such as Javanese gamelan, Indian tabla, and Indian sitar. Currently, the main content of this course encompasses Iranian and South Korean traditional music and is taught by native instructors. Although most music conservatories in China have claimed to have abandoned the previous binary educational concept centered on the study of Chinese or Western music, students in world music studies still appear to hold onto a predominantly Eurocentric and relatively singular training mode. Most students tend to revert to a "armchair" methodology, ultimately completing an introductory article as their graduation thesis after continuous literature review. Should the graduation thesis be the sole criterion for evaluating students’ study outcomes and knowledge production in world music studies? Confronting the highly competitive job market, will Eurocentric teaching models help students to get fully prepared? This paper takes the "Multi-musicality and Transcultural Music Practice" course at the Central Conservatory of Music as a case study to explore the importance of transcultural teaching in China’s world music education. As both a scholar and a participant in the course, I examine the meaning and connotations of the course name, the teaching process, and transcultural interactions between native instructors and their Chinese students, and offer my own reflections. This paper demonstrates how a transcultural approach in world music teaching provides students with a platform for immersive learning and practical research. By creating a local soundscape and emphasizing cross-cultural interactions, this course can help cultivate Chinese students’ cross-cultural understanding and multi-musicality, enabling them to better comprehend and conduct research on non-Chinese musical cultures with inclusive perspectives.

ABSTRACT. Interdisciplinary teaching is a teaching activity that integrates two or more subjects. It is designed and implemented holistically through a problem-oriented approach with the medium of teaching themes, aiming to promote the overall development of students. China's Compulsory Education Curriculum Program (2022 Edition) states that each subject should "carry out interdisciplinary thematic teaching and strengthen the synergistic nurturing function of the curriculum", and makes it clear that "no less than 10% of the class time of each course should be devoted to the design of interdisciplinary thematic learning".Thus,interdisciplinary teaching has become an important task in the professional development of primary and secondary school music teachers, and teacher competence in interdisciplinary teaching is a prerequisite for the effective implementation of this activity. In view of this, the study used the literature method and the Delphi method to design the "Theoretical Model of Interdisciplinary Teacher Competence for Primary and Secondary School Music Teachers" and compiled the measurement scale. In the process of model validation, four music teachers were selected to conduct interdisciplinary teaching for one semester, and 20 cases of excellent interdisciplinary teaching design were collected to evaluate the practical application of the scale, so as to further optimize the credibility and practicability of the model. The study aims to construct a scientific and systematic teacher competency model, which provides useful references and insights for the development of interdisciplinary teaching for primary and secondary music teachers.

ABSTRACT. "It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame."-Marshall McLuhan (1955) As music became a common subject in systems of public and tertiary education in the 19th century, specific pedagogical models were espoused and replicated to the exclusion of other musical and epistemic traditions. In this paper presentation, I argue that music teaching methods with roots in European conservatory pedagogy and performance practices serve as a tacit cultural technology that reinforces a Euro-dominant worldview and results in epistemic violence for many artistic traditions. If technology is the practical application of knowledge, music pedagogy could be viewed as a socially-transmitted technology consisting primarily of human actions. Music-teaching- as-cultural-technology is transmitted and sustained by social interactions within specific communities of practice via participation in private lessons, school music programs, music festivals, teacher education programs, and professional learning events for educators, and can also include material aspects such as commercially-made teaching resources, music scores, and government and conservatory curricula and exams. Common features of this technology include a focus on learning to play and perform pieces, the centering of (primarily White male) music creators from former and contemporary imperial powers, written codification/transmission of musical ideas, the use of specific spaces and equipment for music making, and the consumption of performances framed as entertainment. After exploring how these elements serve to reinscribe a Euro-derived musical imperialism, I will then explore possibilities of new technologies that can be brought to bear on music teaching and learning in order to move away from the current imperialist framework and provide space for the teaching and learning of various musical traditions. The promises and pitfalls of various pedagogical technologies will briefly be discussed include multicultural music education, Hess’ (2015) comparative musics model, and a local approach to music pedagogy.

ABSTRACT. Be-MUSIC – A Plurivocal Access to Belgian Musical Heritage is a joint project by the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Musical Instruments Museum in Belgium. By developing a new digital platform, the project will provide digital access to the museums’ musical instrument and audiovisual collections. One step is to create a new thesaurus to link the museums’ instrument collections and thereby improve their searchability. As translatable, controlled vocabularies, thesauri contain preferred terms for instrument names as well as synonyms and alternative names (including obsolete terms and alternative transliterations). This facilitates information retrieval within and among databases that uses them and ensures unambiguous search results. However, thesauri are unavoidably reductive and therefore need careful consideration. The project will evaluate, adapt and optimise current musical instrument thesauri, such as those used by both museums and the international reference thesaurus developed by MIMO (Musical Instrument Museums Online). An initial evaluation revealed that the current use of Western terminology in these thesauri needs to be challenged. For example, Western instrument names are regularly used as typological names for instruments across the world, solely based on morphological similarities and without distinguishing between the ‘correct’ and ‘typological’ use of the term. This Eurocentric approach is often misleading as it neglects emic conceptualisations of an instrument. Considering that the museums’ collections contain over 21.000 instruments from around the world, the new thesaurus will give particular attention to the correct representation of the instrument as they are named and understood in the communities from which they were collected. This paper will discuss some of the challenges faced and considerations made in the process of making a new thesaurus of musical instrument names.

ABSTRACT. The Chinese Korean ethnic group is one of China's minorities. Chinese Korean folk songs are rooted in their inherent traditions, evolving through cultural exchanges and integrations with Chinese music. Early Korean folk songs embody their traditional essence and characteristics,undergoinga transformation path of"inheritance-evolution-mutation," necessitated by musical cultural exchanges and symbiotic development. Their formation follows these patterns:1) Ethnic interactions involve inherent elements, migration, and dissemination, leading to the pursuit of commonalities amidst unique expressions within the psychological framework of original imagery. These interactions foster understanding of cross-cultural nuances through lyrics. 2) Musical Symbiosis showcases the incorporation of diverse musical elements, transcending traditional styles while preserving and enriching traditional elements, coexisting with new forms, highlighting musical diversity. 3) Characterized by integration and development,these songs retain their "natural instincts" and "universal laws" while actively embracing Chinese musical cultural intentions. Open cultural climates and harmonious exchanges foster the growth of a shared aesthetic value, blending with other musical cultures. 4) They embody the Chinese nation's pursuit of diversity within unity. As part of the vibrant Chinese musical landscape, Korean folk songs showcase interdependence, mutual support, and joint development among ethnic groups, reinforcing unity and confidence in Chinese culture. This shared psychological feature permeates creation, performance, and dissemination, underscoring the confidence in Chinese cultural heritage.

ABSTRACT. Folksongs are an integral part of the day to day lives of Africans, Nigerians inclusive. Its functionality cuts across every sphere of existence, and its significance can therefore not be over emphasized. Among its many functions is its ability to serve as a tool for transformation and reformation within societies and cultures. An analytical look at contemporary societal norms, values and peoples’ behavioral pattern, will suggest the need for a conscious attempt towards its re-engineering (transformation and reformation). Having this in mind, this article sought to explore the possibility of creating social change and transformation using Urhobo folk songs as catalyst. Data for this work was collected through interviews and document study and were analyzed. Findings from the analysis show that Urbobo folk songs are embedded with powerful materials that can be employed and utilized in a conscious attempt to cause societal transformation and reformation within the contemporary Nigerian society. Since Urhobo language is not generally understood by Nigerians, the researcher recommends that Urhobo folk songs be translated into English language for wider appeal and understanding. There is also the need for more visual and audio recordings of Urhobo folk songs, for documentation and preservation.

ABSTRACT. As a featured musical instrument existing along the Silk Road, pipa has provide us with two basic perspectives, that we could not only look into the the similarities of pipa-type instruments or lute in different traditions all over the Eurasia , but also can explore the differences constructed by local traditions at each node of the geographic space. Pipa in China has formed a modern-type which reached a point of professional manufacture and performance system over the past century. In this case, we could find that the so-called Chinese pipa seems became quite different on several aspects from those of the eastern and western ends of the silk road, which can be regard relatively as the thorough reconstruction at one hand, and has developed only one certain type of standardized pipa at another. However, what cannot be ignored are the folk pipa traditions among different places in China that still holds a large varieties such as Shanbei pipa, Sichuan&Gansu pipa, Shandong&Anhui pipa(liuqin), Yunnan pipa of Naxi peope, South Fujian pipa, etc.. This presentation aims to discuss how the local pipas maintaining their unique characteristics, which we could consider as the silk road tradition which still remains in China.

ABSTRACT. This study explores the cultural preservation, inheritance, and promotion practice of Hengchun folk songs from Taiwan under the context of contemporary globalized society. With first-hand experience and observation from ethnographic fieldwork, this study proposes a reflexive concept of women’s empowerment through Hengchun folk song musical, and offers an inclusive and innovative understanding of the musical activities and practices of the “old ladies”(insider’s vernacular for these female artists from the local area of Hengchun) who experienced a problematic historical trauma for women due to the patriarchal power structure at that time. From the local villages, to the whole of Taiwan, to the global stage of cross-cultural communication, this study focuses on these artists’ embodiment of their cross-boundary interpretation of “everydayness” and “artistry” in the form of women’s narratives via music. Providing an intercalibrated understanding of the methodologies for further research of ethnomusicology about cultural minority groups, and the practical application strategies for the transmission and promotion of intangible cultural heritage in contemporary society, this study also transcends the constraints on gender, age, ethnicity, and other stereotypes in previous research and performance practices, and brings the stories of these women who were once marginalized into an inclusive, reflective perspective and a reconfigured understanding of their multi-dimensionality for their roles in the progress of empowerment, not distinguished as “housewives” and “labors” in their daily lives and as “female artists” on the musical stage in the transformative process of Hengchun folk song.

ABSTRACT. The traditional performing arts of South Asia are commonly associated with the principles of rāga (monophonic melodic structure) and tāla (metric cycle), which inform numerous different types of classical, semi-classical, and folk music performance traditions across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Yet, the various Naga communities of the eastern Himalayan region have practised polyphonic contrapuntal singing without rāga/tāla concepts for centuries. Due to the Indo-Naga conflict that impeded ethnographic fieldwork in their territories for over five decades, ethnomusicological research on the stylistic characteristics of the manifold Naga vocal traditions is very scarce, with only three extant musical transcriptions of songs from the Angami Naga community, which were published over sixty years ago (Kauffmann and Schneider 1960, 73). This paper addresses the lacuna by discussing the stylistic complexities of polyphonic singing practices among western and southern Angami musicians from Khonoma and Viswema villages in western Nagaland, fifteen kilometres apart as the crow flies but separated by mountain ridges. As a result of their centuries-long existence as village polities, the two places exhibit cultural differences, contrasting language dialects, and highly localized music traditions whose distinct characteristics manifest in vocal style, nomenclature of vocal ranges and musical instruments, as well as other features. Thus, multipart singing from Khonoma tends to be solemn and rhythmically regular, whereas songs from Viswema have capricious, intricate rhythms, sometimes lacking clear metric structures. Notably, singers from Viswema distinguish between three vocal ranges whose names differ between the village’s four khels (clan-based subdivisions). Lastly, in both villages, different khels maintain distinct song repertoires. By discussing these aspects through music examples from archival and personal field recordings of groups from the two villages, my paper sheds light on how natural topography contributes to the diversity of living worlds, cultures, and performing arts among South Asian indigenous peoples.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the use of Igbo indigenous music as a tool to address contemporary issues emanating from the socio-political landscape in Nigeria. Igbo indigenous music is highlighted in this paper through the musical activities of one of the visually impaired minstrel groups in southeast Nigeria called the Umuobieze Singing Group. Minstrels, as we know, are travelling musicians who move from one location to the other using different folk songs that carry messages of social comment, education, and entertainment to express their musical talents and creativity. This paper adopts the descriptive method in discussing the primary data – selected songs by Umuobieze Singing Group - generated through ethnographic enquiry adopting the survey and interview methods respectively. Social criticism theory, however, forms the theoretical foundation for this paper. The textual analysis further compels this paper to investigate satirical comments by Igbo blind minstrels on contemporary issues in Nigerian politics using folk music. The randomly selected songs from the aforementioned Igbo minstrel include Okoro-Awusa, Obodo adigo-ime, and Naijiria aka go nka. Additionally, the paper looks at the impact of folk music and satire on Igbo culture and how it has been used to shape public opinion and serve as a vehicle for social and political commentaries. In the final analysis, the paper concludes that Igbo folk music is a powerful tool in the hands of musicians or minstrel groups in southeast Nigeria in challenging actions, and policies of administrations and representatives of government and also helps in addressing contemporary issues in the polity.

ABSTRACT. This presentation finds its theoretical grounding in the anthropology of the ontological turn as a project that consists of: (a) a theory of peoples’ ontological autodetermination and (b) a practice of the permanent decolonisation of thought” (Viverios de Castro, 2011, p. 128). The framework of Political ontology developed by Latin American social thinkers and anthropologists Escobar (2014), Blaser (2014) and de la Cadena recognises that anthropology has served the agendas of colonization, producing knowledge about non-European Others in ways that justify their political, economic, and epistemological domination, and stripped many communities globally of the authority to maintain the institutions and practices that sustain their worlds. As a Latin American doctoral student based in Aotearoa, I have found generative the framework of political ontology to make sense of the Māori struggles for self-determination, particularly in the field of education, through the push for a Māori medium education or Kura Kaupapa Māori. In this presentation, I draw briefly from an exchange with students from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rawhiti Roa to reflect on the power of waiata (song) to reclaim education as a space of ontological resistance, defying the ongoing deficit framing of Māori students while pushing for a relational and holistic overhaul of what education could and should be.

References

Blaser, M. (2014). Ontology and indigeneity: On the political ontology of heterogeneous assemblages. Cultural Geographies, 21(1), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474012462534 de la Cadena, M. (2010). Indigenous cosmopolitics in the Andes: Conceptual reflections beyond ‘politics.’ Cultural Anthropology, 25(2), 334–370. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01061.x Escobar, A. (2014). Sentipensar con la tierra: Nuevas lecturas sobre desarrollo, territorio y diferencia. UNAULA. http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/Colombia/escpos-unaula/20170802050253/pdf_460.pdf Viveiros de Castro, E. (2011). Zeno and the Art of Anthropology: Of Lies, Beliefs, Paradoxes, and Other Truths. Common Knowledge, 17(1), 128-145. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-2010-045

ABSTRACT. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress maintains the largest traditional music archive in the United States. The Center is part of the federal government’s national library, with a mandate to “preserve and present” traditional culture. Since 2015, the Center has been facilitating “Archive Challenges,” in which musicians are encouraged to learn a song or musical item from the archive, create their own arrangement or interpretation, and perform the result. Aquinnah Wampanoag singer and songwriter Thea Hopkins has participated in the Challenge twice. The first time (2022), she performed a song known as “Creek Lullaby,” which was recorded by ethnomusicologist Willard Rhodes from a young Indigenous girl at a boarding school in 1943. The second time (2023), she chose the old-time parlor song “Red Wing,” which was written in 1907 by white professional songwriters and often collected from oral tradition. She chose it expressly because it contained negative stereotypes of Native American women as shy, passive accessories to their “warrior bold” braves, valued primarily for their physical appearance. Hopkins rewrote the lyrics, employing her own research skills, creativity, and artistic agency to transform the song into a celebration of the talent, resourcefulness, and tenacity of Native American women as embodied by Lilian St. Cyr, the first Native American film actress. This presentation will illustrate Hopkins’s journey of reclaiming these songs, discussing the interface between Hopkins’s self-defined identity as a “Red Roots Americana” artist and the wider world of Americana, Singer/Songwriter music, and the folk music industry.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines popular music as media in shaping cultural and communicative memory with the ability to mobilize other media in mediating individual and collective memories. Its influence is explored through the medium of the mural, a specific form of street art, which in the multimodal network of cultural communication is in a convergent relationship with popular music in the shaping of memory practices. The observation of the influence of popular music in mnemonic, or memory-making, murals came from recent theoretical assumptions that speak of the convergence of media in the communication-cultural space and therefore the need for intermedial research of these cultural phenomena (Erll 2012, Brunow 2018, 2020, Pötzsch and Šisler 2019, Koch 2021, Majsova 2020). Recent work on memory politics in the former Yugoslavia indicates that new sites of memory are increasingly shifting away from traditional monumental forms and appearing as mnemonic murals that function as full-blown memorials (Pavlaković 2022). Our contribution uses critical discourse analysis to investigate the role that popular music plays in shaping murals as a medium of memory in the post-Yugoslav space. The paper brings innovative insights into the intermediate configurations and mnemonic strategies in the production of murals. The influence of popular music is highlighted as the dominant communicative-semiotic level of the message of the mural and is often present in murals depicting war themes from the 1990s. In principle, these are intermedial references that convey musical qualities to the murals in such a way that they evoke and imitate the elements and structures of the musical medium. The results of the analysis of the influence of popular music on the media qualities of murals offer a new experience of murals as a medium in the context of memory. The work presented is a result of research on the project Mnemonic Aesthetics and Strategies in Popular Culture (MEMPOP), which is based on recent knowledge about how popular-cultural content works and generates (socio-cultural and political) influence through different media.

