Ethnomusicology, Ecomusicology, Instrumentscapes
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Recent papers in Ethnomusicology, Ecomusicology, Instrumentscapes
This dissertation concerns making music as a utopian ecological practice, skill, or method of associative communication where participants temporarily move towards idealized relationships between themselves and their environment. Live... more
This dissertation concerns making music as a utopian ecological practice, skill, or method of associative communication where participants temporarily move towards idealized relationships between themselves and their environment. Live music making can bring people together in the collective present, creating limited states of unification. We are “taken” by music when utopia is performed and brought to the present. From rehearsal to rehearsal, band to band, year to year, musicking binds entire communities more closely together. I locate strategies for community solidarity like turn-taking, trust-building, gift-exchange, communication, fundraising, partying, education, and conflict resolution as plentiful within musical ensembles in any socially environmentally conscious community.
Based upon 10 months of fieldwork and 40 extended interviews, my theoretical assertions are grounded in immersive ethnographic research on Hornby Island, a 12-square-mile Gulf Island between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Canada. I describe how roughly 1000 Islanders struggle to achieve environmental resilience in a uniquely biodiverse region where fisheries collapsed, logging declined, and second-generation settler farms were replaced with vacation homes in the 20th century. Today, extreme gentrification complicates housing for the island’s vulnerable populations as more than half of island residents live below the poverty line. With demographics that reflect a median age of 62, young individuals, families, and children are squeezed out of the community, unable to reproduce Hornby’s alternative society.
This dissertation begins with theorization that connects music making to community and environmental thought. I then represent the challenges Islanders set for themselves and the struggles they face, like their desire for food sovereignty, off-grid energy, secure housing, protection of their aquifers, affordability of ferry transportation, ecological waste-cycles, and care for each other’s mental health. I bring attention to unique institutions that Islanders have created to better manage their needs and desires. In response to the island’s social and environmental dynamics of justice, I argue and demonstrate through ethnography that music making is an essential communal process that brings people together to dialogue about their needs and advance their goals to establish a more equitable and environmentally responsible community.
Based upon 10 months of fieldwork and 40 extended interviews, my theoretical assertions are grounded in immersive ethnographic research on Hornby Island, a 12-square-mile Gulf Island between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Canada. I describe how roughly 1000 Islanders struggle to achieve environmental resilience in a uniquely biodiverse region where fisheries collapsed, logging declined, and second-generation settler farms were replaced with vacation homes in the 20th century. Today, extreme gentrification complicates housing for the island’s vulnerable populations as more than half of island residents live below the poverty line. With demographics that reflect a median age of 62, young individuals, families, and children are squeezed out of the community, unable to reproduce Hornby’s alternative society.
This dissertation begins with theorization that connects music making to community and environmental thought. I then represent the challenges Islanders set for themselves and the struggles they face, like their desire for food sovereignty, off-grid energy, secure housing, protection of their aquifers, affordability of ferry transportation, ecological waste-cycles, and care for each other’s mental health. I bring attention to unique institutions that Islanders have created to better manage their needs and desires. In response to the island’s social and environmental dynamics of justice, I argue and demonstrate through ethnography that music making is an essential communal process that brings people together to dialogue about their needs and advance their goals to establish a more equitable and environmentally responsible community.
As the Association of Ethnomusicology-Turkey, we had to postpone the organization we planned to organize in early June with the partnership of the Hungarian Cultural Center, due to the pandemic period, within the framework of our goals to... more
As the Association of Ethnomusicology-Turkey, we had to postpone the
organization we planned to organize in early June with the partnership of the Hungarian Cultural Center, due to the pandemic period, within the framework of our goals to organize a symposium every two years. However, after March, when we entered the pandemic period, we made our online symposium decision in April and made our call quickly. According to my screening, the call to the Society for Ethnomusicology and the date of the symposium took its place as the first study in this sense in the field of ethnomusicology, even in social sciences. We determined a unique form of communication by carrying out the uncertainty brought about by being the first, through the association's youtube channel and Instagram account. The fastest issue to be organized in order to pass this process, which many researchers, academics and students found themselves in the most effective and productive way, was also to read the process we were in with our own methods. Thus, " The Past, Present and Future of Ethnomusicology in the World and in Turkey" theme, the analysis of observations about the circulation of music, such as production and presentation, which has started to increase rapidly in our hands about past, current and future, with the tools included in the "new ethnography" in a similar way, suitable for the formation of a serious literature, became a field of discourse.
