We look
forward to giving presentations for the 37th
European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, hosted by the Institute for Ethnomusicology at the University for Music
and Performing Arts Graz (Austria). I will present along with other
members of the GAME
research group: our Professor II, a postdoctoral researcher, and a PhD candidate.
Below are the titles and abstracts for our upcoming presentations, both of
which are connected with writings that will be published later this year.
Devising an “Artistic Research” Approach for Decolonized Ethnomusicology
Thanh Thuy
Nguyen, David
G. Hebert, and Stefan
Östersjö
This presentation will feature discussion
between co-authors of a fully drafted (but yet to be published) book, Shared
Listenings: Methods for Transcultural Musicianship and Research (Cambridge
University Press, forthcoming). The book demonstrates new strategies for
equitable cross-cultural music creation as well as collaborative
ethnomusicological research on such endeavors. Fitting the ESEM theme, this
presentation–by authors from three continents–will emphasize how a research
collaboration was developed through the work of Vietnamese-Swedish ensemble The
Six Tones, with particular attention to its use of video-based “stimulated
recall” methods. These methods, the group has explored as a means for
intersubjective meaning making across cultural boundaries. Specifically, we
will demonstrate what methods were developed through the project, why they potentially
offer unique insights, who may benefit from them (for what purposes), and how
they may be applied in other musical contexts. The presentation builds on a
comprehensive analysis of the approaches to stimulated recall developed by the
group since 2009, and is situated in recent scholarship and debates on the need
for decolonising approaches to music research.
Keywords: bimusicality, decolonization, artistic research, cross-cultural
collaboration
Harmonizing Across a Divide: The Music Confucius Institute
Marianne Løkke
Jakobsen and David G. Hebert
In
this presentation, we describe the perspectives of managers and Chinese
instrument teachers with the world’s first Confucius Institute to have a focus
on music, Copenhagen’s Music Confucius Institute (MCI). Previous research has
theorized the notion of “soft power” and documented diverse opinions on China’s
system of Confucius Institutes, while previous ethnomusicological studies have
established that music exchange can reduce international conflict, but a need
persists for further studies of Chinese music policy. Our pioneering study
examines the views of expert Chinese musicians who taught for the MCI in Europe
and a leading music conservatory in China, as well as the complex diplomacy
associated with managing such intercultural music institutions. One author
worked for nine years founding director of the MCI, and can thereby offer a
view from direct experience. The other author visited the MCI multiple times,
later serving as Visiting Scholar at the Central Conservatory of Music where he
interviewed and observed the work of instrumentalists who had taught in both
Beijing and Copenhagen. Fitting the ESEM theme, our presentation emphasizes
issues in research collaboration, including that of balancing between
Sinophobia and jingoism, cultural diplomacy, self-censorship, and strategies of
reflective distancing to “make the familiar strange”, thereby obtaining
insights with broad applicability. We will demonstrate how personal relations
and diverging stakeholders can make ethnomusicological studies of leadership
delicate in international contexts due to the need to maintain healthy
collaborations that may be misunderstood due to prejudices from multiple
directions.
Keywords: cultural diplomacy, institutionalization, soft power, China,
Europe-China relations
Graz image
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graz#/media/File:19-06-14-Graz-Murinsel-Schlo%C3%9Fberg-RalfR.jpg
