The aim of my research is to reflect and exploit through a set of compositions certain musical features of Colombian folk music, which although difficult to incorporate in the language of Western Classical Music, can expand it in creative and productive ways. The outcome of this project is a folio with a set of compositions exploring, through different and innovative forms and sounds, the conflictive relationship between Colombian folk music and contemporary musical languages.

This thesis investigates the importance of local identity in the performance and transmission of traditional music in the Yaeyama archipelago, Okinawa prefecture, Japan. Several local repertories are considered, and the thesis examines their connection to different cultural and political units: individual villages, individual islands, Yaeyama as a region, Yaeyama as a part of Okinawa prefecture, Japan and the world. Chapter one introduces the issue of identity and regionalism in music and the concept of 'multiple identities' with specific reference to the case of Yaeyama. The use of the concept of 'tradition' is also examined, with reference to both Western and local cultural theories. Chapter two introduces historical and cultural aspects of the region in more detail, and gives an overview of Yaeyaman music, and a review of previous studies on this subject. Chapters three to six examine four different traditional music genres, examining historical elements of their formation, current cultural attitudes affecting their teaching and performance, and aspects of the music itself: chapter three deals with the kayo work song repertory with particular reference to local variant forms; chapter four looks at the fushiuta repertory and the move towards a pan-Yaeyaman singing style; chapter five outlines the role of village festivals in the preservation of local ritual repertories; chapter six examines one song, Tubarama, in depth, with reference to issues of preservation. Chapter seven describes the use of traditional musical elements and local identity in the context of Yaeyaman popular music styles which have blossomed since the early 1990s, and have found an audience both throughout Okinawa prefecture and mainland Japan. This musical genre is examined with reference to the commonly held image of Okinawa as a fundamental part of Japan, while also providing a link to both Asia and the rest of the world.

In this thesis, I examine the ways in which English folkmusic has interacted with medievalism from the eighteenth century to the present day. In Chapter 1, I use the story of how Thomas Percy discovered his famous manuscript as a frame for exploring the history of folkmusic from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century and the medieval discourses employed by editors of folksong such as Thomas Percy and Francis James Child. In Chapter 2, I examine the activities of the first folk revival and its cultural influence from the late 1800s to the end of the First World War, with particular attention to the work of Lucy Broadwood, Sabine Baring-Gould, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp. In Chapter 3 I explore the impact of folkmusic on English culture in the aftermath of the First World War, considering the importance of folkmusic and medievalism to F. R. Leavis and the Scmti'!)l movement, as well as in the pageant form, in both literature and film. In Chapter 4 I look at the origins of the second folk revival in the activities of Fascists and Communists from the 1920s to . the 1940s, paying particular attention to the work of Rolf Gardiner and A. L. lloyd. In Chapter 5, I explore the ways in which folkmusic and medievalism intertwined in the work of musicians such as Shirley and Dolly Collins and Steeleye Span in the 1960s and 1970s and discuss the importance of follmmsic in the depiction of the Middle Ages on film and television. In Chapter 6, I examine the exploitation of the Middle Ages by folkmusicians in the 1980s for historical precedents to contemporary political concerns. In Chapter 7, I consider the impact of remix culture on the interaction of folkmusic and medievalism from the 1990s to the present day.

This is a study of the life of a traditional musician in contemporary Pakistan. The tradition is the genre of dhurpad which has a history spanning several centuries. The family with which I am concerned is known as Talwandi Gharana and is represented by two brothers. Malikzada Muhammad Hafeez Khan, (the younger of the two) is the chief exponent of the tradition and it is through my study with him during the past fifteen years that I venture to explore various questions central to the tradition's survival in a hostile milieu, its musical style and core practices. I approach the mix of the material through a narration of my experience with Hafeez Khansahib from our first encounter through to the present day. After introducing the characters and the setting the thesis then describes: the teaching practices of the family; patronage structures; the importance of different media. These issues are discussed in separate chapters but the organic continuity of the experience is not surrendered in an effort to neatly compartmentalise the issues for the convenience of analysis. The concluding chapter evaluates the methodological issues arising out of the experience and its narration. Key questions include; the relevance of my status as a `local' anthropologist; the relationship between an individual biography and the wider social context; orality and the continuation of tradition; the burden of opposition to the wider artworld. These issues are also discussed comparatively through reference to a wider anthropological and musicological literature.

The purpose of my research is to investigate music-making as discursive practice, focusing on amateur musicians in English folk clubs. This is intended to support my thesis that music-making can be usefully characterised as intersubjective practice, whereby musicians and participants acquire and reaffirm a sense of social and communal identity through involvement and interaction within the symbolic world of the music event. My objective is to contribute towards popular music scholarship by focusing on music-making at a grass-roots level and showing the value of analysing this seemingly peripheral domain in enhancing our understanding of popular music culture. By using Christopher Small’s (1998a, 1998b) concept of ‘musicking’ as a central reference point, my analysis is based on a methodological framework of symbolic interactionism, drawing on the works of Harold Garfinkel (1967) and Erving Goffman (1959, 1961b, 1963), to map out a series of object-signs as constituent elements of the intersubjective domain of the folk club. By applying this approach to case study analyses, interview responses and direct observation, this study reveals the internal relations and dynamics of signification and identification that gave shape to amateur music-making as discourse. This is complemented by recognition of external discursive frameworks – professionalism, popularism, regulation and the institutionalised English ‘folk scene’ – and their role in defining the cultural experience of sharing music in folk clubs. In this way, my thesis demonstrates the capacity of object-sign analysis to provide a more rigorous characterisation of amateur music discourse than one based solely on ethnographic description and interpretation. The outcome of this research is a detailed perspective of ‘musicking’ as an experiential and cultural activity. It shows how amateur musicians and participants become subsumed within the discursive domain of folk clubs through sharing and recognising meanings invoked in musical (and social) performance. I conclude that the benefits of ‘musicking’ as a concept have not been sufficiently realised in popular music studies and that my research opens up possibilities for new and significant insights through its focus on intersubjective engagement with music as a focus for cultural practice and identity.

