Gelebte Transnationalität

In this article singing is not first and foremost interpreted in its tonal texture, but as a cultural, social and political-historical phenomenon. Using the example of the German vocal culture in the USA in the "long 19th century", the function and effect of singing is examined. The focus is on songs, musical symbols and rituals as an expression of social and political communication. Singing together strengthened the formation and sharpening of a specific identity of the so-called German-Americans. In the German-language singing the old "Heimat" did not remain abstract, but was experienced in a concrete emotional way and connected with the American foreign land or the new homeland. The vocals about German fatherland were thus a point of reference in the new American world, but at the same time this connection was relativized and historicized in the course of time. This transculturality and transnationality lived through singing proved to be a social and political challenge, especially in times of increasing national tensions.

“Follow My Voice”:

'Mouth’s Cradle', from Björk’s 2004 album Medúlla, combines a vocal line of considerable flexibility with a carefully outlined yet rather unusual structure. This article discusses the inspiration behind the song and analyze its structure. A particular focus is the interaction of structure and improvisation, the tension that exists between the inherent flexibility of Björkʼs melodic impulse and a formal scheme that is worked out in full only during the later stages of the creative process. In addition to the analysis of the song as it appears on Medúlla, the article also compares two later live performances that differ considerably in the treatment of a key moment in the song. By way of contrast, the article also discusses the ostinato-based 'Oceania', from the same album, which demonstrates a very different approach to the limits of structure and improvisation.

A "Stubbornly Persistent Illusion"?:

The climate crisis impacts the northern polar regions in disproportionate ways, and ecomusicology is an academic discourse. In bringing these two seemingly unrelated pairs together, I argue for academic discourse in ecomusicology that makes connections with the climate crisis in music and sound studies. What can ecomusicology offer humanity as we face climate catastrophe? While not a panacea, ecomusicology can serve to further collapse the unfortunate nature-culture dichotomy that is at the root of so many social and environmental problems. Academic discourse always should have a place for titillation, but we must not avoid the climate crisis in music scholarship, for that only enables climate change denialism. I elaborate on an ecomusicology that is both new and not new, providing examples of climate connections in ecomusicological discourse. Ultimately, we must make such connections and do something about the problems we face as a civilization.

Music and Northern Forest Cultures

This article argues that it is critical to recognize the importance of northern forests in Finno-Ugric musical contexts (Finnish and Karelian) by focusing on the question of cultural survival, which is connected with thinking about global challenges, including climate change and environmental pressure. The discussion highlights cultural survival by outlining the significance of the forest, the politics of language transmission with reference to the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic), Sibelius’s nature-based aesthetic (especially in Tapiola, 1926), and the evocation of the forest in contemporary folk and popular music. Overall, the main aims are to consider the resilience of northern forest cultures in the nexus of music, language, and ecology, and to emphasize that resilience cannot be taken for granted under environmental pressure.

Getting To The Core:

This article discusses the construction and representation of nature in the composition and performance of Meredith Monk’s song cycle “Facing North” by analyzing the quality of the performing voices, their physicality, and by bringing them into relation to the associations and contexts evoked by the songs’ titles. Based on voice and nature concepts in cultural studies, this article argues that this approach creates a very specific concept of nature, which is artistic and artificial at the same time. Through contextualising the concept of nature established in “Facing North” with a specific, gendered construction of nature as basis of a narrative of North American identity as depicted by musicologist Denise Von Glahn, it becomes evident how the composition and performance of “Facing North” at once accord with and oppose to a gendered concept of nature.

Recreating the Creation:

Recreating the creation is on the trail of a theory of remix. Using the example of the debut album of the Icelandic band Sigur Ros, the question is asked how nature sounds and pop songs relate to each other and in the tension between production, composition and sampling. In doing so, contemporary poetics and techniques of music production are historically and aesthetically contextualized with the practice of a music that not only wants to reinvent itself, but refers to existing music and sounds.

Sounds Real and Imagined:

In a career spanning more than four decades, American composer Libby Larsen has turned to the natural world for inspiration on dozens of occasions: her piece Up Where the Air Gets Thin is just one of the results. Unlike many of her nature-based works which provide primarily aesthetic responses to the sights, sounds, feel, and smells of the natural environment, this 1985 duet for contrabass and cello comments on the limits of non-verbal communication and the impact of climate change. It is simultaneously reflective and didactic. “Sounds Real and Imagined” considers the ways Larsen marshals minimal musical materials and a sonic vocabulary that she associates with stillness and cold, in combination with her commitment to environmental awareness and advocacy. It situates the historic 1953 ascent of Mt. Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay within the context of late-twentieth-century artistic responses and an early twenty-first century musicologist-listener’s consciousness.

Environmental Perception and Activism through Performance:

As is argued in this article, a deeper understanding of the relationship between music and performance and environmental aspects in extreme contexts, such as the North and Alpine regions, provides insights into the constantly shifting human concepts of nature. By analyzing historical and modern accounts of nature-related music and performances in the Swiss Alpes, this article discusses the interconnectedness between local traditional performing practices, particularly yodeling, and landscape. It hereby aims at adding a critical and nuanced perspective on the often romanticized interconnectedness between nature and local cultural identity, as expressed by Alpine yodeling and extreme nature. While Alpine Switzerland is indeed exemplary of the process of landscaping through music and sound, it is actually a patchwork of a variety of musical articulations that each reflect environmental concerns and is shaped by the experience of extreme natural surroundings.