ABSTRACT. In a May, 1930, column in the Connacht Sentinel, Dr. Thomas Patrick Gilmartin, Archbishop of Tuam, in Co. Galway, Ireland, made clear his views on the degradation of Irish music and dance in the face of imported “jazz” from the United States: “Must we admit, I ask you, that Irish dances have been discarded for what has been described as `mere sensuous contortions of the body timed to [N-word] music, a semi-barbaric music?’” Such racist characterizations of imported popular music were common at the time and used to assert moral control by Irish clergy, politicians, and cultural leaders. By the late-1950s, as Ireland’s popular music industry took shape with the emergence of showbands, overt African-American racism took a back seat to other types of ethnic and racist stereotyping, primarily aimed at Native American populations.

In this paper, I examine the historic representation of the “other” by those affiliated with Ireland’s popular music and dance scenes from 1930 to 1970. Drawing on newspaper accounts, images and lyrics from promotional and other printed materials, and stage routines, I argue that this engagement with harsh stereotypes served different purposes over time -- from racist depictions of the outsider as inherently threatening and dangerous to the wholesale appropriation of stereotyped images of the “other” as marketing strategies of commercial pop music.

ABSTRACT. The convergence of religion particularly Pentecostalism with popular culture remains a reference point in the discourse on popular arts in Africa. While much of the studies on Pentecostal popular culture in the continent have attempted to explain how music constitutes tangible and symbolic Christian practice, the significance of Pentecostal musicians particularly women in shaping Pentecostal popular culture is unknown. By opening up emerging perspectives on how women musicians constitute and contribute to the dynamics of religious popular culture, I map the ‘soundprints’ of women in Pentecostal popular culture in contemporary Nigeria. I used these ‘soundprints’ to illuminate the ways whereby women challenge and sustain normative religious and artistic practices while negotiating local and transnational Pentecostal popular cultural spaces. Through my observation and analysis of the artistic activities of selected female Pentecostal musicians, I argue that for a deeper understanding of Pentecostal popular culture in Nigeria, the intersections of gender, music, spirituality and mass culture should be adequately interrogated.

ABSTRACT. Originating from South Korea, Korean pop music, or K-pop, has become a global cultural phenomenon which has fascinated audiences with its extraordinary music videos, captivating performers, and mesmerizing choreography. K-pop first started to appear in Taiwan around the 1990’s and has become more popular and wide-spread. This has led Taiwanese students to learn popular K-pop choreography as a pastime. These amateur dancers can be found in many public spaces where they routinely practice after school to learn and perform dances popularized by their favorite K-pop idols and groups.

This project will look at the intersection of K-pop and Taiwanese culture, particularly the dance scene of Taiwanese students (junior high, high school, college age) in Taipei City that enjoy learning K-pop dances. This paper is divided into three parts; first, understanding what motivates Taiwanese students to engage in and practice K-pop dances; second, an analysis on what types of public space are utilized for their practices; and third, exploring how K-pop dancing has affected the cultural context of dance and socialization among Taiwanese youth.

To consider these points, this study will consist of personal participation, observation, and interviews to better understand the culture of K-pop dancing in Taipei City. Exploring why Taiwanese students enjoy learning K-pop choreography and where they practice will help to better understand the socio-cultural effect of Korean pop music on Taiwanese youth. Finally, this will emphasize the need for further research on popular dance in Taiwan as well as the shaping of identity among Taiwanese students.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the evolution of the dance form Sattriya Nritya also known as Sattriya Dance, India's eighth classical dance form, from its origins as a sacred ritual exclusive to Vaishnavite monks in Assam's Satras (monasteries) to its recognition as a classical art form in November 2000. This recognition followed nearly four decades of persistent efforts by the Assamese dance community, intellectuals and politicians, including the inclusion of female dancers into a traditionally male-dominated practice.

Today, Sattriya Nritya has moved from its original confines and is performed not only within the Satras but also on various proscenium stages across India and world. It has become a multi-faceted art form, serving as both an embodied ritual within the sacred space of the Satra and as a classical dance form for the stage. Moreover, it holds cultural significance, acting as an identity marker for both the Vaishnavite monks and the broader Assamese community.

Sattriya Nritya has garnered academic attention, it is being studied and taught in universities and educational institutes. This paper aims to analyze the journey of Sattriya Nritya through the lenses of continuity, change, tradition, and transition. It will trace the trajectory of the dance form from its origins in the religious space of the Satra to its adaptation and flourishing in the secular realm of the stage and beyond. The paper will observe the changes in movements and gestures, the changes in costumes and thematics that the form accepted and adapted in order to fit and exist in different spaces of performance. Through this exploration, it will highlight the resilience of the dance form and its practitioners as they navigate multiple spaces and contexts, ensuring its survival and growth.

ABSTRACT. This case study extends my previous research analysis on Chau dance. However, in this part, a detailed study examines how natural to-house core patterns impact Chau's dance vocabulary. In Chau's natural movement patterns, a movement is inspired by animals; in the household movement pattern, the movement is primarily inspired by rural men and women's daily essential works, such as farming, making spices in mortar and pestle, etc. Also, movements adore fighting moves based on Indian martial arts tradition. Chau, an Indian folk dance, holds the prestigious UNESCO World Heritage designation. Its unique mask* dance-theater form is distinguished by its energetic physicality rooted in animalistic movements and symbolic expression. As every dance is known by the dancer's initial body postures, Chau also has it, known as Chouk and open Tribhanga. In Chau, the stylized gait of the animals- Chaalis and Topakas, and some regular household chores and activities-Uflis have become part of Chau's movement vocabulary. The martial art stance is known as 'Parikhanda.' Though, as seen in many Indian (Classical) dances, Movements like Chaalis and Topakas, '…None of these functions or ideas are suggested through hand gestures or Hastabhinaya characteristic of other dance style.' (Vatsyayan) Chau dance embodies human and natural elements intertwined within its physical and socio-cultural environment. Given its ancient tribal roots, closely aligned with nature, this case study delves into the reciprocal influences between human social activities, innate human characteristics, animal movements, and natural patterns on Chau dance. This paper aims to unravel the intricate relationship between humans, nature, and this traditional dance form by analyzing, decoding, and tracing its movement vocabulary and organic form.

ABSTRACT. In the ethnomusicological and ethnochoreological landscape of Southern Italy there are traditional contexts that are still extremely vital today, whose practices are perpetuated through different expressions of the body. The methods of transmission are multiple: from the one-to-one relationship to the one-to-many relationship, the dynamics of learning through imitation can take on forms that range from observation of the master dancer in his direct practice, to active participation in the context collective of a ritual practice, to the sharing performance segments on online audiovisual platforms. The bodies and embodied knowledges play a key role into creative practice, research and learning in different traditional contexts during family or religious celebrations. Among the research I have carried out and presented here there is direct learning in traditional dance workshops, such as the tarantella, taught by expert practitioners who configure the typology according to the territorial and cultural contexts. A second modality is represented by the transmission of forms and models of musical and dance expressions - such as contraddanza or tarantella - during various kinds of celebrations in which the learning process through observation and imitation constitutes an apprenticeship extended over the time for progressive improvement. Finally, there is an innovative context of individual expression and learning of traditional practices acted out and enjoyed through short videos spread especially among the younger generations: on Tiktok there are music videos that document individual and collective performances of traditional music and dances, and which are identified by hashtags. The overview proposed here intends to offer an example of how traditional musical and dance practices are actively transmitted and shared still in the third millennium, both in the more "traditional" live interactions and in online communication and learning environments where the replication of different dynamic forms typical of the "real spaces" of the ritual.

ABSTRACT. I am a Colombian migrant researcher in Mexico, and from that position I look for and analyze the musical meanings of the sound objects of my native culture around the cumbia and vallenato music of the place where I currently live (Olmos, 2012). In the same sense, I am a performing musician, and from that position I seek to get involved in the objects of study through broad methodologies of research and participatory action. These genres, cumbia and vallenato, are my own and foreign at the same time because they are those that I remember from my childhood, but they are also transformed genres.

Although there is a field (Bourdieu, 1990) where cumbia and vallenato in Monterrey - Mexico develop and operate within multiple social spaces such as culture, politics and the economy (Blanco, 2012), these are not fully recognized and situated within the idea of city or society, and are not part of the symbol of local or regional cultural identity. (Olvera, 2005)

The objective is to present an approach to cumbia and Colombian vallenato in the geographical and socio-cultural context of Monterrey, first from my empirical experience of living in the city. Second, present the bibliographic review that I can access, and finally, conclude with an analysis of how two dimensions of culture and society operate: identity and migration.

References

Blanco, Darío. (2012) “Sobre bandas colombianas, la radio y los saludos en Monterrey. Jóvenes, su agrupación y el reconocimiento mediático vía cumbia”. En Músicas Migrantes, la movilidad artística en la era global.

Bourdieu, Pierre. (1990) “Sociología y Cultura”.

Finnegan, Ruth. 2008. “Senderos en la vida urbana”, en Las culturas musicales. Lecturas de etnomusicología (2da Edición). Cruces, Francisco y otros eds. Madrid: Editorial Trotta: 437-474. Frith, Simon. 2011. “Música e identidad”, en Cuestiones de identidad cultural. (2da Edición). Hall, Stuart y Paul Du Gay eds. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu Editores: 181-213. Hall, Stuart. 2011. “Introducción: ¿quién necesita identidad?”, en Cuestiones de identidad cultural (2da Edición). Hall, Stuart y Paul Du Gay eds. Buenos Aires: Amorrortu Editores: 13-39

--- (1996). “Codificar/Decodificar”, Culture, Media, Language. Working Papers in Cultural Studies.

Mendivil, Julio. (2019). “En contra de la música”.

Olmos, Miguel. (coord). (2012). “Antropología de la migración musical”. En Músicas Migrantes, la movilidad artística en la era global.

Olvera, Juan. (2020). “La cumbia en el noreste mexicano”

--- (2005) “Colombianos de Monterrey. Origen de un gusto musical y su papel en la contrucción de una identidad social.”.

Pelinski, Ramón. 2000. “Homología, interpelación y narratividad en los procesos de identificación por medio de la música”, en Invitación a la etnomusicología. Quince fragmentos y un tango. Madrid: Ediciones Akal: 163-175.

Ragland, Cathy. (2009). “Música Norteña”.

Vila, Pablo. 2001. “Música e identidad: La capacidad interpeladora y narrativa de los sonidos, las letras y las actuaciones musicales”, en Ochoa, Ana María y Alejandra Cragnolini (coords.) Músicas en transición. Bogotá, Colombia: Ministerio de Cultur

ABSTRACT. Musical change and its relationship with social changes is a topic of interest within the ethnomusicological field. In the case of traditional musical practices in complex societies, the changes are eventually accompanied by tensions between "tradition vs. modernity" concerning the assimilation of foreign musical elements by musicians linked to traditional practices, or the appropriation of traditional musical traits by musicians external to the respective culture. I propose to consider the analysis of tensions surrounding musical changes in complex societies using the sociology of translation. From this perspective, the idea of translation is linked to a double aspect: i) displacement or induction of actors of different natures to coexistence; ii) someone express in their own language what others want, establishing themselves as spokespersons (Callon, 1986, p. 18-19). In the same theoretical framework, the term refers to "a connection that carries [...] transformations" and "a relationship that does not carry causality, but induces mediators to coexistence" (Latour, 2012, p. 160). According to this premise, spokespersons would be actors who delineate a group and speak for its existence. Moving away from the analytical grid centered on the individual/society dichotomy, this approach is interested in social dynamics that lead entities to get involved, attributing and stabilizing identities to the different entities associated in a network. With some analytical tools from this theoretical contribution, I propose a brief incursion into the first years of development and stabilization of bossa nova in Brazil. I try to demonstrate the modulation of the positions of actors linked to it, the change in the attribution of values to musical traits that came to define the new movement, and disputes concerning authority over the use of the term "bossa nova" by neophyte musicians initially identified with it who were soon banished from the practice.

ABSTRACT. This paper is a methodological reflection on the historical research within the ethnomusicological realm. Ethnomusicologists, having long been concentrating on the “ethnographic present,” now more or less incorporate historical investigations into their research and pedagogy. The term “historical ethnomusicology” has been widely embraced within the English academia.

Nonetheless, the exact connotation and denotation of this sub-discipline remain ambiguous. By examining all literature involving “historical ethnomusicology” with the aid of “the archaeology of knowledge,” this article first argues that the development of this sub-field has not followed a straight, linear trajectory. Instead, due to “misreadings” (in Harold Bloom’s words) among scholars, it has gradually deviated from its theoretical starting point set by K. Shelemay. Such “Misreadings” and deviations, spawned either by scholars’ own theoretical standpoints or by theoretical trends in the macroscopic ethnomusicological field, have led “historical ethnomusicology” to ramify into multiple intellectual paradigms. Throughout this evolution, there is also a potential for “historical ethnomusicology” to dissolve into parent disciplines.

Furthermore, the paper notes that the perspectives used to probe the topic “subjectivity of historical construction” differ significantly between “historical ethnomusicology” and historical investigations in ethnomusicology without this sub-disciplinary label. This phenomenon illuminates their overarching methodological disparities when studying the musical past: the latter sometimes draws on the methods provided by Hobsbawm’s “invention of tradition,” whereas the former, “historical ethnomusicology,” rarely exhibits this tendency and leans more towards conventional historical thinking, attaching importance to unearthing historical facts. Then this paper uses “historical anthropology,” a discipline in which “invention of tradition” is also a crucial watershed delineating the sub-disciplines, as a reference. This study then suggests that focusing more on the original theoretical point paved by Shelemay might help preserve the independence of “historical ethnomusicology” and clarify its boundaries.

ABSTRACT. Constructing the links between Yucatan´s popular culture and the local indigenous Mayan past was a systematic process carried on by the cultural and economic elite classes around the mid-19th century to the early 20th (Reyes, 2003; Pinkus, 2005). In both cult and popular cultural spheres, musical and theatrical channels aided with the transmission of a socio-political conciliator discourse that unified the different social and ethnic groups in the Peninsula. This dynamic shaped the so-called “Mestiza Yucateca” stereotype, who dances and sings in Cuban popular genres, such as Guaracha, and the musical genre “Evocación Maya” (Ramírez-Uribe, 2020; 2022). Such cultural products didn’t reflect the social reality that shaped the division of race and class in Yucatan, in which the Mayan communities suffered exploitation in the local Haciendas and also the indigenous resistance and rebel movement called “Guerra de Castas.” Thus, I take the work of three local “urban-cultural elite” composers to assess how “Mayan” or “Mestizo” elements were used: 1) José Jacinto Cuevas: Miscelánea Yucateca (1868); 2) Cirilo Baqueiro “Chan Cil:” La Mestiza (ca. 1895); Guty Cárdenas: Yucalpetén (1931). To do so, I use a methodological approach named “Polyvalent Appropriation-Retransmission of the Symbol,” which links: a) Music Semiology (Vila, 1996; Martí, 1996; Meyer, 2001; López-Cano, 2007); b) Microhistory (González, 1968; Ginzburg, 1991); c) Cultural History (Burke, 2000); d) Subaltern Studies (Gramsci, 1986 [1932]; Spivak, 1998). This theoretical tool identifies musical-cultural elements, usually from subaltern groups, and how they can be taken, reinterpreted, and retransmitted as new cultural products with different meanings within the hegemonic channels (such as art, music, and theater).

