LIVENESS, MULTIFOCALITY, EAVESDROPPING IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGICAL FIELDWORK RESEARCH AT GHANAIAN FESTIVALS AND ROYAL FUNERALS

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-118
Author(s):  
Moses Nii-Dortey
Keyword(s):  
Data Gathering ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
Performance Events ◽  
Integrated Performance

Ethnomusicological research that involves live, sprawling, multifocal and integrated ceremonies often present liveness-induced challenges that may undermine the authenticity of the research outcomes. )is article describes multifocal and integrated music making performances such as festivals and royal funerals in Ghana and how the vagaries of liveness are largely responsible for nuanced peculiarities which every live musical performance assumes. )e article argues in favour of a central role for eavesdropping among informed participating audience members in data gathering efforts as an important strategy for dealing with liveness-induced contingencies in multifocal and integrated performance events.

Voices on the wind

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Curkpatrick
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Orchestral Music ◽  
Australian Society ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Interaction

The musical project Crossing Roper Bar (CRB) is based on a collaboration between Wägilak songmen from Australia’s Northern Territory and the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO). Individuals drawn into this collaboration bring their distinct voices and histories to performance, while opening themselves to those of others. A new, malleable approach to orchestral performance in Australia is the result of this collaboration, which places improvisation at the centre of conversational musical interaction. This chapter introduces orthodox narrative elements of Wägilak manikay (song) that are creatively renewed and sustained in CRB. It highlights how the collaboration demonstrates the compelling play of musical performance that can generate nuanced, respectful and ongoing interactions between individuals, and between individuals and traditions. Amidst the vibrant, cultural diversity of contemporary Australian society, CRB suggests new possibilities for productive and relevant orchestral music-making.

scholarly journals Towards Big Data: Digitising Economic and Business History

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-67
Author(s):  
Jari Eloranta ◽  
Pasi Nevalainen ◽  
Jari Ojala
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Business History ◽  
General State ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Digital History ◽  
History Data ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
History Of

This chapter describes the experiences in computational and digital history of economic and business historians who for decades have been forerunners in digital history data gathering and computational analysis. It attempts to discuss the major developments within this area internationally and, in some specific cases, in Finland in the fields of digital economic and business history. It concentrates on a number of research projects that the authors have previously been involved in, as well as research outcomes by other economic and business historians within Finland and elsewhere. It is not claimed that the projects discussed are unique or ahead of their time in the field of economic and business history—on the contrary they are representing a more general state of the art within the field and used as illustrative cases illuminating the possibilities and challenges facing historians in the digital era.

Introduction: Music-making in Domestic Space

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBORAH HOWARD
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Domestic Space ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Early Modern France ◽  
Music Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern France ◽  
The Subject

The introduction sets the forthcoming chapters in the broader context of musical life in Early Modern France and Italy, with reference to existing scholarship on the subject. The occasions and locations in which musical performance took place are outlined, and the scope of the book is defined, stressing the close connections between France and Italy. A growing number of studies of secular music-making consider the social and ideological framework for performance, but usually without serious consideration of architectural settings. Yet these were crucial to the acoustic quality of the performance, for both players and listeners. The chapter therefore underlines the need for an interdisciplinary approach, to establish the background for the study of the emergence of the permanent theatre.

Developing “Big Ears”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Greenland
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Silent Majority ◽  
Performance Space ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Live Music ◽  
Private And Public

This chapter examines how jazz fans, especially the most active concertgoers (the regulars), respond to a musical performance. It first considers how fans become part of jazz communities and how they contribute to the New York City jazz scene. It then shows how nonperforming musicians fill the performance space, suggesting that these offstage participants, who are also “performing” jazz, constitute the unseen scene, the silent and not-so-silent majority that forms an integral part of communal music-making. It also explains what happens when fans are in the house: how their musical tastes develop, how they view performers and performances, and how their private and public listening practices inform their understandings of and appreciation for jazz and jazz performances. The chapter concludes that when jazz audiences with “big ears” attend to and interact with live music and musicians, it creates a sympathetic environment where jazz can come alive.

