Music Worlding in Palau: An Introduction

Abstract

The introduction sketches the book’s theoretical framework and trajectory, outlining its rationale and aim. I introduce the notions of meaningfulness and atmospheres and position them vis-à-vis Pacific Islander and specifically, Palauan ontologies.

Atmospheres: The multisensoriality of spatially extended emotions

“…Atmospheres as half‐things thereby intermingle with felt‐bodies, provoking meaningful stirrings that stand in a relation of qualitative similarity to the integral Gestalten through which such half‐things present themselves. To return to the topic of sound, music, and voice, an emerging focus in work on atmospheres (Abels, 2013, 2022; Eisenlohr, 2018; Riedel & Torvinen 2020), therefore can only be sonic instead of merely acoustic atmospheres. The sonic as traveling vibratory and energetic phenomena not only exceeds the realm of the audible, but also provides an overall paradigm for the stirrings and suggestions of movement that atmospheres provoke.…”

“…11The recent expansion of atmosphere as a concept from philosophy to other academic fields has yielded a steadily growing literature, including for example, in anthropology (Bille, 2019; Eisenlohr, 2018; Peterson, 2021), in geography (Anderson, 2009; Edensor, 2012; Hasse, 2012, McCormack, 2018), architecture (Zumthor, 2006), anthropology and media studies (Pink & Sumartojo, 2019), music studies (Abels, 2013; 2022; Riedel & Torvinen, 2020), and law (Philoppopoulos‐Mihalopoulos, 2015). The pioneering and voluminous work of Hermann Schmitz appears to be not widely known among anglophone authors who write on atmospheres, but see Philoppopoulos‐Mihalopoulos (2015) and Gandy (2017).…”