ARCHIVES
A sketchbook for my return to ethnomusicology. Curious? Email me at hymnster(at)yahoo(*)com
Scrap pile
SEM
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Highland Settlers Conference
Highland Settlers: Scottish Highland Immigrants in North America
U. Richmond
Nov. 6-8, 2003
Saturday, August 30, 2003
Language and Music
- Roger Alsop
- Origins of music lie in speech? (NPR)
- Rens Bod article
- Theory WIKI (Search for Language and Music Initial Ideas)
- NCBI (Search for Language and Music)
Friday, August 29, 2003
Great bodhran players
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Reality in Scholarship
The reading list at the end of this article has some great stuff in it, including "Time and Tune in Java" but Judith Becker, one of my all-time favorites. I hope I can do so well.
Municipal Pipebands
I should also look into the phenomenon of municipal (police/fire dept.) pipebands. I'm pretty sure that it's a completely different animal from competitive bands. In fact, it would be useful to try to categorize bands into compete and non-compete and see what the motivations behind the non-comptete are. Maybe I'll make that part of my survey paper.
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Raising the Dead
If I decide to revive my old dissertation topic, then I should probably start with a survey of pipe bands in a given area, such as Massachusetts or New England. It would be good to try to write up some sort of paper, and make it formal. I need to jumpstart the ol' noggin
clipping
H-Net Discussion Logs - Image of Koreans in US culture (reply): "There's a Korean performance artist and poet Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Her work, and the criticism of it includes some interesting comments on Koreans in American Culture. I would recommend her book Dictee but probably more useful to you is the book of essays written about Dictee, edited by Elaine Kim, called Writing Self, Writing Nation. There is also a monograph of her art called The Dream of the Audience edited by Constance Lewallen."
Professional Associations
- American Studies Association
Discussion Groups
Sign up for some of the H-Net Discussion Networks:
- American Studies
- Buddhist Scholars Information Network
- Canadian History and Studies
- Demographic History
- Ethnic and Immigration History
- Graduate Student Discussion
- History and Macintosh Society
- Migration History
Buddhist Music
I wonder if there are any interesting aspects of Buddhist music in America which I could study...
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Canadian Maritimes
I'm sure this has been "done" by someone, but maybe there's more to do. The interesting bit is that the Maritimes have developed their own dialect of Celtic music. How and why did it develop? What about it is "Canadian?"
This would be more the music apart from the instruments, probably. I think fiddle style differences has been covered rather thoroughly.
Long range planning
Note to self: Don't forget to write out a long-range plan of attack. It's easy to get lost in the details when one should be working long-range. Also remember that this is now not about getting a degree -- it's about establishing a career. The diss. topic should be good "job talk" material and I need to start filling out my resume with teaching experience and other skills.
My real goal is simple: to become a tenured professor in ethnomusicology.
Music and Meaning
The crux to a successful diss. topic for me will involve the specific cultural relevance of a particular musical practice. It should involve politics, identity, spirituality, or something similar.
Would the fact that instrument-centric gatherings can involve very disparate music be significant in this way? (Accordion, in particular.)
A scientific slant
If I could bring sonic analysis in it would be fun! Maybe the excuse I've been looking for to get that Kyma system I've always wanted... :p Check on Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot, and look for tools.
Consider rich and changing sounds such as Ch'ang (P'ansori). It's possible that Celtic music would not be interesting from this perspective.
A few keywords
- New England traditional music
- (frame drum: could bhodran be a cross-cultural instrument?)
- Scottish traditional music
- Concertina/Accordion band/quartet
- Morris Dancing
Which band?
When I originally wrote my proposal, I picked the Worcester Kiltie band because they had a rich history. But now I wonder, does it matter? Can I not learn just as much from any band which is contending? The local band is not nearly the same calibre as the Worcester Kiltie, but it could be interesting to watch a band try to build and grow... It would also let me do continuous, rich fieldwork over years without relocating!
Update: Yeesh, did I call this one wrong. I found the website of the local band, Tulach Ard and discovered that they have been on top of the local scene for the past couple of years. Worcester Kiltie, on the other hand, has gone AWOL? At least their website is gone...
By instrument
If I were to study the culture surrounding a particular instrument, my first choices might be:
- Bagpipes (competitions)
- Pennywhistle (and Irish "Sessions")
- Squeezeboxes
- (starting at the Northeast Squeeze-In Festival, which unfortunately is about a 2.5 hr drive from here...)
- rec.music.makers.squeezebox
My guess is that bagpipes or pennywhistle would be my first choices since I have a little background already in those, and because they are more "ensemble" instruments than squeezeboxes are.
Non-believing mercenaries
Although perhaps risky, it would be interesting to look into the motivations of non-believers performing for a church.
What question am I trying to answer, though. I need to find some burning questions that I want to answer. Maybe that is the place to start.
Brain dump
I'm jealous of the current student who is already going ahead with a shape-note singing Diss. But, I'm not sure that is really where I want to be. What are my interests?
- identity
- maybe this is why the Korean thing didn't work. I'm more interested in the ambiguities of identity -- cultural intersections and interstices
- spirituality
- amateur music making
- Geographies/Ethnicities
- New England
- Celtic
- Korean
- Asian
- The importance of classical music education in Asian families
Elaine comments:
Something that has always amazed me is the Asian fascination with European art and classical music - esp. when its own ancient art forms in general have been so different. There may be a simple answer to that; I just don't know it. I have wondered if it is related to the desire to acquire or own what is considered "valuable" or is it based on a real appreciation and affinity to the emotional and aesthetic in music and art.This is just a start. I need to do a more complete inventory of my interests to find just the right topic this time...
And now for something completely different
There's always the option of secondary school teaching and then applying to an American school abroad, too. But I think I'm more of an academic type...
Competition
Maybe I should return to my old competition idea. I could do piano competitions and at least I'll have some leg up with that, but perhaps I should stick with the competitive bagpiping angle... Hmm.... Certainly still lots of study to do there and I could alter my proposal to be more solid -- involving more travel for instance.
Monday, August 25, 2003
Children's music
It's something else I should do some reading in...
Mercenaries for God
The spirituality of professional church musicians
(Title from discarded UChoir t-shirt idea)
Hymnology
What kind of studies have there been on the creation of hymnbooks? Selection of hymns, texts, creation of new texts for old hymns, creation of new hymns entirely. What could be learned from studying this process?
Update: Perhaps what I'm really getting at here is something in communal singing. Any forays into studying professionals, academics, or others seems to be politically risky. Communal singing would also be easier to integrate with anthropological material. How about religious ritual OUTSIDE of religious institutions? Religious songs made secular?
Topic idea
In ?pure? Celtic Christianity, what about the ritual -- in particular the music? Is it pure, borrowed, etc? How pure to a tradition can the music be?
Thinking further: what about the identity of a music within a religious tradition? What happens to meaning in music as it is passed from religious org. to secular world, to another religious org?
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Topic idea
Religious pluralism, musical cross-pollonization and the religious ideas that get traded with the music.
When diverse religious traditions share the same cultural space, what happens to their musical traditions? How do the participants perceive it? (Singapore?)
Useful links: