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Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation
Abstract
People around the world and throughout history have used music to express their inner emotions, reach out to the divine, woo lovers, celebrate weddings, inspire political movements, and lull babies to sleep. In Music as Social Life, Thomas Turino explores why it is that music and dance are so often at the center of our most profound personal and social experiences. Turino begins by developing tools to think about the special properties of music and dance that make them fundamental resources for connecting with our own lives, our communities, and the environment. These concepts are then put into practice as he analyzes various musical examples among indigenous Peruvians, rural and urban Zimbabweans, and American old-time musicians and dancers. To examine the divergent ways that music can fuel social and political movements, Turino looks at its use by the Nazi Party and by the American civil rights movement. Wide-ranging, accessible to anyone with an interest in musicâs role in society, and accompanied by a compact disc, Music as Social Life is an illuminating initiation into the power of music.
... Diferentes sistemas musicales restringen o abren oportunidades de participación para un individuo o para un grupo, lo que a la vez evidencia valores socioculturales implícitos en el diseño de los sonidos y las estructuras musicales. El etnomusicólogo Thomas Turino (2008) sugiere que el universo de posibilidades de organización musical puede ser representado por un espectro que incluye cuatro categorías de campos artísticos. Una de estas categorías, la música participativa, está especialmente orientada hacia la creación de sentimientos comunitarios entre personas a través de la participación en la música y el baile. ...
... En el son jarocho, roles diferenciados como el de la jarana, primariamente armónico y rítmico, y el del requinto, sobre todo melódico, así como los de los zapateadores y los versadores, representan diferentes grados de responsabilidad en un evento de son jarocho, en donde un número ilimitado de músicos pueden participar. Turino (2008) señala que es crucial que una música participativa presente a sus practicantes con retos progresivos que adentra a personas de todo el rango de habilidades en un estado similar de atención. Esto permite que puedan entrar en un diálogo musical en el que los practicantes empiezan a sonar y moverse en sincronía: Esta necesidad de prestar atención es una especie de intensificación de la interacción social; cuando la música está fluyendo, las diferencias entre los participantes parecen derretirse en la inmediatez de estarse concentrando en la articulación fluida de sonido y movimiento. ...
... A la vez, se puede escuchar un momento de sincronía rítmica entre las jaranas, el requinto y el güiro en los segundos 14-17 durante los cuales reproducen esta secuencia de ritmos: Figura 3 Sincronía rítmica durante el Fandango Fronterizo, 2022 Fuente: elaboración propia. Turino (2008) sugiere que estos momentos de sincronía y conexión a lo largo de un evento, como un fandango (los cuales frecuentemente duran más de ocho horas), crean fuertes sentimientos de identificación y bienestar colectivo entre los participantes. Cuando el mismo grupo de La creación sonora de la comunidad jaranera:... personas decide repetir la experiencia del fandango a lo largo del tiempo, este puede formar la base para la creación de fuertes lazos comunitarios. ...
This article reflects on the collective practice of the son jarocho onthe Tijuana-San Diego border. Interviews and participant observation at places where the son jarocho is played point to music and sound production’s role in forging a sense of community among the players of this musical genre that hastaken root on the U.S.-Mexican border in the past two decades. In addition to the findings of research conducted between 2020 and 2022 in this border area, the discussion includes information gathered over at least three decades in the Veracruz region, Mexico City, and other countries. Finally, in order to revealhow this particular music is conceived as an alternative to the daily experience of living along the border, musician testimonies shed light on the history of this music along the border.
... The session is an example of a synchronic 1 music tradition (Cayari 2018), in which the focus of the musical practice is primarily on live, simultaneous performances, with an emphasis on the shared experience between those present, in contrast to recorded or mediated experiences. It embodies the fundamental qualities of a "participatory culture" (Jenkins 2006), namely inclusivity, collaboration, and active participation, and is an example of "participatory music making" (Turino 2008), characterised by communal participation and a shared musical experience. A cornerstone of Irish culture, the session features in all diasporic sites of Irish culture and indeed beyond, typically taking place in public houses, 2 where the shared informal musical practice connects performers, students, and listeners of ITM. ...
... This is particularly noteworthy considering the traditional session's reliance on physical co-location. Within this context, the analysis of the virtual session which follows is more specifically informed by theoretical concepts and frameworks pertaining to "participation" as developed by prominent musicologist Thomas Turino (2008) and leading new media studies scholar Henry Jenkins (2006Jenkins ( , 2009, and as applied to music education by scholars Janice Waldron (2013bWaldron ( , 2016 and Evan Tobias (2013Tobias ( , 2020. 6 This scholarship, which explores how one might experience and/or understand "participation," highlights the virtual session's transformative potential as an essential locus for the online transmission of music during the pandemic. ...
... Scholars such as Waldron (2016), Waldron, Mantie, Partti, and Tobias (2018), and Tobias (2013) make further connections with the new media concept of participatory culture (Jenkins 2009) and indeed with the musicological concept of participatory music making (Turino 2008). Waldron's (2016) case study of the Online Academy of Irish Music's summer school focused on music students who combined learning online with physical attendance at a week of music classes in Ireland. ...
This study utilises virtual ethnography to examine “Mary O’s Virtual Session,” a weekly Irish traditional music session that, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, migrated online using YouTube Live—a platform key to the study for facilitating interactive, synchronous learning. Drawing on theoretical frameworks by scholars including Turino (2008) and Jenkins (2006), this research interrogates “participation” and examines the transformative potential of this virtual session as a locus for music transmission, challenging traditional practices’ reliance on co-location. Despite limitations imposed by the virtual environment, the research posits that this adaptation cultivated a crucial “nexus of learning,” facilitating substantial pedagogical, musical, and social continuities for music learners amidst the pandemic. The findings provide valuable insights for music educators in the digital age, suggesting the importance of media convergence in developing supports to enable learner participation in virtual spaces. This study underscores the ongoing evolution and specialisation of online teaching in music education.
