Drawing ideas from transformational theory and rhythm and meter theory, this study examines bluegrass banjo music in terms of rhythm and motions of the human hand. It begins by presenting a mathematical model of the five-string banjo characterizing the gestural permutations that give rise to the instrument's rhythmic complexity. Drawing upon these permutational relationships, this study analyzes excerpts from bluegrass banjo repertoire in terms of the connections among rhythmic patterns rendered as beat-class sets. Last, it examines the interaction between these sets and metric hierarchies typical of bluegrass music, relating this interaction to the idea of “drive” discussed by bluegrass performers and listeners. Ultimately, this study suggest how bluegrass music gets its distinctively propulsive rhythmic energy while also providing a perspective on transformational and beat-class approaches to noncanonical music.
This article examines the contested issue of defining the genre of bluegrass music. Interpreting this debate as a subjective negotiation and renegotiation of a category, it focuses on the discursive and musical means through which ontologies of bluegrass are framed. In doing so, the article adds to a growing body of literature that considers genre in popular music as a flexible construct involving both musical performance and cultural formations. The article begins by exploring the idea of bluegrass as constructed by Bill Monroe and a number of early bluegrass scholars, after which it invokes recent work on human cognition and categorisation to analyse the genre debate among bluegrass enthusiasts. The article ultimately proposes that such discourse, notwithstanding its apparent futility, can be regarded as a vital means for a genre's self-perpetuation.
In a 2019 interview, the musician, dancer, and educator I Nyoman Wenten discussed the centrality of Balinese religious practices, emphasising that sacred artistic offerings and questions about the natural environment are “always intertwined”. What accounts for this kind of intertwinement in Bali? In this article, this question is approached by exploring Balinese Hindu concepts including tri hita karana and sekala/niskala, which are related to post-1945 Balinese Hinduism while also connecting to the millenniumold water irrigation system of subak. Scholarship about subak has mainly occurred in the areas of anthropology, environmental analysis, and tourism related studies, but there are broad connections to Bali’s well-documented musical traditions as well. This article suggests how Balinese ideas about spirituality, engagement with the natural world, and approaches to the arts involve forms of “relational practice”. Some ways in which Bali has hosted a multiplicity of religious and artistic processes that have nurtured productive and enduring relationships among people, nature, and the sacred are discussed. The article proceeds by first providing some history and concepts involving Balinese Hinduism. Then, aspects of subak as social processes akin to artistic practice are considered, after which music and the arts as they relate to concepts including tri hita karana and sekala/niskala are discussed. The article concludes that relational practices are historical traditions to learn from and adapt as ways to navigate a changing present. Regularly shared artistic pursuits and communal offerings are ways of drawing immediate human interactions together with the natural environment and beyond.
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