Traditional Singing

Review of above:

Copy of the book's description taken from publisher's webpage:

For more than 150 years, individuals have traveled the countryside with pen, paper, tape recorders, and even video cameras to document versions of songs, music, and stories shared by communities. As technologies and methodologies have advanced, the task of gathering music has been taken up by a much broader group than scholars. The resulting collections created by these various people can be impacted by the individual collectors' political and social concerns, cultural inclinations, and even simple happenstance, demonstrating a crucial yet underexplored relationship between the music and those preserving it.

Collecting Music in the Aran Islands, a critical historiographical study of the practice of documenting traditional music, is the first to focus on the archipelago off the west coast of Ireland. Deirdre Ní Chonghaile argues for a culturally equitable framework that considers negotiation, collaboration, canonization, and marginalization to fully understand the immensely important process of musical curation.In presenting four substantial, historically valuable collections from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, she illustrates how understanding the motivations and training (or lack thereof) of individual music collectors significantly informs how we should approach their work and contextualize their place in the folk music canon.

Music and song are both important influences on, and themes in, the poetry of Thomas Kinsella. His poetry also features several individuals associated with music, none more frequently than his close friend, the composer Seán Ó Riada, a central figure in the revival in popularity of Irish traditional music since the 1950s. This paper charts some significant developments in Kinsella's work from the late 1950s, and indeed, intriguing parallels, and shared emphases, apparent in the comments and work of both Kinsella and Ó Riada. For Kinsella, his experience of traditional song - described in his poem 'The Shoals Returning' - preceded the incorporation of Gaelic literature into his poetry while his recurring emphasis on the audience's role in the act of communication echoes his own identification of a central characteristic of the performance of traditional song, or sean-nós, in Irish.

The Tai-speaking Yang Zhuang people in the Debao-Jingxi area of southwestern Guangxi name their antiphonal singing tradition ngyam sley (吟詩), literally ‘poem chanting’, and this happen to have the same name with the traditional Chinese Yinshi (吟詩), which also meaning reciting poems. According to a phonological comparison of the initial consonants, vowels, and tonal categories between Yang Zhuang’s ngyam sley and Chinese Yinshi, this paper firstly determines that ngyam sley is indeed a Middle Chinese loanword from Yinshi. It furthermore demonstrates that the poetic compositions, specifically the prosodic forms, rhyming patterns, and phonological rules, between Yang Zhuang’s ngyam sley and the Chinese lüshi (律詩) are almost identical. It finally concludes that Yang Zhuang’s ngyam sley although originated from Baiyue’s singing tradition south to Yangtze River around 2500 years ago, its poetic form has been strongly influenced by the Chinese lüshi form in the development process, after the Tang dynasty during which lüshi originated and fully bloomed. As a result, ngyam sley has been developing to a scheme of “one single tail rhyme up to the end” adopted from lüshi, although it also preserves Tai-speaking groups’ “foot-waist” internal rhyming system at the same time. [广西西南部德保靖西一带的壮族佒侬支系将对歌传统称为“吟诗”，与中国古代“吟诗”传统在名称上不谋而合。通过语言学的音韵比较可得知，壮语的吟诗一词实际上便是中古汉语的借词“吟诗”；从壮族吟诗和古代汉族律诗之间的诗歌格律的比较研究也可以推断，壮族吟诗传统虽然源自越人源远流长的对歌习俗，但在发展过程中受到了唐宋以降的汉语律诗的强烈影响而格律化，在保留越人诗歌固有的“脚腰韵”的同时，还发展出了兼具汉语律诗尾韵“一韵到底”的特征。]

The present study investigates the case of two traditional vocal ensembles based on the island of Crete in Greece. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with their directors, in addition to analyzing audiovisual material from the ensembles’ public appearances. The aim of the study was to explore aesthetic and ideological issues related to the performance and re-creation of oral traditions outside their physical context, issues of music education (teaching methods, use of score, and vocal technique), and issues of performance (staging and the conductor's role). The results of this research study can be useful not only to Greek choral educators but also to foreign choral educators interested in teaching multicultural music by including Greek traditional songs in the repertoire of their choir, vocal ensemble or class.