No description available.

This practice-led research is about contemporary folk performance in the Northwest of England. It draws on my academic background in ethnomusicology and personal practices as a folk performer and maker, expanded and developed in and through this project. In addition to this written thesis, it contains a body of arts-based outcomes including; garments and apparel, collaborative performances, photography that documents folk as a practice of making (Appendix 2, and interspersed throughout the text) and a DVD showcasing highlights of my final exhibition at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, in April 2014 (Appendix 3). My pluralistic approach aims towards complementarity: no single outcome or practice takes precedence within the research, but instead combine for an embedded and expansive account. The project takes as its starting point Dave Harker’s call for a new way to handle folk materials (Harker, 1985) and the notion of an artistic turn for ethnomusicology research (Coessens, Crispin and Douglas, 2009). Cognisant that the parallel and historically symbiotic relationship between folk performance and ethnomusicology Orcadia Morris Dancers at the ETACCO World Championships, Pontins Southport (2013) 9 has led some scholars, such as Philip Bohlman, to suggest that the latter actually resists newness (Bohlman 2008), I draw on theories of cultural improvisation by Elizabeth Hallam and Tim Ingold (2007) to consider ways in which folk performance might be reoriented forwards - instead of backwards - as something generative rather than simply repetitive. My key questions concern the intersection of folk performance, material practice and place-making, and the most apposite ways of exploring them as a researcher and maker. This has developed my practice from “thinking-through-making,” to making together, and aims towards a way of working that “does not turn away” from research participants during or after the fieldwork phase (Ingold, 2007: 28). Viewing performance as a site in between two main streams of practice-led scholarship, artistic research and arts-based enquiry, my approach builds on the extant practice-led elements of music research (e.g. Small’s “musicking”: 1998 and Baily’s “performance-as-a-research-technique”: 2001) to explore what ethnomusicology, distinct within the social sciences, might have to offer to debates around art as knowledge. The broadest goal of my project is to demonstrate the potential of artistic research as a rigorous, generative model for augmenting ethnomusicology and not merely a convenient means to illustrate theory. While I began this work with a practice as a folk performer, my project brings out for me the artistic practice inherent in folk via making, simultaneously revealing gaps in current approaches and suggesting one possible way in which to proceed. The main contributions to knowledge are my use of an artistic research approach in an ethnomusicological study, and resulting materials towards original 10 ethnographies of selected folk performances, including girls’ carnival morris dancing (Appendix 1). The inclusion of carnival performance into the canon of British folk scholarship is potentially transformational, making an overdue case that current approaches to the identification of tradition are more strongly aesthetically led – based upon how a performance looks over any other condition or quality – than has previously been acknowledged.

This thesis is concerned with the study of nuevo flamenco (new flamenco) as a genre characterised by the incorporation within flamenco of elements from music genres of the African-American musical traditions. A great deal of emphasis is placed on purity and its loss, relating nuevo flamenco with the whole history of flamenco and its discourses, as well as tracing its relationship to other musical genres, mainly jazz. While centred on the process of fusion and crossover it also explores through music the characteristics and implications that nuevo flamenco and its discourses have impinged on related issues as Gypsy identity and cultural authenticity. Even though this project is rooted in popular music studies it also attempts to think through the issues covered in relation to concepts and methodologies of other disciplines such as postcolonial studies, anthropology, and cultural theory. The aim is to create a dialogue between these disciplines and explore the ways they can bring a new focus and a set of analytical tools to bear on the material of study.

Traditional beiguan opera (and its music) has been performed for over three hundred years in Taiwanese society. It is still performed to this day. During this time, the music’s character and its eco-system have been in constant change, due to its multi-cultural and hybrid nature. Its development has also been influenced over time by environmental effects. The identities of beiguan communities have altered under the influences of shifting social and governmental pressures. Several questions are apparent: how can traditional modes of performance sustain their original values and identities while society moves into modernity? How can the beiguan subculture remain relevant, by finding new niches within the shifting cultural landscape? This thesis examines the formation of beiguan culture long before 1960 and compares it with beiguan’s contemporary situation in order to investigate changes in performance and community identities. Comparison will be presented in the form of fieldwork and theoretical analyses. We will focus on several beiguan communities selected from folk groups (both professional troupes and amateur clubs) and their related government organisations (such as the education system), in order to trace the trajectories of phenomena connected with these changes. Possibilities for culture conservation in the future will also be suggested. The approach outlined in this thesis may be used to survey the development of traditional beiguan music. What kind of changes could be accepted by people within the process of transition, from emphasising the authentic and traditional to a more innovative outlook? How do people position themselves on the dynamic continuum between tradition and innovation? In what position do we find traditional music after it has been affected by globalisation? Answering these questions will help us explore and discover different potential methods for maintaining beiguan’s cultural heritage. By reviewing policymaking and cross-disciplinary collaboration, a new range of values may present itself, as well as a new sense of belonging, to enhance the development of the identity of the beiguan community.

No description available.