ABSTRACT. In this presentation, I examine the music of a very popular Maskandi artist, Phuzekhemisi. Maskandi is a neo traditional Zulu genre with a guitar playing lead singer, a few backing singers and sometimes with concertina accompaniment. Characteristically, the lead singer is also the guitar player who starts each song with an improvisatory flourish called Izihlabo, followed by a chanted, praise poetry section called Izibongo, followed by singing and dancing in call and response pattern.

Contents of these songs vary. Typically, they deal with current socio-political issues, history, heritage and familial/personal identity. Thus, this presentation examines selected songs of Phuzukhemisi and assess their relevance in the social and political make up of South Africa since he came to the scene in 1987. I want to suggest that these songs function as palimpsests on which are inscribed and can be used to map changing realities in South African social and political life. Further, I examine how Phuzukhemisi expresses his selfhood and identity and thus, his place as an artistin the world.

ABSTRACT. Music has the incredible capacity to encapsulate memory and fuel movements that change the course of history. It is no wonder it is often at the heart of political and economic discourse. Songs are used to tell stories, recount histories, relive moments from the past, and define moments in the present. Additionally, they are used as a tool for social cohesion and identity formation. This paper presents the story of a song from the Mau Mau movement which fueled the fight for freedom in Kenya and showcases how the post-independence regime in Kenya appropriated it to propagate the regime’s agenda to efface and distort history through the motto “Forgive and Forget.”

Using the song Mwene Nyanga, recorded by Kwame Rigii, I showcase the song’s resilience in maintaining history despite the pressures from the Government to propagate social amnesia. I highlight elements of music and sound that encode meaning that transcends written text. Furthermore, I explain how the composer uses the song to articulate a dense and layered identity that is both indigenous and global, ethnic, and modern, rural and urban, as well as past and present. Additionally, I explore how Kwame Rígíí appropriates the song to articulate a contemporary urban identity that embraces its indigeneity in a postcolonial and global space.

ABSTRACT. 2023 marked the 70th anniversary of the ceasefire of the Korean War. Chinese anti-American songs from the 1950s were performed and broadcast through state-run media and social media in China to commemorate such a special event. Known in China as the “War to Resist the US and Assist Korea” (hereafter WRUAK), the Korean War was the very first international conflict involving the newly founded People’s Republic of China (PRC). Therefore, Chinese songs associated with the Korean War are a crucial part of the PRC’s special musical memories of the past. Drawing upon my ethnographic research concerning the Chinese audience and singers (including several Chinese veterans of the WRUAK) of anti-American songs, this paper analyzes the new appropriation of anti-American songs from China’s protean mobilization for the WRUAK in the present day. After constructing the historical context of Maoist attitudes toward music and exploring various models for Chinese revolutionary songs, the paper arrives at the Korean War via an analysis of song tunes and texts from the Chinese home front during the 1950s, emphasizing the role of devil imagery in anti-American song propaganda. From student amateurs to conservatory-trained cultural workers, song composers, and contemporary music arrangers used music and lyrics to satirize China’s American enemies, suggesting that Chinese songs from the Korean War extend beyond buoyant patriotism, evoking past trauma and pride of “hard-won victory”.

ABSTRACT. Philippine democracy is facing a severe crisis. In 2022, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was elected president of the Philippines. Prior to the election, social media campaigns portrayed the dictatorship period as the "golden age" of Philippine history. This historical revisionism glosses over the fact that the rule of the dictator was marked by severe human rights violations such as imprisonment, torture, and killing of suspected political opponents. Revisionism feeds on and fuels widespread “authoritarian nostalgia” (Webb 2017), a longing for the perceived stability and prosperity of the authoritarian past.

Musicians have frequently responded to this rewriting of history, showing that popular music constitutes a significant arena for negotiating memories and historical narratives of the dictatorship. My presentation inquires into one such instance, the song "Dekada 70," released in 2022 by musician and producer Zild Benitez. Drawing on participant observation in Metro Manila, an interview with the musician, and music analysis, I explore music as a means to critically engage with problematic representations of the Philippines’ authoritarian past. I will focus on three key aspects: First, I will illustrate how the aesthetic choice of genre can be employed to musically engage with authoritarian nostalgia. Second, I examine how the song subverts “golden age myths,” remediating collective memories of the dictatorship that sharply contrast the sanitized narratives. Lastly, I will zoom into the song’s temporal regimes to reveal how "Dekada 70" conveys the idea of history repeating itself and in doing so functions as a reminder of the atrocities of the past dictatorship and warns against their possible recurrence. Integrating perspectives from ethnomusicology, memory studies, and political sciences, my presentation aims to contribute to the larger question of music’s role in the writing and re-writing of the past.

ABSTRACT. In the aftermath of a natural disaster like an earthquake, communities face numerous challenges, including the restoration of normalcy and the revitalization of educational systems. Hatay, a region known for its rich cultural heritage and long historical significance, experienced a devastating earthquake in February 2023. This has profoundly impacted all of its infrastructure, including educational institutions and practices.

In this context, the revitalization of music education in post-earthquake Hatay presents a unique opportunity to explore creative approaches that can not only restore but also enhance the educational experience for students in the region. This project examines improvisation workshops by seasoned musicians to container schools in the area affected by the earthquake, nurturing the musical talents of youth, enhancing their cognitive development, fostering creativity, and promoting resilience.

Working in such settings requires innovative approaches that go beyond traditional pedagogical methods to support creativity, healing, and community cohesion among students in the region (cf Barrett, 2006). In this presentation I will share the outcomes of developing three ‘music generation workshops’ that were conducted in 2024 by MiRAS Centre for Cultural Sustainability as a Phase 1 Project with 250 students at container village schools in Hatay: Hatay Bedii Sabuncu Fine Art High School, Dr. Mustafa Gencay Primary and Saraycik Secondary School.

The purpose of this research is to build frameworks that support a sustainable relationship between practical abilities and artistic musical endeavors for students. It also aims to broaden understanding of the ways in which instructors and trainers can incorporate creative thinking into their teaching strategies in other areas affected by natural or manmade disasters.

ABSTRACT. In summer 2020, amidst the global Covid-19 pandemic and a resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests spurred by the death of George Floyd in May of that year, I made a personal commitment to decentering whiteness in my pedagogy and integrating justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion practices into my work as an academic and community advocate. As the lone ethnomusicologist in a largely traditional department of music, I focused my energy on the development of a visiting artist series highlighting the work of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) musicians, performers, and scholars. Created with the intent to provide space for difficult and necessary conversations, the series has grown to encompass residencies that provide multiple points of contact with our university community.

Building on the ideas that representation and knowledge production matters (especially in traditionally white spaces like music buildings and performance halls), the series has grown from virtual sessions (10 separate, stand alone events during AY 2020/2021) to multi-day interdisciplinary artist residencies that engage music and activism with curricular and developmental intention. Now in its 4th year, the series averages 3-4 artist residencies per academic year with a range of artist-scholar-activists that have included ensembles, pedagogues, hip hop artists, DJs, spoken word artists, avant garde electronic musicians, dancers, and composers. In this presentation, I present the ways I’ve embedded this series into our curriculum as a way to create space for a plurality of voices, approaches, and perspectives.

ABSTRACT. Access Folk is a 5-year research project that brings together a team of ethnomusicologists with artists, audiences, arts professionals, and grassroots organisers to explore ways of increasing and diversifying participation in England’s folk singing scene. Research that relies on collaborative approaches to knowledge production and participatory methodologies has become increasingly common in ethnomusicology over the last twenty years (e.g., Diamond & Castelo-Branco 2021). But while we recognise the value of such approaches at a disciplinary level, we are not always effective in translating that knowledge outside of the academy – of finding effective communication channels for sharing back new knowledge with our interlocutors so that it can be mobilised for change. This paper interrogates existing approaches to information sharing and explores strategies employed by Access Folk for effectively disseminating the results with and beyond our research partners, to reach the community(s) that our project is intended to serve. The research team will introduce Access Folk and reflect on change goals, project design and co-production principles as a foundation for a more generalised discussion of sharing findings, strategies and challenges for effective partnerships with stakeholders, and the ethics of pursuing a change agenda.

ABSTRACT. This presentation presents findings of the multinational research project “Sounding Good”—involving nine Collaborators and six case studies across five continents—that explores the interplays between music, cultural sustainability, and matters of social justice. In a refugee camp in the harsh Algerian desert, people come together to sing old and new songs about everyday life in the camps, their nostalgia for their Western Saharan homeland, and their hopes for the future. In a university class in Brazil, students learn songs, dances, and stories from a senior Indigenous culture-bearer—the first time these cultural practices have been welcomed into formal tertiary education. In Cambodia, a “magic music bus” chugs through rural provinces, joyfully returning traditional music to people and places from which it had nearly disappeared due to genocide and its aftermath. Through these cases, and others from Vanuatu, India, and Australia, “Sounding Good” traverses a range of pressing contemporary social concerns—from forced migration, educational equity, and poverty to matters of racial, cultural, and climate justice. In this presentation, drawing on these six cases, I contend that strong and sustainable cultural practices can advance the cause of social justice, and vice versa. Understanding these interrelationships is more important than ever. Not only will it help musicians and other artists, communities, scholars, and cultural agencies in local and global efforts to protect and promote the rich diversity of musical practices around the world; it will also enhance our prospects of an equitable and thriving world, now and into the future.

ABSTRACT. Small group tasks have been valued within tertiary dance education, to prepare students for the collaborative creative environment of 21st century workplaces. Within culturally diverse classrooms however, these tasks can also present a location in which negative intercultural attitudes emerge, impacting cultural inclusion within group innovation. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews, this phenomenological study therefore explores international students’ reflections on cultural exclusion within small-group choreographic tasks. Focusing on how learners encounter cultural inequities through how the task is managed by the group, and how status and cultural knowledge are perceived within the group, their voices vividly reveal embodied and verbalized expressions of cultural exclusion. This emphasizes the significance of intercultural competence within small group tasks and presents a mandate for educators to further examine how such tasks may require sophisticated intercultural facilitation competencies from the teacher, so as to establish more equitable collaborative platforms within culturally diverse classrooms.

ABSTRACT. In the contemporary context of globalisation, our world is rapidly shrinking as technological advancements and increased travel foster deeper connections among diverse cultures. This interaction has been slow to permeate the fields of Western classical music and tertiary music education. The imperative to diversify these domains has gained recent momentum, increasingly influencing the messaging and policies of administrative institutions. In this presentation, I outline my response to this evolving situation as a practice-led researcher and teacher at an Australian music conservatory. I argue that the “liquification” (Bauman 2012) of culture in modernity has created unprecedented opportunities to establish links between “solid” musical practices that have survived to maintain collective identity in an age of anomie. I then explore how intercultural musical dialogue as a praxis within the contemporary conservatory has the potential to liberate our conceptions of classical music from the hegemony of European musical frameworks. I discuss how my creative collaborations with Chinese instrumentalists have been characterised by moments of self-doubt and questioning, and then explore the strategies I employ to avoid the opposing traps identified by philosopher Fred Dallmayr (2002): appropriation on the one hand, and self-abandonment on the other. I demonstrate how my teaching practice too has evolved to incorporate dialogical principles of intercultural education that move us “beyond passive coexistence” (UNESCO 2006), introducing a comparative solfège module developed in collaboration with a Persian classical musician. Drawing on my own reflections, as well as those of the individuals I collaborated with during these instances of intercultural music engagement, I propose guidelines for facilitating interactions between musical cultures that are mutually beneficial, ethically responsible, and contribute to the democratisation of musical knowledge.

ABSTRACT. This paper delves into the dynamics of intercultural exchange and practical learning in multicultural music education, with a focus on the World Music Performance Courses at the Central Conservatory of Music (including courses on Indonesian Gamelan and Dance, Indian Tabla Drumming, Sitar Playing, and Dance, Iranian Ensemble and Singing, and Korean Gayageum and Pansori Singing). Drawing upon key theories of intercultural education and cultural contact, and employing a case study methodology, it examines how students engage with diverse musical traditions through performance-based learning, navigate cultural differences, and develop intercultural competence through practical performance. By exploring the experiences and perspectives of both students and instructors, this paper offers insights into the challenges and opportunities of multicultural music education in contemporary society, and proposes recommendations for enhancing intercultural exchange and practical learning in music curricula.

ABSTRACT. Chinese immigrants have a deep-rooted history in the United States, notably during the mid-19th century and the California Gold Rush era. Despite this enduring presence, Chinese musicians and their traditions have faced challenges integrating fully into academic musical spaces in the U.S. These obstacles arise from historical biases, cultural barriers, and the limited representation of Chinese music in mainstream music education curricula. Consequently, Chinese music encounters difficulties in gaining recognition and acceptance within academic circles, emphasizing the ongoing necessity for inclusivity and diversity in music education. The establishment of the first Chinese Music Ensemble at the University of Northern Illinois in the 1970s marked a significant shift, pioneering the advancement of Chinese musical traditions within academia. Subsequently, there has been a noticeable rise in Chinese music ensembles across various universities and music schools in the United States. Building upon the historical struggles and advancements of Chinese music integration in academic settings in the United States, this paper explores effective pedagogical strategies for teaching Chinese music ensembles. Drawing from my experiences as the director of the University of Georgia's Chinese Music Ensemble in the last two years, I will discuss challenges related to instrumentation, repertoire selection, and community engagement. These challenges stem from historical biases, cultural barriers, and the limited representation of Chinese music in mainstream music education curricula.

ABSTRACT. The Mah Meri, one of the 18 indigenous groups collectively known as the Orang Asli, live in village settlements nestled between oil-palm plantations in Carey Island, Malaysia. These areas were once mangrove forests rich in the native flora and fauna of Malaysia. As development and modernization impinge on their lifestyle and livelihood, the Mah Meri children bear the brunt of these changes. Living in a period of transition, the children are caught between indigenous enculturation and modern education systems. Finding no footing on either, they begin to stray toward playing video games and exploring social media to occupy their time and energy. Even as the 5th Industrial Revolution dawns upon humanity, the Mah Meri children are still struggling to find their place and identity. This paper presents ongoing results of collaborative workshops between culture bearers and researchers designed to teach future required skills through musical heritage activities among the Mah Meri children. Utilizing the Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology, researchers integrate the 6Cs—creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, citizenship, and character in the learning of Mah Meri music heritage. This paper contends that the first three (3) skills come naturally to the Mah Meri children. This paper contends that the first three (3) skills come naturally to the Mah Meri children. On the other hand, the latter three skills—critical thinking, character, and citizenship—demand greater proficiency in reading and writing, necessitating more time and effort.