The women’s international gamelan group at the Pondok Pekak

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Music ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Social Agency ◽  
Mass Tourism ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Collective Creativity ◽  
Balinese Gamelan ◽  
Male Activity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Important Site

Balinese gamelan music stresses notions of unity, community and totality that are realized through the interaction of players and instruments. Traditionally considered a male activity, Balinese women now perform gamelan music in sacred and secular contexts. Moreover, the rise of mass tourism and an increase in the number of expatriates living in Bali now means that gamelan music has become an important site for ‘intercultural’ collective music-making. Nonetheless, little research exists concerning this emerging and significant facet of Balinese musical performance, with no studies examining intercultural musical activities of women’s gamelan ensembles. This chapter explores the collective creativity and social agency of an international women’s gamelan ensemble in Bali. Examining how this musical ensemble emerged, the micro processes of orchestral rehearsals and performances, and the relationship between traditional music and dance, this chapter extends research that has focused hitherto on the gamelan ensemble in Bali as a (primarily male) orchestral practice.

Field Theory and the Play of Musical Performance

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-283
Author(s):  
Eleanor Stubley
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Way

This paper utilizes the vocabulary and methodological concepts of field theory to explore how play can arise in and through performance. Field is defined as a space or potential for action. The action of play is grounded in an open and expanding space which through a dialectic interplay of feelings motivates self-exploration. The action of musical performance is grounded in a reaching out movement through which the performer forges and sustains a musical voice. The field can create a space for play when the music-making re-directs or challenges the focus of the musical voice. The methodological approach recognizes and respects differences in the way music is made in different cultural traditions. It also articulates a need to develop instructional strategies which treat musical style as a ritualistic process and which define the role of the teacher as a musician.1

scholarly journals Data-Driven Analysis of Tiny Touchscreen Performance with MicroJam

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
Charles Patrick Martin ◽  
Jim Torresen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
User Experience ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Mobile Music ◽  
Common Interface ◽  
Musical Interaction

The widespread adoption of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has made touchscreens a common interface for musical performance. Although new mobile music instruments have been investigated from design and user experience perspectives, there has been little examination of the performers' musical output. In this work, we introduce a constrained touchscreen performance app, MicroJam, designed to enable collaboration between performers, and engage in a data-driven analysis of more than 1,600 performances using the app. MicroJam constrains performances to five seconds, and emphasizes frequent and casual music-making through a social media–inspired interface. Performers collaborate by replying to performances, adding new musical layers that are played back at the same time. Our analysis shows that users tend to focus on the center and diagonals of the touchscreen area, and that they tend to swirl or swipe rather than tap. We also observe that, whereas long swipes dominate the visual appearance of performances, the majority of interactions are short with limited expressive possibilities. Our findings enhance our understanding of how users perform in touchscreen apps and could be applied in future app designs for social musical interaction.

Singing Heaven Down to Earth

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique M. Ingalls
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Worship Music ◽  
Contemporary Worship ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Congregational Music

Chapter 2 examines how two large, interdenominational multi-day conferences for evangelical college students use contemporary worship music. Interpreting these events through the lenses of pilgrimage and eschatology, it demonstrates that conferences like these serve as sacred centers for powerful spiritual experiences mediated by music. When participants sing contemporary worship songs together, they imagine the conference gathering as an embodiment of the heavenly community and their singing as the “sound of heaven.” As conference attendees collectively perform the heavenly community into being, they also imagine their relationships to others both within and outside the conference. Comparing lyrics, musical performance, and social organization of congregational music-making at the two conferences reveals that the two events encourage participants to conceive the heavenly community very differently, resulting in diverging understandings of their relationship to Christians of other gendered, racial and ethnic, and national backgrounds.

scholarly journals “Obedient bodies”: Space, time and sound in the operas by Christoph Marthaler

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-49
Author(s):  
Anna Sokolskaya
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Musical Performance ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Stage Design ◽  
Musical Rhythm ◽  
Theatrical Space ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Tristan Und Isolde

The article discusses the relationships between musical performance, theatrical space and gesturality in Christoph Marthaler’s operatic productions. The stage design, the types of actor’s physical and vocal expressivity in “Le Nozze di Figaro”, “La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein”, “Kát’a Kabanová”, “Věc Makropulos”, “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” and “Tristan und Isolde” are studied. Gesture, vocalisation and text in Marthaler’s productions are discussed and interpreted by considering the mismatching of dance and musical rhythm, the contrast of academical and non-academical singing manners or soundless articulation, as well as emphasizing the visual side of musical performance. Ensemble music-making and figurative gestures are the metaphors of power relations, total control and the collapse of social structures. It is concluded that the ways of vocalization and the types of gestures embody the system of power. The society in Marthaler’s operatic stage productions appears as an ensemble of the discursive practices.

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