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The Duduk and National Identity in Armenia
The book is an outline of the Armenian duduk, a cylindrical double-reed aerophone made of apricot-wood, and its relation to the Armenian identity. It attempts to deepen our understanding of musical instruments not only through an examination of musical and constructional features, but also through the application of a sociocultural framework which allows a theorization of the idea of the instrument as social being. The discussion is centered on the different contexts in which the duduk is played. These are divided into two categories: solo and ensemble. Solo duduk performance includes the remarkable phenomenon of Armenian funeral music activity. Other contexts include special celebrations of...
Postmodernism and Globalization in Ethnomusicology
Is the music world clinging to an outdated school of thought in ethnomusicology? Nercessian shows how the theory of cultural relativism continues to detrimentally pervade ethnomusicological thought, and then offers a solution that may better serve musical study in today’s more globalized world. At the heart of cultural relativism, which seeks to avoid imposing the standards of an outside culture on a work, is the emic-etic dichotomy, which delineates the perspective of the outsider and that of the culture of origin. Nercessian points out that in our increasingly globalized society, cultures are no longer separate and distinct. A new theory is necessary to account for the cultural overlap. Borrowing from Derrida, the author offers a new solution that will allow for multiple perspectives, without favoring that of the insider or emic. Of importance to students and scholars of ethnomusicology, this book also speaks to other fields of study where cultural relativism continues to dominate.
The World of South African Music
The present Reader is a selection of texts on South African music which are chosen not only for their importance or the frequency of citations, but with the express purpose of providing the reader with a deep understanding of the music itself. Consequently, there are readings that are chosen because they have been influential, but there are also many which, though published, have not enjoyed very wide circulation. There are those which are of obvious historic interest, and others which speak to contemporary issues. Among other things, the volume provides an excellent sense of the varying ideologies and approaches that determine the relationship between author and subject. The reader is indispensable to scholars and enthusiasts of South African music and it is of great interest to ethnomusicologists more generally. It is also an excellent resource for those who do not have immediate access to harder-to-find articles, and is perhaps most vital to those who are looking to find a way into the world of South African music.
Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage
Focussing on music traditions, these essays explore the policy, ideology and practice of preservation and promotion of East Asian intangible cultural heritage. For the first time, Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan - states that were amongst the first to establish legislation and systems for indigenous traditions - are considered together. Calls to preserve the intangible heritage have recently become louder, not least with increasing UNESCO attention. The imperative to preserve is, throughout the region, cast as a way to counter the perceived loss of cultural diversity caused by globalization, modernization, urbanization and the spread of the mass media. Four chapters - one each on China, Korea...
Soviet Music and Society Under Lenin and Stalin
This book investigates the place of music in Soviet society during the eras of Lenin and Stalin. It examines the different strategies adopted by composers and musicians in their attempts to carve out careers in a rapidly evolving society, discusses the role of music in Soviet society and people's lives, and shows how political ideology proved an inspiration as well as an inhibition. It explores how music and politics interacted in the lives of two of the twentieth century's greatest composers - Shostakovich and Prokofiev - and also in the lives of less well-known composers. In addition it considers the specialist composers of early Soviet musical propaganda, amateur music making, and musical life in the non-Russian republics. The book will appeal to specialists in Soviet music history, those with an interest in twentieth century music in general, and also to students of the history, culture and politics of the Soviet Union.
Tomorrow through the Past
Tomorrow Through the Past: Neal Stephenson and the Project of Global Modernization is the first collection of scholarly essays dedicated exclusively to this important voice in contemporary American fiction. The collection grew from five essays originally presented at the 2006 XXth Century Literature Conference at the University of Louisville, and the contributors are made up of graduate students, independent scholars, and university professors who hope the collection will aid general readers as well as instructors teaching Stephenson and professionals building the critical response to his work. Reading through the lenses of history and linguistic, cultural, and science fiction studies, the essays in the collection examine each of Stephenson’s novels from The Big U to The Baroque Cycle as well as his long non-fiction work on computer operating systems, In the Beginning … Was the Command Line. Included in this collection is a new interview conducted with Stephenson during the summer of 2006.
Women at the Polls
Since 1980, most elections in the United States have been marked by a “gender gap” in which women are more supportive of Democratic candidates than men by nearly ten percentage points. Women at the Polls finds that this gender gap is quite extensive as it exists in almost all demographic groups and as it is based on similar differences in the political attitudes of women and men over a wide array of issues. This suggests that women are becoming an important constituency in U.S. politics.
Le Prophète
Le Prophète is the second panel of Meyerbeer’s Reformation diptych, his darkest and most mysterious opera. It explores issues of power and religion, fanaticism and faith, betrayal and trust, the demonic forces of history and the witness of little people caught up in them—the ultimate and enduring sacrificial power of love. In some ways it is almost like a political pamphlet or religious tract, and its oppressive but fascinating world can cast a compulsive spell. The plot is based on the revolt of the Westphalian Anabaptists under the leadership of the Leyden tailor Johann Bockholdt in 1537-38. Meyerbeer, as usual, studied the historical period carefully, and the opera is especially rema...
Cultural Practices, Political Possibilities
Culture has long been regarded as one of the most complicated concepts in the social sciences, possibly over theorized. Its ubiquity, tangled senses of particularity and the almost universal recognition of that assumed particularity require an extended vocabulary for framing the politics embedded in it. Cultural Practices, Political Possibilities attempts to explain the political significance and overlaps of cultural constructions as witnessed in global-local clashes, convergences of texts and contexts, within the state and community, identity and the self. Through various case-studies, concepts and interdisciplinary perspectives, the multinational group of authors from diverse academic backgrounds interprets cultural constructions of politics as factionalizing, identitarian, situational and particularistic in their links, affirmations and consequential divides. Each contribution, in its unique way explores the performative asymmetries and contradictions witnessed in diverse cultural interactions that shape new areas of political investigation. The book will be welcomed by students of international relations, environmental politics, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies.
Cosmic Order and Cultural Astronomy
Throughout the Indian subcontinent there are territories and areas wherein culture, geography, and the archetypal cosmos interact with each other to create a sacredscape that is infused with meaning, cultural performances and transcendent power. These sacred sites possess extensive mythological associations where believed that spirit can cross between different realms. In a broad perspective such studies falls within the realm of cultural astronomy, which has two broad areas, viz. archaeoastronomy, concerned with the study of the use of astronomy and its role in ancient cultures and civilizations; and ethnoastronomy that studies the use of astronomy and its role in contemporary cultures. The...