ABSTRACT. CEMPER is the cultural heritage institution/organisation for music and performing arts in Flanders. Funded by the Flemish government, we implement Flanders’ and UNESCO’s (intangible) policies in our domain. In this post-modern framework we try to establish sustainable relationships with heritage bearers and communities in order to understand their needs for safeguarding their practices. During 2021-2024, we collaborated in the project ‘Focus Craftsmanship’, a project of 9 partners active in the Flemish Intangible Heritage field with the aim to audiovisually document craftmanship in order to prevent this knowledge and skills to disappear. Based on 10 test cases, the project developed a methodology and toolbox for documenting crafts through audiovisual means. The toolbox shows how every function of safeguarding requires a different approach of video making. CEMPER was responsible for one test case. We collaborated with a professional video to document the knowledge and skills of a hurdy-gurdy builder in order to transmit this craft of instrument making to a new audience. This resulted in more than 3O hours of video material in which the builder explains in multiple tutorial-like videos how to build the instrument from a to z, divided in almost 30 chapters. These videos will be available at our YouTube channel and will have subtitles, both in Flemish and in English, so that also international transmission is possible. Analysing the process of documenting and filming in this particular case-study of hurdy-gurdy building, this presentation will discuss and show some results of the project. The presenter will address how heritage professionals were needed in order to overcome certain challenges in documenting such a complex and evolving craft.

ABSTRACT. Interpretation and narration of historical events necessitate careful ethical considerations to balance between maintaining academic rigour and addressing the concerns of the relevant communities. This, being the guiding principle of my work, has also posed a significant challenge in my study of the early-twentieth-century musical activities of Chinese communities in New Zealand. Although my thesis is historical, it carries present-day implications, as it is dependent on the valued artefacts (musical instrument, publication, manuscripts, etc.) cherished by the older New Zealand-Chinese communities today, who are the descendants of the historical Cantonese-speaking diasporas my work explores. These objects are central to their cultural identity; consequently, their preferences regarding the historical narrative surrounding them warrant serious consideration. However, their perspective on how New Zealand-Chinese history should be presented differs markedly from mine. They seek to challenge a historical narrative in New Zealand that often marginalises Chinese contributions, preferring an analysis that situates their ancestors within a nation-state that imprints unique social and political contours onto their 'Chinese-ness'. Yet, my historian perspective prefers a viewpoint that considers historical Chinese migrants' New Zealand experiences alongside transnational elements and extra-local connections that shaped their music activities, and cultural, social, and political identities. Although the disparity in these narratives poses difficulties primarily concerning the potential impact of my research on the community, a reflexive approach has reminded me of my ethical responsibilities as a researcher. In this paper, by considering the personal, academic, and societal tensions, I unpack this dilemma and navigate potential strategies forward.

ABSTRACT. Rebetiko is a historical urban popular musical genre around and during the interwar period, associated with Greek populations within a broad cosmopolitan space including the contemporaneous Greek state, the Ottoman Empire, the USA, etc. Demonstrating polystylism under the influence of various music cultures related to Turks, Italians, Jews, Balkan peoples, etc., rebetiko exhibits blurred content and periodisation also due to its diverse commercial meanings. Several musico-cultural trajectories of rebetiko-related protagonists and of their creations which resulted in musico-culturally amalgamated phenomena have not received so much attention in research. In this regard, beyond ethnocentric considerations and the hegemonism of the East-West dichotomy analysing/interpreting rebetiko from stereotypical and ideologically charged perspectives, my focus is on the musico-cultural diversity of rebetiko and mobile agents who contributed to its development. In my paper, I shed light on the musico-cultural routes of Ioannis Eitzirides (1893-1942) (aka Yovan Tsaous), an influential rebetiko-related personality from Ottoman Kastamonu near the Anatolian Black Sea coast, and I explicate one of his rebetiko recordings in Athens (1936) entitled “O Katadikos” [The Convict] whose tune originates from his birth land. This case study is conducted from a historical ethnomusicological perspective including musical analysis and employing the Foucauldian concept of heterotopia as an analytical tool. I argue that Tsaous essentially introduced a musico-stylistic heterotopia as an expression of idiosyncrasy and in-betweenness within rebetiko performing with a unique bouzouki-like instrument called ‘tambouri’ which resembles the Ottoman saz. Drawing attention on such unmentioned historical and musico-cultural affinities, I endeavour to deconstruct the pertinent ethnocentric and ideological-cultural narratives in rebetiko discourse wherein phenomena of cosmopolitanism, mobility, intertextuality, and musical amalgamation are neglected or viewed stereotypically at best.

ABSTRACT. The European zither and the repertoire of music in Viennese "Heurigen" (wine taverns) have come to the attention of a wider public since the 1949 black-and-white film classic "The Third Man" and its film music, played exclusively by zither soloist Anton Karas. Since the development from the Kratzzither (drone instrument) to the Schlagzither (chromatic instrument) in the early 19th century, the zither had a hard time competing on the European music market, which is dominated by Western classical art music. Folk music researcher Walter Deutsch points out the "often underestimated" importance of the zither today (2010). While the zither in standard tuning has increased its status through the performance of various art music genres and has been able to establish itself in academic music circles, the zither in Viennese tuning and zither performances with Heurigen repertoire are marginalized and barely represented in today's concert and music life. Since 2017, the zither in Viennese tuning has been promoted as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria. Hopes for a revival are high. However, the sustainability of performances of Heurigen music explicitly with zither has not yet been significantly strengthened. I would like to investigate and explore the musical identity of a "Viennese" zither in an interdisciplinary approach based on theories of applied ethnomusicology, ethnographic and cultural-historical research and historically informed performance practice. Two selected case studies in practical artistic experiments will be used to reflect on the identity of Viennese zither music practice. In addition to a critical examination of entrenched political narratives in relation to National Socialist connotations of zither tunings and UNESCO cultural heritage activism, the focus in sound and performance practice as a work in progress is placed on various identity-forming elements (such as musical, historical, social) for lively zither playing.

ABSTRACT. African Pianism remains one of most outstanding academic approach and iconic cultural contributions to the development of African music. A concept accredited to Akin Euba, which explores how the performance styles and cultural functions in African traditional music and instruments can be (re)expressed and (re)interpreted in art music through the Western pianoforte. Although African pianism has aided the development of African art and piano music, nonetheless most scholars have written more on its function in art and piano music composition and performance than its contributions to traditional music and instruments studies. The crux of this research is to examine the African pianism as an alternative method of creating and sharing indigenous musical knowledge production. This follows the contemporary educational initiative and advocacy for innovating alternative research, teaching, and dissemination practices in the field of African traditional music and dance studies. This study, thus, aims at promoting traditional music and instruments’ styles and performance, since the African pianism’s concepts and techniques were derived from such traditional instruments like the xylophones, membranophones, and particularly lamellaphones to which the àgídìgbo (a Yorùbá ‘box-piano’) belongs. Data were gathered from àgídìgbo players, àpàlà musicians, and bibliographical sources. The study revealed the distinct musical and extra-musical performance techniques and practices employed on the àgídìgbo and in the music, which can be conceptualized through the African pianism approach. It therefore pursues new and alternative approaches in addressing the transformative possibilities and implications of working with diverse knowledge productions towards fostering greater knowledge inclusivity within the academia.

ABSTRACT. In 2017, I was gifted with instruments that had been collected from different parts of Africa between the late 1960s to early 2000s by renowned hymnist, arts educator and cellist Mary Oyer (1923-2024). More than half of the nearly 80 instruments were lamellaphones of different sizes, styles, and number of lamella. Prof. Oyer collected instruments that had been played, not merely those found in tourist shops or in folkloristic displays. Prof. Oyer’s gift brought to the fore that while non-western music instruments have been integral artifacts in public and private museums as tangible displays of the sonic imaginary, their performance possibilities are often muzzled and/or frozen. In this presentation, I theorize on the ingenious utility of the lamellaphone by the communities that employed them, to curate a list of known pieces but also hammer out personal musical ideas as precursor of contemporary music play lists and/or avenue for experimentation– including the making the instrument itself. On the other hand I will trouble the fascination, representation and classification of instruments from Africa and its diaspora – more specifically the lamellaphone- as a factor in the tussle between the calls to preserve(in)tangible cultural heritage on one hand and the adoption of Western European models of music education in schools that often result in the shelving or devaluation of the said heritage. In addition to the historical and visual literature on lamellaphones, I will draw artifactual data from the Oyer collection and from instrument museums and archives in Europe, the US, and Eastern Africa.

ABSTRACT. Cultural heritage is a strong indicator of social diversity in the creative industry and society at large. The preservation and sharing of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, are important courses of action to the sustainability of global cultures. This research paper adheres to the principles of musical sustainability as proposed by Jeff Todd Titon (2009) through diversity, interconnectedness and stewardship of Asian musical practices in Europe. This research also places emphasis on visual stimulus to evoke a form of what Marianne Hirsch (2008) calls “post-memory” among the younger generation of musicians and listeners, subscribing to knowledge building and communal inclusivity.

A group of elderly women musicians in Eindhoven, Netherlands have been performing the angklung, a traditional Indonesian instrument, for almost twenty years. But no one else has heard about them. How can digital preservation be used as a catalyst to activate global heritage? To supplement the institution of the museum, the video documentary is used as audiovisual apparatuses to bring the cultural artefacts, such as Asian performing arts in Europe, to audiences around the world. After a century of the ethnographic documentation from postcards to world expositions, the researcher and filmmaker hope to elicit performance memories through video history.

Postcolonial history has shown the different types of migration and repatriation of both the Asian and European people in the twentieth century. But few documentaries or films feature the lives of Indo-Europeans in comparison. This initiative aims to showcase the diversity of ethnicities and ages in Europe through a video documentary. The practice-based research involves making a video documentary of Indonesian musical practices with Dutch-Javanese filmmakers, Jeffrey Salimin and Melvin Toemin. The theme of this documentary will be memory recollection of musical performance in 2008-2018 by elderly Indo-Dutch women. The film is produced and funded by the researcher himself.

ABSTRACT. In every composition, the latent structures of both music (dhātu) and text (mātu or sāhitya) are intrinsically interconnected. It is only when the two are organized within a precise aesthetic framework by a composer, the composition becomes a vehicle of expression. Therefore, every composition can be analyzed as a multimodal semiotic system from the point of view of music alone, text alone, and music and text together. Composers will have to make several aesthetic decisions to organize music and text such as doubling, halving, and substitution of one prosodic meter with another, usage of metric accents and melodic accents to minimize the musical and prosodic phraseological gaps and enhance the overall singability of the text. This ubiquitous exercise of setting music to text is called text-setting. There are broadly three types of text-settings namely syllabic setting (each syllable is assigned a note), melismatic setting (a syllable is assigned more than one note) and isochronic setting (syllables are repeated in regular intervals without any constraints on the number of notes in each interval). In my paper, I will be discussing how Saint Tyāgarāja treats the explicit interactions between music and text in his first Pancaratna kṛti jagadānandakāraka set to rāga nāṭa, using the framework of Generative Theory of Tonal Music (GTTM). GTTM proposes a rule-based scheme for cognition and interpretation of music. GTTM has been widely applied to study the hierarchical structures of mostly score-based Western art music. In my work, I will show that by making sufficient modifications to the rules of universals of musical grammar proposed in GTTM, it is possible to analyze Non-western music as well. Saint Tyāgarāja (4 May 1767 – 6 January 1847) is one among the trinities of South Indian classical music popularly known as Karnatak music. Among all his compositions, his Pancaratna kṛtis occupy a very important place in Karnatak music for their lyrical splendor and melodic magnificence. I will be showing that the tonal and metric configurations employed by the composer to symbolize various imageries, and emotions are not incidental, but ontological.

ABSTRACT. I am an anthropologist doing research on and in music. I call myself both an anthropologist and an ethnomusicologist, although I work at the Department of Anthropology. I am convinced that what these two disciplines have in common is the demand for field research. Undoubtedly, we researchers are constantly trying to name, rename, and specify what we actually do in fieldwork. We try to think critically and to frame these questions methodically. Based on my reach fieldwork experience, I am sure that what we actually always do in fieldwork is multisensory experiencing of the local reality. Sharing the social experience is not only an imagined ideal, but the methodological goal - as Kirsten Hastrup would claim. Thus, we should try to share these local social and cultural experiences as fully and intensively as possible. The title thick musicking is a hybrid created by combining two theories: an anthropological one created by Jaida Kim Samudra, who proposed the category of "thick participation", and the musicological one created by Christopher Small's concept of "musicking". In my talk I will explain how thick participation in musical situations can contribute to the production of both: ethnographic fieldwork and ethnographic knowledge. Thick musicking is my theoretical and methodological proposal. But while presenting it, I will recall my own fieldwork research (from Poland and Serbia in Europe) in order to show how it can be practically applied. My aim is to convince all participants that multisensory engagement in musical performance can contribute to the discovery of new meanings and senses related to music, but also to the issues of identity, locality, heritage, and much more.

ABSTRACT. The last few years have seen a surge in the rise of creative and art-based methods in participatory research with minority groups. Stemming from the idea that using these methods allows access to the world of the participants, they have thus been viewed and used as instruments of social change, social justice and empowerment. Despite their ongoing popularity, however, the principle behind the use of creative and arts-based methods has mostly been based on humanitarian considerations. This has led to a practice of mainly documenting the social problem with little perspective regarding possible actions that will effect a change. Working with minority groups with such a problem-facing or need-based approach faces the potential danger of not fulfilling its purpose of empowering the people. Using a study of minority immigrant youths in Germany and their rights to cultural and arts education as a case study, I argue for a rights-based approach and present a framework for integrating the approach into research practices concerning minority groups. Grounded in the principles of dignity, equity, and justice, this framework advocates for a participatory and inclusive methodology that empowers minority voices and ensures their rights are respected throughout the research process. Integrating a human rights-based approach into research with minority communities not only upholds ethical standards but also enhances the validity and relevance of research outcomes. By centring the rights and perspectives of marginalized peoples, researchers can contribute to the advancement of social justice and foster meaningful change within both academic and broader societal contexts.

ABSTRACT. My aim in this presentation is to examine the relationship between vegan nutrition and music in the context of gastroethnomusicology (the concept and approach I proposed in 2020 as an alternative perspective on the relationship between music and food) in which I will discuss my observations of a certain culture, daily and ceremonial moments with a theoretical framework. I will examine how this relationship is established within the framework of both traditional and current behavioural patterns and formations. In addition to the communities that traditionally eat vegan or vegetarian, in recent years, the sector for individuals who identify as vegan without being bound to any tradition has become increasingly visible and discussed at the same time. I would like to draw attention to the fact that the construction of a common identity formed by vegan dietary trends is not only through food and drink, but also through artistic forms of expression. While it is an argument that alternative or Indie music listeners and vegan lifestyles meet, the timbres and musical performances that emerge as a result of vegan musicians' choice of instruments or their attempts to produce their existing instruments with vegan materials are other topics I will focus on. The interpretation of the data obtained through personal interviews and digital ethnography will be realised within the framework of the arguments of the gastroethnomusicology approach.

ABSTRACT. In this lecture workshop, an Ainu cultural inheritor and indigenous cultural professional will share traditional Ainu songs and dances inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The purpose of the lecture workshop is not only to disseminate the intangible heritage of the Ainu but also to challenge the Western academic system upon which conferences are founded. As a cultural inheritor and practitioner, the presenter will share their knowledge directly inherited from their family lineage, in a manner most relevant to them. By sharing these practices, the presenter intends to create a space where individuals from diverse backgrounds can engage in discussions concerning "uncomfortable heritage," its contested history, and the close relationship between indigenous cultural heritage and one's sense of self. Ainu people were recognized as Japan’s indigenous people under new legislation in 2019, and in 2020, the Japanese government established a national cultural institution to revitalize Ainu culture. During the workshop, the presenter will first recount their upbringing as an indigenous person, discussing traditional performing arts, as well as this current political and social situation. In the second part of the workshop, participants will be invited to learn select songs by ear, mirroring the presenter's own learning process, as well as accompanying movements. Following a final performance by workshop participants, the presenter will open the floor for questions, fostering deeper, more personal, and culturally respectful discussions. The lecture workshop will be conducted in Ainu and Japanese, with translation into English provided by the co-presenter. The presenter is a former curatorial staff member of the National Ainu Museum and currently leads a team of cultural practitioners in the Educational Program Department of the National Ainu Park, UPOPOY.

