Books in the Europea: Ethnomusicologies and Modernities series

This collection of essays addresses and critically examines key issues in contemporary ethnomusicology. Set in two parts, the volume explores ethnomusicology's shifting disciplinary relationships and plots a range of potential developments for its future.

Attempts to answer the question of why people sing, by focusing on the transmission and performance of songs on a small, Gaelic-speaking island community. In an exposition of the links between music, text, and performance, the vicissitudes of island life are revealed, while these tensions are shown to be leavened by the singing of humorous items.

In The Past Is Always Present, Tore Tvarn Lind examines the musical revival of Greek Orthodox chant at the monastery of Vatopaidi within the monastic society of Mount Athos, Greece. In particular, Lind focuses on the musical activities at the monastery and the meaning of the past in the monks efforts at improving their musical performance practice through an emphasis on tradition.Based on a decade of intense fieldwork and extensive interviews with members of Athos monastic community, Lind covers a vast array of topics. From musical notation and the Greek oral tradition to CD covers and music production, the tension between tradition and modernity in the musical activity of the Athonite community raises a clear challenge to the quest to bring together Orthodox spirituality and quietude with musical production. The Past Is Always Present addresses all of these matters by focusing on the significance and meaning of the local chanting style. As Lind argues, Byzantine chant cannot be fully grasped in musicological terms alone, outside the context of prayer. Yet because chant is fundamentally a way of communicating with God, the sound generated must be exactly right, pushing issues of music notation, theory, and performance practice to the forefront.Byzantine chant, Lind ultimately argues, is a modern phenomenon as the monastic communities of Mount Athos negotiate with the realities of modern Orthodox identity in Greece. By reporting on the musical revival activities of this remarkable community through the topics of notation, musical theory, drone-singing, and spiritual silence, Lind looks at the ways in which Athonite heritage is shaped, touching upon the Byzantine chants contemporary relationship with practice of pilgrimage and the phenomenon of religious tourism.Offering unique insights into the monastic culture at Mount Athos, The Past Is Always Present is for those especially interested in sacred music, past and present Greek culture, monastic life, religious tourism, and the fields of ethnomusicology and anthropology.

We seldom consider how much we mistakenly presume in hewing to definitions of music that differ dramatically from the standpoint of other cultures. In What Makes Music European, Marcello Sorce Keller examines the limitations of accepted wisdom about the concept of music in Euro-Western culture. His investigations of the conclusions reached by music researchers of the past several decades considerably upsets the concepts relied upon by the concert-going public. Sorce Keller insightfully asks: Who makes the music? Should music be original, and how much can it be? Why do people identify with songs, pieces, styles, and repertoire? Why is music so ideological? Why do we misunderstand the music of different times and places, and why do we enjoy doing so? He also explores the juxtaposition of economy, society, and music making, as well as the concept of illegal harmonies.In What Makes Music European, Sorce Keller addresses the little-discussed matters that are essential to an understanding of how music intersects with the life of so many people. Readers are offered an approach for thinking about music that depends as much on its history as on the concepts and attitudes of the social sciences. What Makes Music European concisely demonstrates, to those familiar with Western music, how peculiar Euro-Western concepts of music appear from a cross-cultural perspective. At the same time, it encourages ethnomusicologists to apply their knowledge to Western music and explain to its public how much of what listeners take for granted is, at the very least, highly debatable.

The traditions of the Mediterranean island of Corsica have been well preserved and revitalized, yet little has been written about it in scholarly circles. This work represents the first treatise on Corsican music in the English language. Transported by Song: Corsican Voices from Oral Tradition to World Stage chronicles the evolution of Corsican music from the early 20th century to the present, charting its progression from the world of oral tradition to a vibrant new performance culture maintained by an expanding cohort of cosmopolitan players. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, comprehensive interviewing, and close observation of Corsican affairs, author Caroline Bithell maps out the social, cultural, economic, and political climate of Corsica in the 20th and early 21st centuries, offering insights into the way French cultural policy, decentralization legislation, and EU funding structures have impacted musical activity on the island. Key issues are explored through case studies of Corsican performing groups, allowing the reader to appreciate the musicians' inspirations and intentions, their ability to balance local and cosmopolitan frames of reference, and the relation of their new output to 'traditional' idioms and procedures. The book also offers new perspectives on debates about music and ethnicity and gender dynamics, and explores the use of modern technology in an oral idiom, and the psycho-physiological and transcendental experiences associated with polyphonic singing. Well researched and comprehensively written, Transported by Song also includes musical transcriptions, a glossary, discography, filmography, and bibliography.