The Social Life of Musical Instruments

Bates, Eliot

doi:10.5406/ethnomusicology.56.3.0363

Cited by 103 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The saz serves as a symbol, a peaceful weapon, for them to use against all the injustices and persecution they have faced throughout many years. Bates (2012), also mentions the saz as a weapon in relation to the familiar portrayal of Pir Sultan Abdal holding the saz with his two hands, directly above his head, "as if it were a rifle or sword" (p. 384). Bates (2012) continues this thought by expressing the following:…”

Section: The Me the Meaning Of Music And The Aning Of Music And The S Sazmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

Muradoglu

2017

Voices

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Abstr Abstract actAn attempt to give insight into who Alevis are and what Alevism is, only further demonstrates the complexities that arise in doing so. However, this ambiguity is essential to discuss in terms of what this paper seeks to answer and that is: How can we comprehend the complexities of Alevism, using music and the saz as a mode of understanding that does not further reduce them to just representations of folklore? For those who identify as Alevis, music, and in particular the saz, play a central role in this formation of identity. Alevis in their religious rituals use music and dance, and thus their practices oppose that of a Sunni-majority Turkey. In this sense, when it comes to incorporating music in their religious traditions, the Turkish state undermines and therefore considers them illegitimate religious practices and deems them purely as cultural ones. Emphasizing the importance of the saz aims to bridge the cultural and religious implications of the instrument and thus metaphorically serve as also a bridge in understanding the complexities of defining Alevis. Contextualizing is imperative for understanding the performative piece at the end of the paper. This section aims to provoke the reader to think about what they have just read and listen to a piece composed by an Alevi saz player who was victim to one of the atrocities in Alevi history. The video is supplemented by the voices of my research participants who share their thoughts about the song-"Güle Yel Değdi"(Rose is Touched by the Breeze), the composer of the song-Hasret Gültekin, and about Alevism in general.

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Section: The Me the Meaning Of Music And The Aning Of Music And The S Sazmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

Muradoglu

2017

Voices

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“…I conclude by pointing out one additional relationship in which further conversation might strengthen the pathway towards visitor-centric interpretation and therefore meaningful visitor experience. When I consider the shared roots of ethnomusicology and organology in music scholarship of a previous century (such as Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs) it seems unfortunate that the disciplines have -for a number of reasons -become separated if not almost estranged from one another with only a few exceptions (examples such as Bates 2012;Kartomi 1990;Lindsey and Roda 2014). My own understandings of global music cultures have certainly been enriched by exposure to the object-centric inquiry of organology, and the fledgling understandings I have gained in regards to material and object conservation has strengthened my role as a museum professional.…”

Section: A Need For Dialoguementioning

confidence: 99%

Popular Music as an Interpretive Device for Creating Meaningful Visitor Experience in Music Museums

Wiens¹

2017

ethno

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This article looks at modes of visitor engagement in a music museum setting. As curator for a gallery and collection of European music, I am tasked with representing musical cultures in Europe according to geo-political entity, community group, and genre. I present a case study in which popular music served to connect visitors with display content by instigating interest and creating a sense of personal context for the visitor. By presenting visitors with audio-visual content that was meaningful to them I was able to increase visit length to specific displays. In these cases, I used popular music as a didactic tool to guide visitors towards critical understandings of culture. It allowed me to simply and effectively represent nuances of musical behaviour and concepts of locality, innovation, and fluidity. Findings of the project stimulated thoughts and questions regarding the purposes and methods of representation within musical instruments museum display spaces.Cet article examine les modes sur lesquels les visiteurs s’investissent en contexte muséal consacré à la musique. En tant que conservatrice d’un département muséal consacré à la musique européenne, j’ai pour tâche de représenter les cultures musicales de l’Europe en fonction d’entités géopolitiques, de groupes communautaires et de genre. Je présente une étude de cas dans laquelle la musique populaire a servi à connecter les visiteurs au contenu exposé en suscitant leur intérêt et en créant pour chaque visiteur le sentiment d’un contexte personnel. En présentant aux visiteurs des contenus audiovisuels qui avaient un sens pour eux, j’ai pu prolonger les temps de visite de certaines expositions en particulier. Dans ces cas, j’ai employé la musique populaire comme un outil didactique pour orienter les visiteurs vers une compréhension critique de la culture. Cela m’a permis de simplifier et de représenter efficacement les nuances du comportement musical et les concepts de localisation, d’innovation et de fluidité. Les découvertes permises par ce projet ont stimulé la réflexion et les questions relatives aux finalités et aux méthodes de représentation au sein des espaces muséaux exposant des instruments de musique

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“…Rather than a 'network', Clarke et al (2016) have suggested that this more complex and fluid relationship might best be understood as an 'ecological mesh' (p. 121; see also Clarke et al, 2013;Ingold, 2011 De Souza's interests ultimately lie elsewhere, in the relationship between the performer's body and instrument rather than the distribution of knowledge during co-present collaboration, yet in drawing attention to instruments' physical, technical, and historical affordances, he offers a fruitful framework for approaching the basset clarinet in this project, which, like Sheppard Skaerved's violin, has powerful historical and cultural resonances. Thus, attending to the social life of musical instruments (see Appadurai, 1988;and Bates, 2012) in collaborative work may offer an opportunity to delve more deeply into the processes of music-making that might otherwise be overlooked. It is to the instrument, and its role in…”

Section: Locating the Instrument In Creative Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repurposing the Past? The Historical Basset Clarinet in Creative Collaboration

Payne

2016

Contemporary Music Review

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In this article I examine the role of the instrument in Evan Johnson and Carl Rosman's collaboration on a new work for eighteenth-century basset clarinet, 'indolentiae ars', a medium to be kept (2015). Drawing on material collected over 30 months -including interviews; audio-visual footage; and correspondence containing sketches, fingering charts, and recordings -I consider the latent practices that lie within the instrument, and their role in the creative process. From the aesthetic discourses that pervaded the musicians' discussions, to the transitional and sometimes 'accidental' moments of instrumental interaction during workshops, I trace the micro-processes within the broader creative trajectory, in order to understand how the instrument's historical, social, and ergonomic affordances were enmeshed within the here-and-now of the collaboration. The article illustrates the dynamic character of collaborative work, shaped not solely by the knowledge of individuals, but through a close reciprocity between perception, action, and the discursive and material conditions of their surroundings.

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The Social Life of Musical Instruments

Cited by 103 publications

References 26 publications

The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

Popular Music as an Interpretive Device for Creating Meaningful Visitor Experience in Music Museums

Repurposing the Past? The Historical Basset Clarinet in Creative Collaboration

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