ABSTRACT. The Ikusasa Lethu African Music and Dance touring ensemble performed and gave workshops at the 45th International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) World Conference hosted by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand in 2019. They also gave outstanding performance at 41st World Conference of the ICTM, hosted by Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Pan African Society for Musical Arts education (PASMAE) conferences in Maputo in Mozambique, Mahe, Seychelles and many more.

Ikusasa Lethu, which means Our Future, was founded by UKZN Senior Lecturer Dr Patricia Opondo in 2000 and comprises selected students and staff from the African Music and Dance (AMD) performance programme in the School of Arts. The ensemble has a local, national and international profile and performs and presents workshops at international and local conferences and special events. Ikusasa Lethu exemplifies a commitment to scholarly exploration, engaging in academic conferences. Their presence at international conferences including ICTM and PASMAE underscores the ensemble’s dedication to both artistic expression and cultural education.

The ensemble showcases original compositions and choreographies, ranging from isicathamiya and amahubo vocal acapella styles to Zulu Umakhweyana bow songs and dances, and the spectacular Zulu umzansi dance amongst others, and conducts workshops on these music and dance genres. All items are original compositions and choreographies by the ensemble under the artistic direction of Opondo.

ABSTRACT. In the last six years, I have directed theoretic and practical Ecuadorian dances-related laboratories in two Ecuadorian public universities. In these laboratories I have been developing a methodology that aims to contribute with the decolonization of the staging of Ecuadorian identity through dance. I have named this methodology as Desdisfrazando our dances. I understand Desdisfrazar as the need to acknowledge that the staging of Ecuadorian cultures is still based on a colonial structure. Within this structure, the ways of representing these cultures are fixed, distorted and seldomly acknowledge the dynamic contributions of the groups they claim to represent. Desdisfrazarse is also to symbolically and literally take off the typical customs through which these dancing cultures are represented but that end up being the centre of epistemic violence and exploitation. Through a proposal of deconstruction-reconstruction, students are guided to critically examine the ways in which each dancing culture is usually represented on stage in order to deeply analyse (deconstruct) the colonial-racist-patriarchal structure that define these proposals. They are then invited to propose new creative ways (reconstruct) of staging Ecuadorian dancing cultures by defying those structures. This reconstruction has at its core an analysis of a diversity of movement systems, which go considerably beyond what each culture understands as dance but that are central for their identity. Also, an ethical approach to the fact that many times dancers have to dialogue with Ecuadorian cultures from which they are not part of is included. This approach is essential in order to avoid reducing Ecuadorian dancing cultures’ staged representations to the appropriation of a fixed custom or set of steps. By transmitting such analysis of structures and reconstructions, I hope to be contributing to the decolonization of racist and patriarchal representations of Ecuadorian identity.

ABSTRACT. Nightlife encompasses affective atmospheres, a multi-situated space that tracks trajectories of the night—the befores, the insides, the outsides, the afters. Reggaetón nightlife in Santiago begins long before sundown. This experience starts with the embodied expectation of a “night out” constituted by desires and routines. This prelude invites hundreds of young Chileans to anticipate when, how, and where to find pleasure in planning how to inhabit a city characterized by its societal exclusions. The darkness arrives, and the dancefloors at clubs or abandoned houses host encounters between old and new friends, lovers, and memories. The party—that space explained by the ethnomusicologist Luis Manuel García Mispireta like an immersive affective experience that includes musicking, dancing, erotic sociability, and transgressive exuberance—is felt. Yet, how can we researchers express the nuances and richness of senses felt by practitioners and ourselves at a party?

For this paper, I explore the nightlife around reggaetón as a sensorial filmmaking practice to learn and re-enact the party. I use film to evoke sensuous ways to place musical creation and dancing in audiovisual settings and then analyze multi-sensorial experiences. Following David MacDougall’s ideas, I argue that filmmaking is one productive way to explore a method theory that involves evoking senses and physical, phenomenological, and social interactions. To do so, I understand film not only as a documentary-data collection technique but also as a creative process where shooting, cutting, and editing audiovisual materials became a process of understanding music-dance actions and also a way of expressing that understanding. Focusing my work on nightlife reggaetón experiences during 2024, I propose bricoleuse and constellation editing—applying the filmmakers’ ideas Jill Daniels and Alexander Kluge—to provide a re-immersion in Chilean nightlife.

ABSTRACT. Jazz is a historically contested terrain in the United States public narrative and in jazz historiography. Using Dave Brubeck’s Downbeat Magazine published origination theory of the music’s “mixed parentage of primitive African and highly developed European cultures” (1951), scholarly and journalistic attention has focused on claiming the music’s supposed hybridity as a Euro-American and African-American created form. Conversely, Langston Hughes claims the music as African American culture and heritage, saying that it is “one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America” (1921). The transnational connection between Black South Africa and African-America expressed in the shared jazz tradition between the two groups offers a response to these contested origins, and points to both the origins of African Americans and jazz, one of their heritage musics, as indigenous to the African continent. Jazz has been indigenized by Black South African musicians since the music’s early development in the 1920s, as a form that, from their perspective, was created by Africans in America via the Trans-Atlantic Feedback Cycle (Ballentine, 1991/Collins, 1989). Building on the work of Ballentine (1991), Nketia (2005), Maultsby (2015), and Kubik (2017), I will analyze my ethnographic field research with Black South African jazz musicians in Johannesburg to explore the African aesthetics they hear in jazz with what I call their ‘bi-musical ear’ - a bi-musicality in indigenous South African forms and jazz. This paper explores the African-derived musicological elements (melodies, harmonies, rhythms, scales and other cultural/musical functions) that older and younger generation Johannesburg-based jazz musicians hear in jazz, and the implications of their bi-musical ear on the cultural identity, the African origins, of African-American jazz.

ABSTRACT. There is still the belief that all musical instruments are best learned in the European formal and ‘standardized’ way, even though it has been proven to not be entirely true in most cases (See Schmidt 1994, low 1982, Kaye 2010, etc.), especially with African guitar styles. Current literature and documentaries about African guitar styles and learning show how some styles are learned and developed, demonstrating that there is not only one ‘standardized' way of learning to play an instrument, especially in Africa. To fully understand this dimension of diverse forms of learning guitar styles, we must understand the experiences, positionalities, and personalities of some Ghanaian palm-wine (dagomba in this case) guitar-style players. Dagomba guitar is a palm-wine style developed and popularised throughout West Africa, especially Ghana, early in the twentieth century. Reflecting on the shared experiences of some guitar maestros in Ghana and those of the authors of this paper, collected through discussions and interviews, we have resolved to demonstrate and proceed with the argument that there are many ways to go to dagomba, not only through one route, and these methods ought to be given academic reverence. This paper seeks to express and demonstrate the diverse routes through which most Ghanaian guitarists have developed their local guitar-playing styles. In the end, the authors of this paper argue that cultural experiences and other local music encounters in the life of individuals are the most influential elements to their music growth and development, and this phenomenon is significant; hence music pedagogy should include these. The ideas of these maestros should be hired to incorporate this approach in "formal" music settings. A careful analysis and listening of the play techniques from established players using the available instruments and directions from expert players form part of the cultural experiences and the local music encounters. This argument will add to essays demonstrating cultural influence on local music learning, gradually becoming internationally accepted and recognized.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the symbiotic relationship between music and sports, examining the integral role of Jama music within the Ghanaian sporting landscape. Drawing on examples from global sporting traditions, such as special anthems in the world's soccer fraternity, American football's marching bands and baseball's heavy metal entrance music, it delves into Jama music's emergence as a dynamic force in Ghana since the latter half of the twentieth century. Through qualitative research methods including ethnographic observation and interviews, this study elucidates Jama music's triple influence on sports in Ghana: as a symbol of national identity and pride, a catalyst for team support, and a source of entertainment for participants and spectators alike. Highlighting its prevalence in schools, universities, and soccer clubs, as well as its integration into international events like the 13th All African Games held in Ghana from 8–23 March 2024, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of Jama music's enduring impact on Ghanaian sporting culture.

ABSTRACT. Hip hop has taken on global dimensions since its initial development in New York during the late 1970s. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori and Pasifika artists took to the genre early on and utilized it as a medium of language revitalization, cultural uplift, and resistance to colonial oppression, thereby Indigenizing this Black American artform. However, as hip hop culture was evolving in Aotearoa, so was its population. Immigration reforms, world conflicts, and domestic economic shifts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries influenced the increased percentage of foreign-born residents, now over one-quarter of the population. This diversity is reflected in various urban hip hop communities, wherein a plethora of voices, perspectives, and sonic elements now resonate within the local environment. The dynamic landscape of Aotearoa hip hop raises interesting questions concerning how American Blackness translates into a Pacific context in the 21st century. In this study I examine the work of Māori and other Indigenous hip hop musicians in Auckland, Wellington, and other nearby urban communities. I argue that for these artists, writing and performing hip hop music fosters a relationship with both their diverse Indigenous roots and the Black American experience. Previous research on Aotearoa New Zealand hip hop is predominantly historical in content and has relied on the use of studio audio recordings for analysis. However, much of hip hop music-making happens in the moment, fueled by improvisation and the audience interaction that is so characteristic of the genre. Therefore, I base the majority of my analysis on live performances and interviews with artists. This study will contribute to the growing body of research on hip hop music in the Pacific and the complicated relationships that stem from the globalization of popular culture.

ABSTRACT. Through a decolonial lens, this paper examines heteronomic compositions from the Sikh musical heritage as pedagogical means to instruct and transform the minds of practitioners and listeners. According to Sikh thought, the divine Word emanating from a non-human force (the Sat Gurū), is the agent that attunes the mind of the disciple, operating a transformation from a self-willed individual (‘manmukh’) into a guru-oriented person or (‘gurmukh’) (Mandair 2023). Since early Sikh history, the Word-as-Guru was imparted in musical forms, according to specific raga and tala settings functional to the transmission and embodiment of the Word. Such heritage compositions express an entire cultural system of the pre-colonial era, in which raga-based renditions were not regarded as decorative to the Word but rather an integral part of Gur-Sikh education. These raga-based songs compose the main body of the Sikh canonical Scripture, archived according to 31 main ragas. Among the scriptural hymns is a group of 55 compositions designated as ‘partal’, whose mutualism between the Word's poetry, the raga, and the rhythm changes was meant to impact the listener’s cognitive process. Authored by the fourth and fifth gurus, between 1574 and 1606, these partals are a historical marker and a distinct signature of the Sikh musical heritage. Cases of heterometric music in South Asia are known however their origins and purposes are unclear in most cases (Widdess 2019). The impact of colonial modernity and nationalist education has dramatically affected the Sikh repertory, contributing to minimizing the importance of singing the scriptural hymns according to the indigenous system and forms. The study of partal compositions that survived as ‘original’ from the Sikh Gurus’ time, significantly contributes to advancing the scholarship about heterometric music and their role in the indigenous pedagogy.

ABSTRACT. Worldwide expression of children’s play is rapidly transforming with the advent of video gaming culture and its widespread dissemination. India, however, still maintains a robust repertoire of traditional musical play. In most cultures, musical play and exploration are squarely situated in childhood, with adult participation reserved for organizing play for parties or educational situations. In India, this divide is less clear-cut, as communities of adults across generations engage in a spectrum of musical game activity either participating in a repertoire of adult-oriented and even professional-level musical games or re-imagining and maintaining a certain repertoire of childhood musical activities.

In this paper, I explore India’s intergenerational levels of engagement in musical play. I begin with childhood music games, rhymes, simple songs, chasing games, and chants including urban and rural spaces and places of child-initiated play (Marsh and Young, 2006). I then focus on the culturally significant games and musical play in adulthood, from the musical “parlor” games of Tambala and Antakshari, to the international level sporting play of Kabaddi and Kho-Kho, to the “adultification” of childhood games such as Musical Chairs. Following this initial discussion, play is then contextualized in terms of its musical, educational, and social benefits and assessed for its overall intergenerational significance and contribution.

ABSTRACT. Even though research on the connection between dance and education has significantly evolved in the last few decades, discussions about dance education have been pretty recent, and debates about dance’s role within education, especially as a tool of school education, are even rarer. This paper intends to argue that instead of feigning the apparent inclusion through epithets like 'extra' or 'co,' non-speech language, including painting, music, and dance, should be brought in and practiced within the frames of the mainstream school curriculum. Any school curriculum plays an integral role in shaping children’s consciousness in their formative years. However, other than the weekly physical training periods including yoga or exercise and annual operas for entertaining the parents with their children’s ‘talents’, school curricula hardly focus on the importance of nonverbal language in a child’s all-round holistic development. Especially dance, even a moving body, is always looked down upon as a disruption within the school discipline. This paper will argue that to create a balanced and safe school space or ecosystem, it is imperative to include music and dance within the academic curriculum, and it will focus on three curricula, the first one in which I have studied in Visva- Bharati Santiniketan, the university space founded by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who as a modern thinker of dance brought music and dance pedagogy within his school curriculum. The second one is a national curriculum following the National Education Policy of India that, at least on paper emphasized competency-based experiential learning in its 2020 recommendations, and the third one is the international curriculum International Baccalaureate, quite popular around the world, which believes in inculcating and enhancing skills like research, collaboration, communication, critical and creative thinking through learning. I will mainly follow qualitative and empirical research methodology here by tapping into Tagore’s writings; reports and policy documents of national bodies like CBSE or NCERT on one hand and relying on my experience in studying at Tagore’s university, researching within the interdisciplinary environment of the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi, and getting to create a course outline on literature and performance while teaching in the IB curriculum on the other hand.

ABSTRACT. The incorporation of Indian classical music in the teaching of traditional Sri Lankan folk melodies has become a common practice in the institutional education system in Sri Lanka. While this has enabled students to acquire a basic understanding of Indian music and develop a diverse skill set, it has also led to the unintentional Indianization of traditional Sri Lankan folk melodies. This study aims to explore the challenges and opportunities in preserving the original forms of traditional Sri Lankan folk melodies while also incorporating elements of Indian classical music into the institutional education system. Specifically, the study will investigate the extent to which the use of Indian classical music has affected the way traditional Sri Lankan folk melodies are performed and perceived by students and audiences. The study will also examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of this practice and provide recommendations for preserving the original forms of traditional Sri Lankan folk melodies in the institutional education system.

ABSTRACT. Social environmental problems have been studied by scientists who developed the anthropogeographical method. The term was introduced in 1882 by the geographer Friedrich Ratzel (*1844-†1904).This method examines environment-people and nature-culture relationships, for example in the context of climate change. This lecture will show the influence of the anthropogeographical method on ethnomusicology. The scientific approach of the Humanities was philologically and acoustically determined. Ethnological studies were conducted from Europe without undertaking research trips. Due to the anti-Semitism during the National Socialist era, Jewish scholars like the ethnomusicologists Erich von Hornbostel (*1877-†1935), Curt Sachs (*1881-†1959) and the Indologist Betty Heimann (*1888-†1961) were dismissed from the civil service. The Humanities changed at that time due to new research approaches like the Anthropogeography and the international experiences of researchers. The focus is therefore on the field of Indology, because interest in India grew among European scientists and there is a strong cultural contrast that is masked by Eurocentric discourses. Nowadays, the established geographical discipline is referred to as humangeography rather than anthropogeography. The lecturer will compare the work of Hornbostel, Sachs and Heimann. Heimann was committed to this approach, although it was not common to use it during her lifetime. The connection between geographical research and ethnomusicology has so far rarely been considered. The development and interdisciplinary fields of application of the anthropogeographical method and its concepts and intentions are presented. The holographic point of view of anthropogeography can be relevant for ethnomusicology today, as it not only considers the social and cultural aspects of music, but also its environment(s). It will be discussed which new role this method can play today in strengthening interdisciplinary ethnomusicology.