Bu makale, Kürt kültürüne has bir müzik formu olan dengbêjlik pratiğinin Nusaybin ve Midyat ilçe merkezlerindeki konumlanışını ve bu pratiğin içindeki kadın müzisyenlerin rolünü inceler. Midyat ilçesinde dini olmayan müzik pratiklerine yönelik pejoratif yaklaşımların sebeplerine yönelik veriler, Kürt milliyetçi hareketinin baskın olduğu Nusaybin ilçesindeki sosyo-müzikal yapı ile karşılaştırılır, farklılıkların açıklanmasına yönelik sonuçlar elde edilir. Makale Midyat, Kızıltepe, Nusaybin ilçe merkezlerini kapsayan bir alan araştırmasına dayanmakta; toplanan veriler kavramsal araçlarla analiz edilmektedir. Araştırma boyunca Sünni ve Kurmanc olduklarını ifade eden toplulukların söylemleri etrafında yoğunlaşılmış, kendilerini Mıhalmi olarak tanımlayan kişi ve grupların görüşleri de araştırmaya şekil vermiştir. Metnin giriş bölümünde, elde edilen verilerin, problem sorusunu nasıl ve neden değiştirdiğine yönelik açıklamalar yapılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Milliyetçilik, Kürtler, Dengbêjlik, Toplumsal Cinsiyet

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Attitudes of Eastern European ethnomusicologists-instructors of singing are discussed. The overview is a compilation of the data gathered at formal and informal interviews with Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Serb respondents. The study reveals that success of the adequate vocal training depends on three succeeding stages of the process: field work, desk work, and practical training itself. Importance of several elements of the vocal performance, such as vocal technique (resulting in timbral qualities) and articulation, was noted by the interviewees as the idiosyncratic markers of the vocal tradition to be mastered, transmitted, and represented.

Acoustical measurements of pitches in a dozen songs exemplifying the Lithuanian traditional vocal homophony were carried out. Several phenomena were revealed. First, the entire scales experience gradual transposition (rise) from the beginning to the end of the song performances. Second, the transposition is supplemented with the gradual shrinking of the musical scales (the intervals become narrower). Third, the intonations of the scale degrees are dynamic, i.e. they depend on the musical (both melodic and harmonic) contexts. Fourth, the versions of musical scales work as certain markers for the idiolects (further studies could show if this might be extrapolated to the realm of dialects). All these insights raise issues about the perceptual qualities of the musical scales and their manifestations in the performance.

Controlled Disorder in Polymusic: The Case of the Seto Wedding Song Genre Kaasitamine

The term ‘polymusic’, which has been in use in ethnomusicology since the 1990s, designates musical practices where two or more autonomous musical entities are deliberately performed in the same space and time in a largely uncoordinated manner. The musical texts – which may be the same or different – that are juxtaposed in a polymusical performance may also be performed separately; when performed together, however, they constitute a new complex hypertext which has new meanings and functions and may to some extent be musically coordinated. Nevertheless, polymusical performance always engenders some kind of musical disorder which, being deliberately produced, can be characterized as a controlled disorder. Such disorder is a means to accomplish the ritual functions to which the polymusical genres are usually related and to induce some specific psychological effects, which are often connected with the manipulation of time and space. In this study the theoretical, ethnographic and cognitive questions of polymusic are discussed with reference to the case of the kaasitamine, the Seto wedding song genre from South-East Estonia. This research reveals the different traditional forms of kaasitamine performance characterised by the different balance between coordinated and uncoordinated components, analyses the more subtle mechanisms for the creation of controlled disorder, and considers the possible psychological effects of polymusic in relation to an altered perception of time.

Book review

Publisher's description:

One of the most sought after aspects of Irish vernacular culture is traditional song. Access to earlier recordings is a way to ensure the best understanding and appreciation of earlier singers, styles and repertoires. Within Ireland this is often primarily associated with the Irish Folklore Commission and Radio Eireann.

Such material was not only sought by these bodies but international recognition came about through bodies such as the BBC and individual collectors such as Alan Lomax. Such material was sought by these organisations and international recognition also came about through bodies such as the BBC. For the first time ever, a dedicated presentation of the renowned Conamara singer Colm O Caodhain is on offer encapsulating that apex of ethnographic fieldwork in Ireland.

The book includes 33 audio tracks. It places Colm in the context of life in Conamara during his lifetime as a farmer and a fisherman for whom song, lore and music were the fabric of his everyday life. Colm’s autobiography as collected through Seamus Ennis is available here in the original Irish with an accompanying translation.