The global pandemic has changed aspects of daily life, as well as research
methodologies, which we never though would have changed. In this period
when we are experiencing new things, we had participants who made presentations on new approaches and concepts such as "buying experience" (Yağmur Güzle & Gonca Girgin), "delocation" (Ö. Ayça Boyacıoğlu), "independent musician" (Burçe Çuhadar Ulubilgin) during the symposium. It was due to the observation that before the pandemic process, the production and consumption patterns of music were already beginning to change. Likewise, the realization of the disconnection from nature during the Covid-19 pandemic period, the realization of the visible improvement of nature and environmental conditions as the working capacity of heavy industry had to decrease, and the current process in eco-musicology/ecoethno-musicology studies, which have been strongly involved in both musicology and ethnomusicology for a while drew the attention towards the studies carried out quickly and curiously. The topic that Prof. Dr. Jeff Todd TITON was invited to present as the guest speaker and whom made the opening speech was remarkable
in this context because it was a presentation focused on music,
sound and environment, which was about important findings in the field of
eco-musicology, ecoetnomusicology, and emphasized that this questioning
gained importance during the pandemic period. (As included in our full text
book, the Ethnomusicology Journal is in the 5th issue in article format, and the presentation video is on the youtube page of the Society for Ethnomusicology).
Fulya Açıkgöz was the owner of the presentation in which the subject of
“anthropocene” and the relationship of music was discussed in parallel with
Tito's inquiries. While this concept, which was introduced in the 1950s, examines the impact of human on the world in its simplest definition, the frame of the dimensions of the damage it causes emphasizes that it is increasing day by day. As Fulya Açıkgöz puts it, she strikingly explained the relationship between the concept of anthropocene and music, which is mostly found in the visual arts, in her paper, which was one of the new approaches to make sense of today's music and anthropocene dilemma. Thus, the ethnomusicologist has an active role in determining and documenting the voices or silence caused by the environmental crisis, what the modes of production are in changing lives.
Within the changing and differentiating field and field objects, the concept
of "field-case" has been questioned in the field of ethnomusicology for a long time, and sometimes criticized in its abstract dimension and sometimes within the real environments. During the symposium, we listened to the decentralization and the change of space with a different perspective in Özlem Ayça Boyacıoğlu's presentation. In fact, these issues were on our agenda even before the pandemic period. Because the observations made have shown that music listening practices have been moved to streaming listening environments in daily life outside of concert stages for a long time, but these platforms were the only way in this process. The use of technology has become a field that every musician should have experience in. The recordings made at home were combined, simulative environments were created as if performing at the same time, software requirements reached the line level. So much so that the sales of portable microphones that will be used while recording on the phone ran out the stocks of the supplier companies. The review of virtual festivals was important in this regard (The full article is in the 5th issue of the
Journal of Ethnomusicology, and the presentation video is on the YouTube page of the Society for Ethnomusicology).
Another paper was on the concept of "independent musician". Burçe Ulubilgin Çuhadar underlined this definition. However, the reality of the abovementioned ways of listening, producing, and the places where it is located has been on the agenda of music producers for a long time. However, being called an independent musician stems from being able to exist in parallel with their own production requests through certain streaming music platforms, regardless of any company. In this case, it has been determined that tracking brings about another process that cannot be independent, such as increasing the
number of subscribers.
Attila Özdek, on the other hand, highlighted the importance of ethnomusicology in schools that educate teachers, in the first 30-40 years of the Republic, there were names such as Muzaffer Sarısözen and Halil Bedii director who were in the regions as a teacher and performed compilation works.