... In the upcoming pages, I will explore the potential of music-making as a pedagogical tool to enable such dialogues. By drawing on Turino's 'Music as Social Life' (Turino, 2008) and using the example of Ana Tijoux's protest music (Tijoux, Vengo, 2014), I will argue that there is potential in music to establish links among different people, due to the capacity that arts have of transcending the realm of the rational and entering the realm of the affective. I believe that, given the interest in decolonial thought and the long-standing struggle of feminism, the potential of music-making is ought to be explored as a practical tool of sharing, implementing, and teaching different ethics. ...
... Feminist scholars such as McKittrick and Gunaratnam, among others, have explored the potential of music and sound in affecting the human Self in reparative forms (Gunaratnam, 2013;McKittrick, 2021). On the other hand, ethnomusicologists have indagated in the potentials of participatory music-making in generating bonds among human beings, contributing to a sense of collective identity and an experience of oneness (Turino, 2008). Ana Tijoux's music is a great example of how feminist, decolonial, and Mapuche knowledges can be brought together in her protest music. ...
... Thirdly, I will address music as a space for change in enacting a relational ontology by addressing Tijoux's own ideas present in her music, strictly related to the sense of community of the Mapuche, as well as the work of ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino (Turino, 2008). ...
Ana Tijoux, Chilean, French and Mapuche singer-songwriter and activist is one of the main figures in Spanish-spoken protest music. Her voice amplifies the struggles of multiple subalterns (indigenous women, immigrants, low-class workers) against the imports that Imperialism and Colonialism still perpetuate in Latin American territories (U.S.-imitating capitalism, patriarchal Western structures, economic and cultural control through foreign capital, inner oligarchic elites and political corruption, as well as work and environmental exploitation). In the upcoming pages, I will argue that her work is useful in not only deconstructing and criticizing global social systems which are based on practices of dominance, but also in reconstructing or enacting possibilities through which we could bring change. I suggest that, through Tijoux’s music, we may find an example of how music can be potentially useful pedagogically in achieving an ecology of knowledges, as it is an art that may have the capacity of connecting different human beings.
... Singing exists as a diverse set of practices, from entirely communal singing to various concert settings or even solitary humming. According to a growing body of evidence, group singing or playing instruments together offers a wide range of benefits for its participants, but despite this the practice seems to be diminishing among Western people, who prefer to leave music-making to professionals (Turino, 2008;Kokotsaki, Hallum, 2011;Camlin et al., 2020;Perkins et al., 2020;Spitzer, 2021). Participatory music-making began to receive attention from ethnomusicologists in the second half of the 20 th century (e.g. ...
... However, this dichotomy has influenced ethnomusicology, a field which historically has been focused primarily on non-Western music by and for Western researchers. Writing about the lack of participatory singing in the Western world, Turino (2008) references "middle-class Euro-Americans" who grew up in the 1950s and 60s and did not experience music-making at home. 2 Slobin defines the West as "Euro-America"; notably including "the former USSR as part of Gorbachev's European home" and admits that "ethnomusicology has been less attracted to this region than to Asia, Africa, and Latin America" (Slobin, 1992: 4). Ethnomusicologists are trying to expand the field of their research (e.g. ...
... In order to describe the social structure of music, Thomas Turino's (2008) basic terms participatory and presentational singing, which distinguish between singing within the group for the singers' own sake and public presentation in front of an audience, are used. The participatory singing tradition in its entirety, which includes open form, co-creation, etc., belongs genuinely to oral music tradition; however, many aspects of participatory music are attainable in other fields of music, e.g. ...
Previous research into the social structure of participatory singing indicates its decline within modern society (e.g. Blacking 1973, Turino 2008). The present study focuses on processes in amateur singing in Estonia using the “Music in my Life” questionnaire (2022). The results show the dynamics of contemporary participatory singing, which can be characterised as institutionalisation within the context of modern society.
... To talk about them in terms of impact therefore seems misguided. Turino's (2008) notion of "music as social life" would be more appropriate. 9 Furthermore, a risk of using an impact framework is that it privileges a Eurocentric, development approach to SIMM -one focused on interventions and musics from outside the community (Rojas forthcoming) -and reinforces the existing subordination of traditional and popular musics, with their distinct social logics, within the Colombian SIMM field (an issue discussed below). ...
... Here I draw onTurino's (2008) distinction between presentation and participatory music. 17 See, for example, the journal special issues Revista Internacional de Educación Musical (5:1, 2017) and Action, Theory, and Criticism for Music Education(18:3, 2019).18 ...
Findings and reflections from the Colombia branch of the project “Music for social impact: practitioners’ contexts, work and beliefs,” funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. See the project website at https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/MFSI.
... Participation in music groups in particular seems to promote resources for coping and wellbeing (Croom, 2014;Leubner & Hinterberger, 2017;Ruud, 2013). Since music bands and orchestras require their members to coordinate their efforts via nonverbal communication in order to work toward shared goals, they represent a forum of increased social interaction (D'Ausilio et al., 2015;Turino, 2008), with beneficial outcomes such as increased feelings of belonging and prosocial behavior (Gembris, 2008;Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010), strengthening of social relationships, group cohesion, and group identity (Koelsch, 2013;Spychinger et al., 1995). ...
... Musical activity is generally regarded as beneficial for wellbeing in migrants (e.g., Lenette & Sunderland, 2016;Saarikallio, 2012). Nevertheless, the absence of significant effects from making music on one's own further highlights contributions associated with the social setting in music groups (e.g., Koelsch, 2013;Turino, 2008). Here, it should be noted that most music group members in our sample also reported playing on their own, which offers additive opportunities to address individual topics besides group activities where they are not as dominant. ...
Beneficial effects of music on wellbeing and group cohesion are well established. Furthermore, participation in music groups has been shown to be associated with increased orientation to the host culture, while orientation to culture of origin appears to remain unaffected. In order to gain insight into the effects of music activities on acculturative stress in adult migrants, a group of musically active migrants to Germany ( n = 80) was compared with migrants who had never played a musical instrument ( n = 86). We saw that music group members ( n = 42) reported lower levels of acculturative stress and a stronger orientation to mainstream culture compared to participants who are not actively making music. The association between music group membership and acculturative stress was mediated by orientation to host culture. Solo-musicians ( n = 38) did not differ from group-musicians and musically non-active subjects. We found no differences in orientation to the culture of origin between the study groups. The findings suggest that (group) music making can support acculturation processes in migrants.