ABSTRACT. In January 2024, the author engaged in a 30-day uninterrupted daily performance and teaching practice within Gamelan gong kebyar groups in two Balinese communities in Bandung, Indonesia. The author also participated multiple times as a performer in various celebrations and ritual music performances within these groups. The discussion revolves around the “collective consciousness” perceived in the Gamelan music of the Balinese community, expanding upon from the following three aspects: the changes of author’s practice methods and perspectives in the fieldwork; the perception of the cognitive premises and characteristics of Balinese Gamelan music; and the integration into and acceptance by the local community. In contrast to interpreting the actions and words of local community members from an outsider’s perspective, this paper emphasizes the author’s firsthand experience of “collective consciousness” through participation in performance learning, teaching, rituals, and community activities.

ABSTRACT. Ethnomusicology has been recently struggling with its role in relation to global inequalities, racism and a persisting (Neo)coloniality. Much of the arguments in rethinking the discipline after 2020 especially after Danielle Brown’s open letter and the case of George Floyd relate to the suppression of human voice, breath and the deprivation of it.

This perspective made us aware of sound not as a connecting socializing medium but as a tool for suffocation, disconnection, violence and persecution. This line of thought connects with research agendas in migration studies on disappearance, invisibility/inaudibility, disconnectivity and systematic exclusion (Yael Navaro 2020, Perl/Huttunen 2024). These events may mark a turn away from the musical object towards the unsounding, chosen or imposed silences, focusing on the political agency of the unsounding as theorized by Brandon LaBelle (2020) and Josh Kun (2005). Such a perspective proposes to focus on how sounds emerge and disappear, on the ephemerality of sounds in different (racialized) contexts (archived sounds, deterritorialized sounds, sounds in conflict).

As a case study this paper will discuss four year long participative exchanges with creative asylum-seekers in Germany from Burkina Faso, Iran and Syria travelling through different private and public spaces, where they experience different situation of becoming muffled, muted and dispossessed of their creative voices. Listening to their stories means to re-evaluate the epistemological potentialities as well as the methodological limitations refocusing on the unsounding.

ABSTRACT. In this paper I wish to address, in a post-positivist anthropology of dance, the relational and epistemological dynamics at play in various collaborative and non-collaborative research endeavours in which I have been directly or indirectly involved. I suggest that, in both contexts, the process of knowledge making is essentially transactional, whether this be cognitive or performative, that is whether through dialogical means in conversations or formal interviews or through the shared experience of doing and dancing together. Furthermore, I question the shifting asymmetries between researchers and other field participants be they conceived as interlocutors, co-workers or collaborators. The former, in the long run, through writing undoubtedly gain power and prestige but through their “innocence” and ignorance in the field may feel disoriented, deflected, undermined and so on. The latter, indeed, hold sway in the field. Depending on the nature of their commitment to the project, they may adopt the role of guide, teacher, facilitator opening paths and possibilites or, on the other hand, they may manipulate, fib, obstruct, effectively playing the role of devil’s advocate. Moreover, the transactional nature of the research encounter entails a strong degree of self-reflexion and/or reflexivity as all involved engage in a form of recursive knowledge making, with time being an important feature of the process. In order to render these thoughts concrete I will draw upon examples from my research experiences in Nigeria and France as well as from the field work of students on the Erasmus Mundus master “Choreomundus –International Master in Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage”.

ABSTRACT. Whether framed as a core site for Baloch diaspora or as an actual extension of Balochistan into the adjacent cultural space, the Arab Gulf states loom large in a greater Baloch cultural geography. Home to diverse, long-settled and growing Baloch communities, they collectively represent a crucial site for the nurturing of Baloch culture and identity, especially considered the threats to Baloch posed by the internal politics and policies of Iran and Pakistan. Edited from footage shot during my doctoral research (conducted in Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait between 2014 and 2017), this film surveys Baloch cultural life in the Eastern Arabian Peninsula through the lens of music. I contrast the roles of literary associations and patronage networks with local community rhythms and the importance of hereditary musicians brought on sponsored visits from Makran, the portion of Balochistan that extends inland from the Arabian Sea/Gulf of Oman coast between Karachi and the Straits of Hormoz. I combine interviews with musicians, poets, and cultural activists with musical and ceremonial performances—at wedding parties, culture days and heritage celebrations, mashaira (literary salons), and spirit possession ceremonies. My aim is to convey an intimate sense of the multidimensional facets of Baloch culture that have taken hold in the affluent post-maritime Gulf metropolis of the twenty-first century. This film provides a unique window on ongoing trans-Gulf circuits at a time when the tensions and geopolitical divide between both sides is particularly acute.

ABSTRACT. In many religions, doctrine is communicated and translated through sound. Particularly, in the history of Christianity, many churches have sent missionaries to foreign lands to spread their teachings. These missionaries actively sought to overcome cultural barriers through creative representation of biblical doctrine, with the hope of promoting the Christian gospel. In doing so, many employed sound media such as vernacular language and music to build not only trust in God but also “cultural intimacy” (Herzfeld 2006) with local Christians and non-believers. Scholarly works in ethnomusicology have examined the role of music in Christian practice across the globe and the different foci that guide local music ministry, including musical indigenization (e.g., Sherinian, 2005), inculturation (e.g., Engelhardt, 2006), contextualization (e.g., Loh, 2005), and localization (e.g., Ingalls, Reigerberg, and Sherinian, 2018). However, the ways in which missionaries creatively employ sound media to conduct ministry are still not clear, as it is difficult to articulate the operation of sound media and represent the socio-cultural context in which such sound mediation occurs solely through words. This ethnomusicological film visualizes the music ministry of Michael and Delores Kittleson across Hakka villages in Taiwan. It captures the significance of using vernacular language and music for the two American missionaries of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren of North America, and it documents the ways in which the use of sound media became a means for producing cultural intimacy, which provides insiders with an opportunity to validate the common sociality shared by the missionaries and the locals. Through presenting the performativity of the missionaries’ music ministry, the film aims to trigger further discussion on the ways sound media accommodate the tension between religion and culture, enhance embodied experience in “religioning” (Nye 1999), and illustrate the implications of audiovisual ethnomusicology.

ABSTRACT. The wind band tradition plays a seminal role in Maltese life and culture. Indeed, wind bands participate in a variety of events, particularly in feasts dedicated to the town or village’s patron saint, where festive marches are mostly performed. Maltese wind bands also make an important contribution to the locality’s Good Friday processional pageants by playing funeral marches. These marches are also heard on the local radio during Holy Week and played as background music at Last Supper displays. Good Friday pageant enthusiasts and helpers listen to funeral marches whilst preparing for the pageant in workshops during the year, as well as outside of the workshops in times of distress. Some band aficionados hold a profound appreciation for funeral marches, with some even exhibiting a preference for this music over festive marches. By listening to melancholic music, funeral march enthusiasts find solace in shared experiences bound by solidarity within their communities. Field observations reveal individuals shedding tears, yet also engaging in joyful movements, cheerful gestures, and lively conversations, indicating a sense of enjoyment and camaraderie among the participants whilst listening to funeral marches. This passion for funeral marches extends to local composers, who show a preference for composing funeral marches over festive ones. Furthermore, individuals continue to enjoy funeral marches at home throughout the year, regardless of the season or holiday period. This paper aims to explore why funeral marches enjoy such an extensive following in Malta. What kind of emotional space do these marches contribute in the context of Maltese culture and society? Through various audio-visual examples, this presentation will delve into this space and analyse its social, cultural, musical and extra-musical constituents.

ABSTRACT. This 67-minute documentary is the result of a transdisciplinary work that links applied research, field research, audio-visual production and significant dissemination technics, exemplifying a virtuous triangle of research-preservation-dissemination. “The past that sounds and re-sounds” is a sonic journey that tells the life story of three musical genres: the creed ("credo"), the praise ("alabado") and the waltz ("vals"). From historical archives and native communities, it travels through deserts, mountains and metropolises thanks to the voices and instruments that are responsible for giving life and protecting the musical heritage of our past and present. It is the singers, musicians, researchers and people with a special bond with music who guide and accompany us on this journey. The proposed preservation approach of the project started from researching, recording, transcribing, interpreting and producing unpublished works: some are found in historical archives; others are part of the oral tradition of the regions of Ostula (Michoacán), and Sapioriz (Durango). Of these, some are on the verge of extinction. Registering them in order to disseminate them is the way to preserve them and prevent them from dying. On the other hand, contrasting them with their origins contributes to a better understanding and appreciation of both the present oral heritage and the historical heritage from which they come. These origins are found in documents kept in historical archives unknown to most people.

ABSTRACT. I share my conceptualisation of intersectional feminist praxis through music, emerging from recently completed PhD research which explored music as a mode of critical theory in Aotearoa. Through engaging with the affective and aesthetic dimensions of four local musicians’ musical practice, I outline six provisional threads of this praxis. These threads are geared toward resisting hegemonic white practices of erasure in music performance, as well as building capacities through music for strengthening relationships between different groups in resistance to settler-colonial structures. First, I consider the practice of naming musical whakapapa/musical genealogy as a step towards disrupting racial erasure. Second, I propose how an affective politics of love might inform the nurturing of one’s musical whakapapa/genealogy. Third, I discuss musical resonances of hope and their vitality to praxis. Fourth, I connect hope to honouring the relational possibilities in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and recent transformative constitutional work in Aotearoa. Fifth, I conceptualise an intersectional ethics of care for moving towards concrete solidarity. Sixth, I reflect on the role of critical pedagogy for developing intersectional feminist praxis through music. This paper is intended to inspire further reflection, conversation, and action towards intersectional feminist praxis through music in Aotearoa.

ABSTRACT. My grandmother’s sister, inheritor of several colonial-era dolls of the Divine Child in Tarija, Bolivia, is a patron of a yearly adoración, or adoration: a slow march in which an altar displaying the dolls is paraded from the city cathedral to her house. It is a family tradition with degrees of participation, not least of which is the role of the youngest generation, who dance in two fluid ovals that share a middle perimeter as dancers link arms when they meet. When participating in the adoration for the first time in 2023, I entered the experience as both an ethnographer and as a family member. Yet the ethnographic encounter was substantially complicated by the affective familial interactions that undergirded the event, primarily in relation to my othered enculturation and citizenship status as a second-generation immigrant to the United States and genderqueer positionality. I argue that my transnational relationality to a localized family creates an affective framework in which a rhizome of geography, religion, and gender difference complicates ethnography.

I offer decolonial feminist ethics as a response to these problematics. Tending to the ethnographic experience of this Tarijan adoration, this paper centers affect and vulnerability in considering the import of a decolonial feminist ethics for ethnography involving a researcher working with or among family in transnational contexts. Decolonial feminists (Mohanty 2003) and Latina feminists in particular (Lugones 2003; Anzaldúa 1987, 2015) speak to the pain of queer transnational multiplicity, theorizing that coalition against oppression requires contending with the “home” as a radical space for transformation. In conversation with key autoethnographic literature (Ellis 1999; Behar 1996; Reed-Danahay 1997) and transnational literature (Blanc 2013; Levitt 2007; Ong 2000; Vertovec 2009) regarding family and home, I theorize decolonial feminist ethics as a strategy for contending with the complications of transnational familial ethnographic research.

ABSTRACT. In Kurdish society, life-cycle rituals are important events where music and dance are performed. However, in Kurdistan, music-making is predominantly male-oriented and hypermasculine. Despite this, Kurdish dance allows for a space where dancers can challenge patriarchy and temporarily promote equality between men and women. Unlike other musical activities where gender determines power relations between male and female practitioners and is often dominated by men, in some regions, the hierarchy of Kurdish dance is determined by age rather than gender. In Kurdish culture, various dance forms are performed in a specific sequence. Each form has its own tempo and body gestures. The first form typically begins with a slow tempo, which gradually increases as other dances follow. When planning dance in a ceremony, it is crucial to consider the age of the dancers, the type of dance, and the tempo associated with it. Elderly men and women should start the ceremony with the slowest dance, and as the tempo of the different dance forms increases, the older dancers prefer to leave the dance group and be replaced by younger dancers. It is important to note that the factors determining the dance form hierarchy vary from region to region. For example, in the Mokriyan region of Iranian Kurdistan, the roles mentioned earlier are commonly observed, while in other areas like the Ardalan, the order of dance forms is restricted to gender rather than age. This study examines the impact of age and heteronormative attitudes on hierarchies within Kurdish dance. Its objective is to explore how masculinity and femininity are expressed in Kurdish dance and how power dynamics and gender intersect with ageism in two regions of Iranian Kurdistan. This will be accomplished by closely examining the body movements and gestures of the dancers.

ABSTRACT. Impact is not only desirable but a necessity in the current framework of funding/public accountability. However, it is often an 'add-on' process. Through our patient and public involvement (PPI) work with people with Parkinson's (PwP), we became aware that relying on end point reporting was neither helpful nor appropriate. PwP explained they wanted to know more about what was happening as the project (on music and Parkinson's) developed, and how they could use the information to help them in the here and now. We therefore produced two concerts to bring the dissemination process alive, one in the UK (2022) and one in Switzerland (2023). The programmes of music were chosen to reflect the findings of our surveys (e.g., Music for Walking (Radetzky March), and Music as a Personal Anthem (I Will Survive)). We included interactive elements such as group singing and egg shaking to further embody the findings (i.e., positive affect and entrainment). We also gave lay talks about the project, including a round table event to discuss the importance of taking this dynamic approach to ongoing dissemination. Audience feedback was generally positive, and media coverage was remarkable. We developed an inclusive, enjoyable and informative way of sharing music research processes and findings with the key stakeholders (in this case PwP and transdisciplinary researchers), and with music students. This template could be used to invite further practitioner participation (such a music, occupational and physical therapists) as part of their continuing education and to build external partnerships for future research opportunities.

ABSTRACT. Inspired by the annual State Review of Children and Youngsters with Special Needs which gradually developed and flourished in Slovenia in the period between 1991 and 2019, this paper documents and advocates an approach rooted in synergy of four disciplinary realms – applied ethnomusicology, music therapy, medical ethnomusicology, and music education. Each disciplinary realm is first presented in its own terms and then related to the others. Applied ethnomusicology provides tools for collaborative interventions for the sake of improvement of the conditions; music therapy brings in the notion of therapeutic impact, including the building of self-confidence, satisfaction, and social integration; medical ethnomusicology connects music, wellbeing, and culture; and music education enables systematic development of cognitive, psychomotor, emotional, and social abilities. The Review created a national network of schoolteachers, music and dance therapists, clinical practitioners, and other specialists working with children and youngsters with special needs and established a rotating platform (each meeting hosted by an institution in a different part of the country) for monitored performances and discussions about the experiences and achievements. The programs attracted governmental agencies, media, and public in support of the often-marginalized people with special needs (Ainscow and Haile-Giorgis 1998). The Review ceased to exist with the emergence of the Covid pandemic in Slovenia, but in the opinion of the presenter, it deserves to be made widely known as a model to inspire comparable events elsewhere in the world. The presenter, herself an ethnomusicologist and musician who was actively involved in shaping the event in the course of six years in the capacity of a jury member, acknowledges influences of several engaged scholars including Michael Bakan, Bussakorn Binson, Benjamin Koen, Svanibor Pettan, Even Ruud, Patricia Shehan Campbell, and Kjell Skyllstad.

ABSTRACT. The experience of living during precarious times is influencing embodied experiences. Recent research on movement practitioners processing despair during pandemic reveals how communities are responding to the challenges of our times through the relations they are cultivating (Jeffrey et al., 2021). Importantly, these relations are existing in a continual state of becoming as multiple amorphous crises continue to influence everyday life, and are being articulated through findings gathered in movement cultures (Humberstone, 2022; Olive, 2023). Studies on moving bodies demonstrate how practitioners are engaging with environments in crisis, and illuminate the need to expand understandings to acknowledge the ways that human/nonhuman bodies are intricately woven into tapestries of becomings during complex times (Braidotti, 2020). Through this paper, I engage Haraway’s (2016) concept of making kin in the Chthulucene, as moving practices that are cultivating communities of non/human kin situated in environments that are in crisis. Being ontologically inspired by this framework, I imagine how the design of post-qualitative research can support the active cultivation of multi-species futures that incorporate both the joy and destruction of our times. In this paper, I share movement practitioners' experiences of joy and connection, anguish and loneliness during a range of movement practices in varied natural environments. The purpose of this paper is to ignite a curiosity around the role of research with moving bodies in precarious times, and the potential for posthumanist frameworks to cultivate innovative research processes and findings that embrace both the generative and destructive relational experiences that influence contemporary movement practices.

References Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin with the chthulucene. Duke University Press.

Humberstone, B. (2022). Ageing, agers and outdoor re-creation: Being old and active outdoors in the time of COVID: An autoethnographic tale of different wor(l)ds.‘I’m not vulnerable?’. Annals of Leisure Research, 25(5), 621-636.

Jeffrey, A., Thorpe, H., & Ahmad, N. (2021). Women yoga practitioners’ experiences in the pandemic: From collective exhaustion to affirmative ethics. Sociology of Sport Journal, 39(2), 150-159.

Olive, R. (2023). Swimming and surfing in ocean ecologies: Encounter and vulnerability in nature-based sport and physical activity. Leisure Studies, 42(5), 679-692, DOI: 10.1080/02614367.2022.2149842

ABSTRACT. Cancer presents a global health challenge, impacting millions annually. It poses multifaceted challenges to patients' well-being, necessitating comprehensive approaches beyond clinical treatments. This study investigates the influence of music on the well-being of cancer patients. The Sri Lanka Cancer Society's Shantha Sevana Hospice in Maharagama provides palliative care to cancer patients facing terminal illness. Recognizing the multidimensional nature of healing, this study explores the potential of music to enhance the well-being of hospice patients. The research investigates subjective experiences and objective outcomes associated with music-based interventions, aiming to assess its impact on mood, pain perception, stress levels, and quality of life. By focusing on Shantha Sevana Hospice, the research provides insights into the feasibility and practicality of integrating music into palliative care frameworks in Sri Lanka. While the scope is delimited to this specific context, the findings may inform similar initiatives globally, emphasizing the importance of holistic approaches in supportive cancer care. This research underscores the potential of music as a non-invasive and accessible intervention to improve the well-being of cancer patients, enhancing their end-of-life experience with dignity and comfort. The theoretical framework for this pilot study is rooted in the field of ethnomusicology, specifically within the domain of applied ethnomusicology. Considering the research studies of Camila Vecchi on the outcomes of music therapy interventions in cancer patients, Quinn C, Bodkin-Allen S, Swain N on the benefits of group singing for physical and psychological well-being, this case study will adopt a qualitative research methodology. Data will be collected on weekly two hours entertaining sessions in the selected setting, interviews, and individual discussions with patients and healthcare professionals.

ABSTRACT. Over the last century, many studies have presented the appreciation and performance of Balinese gamelan music in a fashion favouring the preservation of this unique sound world, due to the exotic remoteness of the island and its music. The basis of old oral transmission, which permitted individual variation and creative renewal, has often been replaced by notated music, recordings and set performances. This is at odds with the Balinese people’s own view of their music as a much more regenerative and innovative process. In more recent times, there has been much discourse redressing this, with exciting accounts of new methods synthesising local and foreign musical concepts.

This paper will present two examples of creative renewal within the contemporary Balinese gamelan tradition. Firstly, a performance of both scored and live gamelan music accompanying the black and white film "Samsara" in Singapore in May 2024 by Gamelan Yugananda; and secondly, a new composition "Rejang Emas" for gong kebyar and suling gambuh, with the first public performance at the Bali Arts Festival in June 2024.

By exploring how these young Balinese musicians and their teachers are retelling “their” stories through a hybridisation of notated and improvised music, aural sound worlds and visual imagery, and traditional and contemporary forms of gamelan and vocal performance technique, what is clearly evident is the confidence in which these musicians see their musical culture within a rapidly globalising context, while still maintaining a sense of cultural integrity and authenticity.

ABSTRACT. The rabeca, is a type of fiddle – a bowed string instrument- that arrived in Brazil during Portuguese colonial rule. It’s currently experiencing a revival process that has consolidated a new history in the 21st century, tracing a decolonial path, evident in its morphological and organological diversity as well as in its practices. The social life of this instrument underwent changes on two levels: a) in the multiplication of its functions, contexts and spaces that it the rabeca reached as a musical instrument; b) the emergence of a “community of practice” whose members -players, builders, teachers, academics and enthusiasts- have expand in number and plurality. People from different regions, backgrounds, professions, ages and genders are increasingly interested in the rabeca and the continuity of its emancipatory spirit, its subaltern voice and agency. Historically, the rabeca has not escaped the realities of gender inequalities in the domain of musical instruments - characterised by the common cultural tendency to deny women access to instruments, or to coerce female instrumentalists into ‘suitable’ and ‘acceptable’ musical roles and the instruments, in recent years, more and more women have participated in the community and achieved different levels of emancipation, visibility and voice. In this they seem to follow trends of other musical instruments, but accentuated by the characteristics of the rabeca's decolonial path. In this paper, I will present results from fieldwork of my doctoral research, based on interviews with women currently active in the rabeca scene, structured questionnaires within interaction spaces of the community such as the social network group "Free Rabeca Brazil", together with field documentation. In intend to show how the role of women is fundamental in the revival of the rabeca and reflect the way in which the instrument is a tool for female empowerment and leadership in music for rabequeiras.

ABSTRACT. The guqin, or qin, a seven-string Chinese zither with a history of over two thousand years, was proclaimed by UNESCO in 2003 as Representative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The proclamation led to a fervor in China for reviving the instrument and its tradition. This growing passion is demonstrated not only in the public playing and listening to the qin but also in the making and marketing of the instrument. There are around 1000–1500 entities that are manufacturing the qin, ranging from individual/family workshops to larger-scale factories. Most of them started their businesses over the past decade. Instruments go from the craftsmen’s workplaces onto the market, to players of different economic levels, to classrooms of qin studios, to concert halls, and even to the art market, with the qin being continuously portrayed as a representation of the glory of Chinese culture. The price of the instrument ranges from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands dollars.

In my fieldwork in Beijing, Chengdu, Nanchang, Qingdao, Shanghai, and Yangzhou, I interviewed dozens of instrument and string makers. In this paper, I investigate three themes: 1) the making and marketing of the qin and its strings in contemporary China; 2) how techniques and aesthetics are reconceptualized and reproduced for the instrument as both a heritage and a daily practice and how tastes are negotiated; and 3) the power relations that are mediating the market.

ABSTRACT. The bamboo suling flute is integral to the sound of Balinese gamelan, from the 15th-century gamelan gambuh to 20-century ensembles such as gong kebyar. A gamelan performance without suling has even been described as “a dish without salt”: something lacking in taste. Though many Balinese musicians can play suling at a basic level, few identify as suling players capable of employing appropriate wilet ornamentations or accompanying singers and dancers. While gamelan pedagogy is well-documented (Clendinning 2020 Solis 2004), suling pedagogy is largely unknown even to other Balinese gamelan players; the suling itself is scarcely mentioned in extended scholarly literature on Balinese gamelan (for example, Bandem 2013, Gold 2004, McPhee 1966, Tenzer 2000). Studying the teaching methods and reasons for the suling's marginalization enriches our understanding of Balinese gamelan and also raises pertinent questions about the treatment of marginalized instruments in ensemble traditions worldwide.

This paper provides an overview of the suling, its playing technique, and roles in gamelan ensembles. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Bali in 2024, I explore how one teacher introduces fundamental techniques like fingering and circular breathing (ngunyar) in individual and group contexts. In dialogue with a formal musical analysis of the dance “Wirayudha” (Diana Putra 2019) as a gending dasar (foundational piece for study), I examine how suling players benefit from the piece’s reinforcement of general skills like tatekep (damping percussion instruments’ keys or closing suling’s holes) and melodic structure, as well as suling-specific skills like ngunyar. Considering the suling’s materiality, musical function, pedagogy, and relative lack of status, I interrogate its marginalization in Balinese performing arts. Connecting the case study of suling to studies of other marginalized instrumental traditions, I address what we can learn from studying the pedagogy of the “odd instrument out.”

ABSTRACT. This presentation explores the seemingly contradictory relationship between ethnic performing arts and cosmopolitanism by examining a migrant Māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand) performing arts group in Japan. Cosmopolitanism often refers to openness. Migration is considered a way to induce cosmopolitan thought and practice as they place themselves in a new culture. However, ethnic performing arts may appear exclusive to some specific ethnic groups. What does it look like when migrant people engage in ethnic performing arts in a host country? This presentation focuses on a Māori performing arts group in Japan, Ngā Hau E whā, consisting of migrants Māori, Pacific islanders and Japanese, including the presenter who has been a member of the group for more than four years.

Kapa haka, Māori performing arts, consists of actions or dance accompanied by singing. Some items of kapa haka are performed by a specific kinship group since kapa haka is/was one of the ways to tell and preserve the history of iwi (tribe) and hapū (sub-tribe). There are many cases in which Māori people criticise other ethnic groups performing Haka (e.g. Hokowhitu 2014). These can be an example of the exclusivity of ethnic performing arts.

Ngā Hau E Whā consists of several different iwi members and non-Māori peoples. It means that the members do not share an immediate history or ancestors. How do migrant Māori work on their performing arts in a cosmopolitan environment? What does openness mean in the context of Te Ao Kapa Haka (the world of Māori performing arts)?

Ngā Hau E Whā composed a new item of kapa haka that was considered to be appropriate to be performed by the mixed group members. This presentation examines this new item and discusses what cosmopolitan or openness means from an ethnic performing arts point of view.

ABSTRACT. The progress of any nation is intricately tied to the level of socio-cultural, socio-economic stability, and social integration among its citizens. In Nigeria's educational framework, Social Studies holds a crucial position, emphasizing the need for effective teaching methodologies. Alongside its core values of human rights advocacy, embracing diversity, and fostering social inclusion, Social Studies must also prioritize the incorporation of music and dance (performance) from diverse cultural groups. This integration serves to cultivate peaceful coexistence, safeguard the rights of all individuals, and uphold the principles of freedom, justice, and human dignity. This paper advocates for the utilization of music and dance as innovative instructional tools, moving beyond abstract concepts to practical pedagogical strategies in the teaching of Social Studies. The focus lies on investigating how the integration of music and dance into the pedagogical framework of social studies can bring about substantial societal transformations. To achieve these objectives, the study employs content analysis of pertinent literature, materials, visual aids, and news reports within the researcher's defined scope. The task of establishing justice and fostering peaceful coexistence in a diverse society like Nigeria presents significant challenges. Herein lies the indispensable role of competent and dynamic social studies educators. Drawing from the study's findings, the paper recommends that social studies teachers explore innovative pedagogies aimed at realizing the overarching objectives of Social Studies education. Furthermore, the study suggests that educators undergo continuous professional development, including workshops, induction courses, conferences, short courses, and seminars, to meet the evolving demands of contemporary societies. In conclusion, the integration of music and dance into Social Studies pedagogy emerges as a promising avenue for promoting social harmony, cultural understanding, and civic responsibility among Nigeria's diverse populace. This paper serves as a clarion call for educators to embrace these innovative strategies, recognizing their potential to instill values of tolerance, inclusivity, and active citizenship. By implementing these recommendations, social studies educators can play a pivotal role in shaping a more just, cohesive, and resilient society.

ABSTRACT. This performances explores the healing experiences of hearing icarus. This source of music comes from the context of the Peruvian-Andean-Amazonian region and its “vegetalismo" tradition, where in ritual, plants are mentioned, prepared and name to be able to be imbibe by participants.

The aim of this performance is to show in the academic environment the musical possibilities that this type of song have. Including the research about the transition between the use of different instruments (as the mestizo string instrument called charango) and languages (Spanish and Ashaninka - native language-).

Icaro is a type of song that can be guided for a especific experience. In the case of this presentation, animal spirits and four plants will be named.

ABSTRACT. In discussing his Grammy award-winning “Baba Yetu,” Christopher Tin claims to further the “rich history and tradition” of East African choral singing that resulted from the combination of “European harmonies and African call and response.” In “Baba Yetu”’s meteoric success, performers have expanded on the composer’s multiculturalist ethos, making claims about the music’s ability to be evidence of human equality. While “Baba Yetu” may seem to make human equality audible, critical analysis of the work’s many performances instead demonstrates how colonial exploitation of indigenous populations can be furthered through the cooption of the de-colonial rhetoric and through the tokenization and impersonation of the indigenous “other.” This paper connects the virality of “Baba Yetu” performances on YouTube to the moralistic discourse that is produced both by the videos and their accompanying comment sections. In performances by the United States Navy Band and Sailors’ Chorus, the Brigham Young University Men’s Chorus, and the Angel City Chorale, it becomes clear that sweeping declarations of universalism conceal complex issues of musical representation, indigenous identity, and colonial exploitation. Following what Wendy Brown identifies as the purpose of “tolerance” within neoliberal civilizations, I analyze how Christopher Tin and performers of “Baba Yetu” use counterfeit imitations of indigeneity (both unintentionally and intentionally) as a method of instilling a positive and egalitarian affect within its audience. Using YouTube’s application programming interface (API), this paper further demonstrates how YouTube, as a computer-mediated communication (CMC) platform, amplifies and affords content creators willing to engage with such cultural constructions that produce positive affects. I conclude the paper by foregrounding the perspectives of self-identified indigenous commentators and, with the scholarship of Dylan Robinson and Kofi Agawu, discuss how without careful consideration, individuals working to dismantle colonial power inevitably end up re-exploiting indigenous populations for the benefit of the colonizers.

ABSTRACT. Of the 130 articles of South Korea’s Constitution, first promulgated in 1948 and last revised in 1987, the final article among the General Provisions, Article 9, provides that “the State shall strive to sustain and develop the cultural heritage and to enhance national culture.” In Article 69, the oath the President must take at the time of his or her inauguration includes “endeavoring to develop national culture.” But what “national culture” is has remained amorphous and has left “national music and dance,” or gugak, largely ignored by lawmakers. However, in June 2023, the National Assembly passed the Gugak Promotion Act, which aims to “conserve and transmit,” “foster and promote,” and “invigorate the gugak cultural industry.” In August, the Traditional Cultural Industry Promotion Act, which aims to lay a foundation for a traditional cultural industry, promote economic development, and enhance the cultural lives of citizens, also became law. Together, these two Acts seek to transform gugak from traditional performing arts in need of preservation into dynamic competitive cultural content suitable for entry into the international performing arts market. Building on the work of Seo Inhwa (2023) and Lee Dong-Yeon (2023) in relation to the proposal of a Gugak World Expo, this paper looks at the effects of these new laws on “old music,” gayageum sanjo in particular, and how, especially under the pressures of AI and new media, older laws like the 1962 Cultural Property Protection Law, are fraying along with the institutions and genres they once sought to protect.

ABSTRACT. Since the relocation to Taiwan 38 years ago, the organization and current status of military music in the Republic of China (ROC) have undergone changes. During this period, not only have diverse forms emerged, but also changes in government, such as policies and political systems, have influenced the evolution of these units. From traditional military bands in the early days to Defense Symphony Orchestra, organizational structures have gradually evolved with the changing times, adapting to modern military needs and musical performance standards. The organizational frameworks of each period reflect the political, social, and artistic characteristics of the time, presenting a rich and diverse historical landscape.

In terms of utilization, ROC military bands demonstrate diverse functions. They not only play significant roles in ceremonial and celebratory events but also contribute importantly to military training, cultural exchanges, and military-civilian interactions. Their musical performances not only showcase various facets of military strength but also serve as symbols of the nation, embodying the emotions of the country and its people.

Furthermore, this article will delve into the utilization strategies and performance models of the ROC Ministry National Defense Symphony Orchestra.Through analysis from various perspectives such as band types, performance format, assessment standards, and human resources source, it will explore their advantages and disadvantages compared to other military bands, and discuss how to expand their influence and value through continuous innovation and improvement.

