This open access book offers an interdisciplinary perspective and presents various case studies on music as ICH, highlighting the importance and functionality of music to stimulating social innovation and entrepreneurship. Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) covers the traditions or living expressions proposed by the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in five areas, including music. To understand the relationship between immaterial and material uses and inherent cultural landscapes, this open access book analyzes the symbolic, political, and economic dimensions of music. The authors highlight the continuity and current functionality of these artistic forms of expression as well as their lively and changing character in continuous transformation. Topics include the economic value and impact of music, strategies for social innovation in the music sector, music management, and public policies to promote cultural and creative industries.
Focussing on music traditions, these essays explore the policy, ideology and practice of preservation and promotion of East Asian intangible cultural heritage. For the first time, Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan - states that were amongst the first to establish legislation and systems for indigenous traditions - are considered together. Calls to preserve the intangible heritage have recently become louder, not least with increasing UNESCO attention. The imperative to preserve is, throughout the region, cast as a way to counter the perceived loss of cultural diversity caused by globalization, modernization, urbanization and the spread of the mass media. Four chapters - one each on China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan - incorporate a foundational overview of preservation policy and practice of musical intangible cultural heritage at the state level. These chapters are complemented by a set of chapters that explore how the practice of policy has impacted on specific musics, from Confucian ritual through Kam big song to the Okinawan sanshin. Each chapter is based on rich ethnographic data collected through extended fieldwork. The team of international contributors give both insider and outsider perspectives as they both account for, and critique, policy, ideology and practice in East Asian music as intangible cultural heritage.
As economic, technological and cultural change gathers pace across the world, issues of music heritage and sustainability have become ever more pressing. Discourse on intangible cultural heritage has developed in complex ways in recent years, and musical practices have been transformed by safeguarding agendas. Music as Heritage takes stock of these transformations, bringing new ethnographic and historical perspectives to bear on our encounters with music heritage. The volume evaluates the cultural politics, ethics and audiovisual representation of music heritage; the methods and consequences of music transmission across national borders; and the perennial issues of revival, change and innovation. UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage provides an essential reference point for studies of music heritage. However, this volume also pays attention to important spheres of musical activity that lie outside of UNESCO’s reach and the reasons why some repertories of music are chosen for safeguarding while others are not. Some practices of art music in Europe explored in this book, for example, have received little attention despite being susceptible to endangerment. Developing a comparative framework that cuts across genre distinctions and disciplinary boundaries, Music as Heritage explores how music cultures are being affected by heritage discourse and the impact of international and national policies on grass-roots music practices.
Compared with its roles in pre-modern societies, traditional music, previously called "folklore," has been playing very different roles in the globalized world. These new roles, however, are rarely articulated in a systematic manner. While most discourse on the contemporary use of traditional music comes from the case studies of ethnomusicologists, the concept of "intangible cultural heritage," which is usually associated with the initiatives of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (including traditional music), provides a new perspective to understand the new roles that traditional music plays in the postmodern world. A systematic examination of these roles is crucial, because it allows an in-depth analysis of the hidden power relations behind the contemporary use of traditional music. Furthermore, with the idea of "salvation from disappearing" being more and more problematic in contemporary practice, the project of preserving traditional music cannot be firmly grounded unless its contemporary values are demonstrated. In order to systematically identify and analyze the contemporary use of traditional music, this paper examines the current literature on intangible cultural heritage and the related international initiatives undertaken by the United Nations and its specialized agencies such as UNESCO and UNDP, in combination with the major issues raised by ethnomusicologists regarding the use of traditional music in creative industries. Using two major case studies-Kunqu and HAN Hong's new Tibetan music-to demonstrate the aesthetic, political, economic and ethical dimensions of the use of traditional music in contemporary society, I argue that there is a fifth dimension, the social dimension, of the value of traditional music in the postmodern condition. The articulation of this social dimension of the contemporary use of traditional music serves to establish its universal relevance and to identify its unique character that makes it a powerful tool to serve as a counter-hegemonic force.
"The 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was a major step in addressing concerns about musical diversity and vitality on a global scale. 180 nation-states have ratified the Convention to date. Many have developed policies to address the sustainability of their music practices. On the eve of its twentieth anniversary of the Convention, 14 experts were invited to reflect on two decades of approaching music as Intangible Cultural Heritage. In introducing the contributions to this volume, this chapter introduces the genesis of the Convention, its most prominent features, its workings and successes, and the challenges that have arisen from using this framework to address threats to music sustainability worldwide"--
As Korea has developed and modernized, music has come to play a central role as a symbol of national identity. Nationalism has been stage managed by scholars, journalists and, from the beginning of the 1960s, by the state, as music genres have been documented, preserved and promoted as 'Intangible Cultural Properties'. Practitioners have been appointed 'holders' or, in everyday speech, 'Human Cultural Properties', to maintain, perform and teach exemplary versions of tradition. Over the last few years, the Korean preservation system has become a model for UNESCO's 'Living Human Treasures' and 'Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Mankind'. In this volume, Keith Howard provides the first comprehensive analysis in English of the system. He documents court music and dance, Confucian and shaman ritual music, folksongs, the professional folk-art genres of p'ansori ('epic storytelling through song') and sanjo ('scattered melodies'), and more, as well as instrument making, food preparation and liquor distilling - a good performance, after all, requires wine to flow. The extensive documentation reflects considerable fieldwork, discussion and questioning carried out over a 25-year period, and blends the voices of scholars, government officials, performers, craftsmen and the general public. By interrogating both contemporary and historical data, Howard negotiates the debates and critiques that surround this remarkable attempt to protect local and national music and other performance arts and crafts. An accompanying CD illustrates many of the music genres considered, featuring many master musicians including some who have now died. The preservation of music and other performance arts and crafts is part of the contemporary zeitgeist, yet occupies contested territory. This is particularly true when the concept of 'tradition' is invoked. Within Korea, the recognition of the fragility of indigenous music inherited from earlier times is balanced by an awareness of the need to maintain identity as lifestyles change in response to modernization and globalization. Howard argues that Korea, and the world, is a better place when the richness of indigenous music is preserved and promoted.
Efforts to document and preserve musical practices have played an important role in ethnomusicology since the formal inception of the discipline in the 1950s. Governments, NGOs, and transnational organizations such as UNESCO have promoted the protection of traditions for myriad reasons, including boosting national sentiment and capitalizing on touristic endeavors. However, these safeguarding projects often come with unwanted consequences to the local culture bearers and their customs. Cultural policies that recognize and aim to preserve particular musical practices increase the risk of commodification and exploitation. One notable example of influential cultural policymaking is that of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. This paper synthesizes common critiques and themes of existing literature on music as intangible cultural heritage, especially relating to UNESCO’s 2003 Convention. It also offers recent case studies of ethnomusicological involvement in cultural policymaking that will help to ensure positive results for local practitioners and their musics in the future.
This volume analyzes how and to what extent "1968" changed musical institutions, influenced the compositional development of avantgarde music, and thus contributed to social and cultural change in Europe and Northern America. German text.
Critiques and calls for reform have existed for decades within music education, but few publications have offered concrete suggestions as to how things might be done differently. Motivated by a desire to do just that, College Music Curricula for a New Century considers what a more inclusive, dynamic, and socially engaged curriculum of musical study might look like in universities. Editor Robin Moore creates a dialogue among faculty, administrators, and students about what the future of college music instruction should be and how teachers, institutions, and organizations can transition to new paradigms. Including contributions from leading figures in ethnomusicology, music education, theory/composition, professional performance, and administration, College Music Curricula for a New Century addresses college-level curriculum reform, focusing primarily on performance and music education degrees, and offer ideas and examples for a more inclusive, dynamic, and socially engaged curriculum of applied musical study. This book will appeal to thoughtful faculty looking for direction on how to enact reform, to graduate students with investment in shaping future music curricula, and to administrators who know change is on the horizon and seek wisdom and practical advice for implementing change. College Music Curricula for a New Century reaches far beyond any musical subdiscipline and addresses issues pertinent to all areas of music study.
This book vibrantly demonstrates how the study of music allows for identification and interpretation of the forces that form Taiwanese society, from politics and policy to reactions to and assertions of such policies. Contributors to this edited volume explore how music shapes life — and life shapes music — in Taiwan, focusing on subjects ranging from musical life under Japanese colonial rule (1895–1945) through to the contemporary creations of Indigenous musicians, popular music performance and production, Christian religious music, traditional ritual music and theatre, conceptions about sound and noise, and garbage truck music's role in reducing household waste. The volume’s twelve chapters present diverse approaches to their sounding subjects, some deeply rooted in the methods and concerns explored by Taiwan's first generation of ethnomusicologists. Others employ current social theories. Presenting a window into the cultural lives of the residents of this multicultural, politically contested island, Resounding Taiwan will appeal to students and scholars of musicology and ethnomusicology, anthropology and Asian studies more widely.
Professor Huib Schippers has broad, hands-on experience of more than forty years in the practice and study of world music, ethnomusicology and music education. He is a recognised leader of action research projects focusing on cultural diversity, and was responsible for establishing the World Music et Dance Centre (Rotterdam, 1996-2006) and the innovative Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre (Brisbane, 2003-2015). Dr Catherine Grant is a former Endeavour Australia Research Fellow and recipient of Australia's Future Justice medal for her work on issues of music endangerment and sustainability. Her book Music Endangerment: How Language Maintenance can Help was published in 2014 by Oxford University Press.
Applied studies scholarship has triggered a not-so-quiet revolution in the discipline of ethnomusicology. The current generation of applied ethnomusicologists has moved toward participatory action research, involving themselves in musical communities and working directly on their behalf. The essays in The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology, edited by Svanibor Pettan and Jeff Todd Titon, theorize applied ethnomusicology, offer histories, and detail practical examples with the goal of stimulating further development in the field. The essays in the book, all newly commissioned for the volume, reflect scholarship and data gleaned from eleven countries by over twenty contributors. Themes and locations of the research discussed encompass all world continents. The authors present case studies encompassing multiple places; other that discuss circumstances within a geopolitical unit, either near or far. Many of the authors consider marginalized peoples and communities; others argue for participatory action research. All are united in their interest in overarching themes such as conflict, education, archives, and the status of indigenous peoples and immigrants. A volume that at once defines its field, advances it, and even acts as a large-scale applied ethnomusicology project in the way it connects ideas and methodology, The Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology is a seminal contribution to the study of ethnomusicology, theoretical and applied.