... The second definition associates it with the progression of a musician using various styles or instruments. The third interpretation, which is the focus of this paper, considers it as a spatio-temporal journey, emphasizing locations that are significant within educational or touristic discourses [7]. We also emphasize the communal and participatory aspects of music, shedding light on how musical routes can foster community engagement and cultural understanding. ...
... Its universal language surpasses traditional belief systems, positioning it as a suitable channel for cultural introduction. Turino [7] underscores music's power in mediating intercultural experiences, highlighting the transformative potential of music engagement in understanding and celebrating cultural diversity. Intercultural music engagement (IME) serves as a subtle, yet significant, approach to exploring and understanding the traditions of different cultures [17]. ...
Festivals have emerged as a compelling subject of study within the realm of the social sciences, with disciplines like popular musicology showcasing festivals as a prominent area of investigation. These cultural events have demonstrated a profound and enduring impact on various generations, solidifying their significance in contemporary history. In the ever-evolving landscape of rapid social change, festivals have evolved into both traditions and heritage. Our research centered on the musical landscape in the city of Cáceres has culminated in the creation of a Festival Route rooted in the pertinent facets of its history and unique sociocultural context. The methodology employed in this study revolves around the development of comprehensive databases that encompass various parameters, principles, and elements. These databases are instrumental in crafting adaptable musical itineraries tailored to the individual participant’s characteristics, including age, educational background, place of origin, and explicit or intrinsic interests. Moreover, they factor into the duration of the route. These databases draw upon the findings of historiographic and ethnographic research, shedding light on the music performed and cherished within the city of Cáceres throughout its rich history. This paper primarily delves into the educational aspects derived from the socio-cultural phenomenon of festivals, specifically in the realms of music pedagogy and value-based education. Our Festival Route is designed with a particular focus on youth engagement, weaving together key locales within the city to create an enriching and educational experience.
... "Volksmusik" (2002) thus functions very differently to most of the music discussed here. Music that has been played at protest concerts or danced to at demonstrations (see below) might well foster "muscular" or indeed "sonic" bonding following Thomas Turino's suggested coinage: "William H. McNeill (1995) suggests the term "muscular bonding" for the sense of oneness derived from marching or dancing together in close synchrony; we might add the term "sonic bonding" when this occurs through music making" (Turino 2008: 3, note 2). FURT's logic questions and frustrates easy bonding or identification by continually subverting musical idiom and by requiring an active listener to decode and decipher the music and its messages. ...
... FURT's "Volksmusik" represents a somewhat paradoxical musical example, then. In musical terms, it does not promote the sense of "wholeness" and "integration" which, theorists argue, can be facilitated by artistic communication (Bateson 1972, in Turino 2008. "Volksmusik" cannot be easily identified with, hummed along to or otherwise participated in via dance, or by anticipation of its harmonic progression. ...
The Austrian national elections of 1999 and the subsequent government formation in 2000 sparked a wave of protests, both at home and abroad, due to the inclusion of the extreme-right, populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) into the coalition. This article examines a body of protest music (ranging from heavy metal, rock and punk, to mock-choral and microtonal) that came about between 1999 and 2004 as a direct response to the turn in Austrian politics towards the extreme right. In interrogating this protest music I discern an important and hitherto under-researched facet of identity-(de)construction in Austria’s artistic self-expression. It suggests a highly politicised counter-image to the usual, musically inspired representations of Austria, the land more readily associated abroad with Mozart and Haydn, the Vienna boys’ choir, waltzing and yodelling. The music here is interrogated for the textual and musical strategies it deploys, and the spaces and icons of protest performance are probed for their efficacy and for the political interventions that they engender.
... The theoretical approach and terminology of social aspects of music, including common music making, have been shaped and conceptualized by American ethnomusicologists Alan Merriam (1964), Alan Lomax (1968Lomax ( , 1976, and Thomas Turino (2008), New Zealand-English social scientist Christopher Small (1999), German musicologist Ernst Klusen (1986) and others. ...
... According to Klusen's (1986) approach, this was the primary function of singing, in which improvisation took place within the group based on the need for its members to express themselves creatively and unite the community. According to Turino (2008), it was a participatory music situation in which there was no distinction between the performers and the audience. The primary goal of singing and playing instruments together was to actively involve all the participants, who naturally began to play the necessary roles in the given situation. ...
The article studies, compares and analyses participatory music making at Estonian and Finnish folk music festivals. By comparing the empirical research materials collected during comprehensive fieldwork in 2004–2019 from the regilaulupesa (Eng. runosong nest) of the Viljandi Folk Music Festival (Est. Viljandi pärimusmuusika festival) in Estonia and from the pelimanni (Eng. folk musician, fiddler) evenings of the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival (Fin. Kaustisen kansanmusiikkijuhlat) in Finland, answers were sought to the following questions: What kind of participatory music making takes place at these folk music festivals? What are the social dynamics between and within the groups and individuals in participatory music making situations? How are the primary and secondary functions of music making formed? As a result of the qualitative comparative phenomenological research, it was found that although in participatory music situations at Estonian and Finnish folk music festivals the musical behaviour of participants and the social dynamics of groups could differ radically, they still strive for direct musical experience at a community and personal level and bring the older musical tradition closer to the contemporary people. During participatory music making the secondary function, that is, musical behaviour directed outside the group, could turn naturally into a primary function – musical activity that unites the community and fulfils its internal needs. Situations of participatory music making at Estonian and Finnish contemporary music festivals revealed the common music making as a cultural, social, creative, and emotional phenomenon which has symbolic and direct connections with traditional Finnic folk music culture.
... Turino emphasizes the need to understand music not only as an art form but as a social practice. In the Philippines, where diverse ethnic groups contribute to the nation's cultural tapestry, the impact of globalization on ethnic music warrants careful examination [6] . B. The Impact of Globalization on Philippine Ethnic Music Globalization has both positive and negative implications for the preservation and dissemination of ethnic music. ...