While Erhan Özdemir presented an evaluation of his recent field research in
terms of ethnomusicology, Nick Poulakis conducted research on art works
in the internet age and referred to digital archive and audio / visual culture,
pointing out the importance of the archive and new field work spaces. Mustafa Avcı pointed to the dark side of music while referring to new trends in ethnomusicology. Cemrenur Ünsür touched upon the concepts of "world music" and "orientalism", which should be known when it comes to ethnomusicology and on which there are many discussions, and after the discussion of the reflections of ethnomusicology, Flamenco music analysis, which is classified as world music by Şule Yıldız and Cenk Güray. In the last session, we gave presentations on both traditional fieldwork techniques and new trends. First of all, Duygu Ulusoy Yılmaz made a presentation including the data she recorded from the field on the "Rowic" culture, while Rumiana Margaritova and Nevene Gramatikova from Bulgaria shared with us the outputs of their project on the Alevi-Bektashi community, which has existed as a closed society in Bulgaria until recently. Adem Kaya shared with us the field data on how Siberian Tatars in Cihanbeyli –Böğrüdelik village maintain their musical identity.
Another invited speaker, Velika S. Serafimovka, one of the Macedonian
representatives of the UNESCO-Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee,
made a connection with ethnomusicology and touched upon the issue of cultural heritage. At this point, it has been stated in the declaration that the issue of protecting cultural heritage in ensuring the continuity of cultural elements brings along some criticisms in terms of functioning.
One of the issues discussed during the pandemic period was concerns
about how difficulties in going to the field would affect the work itself. Because ethnomusicology prioritizes fieldwork as a methodology. However,
for the ethnomusicologists, who started to develop reclexes in advance in accordance with the changing production and consumption patterns in the last decade, the application of digital ethnography and the emergence of areas called audio-visual ethnomusicology was an indicator of this situation. It should also be noted that the field has been a place for ethnomusicologists for a long time that is not only seen and shaped outside of the inhabited places.
In short, ethnomusicologists went after societies wherever and however they express themselves. They record the current moment and present. As a result, the adaptation of new forms of ethnography (digital ethnography, netrography, etc.) that we have begun to define for a while will be seen intensively.
As a result, during the online symposium where ideas on music production
were put forward, while the studies made with different perspectives
were discussed, we also watched presentations where new approaches were seen to expand the boundaries of "field" and methodology of ethnomusicology.
The presentations of notices analyzing the arrangement and transfer of
the new behavior and production forms of the pandemic period, which we
drew attention especially in the symposium call, were quite remarkable. In
addition to the notices made with traditional ethnographic techniques that
fall under the field of early ethnomusicology fieldwork, witnessing the studies in which the reflections of the new ethnography were seen and even discussed, was in accordance with the characteristic of the ethnomusicology discipline to record, observe and show rapid reflexes. The fact that the findings about the present are intense provided the update of the use of digital ethnography methods, which ethnomusicology has started to include in its studies for a while, through the symposium.
Prof. Dr. Özlem DOĞUŞ VARLI
organization we planned to organize in early June with the partnership of the Hungarian Cultural Center, due to the pandemic period, within the framework of our goals to organize a symposium every two years. However, after March, when we entered the pandemic period, we made our online symposium decision in April and made our call quickly. According to my screening, the call to the Society for Ethnomusicology and the date of the symposium took its place as the first study in this sense in the field of ethnomusicology, even in social sciences. We determined a unique form of communication by carrying out the uncertainty brought about by being the first, through the association's youtube channel and Instagram account. The fastest issue to be organized in order to pass this process, which many researchers, academics and students found themselves in the most effective and productive way, was also to read the process we were in with our own methods. Thus, " The Past, Present and Future of Ethnomusicology in the World and in Turkey" theme, the analysis of observations about the circulation of music, such as production and presentation, which has started to increase rapidly in our hands about past, current and future, with the tools included in the "new ethnography" in a similar way, suitable for the formation of a serious literature, became a field of discourse.
The global pandemic has changed aspects of daily life, as well as research
methodologies, which we never though would have changed. In this period
when we are experiencing new things, we had participants who made presentations on new approaches and concepts such as "buying experience" (Yağmur Güzle & Gonca Girgin), "delocation" (Ö. Ayça Boyacıoğlu), "independent musician" (Burçe Çuhadar Ulubilgin) during the symposium. It was due to the observation that before the pandemic process, the production and consumption patterns of music were already beginning to change. Likewise, the realization of the disconnection from nature during the Covid-19 pandemic period, the realization of the visible improvement of nature and environmental conditions as the working capacity of heavy industry had to decrease, and the current process in eco-musicology/ecoethno-musicology studies, which have been strongly involved in both musicology and ethnomusicology for a while drew the attention towards the studies carried out quickly and curiously. The topic that Prof. Dr. Jeff Todd TITON was invited to present as the guest speaker and whom made the opening speech was remarkable
in this context because it was a presentation focused on music,
sound and environment, which was about important findings in the field of
eco-musicology, ecoetnomusicology, and emphasized that this questioning
gained importance during the pandemic period. (As included in our full text
book, the Ethnomusicology Journal is in the 5th issue in article format, and the presentation video is on the youtube page of the Society for Ethnomusicology).
Fulya Açıkgöz was the owner of the presentation in which the subject of
“anthropocene” and the relationship of music was discussed in parallel with
Tito's inquiries. While this concept, which was introduced in the 1950s, examines the impact of human on the world in its simplest definition, the frame of the dimensions of the damage it causes emphasizes that it is increasing day by day. As Fulya Açıkgöz puts it, she strikingly explained the relationship between the concept of anthropocene and music, which is mostly found in the visual arts, in her paper, which was one of the new approaches to make sense of today's music and anthropocene dilemma. Thus, the ethnomusicologist has an active role in determining and documenting the voices or silence caused by the environmental crisis, what the modes of production are in changing lives.
Within the changing and differentiating field and field objects, the concept
of "field-case" has been questioned in the field of ethnomusicology for a long time, and sometimes criticized in its abstract dimension and sometimes within the real environments. During the symposium, we listened to the decentralization and the change of space with a different perspective in Özlem Ayça Boyacıoğlu's presentation. In fact, these issues were on our agenda even before the pandemic period. Because the observations made have shown that music listening practices have been moved to streaming listening environments in daily life outside of concert stages for a long time, but these platforms were the only way in this process. The use of technology has become a field that every musician should have experience in. The recordings made at home were combined, simulative environments were created as if performing at the same time, software requirements reached the line level. So much so that the sales of portable microphones that will be used while recording on the phone ran out the stocks of the supplier companies. The review of virtual festivals was important in this regard (The full article is in the 5th issue of the
Journal of Ethnomusicology, and the presentation video is on the YouTube page of the Society for Ethnomusicology).
Another paper was on the concept of "independent musician". Burçe Ulubilgin Çuhadar underlined this definition. However, the reality of the abovementioned ways of listening, producing, and the places where it is located has been on the agenda of music producers for a long time. However, being called an independent musician stems from being able to exist in parallel with their own production requests through certain streaming music platforms, regardless of any company. In this case, it has been determined that tracking brings about another process that cannot be independent, such as increasing the
number of subscribers.
Attila Özdek, on the other hand, highlighted the importance of ethnomusicology in schools that educate teachers, in the first 30-40 years of the Republic, there were names such as Muzaffer Sarısözen and Halil Bedii director who were in the regions as a teacher and performed compilation works.
While Erhan Özdemir presented an evaluation of his recent field research in
terms of ethnomusicology, Nick Poulakis conducted research on art works
in the internet age and referred to digital archive and audio / visual culture,
pointing out the importance of the archive and new field work spaces. Mustafa Avcı pointed to the dark side of music while referring to new trends in ethnomusicology. Cemrenur Ünsür touched upon the concepts of "world music" and "orientalism", which should be known when it comes to ethnomusicology and on which there are many discussions, and after the discussion of the reflections of ethnomusicology, Flamenco music analysis, which is classified as world music by Şule Yıldız and Cenk Güray. In the last session, we gave presentations on both traditional fieldwork techniques and new trends. First of all, Duygu Ulusoy Yılmaz made a presentation including the data she recorded from the field on the "Rowic" culture, while Rumiana Margaritova and Nevene Gramatikova from Bulgaria shared with us the outputs of their project on the Alevi-Bektashi community, which has existed as a closed society in Bulgaria until recently. Adem Kaya shared with us the field data on how Siberian Tatars in Cihanbeyli –Böğrüdelik village maintain their musical identity.