Finally, as performers harmonizing military and music, ROC Military Band’s organizational structures and utilization methods not only reflect military strength but also demonstrate artistic excellence. Through in-depth analysis, we can better understand the important role of this unique institution in national construction and cultural heritage, as well as future development directions and challenges.

ABSTRACT. This paper delves into the concept of “Weapons of the Weak,” originally coined by James Scott, as a pertinent framework for understanding the subtle forms of resistance employed by oppressed individuals living under communist totalitarian and authoritarian dictatorships. Focusing on Mao Zedong’s China, where intense political pressure prevailed, this research underscores the importance of cultivating a safer and pragmatic approach to dissent in people’s daily life, often referred to as “everyday resistance.”

Within Mao’s regime, citizens confronted political coercion in their daily lives, employing tactics such as tuning into “enemy radio” broadcasts and engaging in the subversive act of playing and singing “non-revolutionary songs.” Although Mao harnessed music as a propaganda tool to mold public opinion and mobilize support, not all citizens succumbed to governmental manipulation. Contrary to the regime’s intention of fostering compliance through the incessant exposure to revolutionary “red” songs, certain individuals rejected these songs outright. They not only abstained from integrating red songs into their daily routines but also defiantly exited Criticism of Yellow Songs Conferences when revolutionary songs were played.

Furthermore, during the Cultural Revolution’s zenith, while revolutionary songs dominated the soundscape, Teresa Teng’s songs, which were defined as “decadent music” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), clandestinely gained popularity in mainland China. Even in the post-Mao era, Teng’s music continued to fill the leisure hours of the Chinese populace, despite government prohibitions.

By refusing to embrace red songs, these individuals expressed their skepticism toward the CCP’s ideology, rejected the social norms propagated within the songs, and challenged the authority of the Socialist China. This paper draws on autobiographies of prominent dissidents, oral histories of ordinary citizens, and prominent Chinese press sources to unveil the nuanced landscape of soft resistance within the civil society of revolutionary China. These findings shed light on the multifaceted strategies employed by individuals to resist oppressive regimes without resorting to overt confrontation, offering valuable insights for contemporary struggles against authoritarian rule.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the distinctive social project of the native brass band and the making of the modern musician on Upolu at the turn of the 20th century. It considers the construction of the brass band as a status symbol and the emergent band leader as a modified kinship behavior within the frame of strategic management of social cultural capital amid the threats of Euro/American imperialism in the Pacific. This presentation will trace the various ways that Samoans negotiated, adjusted, and responded to cultural cues in cross-cultural encounters as they sought to remain politically autonomous and agents of their own shifting identities in the age of modernity. Rather than starting this discussion with the usual narrative of colonial encounter, I instead introduce an origin story of Samoan brass bands with a Kānaka Maoli naval band’s assignment throughout Samoa finessing King Kalākaua’s attempt at forming a Polynesian Confederacy with the rival kings of the land. This musical history rewinds beyond previous timelines offered by Richard Moyle (2019) and Sala Seautatia Solomona (2019) to the above event taking place in 1887 to suggest that the eagerness of Samoans and half-castes to train their young men on brass instruments was propagated by the favorable impression that the large assembly of brown boys playing in The Royal Hawaiian Band and its auxiliary, The HHS Kaimiloa Cadet Band made on them at home and abroad. An analysis of physical spaces where modern musical phenomena developed on Upolu will be discussed through Asif Agha’s concept of chronotopic formulations and kinship behaviors (2015) to articulate the negotiation of foreign status symbols of colonial power and the ways they will be repurposed by Samoans to signal their road to national independence. This work adds further nuance to historical ethnomusicologies in Oceania that have omitted these encounters as significant and to Pacific Studies which have privileged much of this colonial history without interrogating the evolution of martial music and the cultural work these musician-leaders advanced.

ABSTRACT. Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, China, has the largest and best preserved ancient city wall in the country, which is a closed rectangle with a circumference of 13.74 kilometers. The video of the street music performance under the South Gate of Xi 'an has sparked heated discussion on the Internet, the content of the street performers under the city wall singing their own adaptation of the "Internationale", the audience surrounded the artists and sang along, they call this song "Red Rock", "red" has always had a special meaning for Chinese people.The audience will not only lift up the Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, but also move their limbs to the music and tears will fill their eyes as they listen. This musical event is unique to the South Gate of Xi 'an, and its cultural heritage, historical significance and geographical location all give this performance special significance. When the environment is combined with the specific music selected by the buskers, it also attracts offline and online listeners with the same faith, and then a natural soundscape with "music" as the core is formed. "Red Rock" also creates a unique sense of place through its distinctive regional identity. After investigation and research, the band and its fans are not "happy with songs" collectively, but "happy with the common red ideal", red rock music brings them together, but it is not the key to make them become "collective", it is their common ideal that constitutes this collective carnival. But why the Xi 'an city wall? Why these people? What are they doing? Who are they? Starting from the soundscape of the South gate of Xi 'an, this paper will further explain how the soundscape displays the regional culture of some social groups in Xi’an through music at multiple levels.

ABSTRACT. Nowadays, as artificial intelligence is moving towards the era of big data, the use of pre-trained models for music analysis and creation has gradually become mainstream. However, in the field of traditional music, models trained using a large amount of Western classical music data usually have a large bias. This is because in Western classical music, composition and performance are usually two separate activities, whereas in Chinese traditional music, the unique Phonology and Intonation and its oral teaching tradition determine the inseparability of composition and performance. The most important source of the Intonation in traditional Chinese music is the “singing based on the tone of lyrics”. In this paper, we digitally processed the traditional Chinese music sheets of Jiugong Dacheng and its translations, constructing a multi-source, heterogeneous dataset of traditional Chinese music containing Gongche notation and lyrics as well their corresponding translations. We built a small sample dataset manually for over 700 songs, from which a translation model based on deep learning was trained. The model was then used to translate about 5800 remaining songs, eventually compiling a complete dataset of 6563 songs. Furthermore, several exploratory applications were conducted on this dataset. Morphological analysis was performed, discussing the relationship between tones of lyrics and the dynamics of melodies. An online display platform for the digitized songs was established. The study aims to connect a bond between the field of music computation and traditional Chinese music, providing new insights for machine learning in understanding traditional music.

ABSTRACT. Analyzing the social functions that music and dance fulfill in rituals has been one of the main preoccupations of ethnomusicology since its inception. While examples span from the drums of Santería to Sufi worship, fiddling in Ireland, and liturgical songs in Hindustani music, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the sonic world of Japanese shrine and temple rituals. In fact, despite recent interest in the topic (Kikkawa 2013; Ōuchi 2021), researchers tend to focus on the ancient past, leaving unexplored the question of contemporary practice. Yet, ancient musics and dances feature prominently in contemporary rituals, often as elements of “sacred heritage soundscapes”. Since at least the 1940s, musicians and scholars have been enlisted by religious institutions to “reconstruct” lost portions of their repertoires. Nowhere are these reconstructions more common than in Nara, the ancient Japanese capital. This presentation uses ethnographic fieldwork and music analysis to show how Buddhist and Shinto institutions like Tōdaiji, Kasuga Taisha, and Yakushiji promote a reinvented historical soundscape by incorporating re-enactments of Japan’s musics and dances into their large-scale celebrations. In particular, I focus on the gradual (re)introduction of Gagaku, Japanese “courtly” musics and dances, and Gigaku, a masked pantomime that was completely lost at the beginning of the 19th century, into grand public spectacles, such as Yakushiji’s yearly Genjō Sanzō Grand Festival and Tōdaiji’s 1250th anniversary celebration of the temple’s founder, Rōben Sōjō. My analysis demonstrates that contemporary reconstructions employ basic musical features of modern (post-1870) Gagaku, disregarding questions of philological accuracy in favor of novelty. Creating ahistorical parodies, the authors of these reconstructions generate uncanny hybrids that play on the self-exoticization of traditional musical materials. Hence, studying how purportedly ancient musics and dance are featured in contemporary rituals can shed light on the relationship between postmodernity and the invention of a sonic past.

ABSTRACT. The use of a specific vocality known as the kveða voice remains a defining feature of rímur and other related styles of Icelandic traditional music for many musicians. As Iceland rapidly modernized in the 20th century the kveða voice, and associated music, was often heard as emblematic of a primitive, untrained past. In this paper, I explore how the kveða voice developed in relation to the spatial and social dimensions of a key performance venue for this style of music prior to the 20th century: the shared room (baðstofa) of most turf houses, the most common type of local residential housing prior to the 20th century. These homes were built into the earth out of turf, stone, and wood (when available), and it was common for kveða musicians to perform in these relatively small, shared spaces while people worked, socialized, and slept. Turf houses and traditional styles of vocal music have been studied by local and international scholars, but the turf house as musical venue and the idea that the kveða vocality developed through the relationship between voice and venue has not been fully explored. I argue that the legacy of the kveða vocality demonstrates how, in these intimate spaces where the wind could howl through the stones and turf, and other sounds of outside and inside mixed, musicians adapted their voices to the environment. In contemporary settings, this vocality can often sound out of place and peculiar, yet it bears the sonic imprint of an environmental past still encoded into the kveða vocality. As musicians around the world face the potential for rapid environmental changes, this research offers insight into past experiences. This paper is based on over a decade of research in Iceland, including a fieldwork trip in late 2023 to study the sonic environment of turf houses.

ABSTRACT. Jola musicians in southern Senegal play a three-stringed instrument called ekonting while singing songs of love, death, spirits, warfare, and wrestling. Taking Olly Wilson’s concept of a heterogenous sound ideal and Francis Bebey’s notion of complex timbre as a point of departure, in this paper I investigate the mutually influential relationship between the sound of the ekonting and the human voice of its player. Ekonting players’ singing voices are entrained to timbral preferences circulating in Jola culture — yet they are also highly individual, reflecting the life experiences, aesthetic aspirations, and respiring bodies of the performers. The ekonting itself produces a gentle, round tone as a resonating assemblage of gourd, animal skin, raffia stalk, and fishing line, and it is quiet enough that only listeners in close proximity can hear it. Within this intimate sonic circle, the instrumental melody and the player’s voice entwine heterophonically, with one sometimes substituting for the other as they create a single heightened storytelling medium. I draw from ethnographic and audio production work with three ekonting players/singers — Elisa Diedhiou, Jean-Bosco Goudiaby, and Paul Diedhiou, — treating each as a case study reflecting similar cultural backgrounds but differing musical pathways. Using work in voice studies, critical organology, and music aesthetics of African music, I demonstrate that ekonting songs emerge as a heterogenous co-production of human and instrument voices. In turn, this can be seen as part of an expansive tradition of human-instrument interaction and complex timbral preferences characterizing music in swaths of Africa and its diaspora.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, I contrast the relatively recent new materialist/posthumanist paradigm shift mobilizing affect theory, neuroscience, and quantum physics to theorize non-human agency, with the work of several generations of Indigenous scholars who foreground non-anthropocentric principles of respect, reciprocity, and relational accountability, and who posit the non-separability of matter and spirit within the complex ecology of human and other/more-than-human-life, considered to be sacred. I argue that what distinguishes their conception of agency from the quantum-based theory of agential realism advocated by Karen Barad, one of the most influential proponents of new materialism/posthumanism, is its profoundly ethical, ecological, and spiritual dimensions. A non-anthropocentric perspective on vocality informed by Indigenous ethico-onto-epistemologies may thus consider human voices, songs, and stories to resonate with and through those of other/more-than-human agents in the wider community and ecosystem, including rivers, fields, hills, valleys, oceans, and mountains. This resonating relationality encompassing a vast spectrum of intra-actions may be understood as a co-constitutive collaborative process. Speaking or singing language back into land so that they may resonate with/through each other can be a powerful example of radical collaboration between a critically endangered language and land that is occupied, stolen, and exploited. I suggest that such land based eco-cultural practices for collective healing and renewal offer a potentially transformative, if not “new,” eco-critical approach to the crucial questions raised by (k)new materialist and posthumanist scholars.

ABSTRACT. In 2022, the United Nations reported that nearly five million people in India were internally displaced due to climate change and disasters in 2021. The process started much earlier with India's decision to participate in liberalization in the 90s. India's march for development has also led to massive displacement of communities across (mainly of Indian indigenous Adivasi communities). It has also brought the discourse of nature and ecology at the centre. Songs, Music, and dance become the center of anti-displacement movements.

Thinking through the songs and music of displacement, this paper aims to analyze what we would like to term as the "dis(possessed) rhythms". Dispossessed rhythms emerge from the sense of dislocation and dispossession from the land and communities, however, they tend to engender powerful memories and associations which might not have been there before the dispossession began. Or we can say that they acquire different potentials and resonance in the encounter. From songs like, Gaon Chhodab nahin (We will not leave the village), Laal Odisha Matti (Red Soil of Odisha), Jhelum Roya (Jhelum Cried) to Jumbak, Jumbak bala and others evoke similar connotations. These songs not only resist the ongoing displacement but also offer a sense of cultural justice to the communities at large.

ABSTRACT. Abdul Alim (July 27.1931-Sept 5.1974) was an eminent singer in Bangladesh and among the Bengali community in the subcontinent. Born in Talibpur village in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, India, his musical journey began at the child age, At just eleven years old (1943), he recorded two songs at the megaphone record company. By 1948, he had started singing for Radio Pakistan, and In 1956, he made his debut as a playback singer in the Bengali first film ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’. Afterward, he recorded approximately five hundred traditional songs and contributed to around a hundred film singing tracks.

The singing approach of Abdul Alim was characterized by his baritone voice, which resonated like the serene flow of a river, carrying a sense of liberation and a peaceful call for justice and its peaceful appeal for justice. He delved into various genres of traditional songs, including Bhatiali, Sari, Murshidi, Marfati, Baul, and Bicchedi, as well as patriotic and mystic songs. His rendition of the famous song "Oh silverene river! I am flattered to say your beauty is!” remains in people's mouths even now. Some likened Abdul Alim’s sweet, deep voice to that of a flute; while others dubbed him a magician of tone. The extreme power of the tone of folk music was revealed in his voice. The paper aims to explore the tonal significance of his singing techniques and the diverse throwing of musical genres he mastered. His innovative approach to traditional singing in Bangladesh can serve as a source of inspiration for aspiring artists of the future, encouraging them to explore new vocal expressions.

ABSTRACT. Embodied Echoes: Unraveling the Essence of Ghanaian Contemporary Dance seeks to explore the enduring qualities and cultural significance of Ghanaian traditions, transcending geographical boundaries and maintaining their unique essence. Rooted in sacred proclamation and cultural heritage, dance in Ghana embodies the spirit of tradition while evolving within contemporary contexts. This workshop aims to delve into the intricate tapestry of Ghanaian traditional dance, examining its symbiotic relationship with culture and its pivotal role in shaping contemporary dance expressions in Ghanaian society. Participants will engage in a comprehensive exploration of Ghanaian rhythmic traditions, acquiring a foundational movement vocabulary and developing a profound appreciation for the resilience and beauty inherent in these traditions. Through experiential learning, participants will embody the physicality of Ghanaian dance, experiencing its transformative power in fostering community cohesion and honoring both individual and collective identities. Moreover, participants will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a contemporary dance form deeply rooted in Ghanaian traditional dance aesthetics, bridging the past with the present and envisioning the future trajectory of Ghanaian dance evolution.

ABSTRACT. Join us to learn beautiful traditional Hungarian folk songs. This workshop is open to participants of all musical and language backgrounds, with no previous experience in the style required. The songs will be taught directly from village source recordings, and the workshop will include Hungarian pronunciation, the song words and their English translations, and background information on the style, regions, and traditions. Following her presentation at the IASA/ICTMD Conference in Istanbul in 2023 on international folk song teaching methodology, the workshop is led by Zina Bozzay, known for her accessible teaching style, academic rigor, and contagious enthusiasm.