This research investigates the intricate interplay between cultural expression and identity of Philippine Ethnic Music in the era of globalization, with a specific focus on teachers and students at the Philippine Women's University. Through a qualitative research approach, a questionnaire utilizing a Likert-4 scale was distributed to 300 participants. The findings reveal diverse perceptions regarding the role of ethnic music, the impact of globalization on cultural identity, and the strengths and weaknesses of current pedagogical practices. Strategies for integration, encompassing both global and local perspectives, are proposed to enhance music education. The study also identifies challenges faced by educators and students, emphasizing opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and community involvement. The results contribute valuable insights into the multifaceted dimensions of Philippine Ethnic Music within a globalized context. Recommendations stemming from this study can inform educators, policymakers, and stakeholders, fostering a more comprehensive and culturally enriched approach to music education. This research serves as a significant resource for understanding and navigating the dynamic landscape of cultural expression and identity in the realm of Philippine Ethnic Music.
... This entry is uniquely concerned with participatory music-making, which can involve singers and/or instrumentalists. Turino has described participatory music-making as a practice in which "there are no artist-audience distinctions, only participants and potential participants", and during which "one's primary attention is on the activity, on the doing, and on the other participants, rather than on an end product that results from the activity" [10] (p. 28). ...
Participatory music-making is any music-making activity in which individuals engage for the sake of the activity itself. It can be contrasted with presentational music-making, which takes the production of a performance or recording for consumption by an audience as a principal objective. During the COVID-19 pandemic, participatory musicians adopted a variety of technological means by which to make music together online. While virtual activities allowed these individuals to sustain their communities and grow as musicians, they did not satisfy all the needs met by in-person music-making. Additionally, online music-making increased access for some but posed barriers to access for others. Virtual participatory music-making remains relevant following the relaxation of pandemic restrictions, and it will likely grow in significance as communications technologies and internet access improve.
... Não restam dúvidas de que o canto integra pessoas com diversos conhecimentos, sendo um importante espaço de promoção da vida social (Turino, 2008). Por esses e por outros motivos, essa prática possui atributos que favorecem as interações humanas. ...
A finalidade da universidade é produzir conhecimento, propor e preparar para o novo, seja qual for a área de conhecimento. Como fazê-lo a partir de um projeto de canto coral de nível extensionista? É possível aliar o fazer artístico com a produção de pesquisa dentro de um projeto de extensão? Indo além, como articular essa prática musical com diversas áreas de conhecimento de nível superior? Como promover a transdisciplinaridade? Responder a essas perguntas e promover interlocuções entre ensino, pesquisa e extensão foi um dos desafios da última década dentro do Projeto Movimento Coral Feevale, um projeto de extensão que é desenvolvido em uma universidade comunitária. O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é identificar como o projeto faz para tornar-se espaço de produção, e não apenas de reprodução de conhecimento. Os objetivos específicos foram realizar um levantamento bibliográfico sobre o canto, descrever o projeto e as suas articulações com diversas áreas do conhecimento, identificar a promoção de práticas de pesquisa, e refletir sobre o trabalho da equipe do projeto em sua atuação profissional com o canto, identificando a ocorrência ou não da transdisciplinaridade. O método utilizado foi a revisão bibliográfica com abordagem qualitativa, fazendo um levantamento de pesquisas realizadas acerca do canto, articulando com o relato de experiência do projeto extensionista de canto coral. A discussão mostra que é possível articular o fazer extensionista de canto coral com a pesquisa e o ensino.
... From pop and rock to electronic dance music (EDM) and hip-hop, the echoes of diverse cultural traditions can be heard in the rhythms, melodies, and textures of contemporary compositions. This influence is not merely superficial; it has fundamentally transformed the sonic landscape of modern music, infusing it with a richness and diversity that reflects the interconnectedness of our globalized world [5]. ...
Global Beat: Exploring the Influence of World Music on Contemporary Sounds" delves into the rich tapestry of global musical traditions and their profound impact on contemporary music across various genres. This article examines the dynamic interplay between diverse cultural musical expressions and modern artistic movements, highlighting how traditional rhythms, melodies, and instruments have transcended geographical boundaries to shape the sonic landscape of today. From the hypnotic rhythms of African drumming to the intricate melodies of Indian classical music, and from the infectious grooves of Latin American salsa to the haunting chants of indigenous peoples, this exploration illuminates the fusion of diverse musical elements into the mainstream. Through case studies and interviews with musicians and scholars, we unravel the ways in which world music influences contemporary compositions, fostering cultural exchange, innovation, and inclusivity in the global music scene. Moreover, this article underscores the transformative power of music as a unifying force that celebrates diversity, fosters cross-cultural understanding, and enriches the human experience through shared rhythms and harmonies.
... In addition to organizing the event and cooking-which, I insist, can be considered acts of musicking, as they are activities directly engaged in the realization of the musical event-a peculiarity of the Confraria was Julio's requirement for absolute silence from the audience during the performances, aiming to enhance the listening experience and allow the music to be fully appreciated. This presentational performance (Turino 2008), in which there is a clear distinction between artist and the audience, contrasted with the participatory nature of other musical performances that took place in the Soteropolitano, where this distinction was attenuated: ...
Although music’s potential to alter the perception of the passage of time is well known, a better understanding of how it works in practice is still needed. In this regard, studies on temporal agency such as those by Flaherty (2011) and Hitlin and Elder (2007) have become important references, as they seek to identify the parameters on which individuals base themselves in the making of time. Based on an ethnography centred on Julio Valverde, a 79-year-old Brazilian cook and composer, I intend to show how his different forms of musicking are capable of shaping both his own experiences of time and those of the people of his intimate circle. In addition, the article explores issues related to Julio’s aging, examining both his musical flourishing and his unique perspective on the past, present, and future.
... A clear example can be seen in the influence of early German Nazis, which led many people in the music learning process to view German classical music as the most noble, especially music from Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.In Tomas Turino's Music mentioned in his book, that the Germans take pride in their musical heritage, especially the contributions of the "three Bs" -Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. [3] This pride, broadly defined under the Nazis, became a source of national and racial pride, crucial for the nationalist movement. In 1938, Joseph Goebbels hailed music as a gem of German cultural heritage. ...