Another invited speaker, Velika S. Serafimovka, one of the Macedonian
representatives of the UNESCO-Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee,
made a connection with ethnomusicology and touched upon the issue of cultural heritage. At this point, it has been stated in the declaration that the issue of protecting cultural heritage in ensuring the continuity of cultural elements brings along some criticisms in terms of functioning.
One of the issues discussed during the pandemic period was concerns
about how difficulties in going to the field would affect the work itself. Because ethnomusicology prioritizes fieldwork as a methodology. However,
for the ethnomusicologists, who started to develop reclexes in advance in accordance with the changing production and consumption patterns in the last decade, the application of digital ethnography and the emergence of areas called audio-visual ethnomusicology was an indicator of this situation. It should also be noted that the field has been a place for ethnomusicologists for a long time that is not only seen and shaped outside of the inhabited places.
In short, ethnomusicologists went after societies wherever and however they express themselves. They record the current moment and present. As a result, the adaptation of new forms of ethnography (digital ethnography, netrography, etc.) that we have begun to define for a while will be seen intensively.
As a result, during the online symposium where ideas on music production
were put forward, while the studies made with different perspectives
were discussed, we also watched presentations where new approaches were seen to expand the boundaries of "field" and methodology of ethnomusicology.
The presentations of notices analyzing the arrangement and transfer of
the new behavior and production forms of the pandemic period, which we
drew attention especially in the symposium call, were quite remarkable. In
addition to the notices made with traditional ethnographic techniques that
fall under the field of early ethnomusicology fieldwork, witnessing the studies in which the reflections of the new ethnography were seen and even discussed, was in accordance with the characteristic of the ethnomusicology discipline to record, observe and show rapid reflexes. The fact that the findings about the present are intense provided the update of the use of digital ethnography methods, which ethnomusicology has started to include in its studies for a while, through the symposium.
Prof. Dr. Özlem DOĞUŞ VARLI
Since the 1950s, the biological term ecology has been imported and applied to a wide range of human cultural practices, environments, and contexts. The ecology trope has found a resonance within the academy, and has long been used across... more
Since the 1950s, the biological term ecology has been imported and applied to a wide range of human cultural practices, environments, and contexts. The ecology trope has found a resonance within the academy, and has long been used across the social sciences, to contextualize aspects of human social and cultural life. This paper examines the application of ecology and ecological concepts to our apprehension and understanding of music, an application that may be traced back almost 50 years. Here we discuss a number of issues regarding the appropriation of ecological principles to articulate and explain human musical activity. In this paper, we critically assess the ramifications of framing the relationship between people, their music, and their world, in ecological terms.
The songs of lumberjacks in the Northeastern United States provide perspective on the ontologically creative relationship between humans and geography in one of the more environmentally destructive activities of the Anthropocene:... more
The songs of lumberjacks in the Northeastern United States provide perspective on the ontologically creative relationship between humans and geography in one of the more environmentally destructive activities of the Anthropocene: timber-extraction. The Western doxa (Bourdieu 1972) of environmental activism and sustainability reinforces a narrative of hegemonic destruction in the relationship between humans and nature. By mapping liminal experience onto the landscape, the songs of lumberjacks reveal that, at its core, the relationship of humans to geography is also an ontologically creative one, regardless of its destructive outcome. Decolonizing geography necessarily involves exploring this ontologically creative relationship to better understand the seemingly paradoxical expressive and destructive processes implicated in that relationship. Adducing a work song from the nineteenth century, this paper reveals the imaginative way lumberjacks expressed this ontological relationship. From their multivalent landscape (Massey 2005) lumberjacks localized and mapped experientially the liminality of their working lives onto the landscape. Several lumberjack songs exist that evidence this “geo-anthropomorphic” mapping of liminal experience onto the landscape, but “The Jam at Gerry’s Rock” was – and remains – one of the most popular work songs, not only among lumberjacks but also among others whose work involves intimately liminal engagement in the physical landscape.