Afro-Colombian internal migration and participatory music: Ethnically and politically charged religious festivals in Bogota

This paper reports an analysis of the roles of music performance in traditional patron saint celebrations from Afro-Colombian communities originally from the Pacific region but who currently live in the capital city of Bogotá. Since the late 1980s, a group of Afro-Colombian cultural leaders have used local traditional expressive cultural practices to construct social cohesion and a sense of collectivity among Afro-Colombians in the city. Here, I argue that the performative, expressive, and affective aspects inherent in Afro-Colombian patron saint celebrations can enable the potential of this transplanted practice for constructing ethnic identity and civic participation, thus catering to the needs of migrants and forcibly displaced people. Looking specifically at the case of the Virgin of Atocha saint wake in Bogotá, I discuss how several musicking, semiotic, and communicative techniques can be identified as facilitating social cohesion and cooperative behavior among participants. In this regard, creating an atmosphere overflowing with carefully selected social, expressive, cultural, and religious stimuli, as well as the idea of active participation, enables deep affective experiences that have an impact on elastic processes of identity construction and resignification of space and territory.

Emotion Curves: Creativity and Methodological “Fit” or “Commensurability”

The “emotion curve” is a creative methodology that asks research participants to express in graphic form changes in their emotional responses over time, reflecting on a given time period or on a particular activity or event (in our case, music-based activities). This methodology was developed as part of our research with community music-making NGO Musicians Without Borders at their “Music Bridge” participatory music and movement training program in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. This article discusses how the “post-conflict” context of our research, and our engagement with the principles of prefiguration and participatory action research, shaped the development of this innovative methodology, paying particular attention to achieving methodological “fit” (or commensurability) with the practices, objectives, and ethos of our research partners. This creative and “fitting” (or commensurate) methodology has been the basis of a “mutually transformative dialog” with our research partners.

"Your network bandwith is low"

My contribution is a personal account about my experiences with online participatory music-making in the first few months of the pandemic. As an old-time fiddler, I anchored a local Zoom jam and attended a Zoom-based music camp. As a Sacred Harp singer, I participated in regular singings via Facebook Live.

Music: A Very Short Introduction

Music: A Very Short Introduction is a study of music and thinking about music, focusing on its social, cultural, and historical dimensions. It draws on a wealth of accessible examples, ranging from Beethoven to Chinese zither music. This VSI also discusses the nature of music as a real-time performance practice; the role of music in social and political action; and the nature of musical thinking, including the roles played in it by instruments, notations, and creative imagination. It explores the impact of digital technology on the production and consumption of music, including how it has transformed participatory music-making and the music business. Finally it examines music’s position in a globalized world. In many ways music has changed out of all recognition over the last twenty years, and so the second edition of this VSI has been comprehensively rewritten.

KIMA: The Wheel–Voice Turned into Vision: A Participatory, Immersive Visual Soundscape Installation

Over the last five years, KIMA, an art and research project on sound and vision, has investigated visual properties of sound. Previous iterations of KIMA focused on digital representations of cymatics—physical sound patterns—as media for performance. The most recent development incorporated neural networks and machine learning strategies to explore visual expressions of sound in participatory music creation. The project, displayed on a 360-degree canvas at the London Roundhouse, prompted the audience to explore their own voice as intelligent, real-time visual representation. Machine learning algorithms played a key role in meaningful interpretation of sound as visual form. The resulting immersive performance turned the audience into cocreators of the piece.

Creativity, music, and quality of later life: A systematic review

The aim of this systematic review was to interrogate the existing literature that articulates indirect or direct links between quality of life (QoL) and creativity in later life musical learning and participation. Search terms were related to the concept (creativity), the context (music), the population (aging), and the outcome (QoL). Twenty-three articles were retained. The link between creativity and QoL focused primarily on the role of creativity in life enrichment and subjective well-being. Creativity in participatory music-making was found to be underpinned by social engagement, collaboration, and inclusivity. Opportunities for creative expression through participatory music-making offered a range of benefits relating to QoL that included positive emotions, engagement, relationships, a sense of meaning, and accomplishment. Our systematic review highlights limitations with regard to theoretical explanations for the characteristics of a creative musical process or product within later life contexts, the specific contributions of these creative processes and products in relation to quality of later life, and the specific ways in which creative musical expression can be facilitated within diverse and multicultural later life contexts so as to maximize the potential QoL benefits for our aging population.

How Participatory Music Engagement Supports Mental Well-being: A Meta-Ethnography

Participatory music engagement has the capacity to support well-being. Yet, there is little research that has scrutinized the processes through which music has an effect. In this meta-ethnography [PROSPERO CRD42019130164], we conducted a systematic search of 19 electronic databases and a critical appraisal to identify 46 qualitative studies reporting on participants’ subjective views of how participatory music engagement supports their mental well-being. Synthesis of first-order and second-order interpretations using thematic coding resulted in four third-order pathways that account for how participatory music engagement supports mental well-being: managing and expressing emotions, facilitating self-development, providing respite, and facilitating connections. Our interpretation suggests that people benefit from participatory music engagement by engaging with specific and multiple processes that meet their individual needs and circumstances. These findings inform research directions within the field of music and well-being, as well as guiding the development and delivery of future music interventions.

Showing the way, or getting in the way? Discussing power, influence and intervention in contemporary musical-social practices

This article presents a broad discussion of power and influence within contemporary participatory music practices in relation to practices of intervention. The discussion is presented through the respective experience and professional perspectives of music therapy, music education and community music – each illustrated by current practice examples and their accompanying dilemmas; and covering both local and international projects. In a shared closing discussion, the four authors review the key question: whether professional influence and power in participatory music practices ‘shows the way’ or ‘gets in the way’. They conclude that intervention takes place on a continuum, in different ways, and to different degrees and levels. What is vital is to retain practical and ethical reflexivity on the dimensions of intervention as a practice that can offer both creative opportunities, but which can also be part of subtly oppressive power relationships.

Environment, intention and intergenerational music making: Facilitating participatory music making in diverse contexts of community music

Current conversations and debates amongst community music and music educational practitioners have engendered the need to identify and describe qualities and leadership strategies that could be expected essential for those in teaching, facilitating and/or working in diverse settings, including carceral environments. Common areas are first explored: where are we working (context)?, with whom are we working (people/community)? and given an understanding of the first two questions, how do we do it (strategies)? These framing questions assist in locating common characteristics of making music in various settings, but also point to the distinctive features of each of the three contexts. By establishing conditions for authentic experience, safety in exploring and risk-taking as well as defining key strategies for successful engagement, instructional approaches are identified and applied. Pedagogical practices that include instructional strategies such as guided discovery, collaborative learning and narrative dialogue are identified. Facilitation processes such as, for example, demonstrating/modelling, coaching, Socratic direction and facilitating/enabling are models of musical intervention that create space for acquiring and using lifelong skills in participatory contexts. Whether in schools, communities or prisons, the positive experience of music making thrives where the flexibility of the teacher/facilitator, the reflexivity of the innovator, the foundational knowledge that research and practice provide and the ultimate enhancement of the community are fully in place.