This paper employs Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of 'habitus' as a theoretical framework to scrutinize the multifaceted elements that influence musical preferences and inclinations in individuals. Drawing from an interdisciplinary approach, this study weaves historical accounts with empirical analyses conducted on scholarly articles primarily in sociology and educational studies. It seeks to explore how the constitutive factors of habitus, specifically education, Social Class Background, Cultural Background, and Ideology, affect one’s taste in music. The paper argues that these variables are not merely incidental but play an integral role in shaping a person’s musical predilections. Through a detailed examination of academic literature and historical contexts, the study further contends that understanding the complex web of these contributing factors can offer profound insights into not just musical tastes but also social hierarchies and cultural legitimacies. The findings aim to contribute to the existing discourse in both sociology of music and educational theory, offering a nuanced perspective on how identity is musically constructed and socially embedded.
... We consider that the practices described in this article bear in themselves the potential to evoke in children and young adults a sense of ownership by developing the capacity to express both in words and in sound what is significant in their lives in a given moment. This idea seems to be in line with Turino's (2008Turino's ( , 2016 participatory music making, a process where all present were called to contribute in non-competitive practices to create bonds beyond the immediate musical outcomes. This was the core of the haiku workshops. ...
This article presents one of the actions of the project titled “Re-inhabiting the Neighborhood: Transformation Processes of Empowerment among University-School-Society through Artistic Practices.” Its aim was to introduce haiku poetry in terms of its potential for vocal exploration through collective musical interpretation. Four workshops took place, two in a primary school, and two with students enrolled in the third year of a graduate program for primary school teachers. Results indicate the potential of this kind of poetry as a learning tool in the approach to contemporary music, encompassing such values as collaboration, group cohesion, and a humane music education.
... However, not all contemporary urban carnivals can be characterised in this way; the differences are mainly in the degree of presentational and participatory character (Nahachewsky, 1995(Nahachewsky, , 2001Turino, 2008), which seems arbitrary (see also Hafstein, 2004Hafstein, , 2018Mair, 2019). Furthermore, what is perceived as private and public has no fixed boundary and is a continuous subject of negotiation when constructing the form of carnival in each locality, but the common feature remains the desire for the expression of local identity. ...
... Utilizamos los videos musicales que circularon tempranamente en YouTube como objeto de análisis. La música es una herramienta que permite la comunicación y la construcción de lazos sociales (Turino, 2008). Aunque existen numerosas explicaciones al respecto, trabajos recientes (Cox, 2016) señalan que la música mimetiza las emociones humanas, lo que hace de ella una herramienta comunicativa muy efectiva. ...
As a global phenomenon, the SARS-CoV 2 pandemic has shown that biomedical informa- tion is reproduced through multiple voices. Particularly, in the case of social networks, an amplification of discursive polyphony is observed, while a space of mutual interpellation is configured between the population, autonomously from the biomedical institution. This research focuses on analyzing YouTube music videos on COVID-19, studying the medicaliza- tion processes from a semiotic approach through a polyphonic and multimodal analysis. As we show, the subjects appropriate the biomedical discourse by articulating different enunciators that allow a reply, or a confrontation of it.
... This trend, which has reduced the need for physical proximity, intensified as individuals searched for alternatives to in-person entertainment during the Covid-19 lockdown in many countries (Kunnuji 2020b). This has reinforced the position that a discrete culture, understood here as a shared way of life among people with a common ancestry and enculturation, may no longer suffice to explain an individual's constellation of habits, lifestyle preferences and artistic tastes (Turino 2008). Given this, and in the light of constant cultural exchanges (Nketia 1974;Emielu 2011), we ask: to what extent do groups retain or modify their historical practices? ...
... However, in this article, we adopt the viewpoint of an American ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino, who understands folk music and dance as fundamentally social and emerging from the social life of communities (Turino, 2008). Turino views musicmaking as a participatory event or performance rather than a presentational performance or studio art. ...
The pedagogy and practices of folk music and folk dance are firmly separate in Finland. Furthermore, the expertise in these fields focuses heavily on folk music and dance as performing arts rather than communal activities. The situation has led to the differentiation and fragmentation of professional and amateur activities. To address this gap in knowledge and practice, the KanTaMus project intends to present a pedagogical model for a joint participatory folk dance and music pedagogy devised through practice-based development work. This article explains the basic premises of the model under development. We first discuss the legacy issues crucial in Finnish folk dance and music and its pedagogy. Secondly, we outline the values, pedagogical principles, and prior development work we see as fundamental to our work. Martin Seligman's PERMA theory serves as an overall canvas for our development work. The basic elements of the theory, i.e., positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment, work as a basis for our model, which emphasises embodied presence, inclusion, and interaction as crucial features of a shared learning situation in dance and music. Finally, we present the pairing process as a specific example of the application of the model.
... El desarrollo de las habilidades para la vida, como veremos, asegura que el alumnado tenga una relación positiva con su propio bienestar, ya sea subjetivo en relación con la satisfacción en la autorrealización vital, o bien psicológico en relación con la autopercepción y adaptación al contexto (Croom, 2012;Lamont, 2012;McManus & Giraldez-Hayes, 2021;Turino, 2008). En este sentido, la música puede favorecer la consecución de habilidades como la responsabilidad, la concentración, la creatividad, la audición a nosotros mismos y al resto de compañeros, el ordenamiento psicomotriz, la observación, la comprensión, la autoestima, la socialización y el juicio crítico (Hodges, 2010). ...
... All these examples may be interpreted as types of 'participant musical performance' (where there is no division between musician and public), different from the 'presentational musical performance' (where there is a spatial and social separation between musicians and the listeners) that is prevalent at present (Turino 2008; cf. Figure 10). Instead of thinking of Amerindian music as performed on stages, during exhibitions, competitions and urban carnivals (Mújica 2014), we need to see all our study objects as part of a vast, participative performance that includes the musician as well as the hearer. ...
This paper aims to describe some problems and issues that have emerged from the practice of archaeomusicology in South America, especially in the Andean region. Some methodological approaches emerge from the specific problems of organological studies of pre-Hispanic objects, related to the evidence about sound use and the interpretation of sound by local cultures. This article presents four features of Andean music that illustrate some of the main methodological approaches that must be utilized when studying pre-Hispanic music in the Andes; the tone quality, the organological expansion from a singular object to multiple objects; the physical movement of musician and hearer as part of the sound properties, and musical performance as part of a social exchange between musicians and listeners. Each of these features offers a new perspective on archaeo-musicological studies, as well as on the contributions of the field to a greater understanding of new discussions in present society. The focus of this article will be to understand the ‘sound object’ as an acoustic object, as one or more objects, as related to the surrounding ambient, as a moving object, and as a modifier of the player’s or listener’s experience.
... These activities began to gain momentum in the second half of the 1990s and especially in the next millennium. Urban folk groups see their revival as a process of liberalisation, and the importance of participation is emphasised, as opposed to the presentational form of the previous folklore movement (see Turino, 2008). A participatory approach also means the possibility of greater improvisation and the exercise of individual creativity. ...
The study points to the ambivalence and ambiguity of the folklore movement, which in the environment of the former socialist Czechoslovakia was sometimes associated with the expression “hiding in folklore”, describing in particular the act of creating an alternative space to the everyday reality that did not allow a person to fully self-realize or express their own identity. We ask to what extent this metaphor represents the nature of todayʼs folkloric activities in the post-socialist society.
... The term "folklorists" is used by members of folk ensembles, but also by other active agents and those interested in the sphere of folk music and dance, to denote themselves. Therefore, "folklorists" as actors in the so called folklore movement in the Czech Republic can be perceived as a specific cultural cohort(Turino, 2008) of folklore lovers in general. ...
“Zpěváček” is a competition for children singers of folk songs, which has been held in the Czech Republic since 1978 in several rounds, from regional to national. The article explores the ways in which the children act as performers of the (micro)regional identity and negotiate local cultural heritage. Accounting for both historical and contemporary contexts, the text draws from fieldwork including participant observation and autoethnography, interviews, and document analysis.
Este artigo é uma introdução à discussão sobre o quesito afinação quando a atriz e o ator de teatro cantam em cena, não necessariamente no contexto do teatro musical. Apresenta um conceito de afinação, aborda o processo histórico que nos levou à padronização do lá=440Hz na música ocidental, e enfatiza a multiplicidade de sistemas de afinação e experimentos que já apontavam para essa variedade na indústria fonográfica da música popular. Apresenta-se um caso prático, uma montagem. A partir dos dados realçados nesta experiência, abre-se a discussão, ainda mais, quando se considera o canto/cantarolar em cena como um canto social, performance participativa, um conceito elaborado pelo etnomusicologista Thomas Turino.
This article explores strategies for planning and leading multilingual worship. It offers an overview of translation and multilingualism for readers unfamiliar with the growing body of scholarship in these fields and connects them to the role of translation and multilingualism in Christian worship, leveraging decolonial perspectives to critique its history. This article draws from a data set of approximately 40 liturgies designed for the Course of Study School of the United Methodist Church at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. It uses selections from these liturgies to demonstrate how issues of translation and multilingualism might be dealt with in worship planning and leadership. Finally, the article points to possibilities for further exploration at the intersection between Christian worship and multilingualism.
The aim of the present paper is to reveal the importance of music as an indispensable aspect in education of art, with regard to every single culture which serves as indisputable support to sustainable development in India. Indian education system is one of the oldest in the world. Both secular and sacred education was handed over systematically by formalizing the system of education. We have found significant growth in the system of education in our country since ancient times. It is a veritable avenue which enables societies to transmit music and musical skills from one generation to the upcoming ones. The research is based on a comprehensive literature review on the impact of music to sustainable development. This paper contextualised that music education is imperative to Sustainable Development, to the adult. It is a vital force of self-expression, communication and empowerment economically, in growing children, involvement in music education will promote their creative ability, thereby contribute to the full development of intellectual capacities, apt emotional development that gives the right values and feelings to various events and happenings, music helps to develop skills, innate and instinctive talent in human being and recommend that the informal music teaching should be incorporated into school system so as to transmit and preserve the cultural music and that the study of music should be made compulsory at all levels of the Indian educational system.
Multipart singing in the village of Kato Garounas (Κάτω Γαρούνας) seems to be a particular tradition on the island of Corfu. Corfu is one of the seven Ionian Islands situated off the western coast of Greece. It is worthwhile to explore the intimate connection between Corfiots and music, which is evident in the tradition of bel canto singing as well as the numerous wind bands of the philharmonic societies and choirs on the island. Multipart singing was essentially a women's tradition practiced during work in the fields, yet also practiced by men in certain contexts, such as coffee houses and taverns. This paper is based on an ethnographic study that seeks to understand how people in the village of Kato Garounas share and enjoy their multipart singing tradition, and how they transform their way of being in the community through that practice. Singing accompanies important moments in their lives, and therefore the people often recall songs that were significant at those times in their lives. This is a way for people to celebrate and reaffirm their bonds with others in the community. A number of interesting transformations take place for the community through the act of multipart singing: the personal identity of people becomes communal, an emphasis is placed on the sense of time and place as a lived aesthetic experience, and the aesthetic experience of singing gives meaning to the people's lives. The ontology of being for the people of Kato Garounas is shaped on the basis of making music or being part of the singing community, either as singers or audience. There are also indications that singing still empowers people to recall and cultivate their historical memory of the place and the community. All in all, multipart singing still cultivates a sense of community for older and younger people in the village today.
This study explores the cultural and moral narratives in the contemporary Vietnamese rap song “Nau an cho em” by Den Vau. The research employs a corpus-based linguistic analysis to dissect the song’s lyrics, uncovering themes and messages that resonate with broader societal issues in Vietnam. The analysis reveals four key themes: the resilience and hope of children in Vietnam’s mountainous regions, the empowerment through education and self-improvement, the juxtaposition of natural beauty with hard realities, and the portrayal of community and collective identity. These themes highlight the song’s portrayal of the challenges faced by marginalized communities, the transformative power of education, and the importance of communal support and unity. The study demonstrates how contemporary Vietnamese music, particularly Den Vau’s work, transcends entertainment to offer profound insights into social commentary and moral reflection. It underscores the role of music as a medium for cultural expression and societal discourse in contemporary Vietnam.