Résumé :
Cet article aborde la consommation d’alcool au cours de séjours de recherche chez les Tai Dam du nord Laos. Il développe les particularités du terrain en ethnomusicologie, où musique et alcool s’entrecroisent fréquemment. Après une description des codes et modalités de la prise collective d’alcool, l’article analyse les rôles et significations du boire au sein des villages enquêtés, abordant ses rapports étroits avec le chant, ainsi que la pression exercée sur les convives pour une absorption continue d’alcool. Les tenants et aboutissant de la consommation personnelle de la chercheuse sur le terrain, et en particulier son rôle dans la création de liens
sociaux, sont ensuite développés. D’abord vécue comme une contrainte, la consommation d’alcool de riz s’est changée en instrument clef au fi l des différentes étapes de la recherche, devenant l’outil d’une socialisation active sur le terrain

Mots-clé : chant, alcool, ethnomusicologie, Laos, Tai Dam, socialisation.



Abstract:
This article explores aspects of alcohol consumption during fi eld visits in Tai Dam communities of Northern Laos. It examines the particularities of fieldwork in ethnomusicology, in which music and alcohol are frequently intertwined. After describing the customs of collective alcoholic consumption, the article analyses the roles and significance of drinking amongst the villages visited, and its connections with singing, as well as the social pressure exerted upon guests to participate in drinking activities. The researcher’s own consumption of alcohol during fieldwork is candidly presented, with a focus on the necessity of creating social connections to
develop her research. While initially experienced as a burden, the consumption of rice alcohol transformed into a key element over the course of the study, becoming the researcher’s primary tool for active social participation.

Keywords: Singing, alcohol, ethnomusicology, Laos, Tai Dam, socialization.

Many narrative motifs in the Scandinavian so-called medieval ballads are connected to (sometimes fatal) pregnancy and childbirth, sexual violence, abduction, or women being punished for lack of obedience etc., – in short, power relations and gender.  The stories often reflect values and norms of a pre- or early modern society; many of the ballads have been performed in Scandinavia since the 16th century; the majority of ballad variants, however, were documented in the 19th and 20th centuries. What can we learn, through close reading and “fieldwork in the archive”, about how singers in the latter period have reacted to and interpreted these dramatic ballads where the plot may show parallels to real cases in their own time? Are there signs of the old songs having been used as a means for processing or negotiating similar experiences in their own lives or their own neighbourhood? What does the rich multitude of different variants, telling quite different tales and representing different ethical and psychological modes, tell us about the possible encounters between a fictional past and the singers’ present? Is it reasonable to speak about interpersonal experiences, stretching over several layers of time, co-existing in the moment of performance?
In my paper, I aim to discuss these questions on the basis of examples from the Swedish/Scandinavian corpus of ballads, against a backdrop of mental and social history and theories of masculinity, as well as an ethnomusicological framework. The case study is part of an ongoing book project.

Acoustical measurements of pitches in a dozen songs exemplifying the Lithuanian traditional vocal homophony were carried out. Several phenomena were revealed. First, the entire scales experience gradual transposition (rise) from the beginning to the end of the song performances. Second, the transposition is supplemented with the gradual shrinking of the musical scales (the intervals become narrower). Third, the intonations of the scale degrees are dynamic, i.e. they depend on the musical (both melodic and harmonic) contexts. Fourth, the versions of musical scales work as certain markers for the idiolects (further studies could show if this might be extrapolated to the realm of dialects). All these insights raise issues about the perceptual qualities of the musical scales and their manifestations in the performance.

Unlike musical movements in the rest of Scandinavia, the Danish revival of folk music in the 1970s was not followed by a corresponding revival of traditional song. However, the recent release of ”Viser på valse”, a CD collection containing 400 tracks of traditional Danish song which were recorded on wax cylinders between 1907 and 1947, has made a thorough study of traditional Danish way of singing possible. In order to draw attention to a unique style that no longer exists, the following analysis is based on the oral-formulaic theory, with particular emphasis on the distinction between orality and literacy. It accentuates the singer’s central role in the performance and, consequently, for the song itself. It examines phrasing, pulse, rhythm, tonality, intonation, sound, tone production, articulation, ornamentation and execution. Moreover, this essay portrays the development from orality to literacy as a form of human and musical cognition.