This major new anthology of the minuet in the Nordic countries comprehensively explores the dance as a historical, social and cultural phenomenon. One of the most significant dances in Europe, with a strong symbolic significance in western dance culture and dance scholarship, the minuet has evolved a distinctive pathway in this region, which these rigorous and pioneering essays explore.
As well as situating the minaret in different national and cultural contexts, this collection marshals a vast number of sources, including images and films, to analyze the changes in the dance across time and among different classes. Following the development of the minuet into dance revival and historical dance movements of the twentieth century, this rich compendium draws together a distinguished group of scholars to stimulate fresh evaluations and new perspectives on the minuet in history and practice.
The Nordic Minuet: Royal Fashion and Peasant Tradition is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners of dance; musicologists; and historical and folk dancers; it will be of interest to anybody who wants to learn more about this vibrant dance tradition.
p>A documented history of cultural competitions and contests in Gaelic Cape Breton is being deliberately forgotten. Drawing on Paul Connerton’s theory of social forgetting, the author suggests that this has happened for ideological reasons involving the construction of Gaelic culture as participatory and inclusive, characteristics that many Cape Bretoners find irreconcilable with competitions. By examining historical evidence demonstrating that cultural contests and competitions existed in Cape Breton at various times and in various places, and how they relate to a broader, international context of competitions in “Celtic” cultural communities, the author concludes that present-day claims about the absence and insignificance of contests are inconsistent with the historical record.</p
This article presents outcomes from a critical interpretive synthesis inquiry exploring whether community music can contribute to more equitable societies. Drawing on 74 cross-disciplinary articles, we identify equity-related outcomes across three key categories: outcomes to improve the immediate wellbeing and life trajectories for individuals experiencing disadvantage; outcomes relating to the development of skills, knowledge and understandings empowering individual participants to enact positive social change within their communities; and outcomes with the potential to affect the root causes of social inequity. This review provides a solid foundation for further conceptual and theoretical development within and beyond the fields of social justice research and community music. Our findings will also be helpful for translating the creative and cultural benefits that community music practice could bring to addressing social justice issues in a wide range of complex contexts.
A grande presença de música em ambientes públicos fechados é uma marca de nossa sociedade contemporânea. Usualmente a sonorização de espaços com música é pensada como forma de alterar o clima geral do ambiente positivamente, conferindo ao local um perfil simbólico e emocional desejado. No entanto, muitas vezes os indivíduos que frequentam tais espaços são mobilizados negativamente com a música ambiente, deflagrando insatisfações e incômodos. A partir de dezenas de entrevistas realizadas sobre incômodos musicais, o artigo discute as dimensões afetivas e os efeitos da música ambiente em variados espaços sociais, destacando que a música ambiente muitas vezes produz sensações desagradáveis e até mesmo afugenta determinadas pessoas de tais locais.
This volume brings together contributions from a wide range of international academics and practitioners. It traces innovations within classical music practice, showing how these offer divergent visions for its future. The interdisciplinary contributions to the volume highlight the way contrasting ideas of the future can effect change in the present.
A rich balance of theoretical and practical discussion brings authority to this collection, which lays the foundations for timely responses to challenges ranging from the concept of the musical work, and the colonial values within Western musical culture, to unsustainable models of orchestral touring. The authors highlight how labour to meet the demands of particular futures for classical music might impact its creation and consumption, presenting case studies to capture the mediating roles of technology and community engagement.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of musicology and the sociology of music, as well as a general audience of practitioners, freelance musicians, music administrators and educators.
Before colonialism, Gbe women enjoyed a social status on par with men. However, there has been a shift in the postcolonial social structure of Gbe societies. Modern capitalism, which accompanied colonial structures, privileged men, eroding many woman-empowering practices. This article examines Ogu women’s marginality through an ethnographic study of gangbe (a musical genre exclusive to married Ogu women). I argue that the sources of Ogu women’s marginality are interlocking, involving oppression stemming from colonial structures and the values of contiguous Yorùbá people. I propose a collaborative intervention that upends typical power structures that privilege Western and Yorùbá ideation over Indigenous Ogu knowledge, values, and practices.
The Tamburitza Extravaganza, a musical event in the United States organized by the Tamburitza Association of America (TAA), has presented tambura-based ensembles for over 50 years. At the event, American stylistic variants of Croatian and Serbian music are performed to exuberant diaspora audiences, and musicians are honored for sustaining tamburitza music. Drawing on the author?s experience as an Extravaganza performer, interviews with TAA members, published TAA documents, and published tamburitza sources, the Tamburitza Extravaganza is analyzed as a sui generis music festival using the musical ecosystem model.
This paper explores how New Orleans Black dockworkers created affective communities by utilizing brass bands, as evidenced by newspapers, union records, and testimonies from jazz musicians. In an attempt to weave together congruences between ‘history from below’, the affective turn, and theorists of the Black radical tradition, I argue that the nation’s largest Black Union in the late nineteenth century, the Longshoremen’s Protective Union Benevolent Association of New Orleans, successfully intervened in this port city’s economy by building a mass movement. They did so not only because of their strategic location in relation to capital and a modernizing logistics industry, but also because these dockworkers successfully struggled to control the affective modalities and temporalities of daily life. It was in this latter strategy that polyphonic brass bands and collective singing traditions played important roles in struggling for bodily autonomy and new social relations formulated in opposition to the profit motive. I coin this felt solidarity ‘affective consensus,’ which was a consensus-based decision-making process activated by agreed-upon musical conventions. Its power lies in its historical connections between democratic traditions of assembly, workplace struggles, and forms of participatory music making--all emblematic of late nineteenth-century Black New Orleans.
Improvisation is a phenomenon that is deeply embedded in the day-to-day lives of teachers and students. Yet, few educators take the time to consider improvisation as being necessary to reach meaningful understandings with students. This paper is a hermeneutic inquiry that positions curriculum as improvisation by engaging in a conversation that may expand others' understandings of what it is and means to be a teacher who is living well with others. Examining specific incidents that have undergirded my life as a jazz musician and educator, I offer reflections on teaching as being, at its core, an interpretive practice. Drawing further on Gadamer’s (2001) notion of genuine conversation, the history of jazz improvisation and my own lived experiences, I engage in a conversation about why I believe teaching is an interpretive practice akin to improvisation and genuine conversation.
Examining the differences between presentational and participatory music, this paper explores the importance of jam sessions as hybrid performance models and collective musical practices. As such, they display democratic and hierarchic devices that produce complex social and cultural settings, providing particular frameworks for community gathering and interaction between the different participants. Based on my field research in the Madrid’s blues scene, where jam sessions have gained a dominant widespread, I will discuss two significant and distinct jams that take place every Sunday. The aim is to practically analyse what type of musical experiences and relationships they produce, considering the significance of the blues genre production and the underground status of the scene. Overall, I intend to broaden the academic interpretations of jam sessions, suggesting hybridity as a theoretical framework for analysing the social life of situated live music experiences in different genres.
Teaching for musical meaning can be a multifaceted topic, since a universally accepted definition of musical meaning is elusive; yet musical meaning remains at the heart of music literacy. Music literacy is equally complex, as changes in technology constantly reorganize how musical sounds are produced, recorded, and transmitted. Today, musical texts are presented through increasingly diverse, multi-modal forms, and changes in media bring accompanying changes to how we construct musical meaning. In this article, I consider parallels between language and music as they are transmitted through evolving texts and interpreted by a reader to create syntactical, prosodic, and social meaning. These three meaning domains are examined within print and oral cultural ways of knowing since both are present in the current media landscape. Considering notation as a form of externalized cognition, I advance a new music literacy theory that reclaims orality as necessary for active participation in the various music discourses in contemporary society. In the proposed model, students discover musical meaning as they make decisions and formulate beliefs related to musical organization (syntax) and expression (prosody) in relation to a community.
El presente artículo elabora una breve descripción en torno a la práctica del siku y su “artivismo” durante las manifestaciones ocurridas en Lima durante el mes de noviembre del 2020. Se llevará a cabo la transcripción y análisis de dos productos de la actividad del colectivo sikuri metropolitano. Las partituras a continuación también permitirán apreciar el movimiento melódico de la voz (que es similar a lo ejecutado por los sikus) y los bombos. Las letras darán luces sobre los valores que transmiten en su discurso y el análisis musical podrá dar una noción sobre cómo logran mantener la atención del público oyente, si consideramos algunas características propias del instrumento.
Latin American Music Review 24.2 (2003) 169-209
In discussing the criollo-based independence movements in the Americas during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Benedict Anderson notes that these cases are not easily explained by the usual means of national linguistic and cultural distinction. He writes: "All, including the U.S.A., were creole states formed and led by people who shared a common language and common descent with those against whom they fought" (1991, 47). "Yet," he asserts, "they were national independence movements" (ibid., 49).
In this essay I argue that they were not initially national independence movements in the contemporary sense of (1) general inclusion of the state's population within the conception of nation or (2) popular sovereignty as the basis of state sovereignty and legitimacy vis-à-vis other states. In the early nineteenth century these ideas about nations and nationalism were not yet common, and the Latin American republics were formed according to different premises. In both Europe and Latin America, nineteenth-century notions of the nation were grounded in the discourse of Liberalism and criteria of sufficient territorial and population size, economic viability, and in Latin America at least some agreement regarding political principles. Eric Hobsbawm argues that a variety of nineteenth-century European nationalist movements were "evidently incompatible with definitions of nation as based on ethnicity, language, or common history, but, as we have seen, these were not decisive criteria of liberal nation-making" (1990, 33). Hobsbawm's observations hold true for the early Latin American republics as well.
A century later, during the early to middle decades of the twentieth century, more inclusive, culturally based conceptions of the nation became prominent in Latin America, sometimes in the context of populist movements. It was not until this point that efforts to link formerly disenfranchised populations to the state got underway. Consequently, the modular processes of post-colonial musical nationalism, especially the 'modernist reform' or folklorization of indigenous and African-American traditions also became common.
It seems significant that, in spite of the differing local conditions that led to populist projects in specific Latin American countries, they occur close together in time and produce very similar musical results—suggesting common underlying models, motivations, and causes. Let me offer the following points for further discussion. First, populist nationalist movements in Latin America were state-initiated programs that challenged the traditional ruling oligarchies by so-called 'modernizing' capitalist interests; populism occurred within programs to increase domestic and trans-state capitalist activity beyond the established ruling groups. Second, this situation correlated with the increasingly inclusive notions of the nation marked by the expansion of the franchise, concessions such as labor and land reforms, and increased forging of cultural links with subaltern groups within the state's territory.
What we see in Latin America from the 1820s to the 1970s, and in nationalist discourse more generally, is an ever-increasing inclusivity and acceptance of different social groups within the nation conceived as a sociocultural unit with a corresponding increased emphasis on cultural nationalism and reformist transformations of subaltern cultural and musical practices. Contemporary 'multiculturalism' is the most recent example of this trajectory. Cultural and musical nationalism did not receive the same level of state emphasis in the early period because creating a unified population within the state's territory was not a primary criterion of the nation. This situation was to change in the first half of the twentieth century, the period when cosmopolitan nationalist discourse and practices were to develop a symbiotic relationship with individual state projects of capitalist expansion. Here, I offer some general comparisons of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American nationalist movements to trace the development of increasing inclusivity and participation, resulting in the contemporary idea of nation. The comparisons also illustrate two basic types of musical nationalism that exist currently in many countries: (1) state-generated and elite-associated forms and (2) 'reformist-popular' or 'folkloric' styles—both historically layered in relation to elite and inclusive or populist nationalist periods in Latin America.
My primary aim in this paper is to map out broad tendencies and to offer some theoretical ideas for thinking about musical nationalism in Latin America; to this...