Books – monographs and edited collections
New York: Oxford University Press, 2014
This book explores the history and significance of the natural voice movement and its culture of ... more This book explores the history and significance of the natural voice movement and its culture of open-access community choirs, weekend workshops and summer camps. Founded on the premise that “everyone can sing”, the movement is distinguished from other choral movements by its emphasis on oral transmission and its eclectic repertoire of songs from across the globe. First, the book reveals how and why songs from non-Western and folk traditions inform the movement’s ideological, methodological and ethical principles and contribute to the rewards—social, psychological and existential, as well as musical—reported by participants. Second, it argues that the UK-based Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network (building on the pioneering work of English folksinger Frankie Armstrong) has become a major player in the democratisation of singing and represents a powerful force for community building and for facilitating intercultural understanding. Third, it suggests that the natural voice phenomenon poses a significant challenge to assumptions about musical competency and training that underpin music education in Britain and other Western societies. Among the book’s most striking revelations is the extent to which amateur and aspiring singers who are not musically literate, and who may belong to socially marginalised groups, become competent participants in a vibrant musical community and, in the process, find their voice metaphorically as well as literally. These trends are theorised in terms of the politics of participation, the transformative potential of performance, building social capital, the global village, and reclaiming the arts of celebration and conviviality.
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Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press, 2007
Transported by Song: Corsican Voices from Oral Tradition to World Stage represents the first Engl... more Transported by Song: Corsican Voices from Oral Tradition to World Stage represents the first English-language treatise on Corsican music, chronicling its evolution from the early 20th century to the present and charting its progression from the world of oral tradition to a vibrant new performance culture maintained by an expanding cohort of cosmopolitan players. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, comprehensive interviews, and close observation of Corsican affairs, the author maps out the social, cultural, economic, and political climate of Corsica in the 20th and early 21st centuries, offering insights into the way French cultural policy, decentralisation legislation, and European Union funding structures have affected musical activity on the island. Case studies of Corsican performing groups present the musicians' inspirations and intentions, as well as their ability to balance local and cosmopolitan frames of reference and relate their music to its traditional counterpart. The book also offers new perspectives on debates about music and ethnicity and gender dynamics, exploring the application of modern technology to an oral idiom and the psycho-physiological and transcendental experiences associated with polyphonic singing.
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New York: Oxford University Press, 2014
Revival movements that aim to revitalize traditions perceived as threatened or moribund by adapti... more Revival movements that aim to revitalize traditions perceived as threatened or moribund by adapting them to new temporal, spatial, and social contexts have been well-documented in Western Europe and North America. Less documented are the revival processes that have been occurring and recurring elsewhere in the world. And particularly under-analyzed are the aftermaths of revivals: the new infrastructures, musical styles, performance practices, subcultural communities, and value systems that have grown out of revival movements. The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival helps us achieve a deeper understanding of how and why musical pasts are reimagined and transfigured in modern-day postindustrial, postcolonial, and postwar contexts. The book's thirty chapters present innovative theoretical perspectives illustrated through new ethnographic case studies on diverse music and dance cultures around the world. Together these essays reveal the potency of acts of revival, resurgence, restoration, and renewal in shaping musical landscapes and transforming social experience. The book makes a powerful argument for the untapped potential of revival as a productive analytical tool in contemporary, global contexts. With its detailed treatment of authenticity, recontextualization, transmission, institutionalization, globalization, the significance of history, and other key concerns, the collection engages with critical issues far beyond the field of revival studies and is crucial for understanding contemporary manifestations of folk, traditional, and heritage music in today's postmodern cosmopolitan societies.
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Routledge, 2006
This volume offers a series of case studies on the theme The Past in Music. It includes articles ... more This volume offers a series of case studies on the theme The Past in Music. It includes articles by Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Music, Memory and History), Suzel Ana Reily (Remembering the Baroque Era: Historical Consciousness, Local Identity and the Holy Week Celebrations in a Former Mining Town in Brazil), Carol A. Muller (The New African Diaspora, the Built Environment and the Past in Jazz), Jonathan Shull (Locating the Past in the Present: 'Timeless Traditions' and the Performance of Early Music), and Caroline Bithell (Musical Archaeologists: The Revival and Reconstruction of Polyphonic Settings of the Latin Mass in Corsica).
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Papers and chapters
In: The Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities, ed. Jonathan Dueck and Suzel Reily. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016
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In: The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival, ed. Caroline Bithell and Juniper Hill. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014
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In: The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival, ed. Caroline Bithell and Juniper Hill. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014
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This paper considers different ways in which we might think about musical performance. Drawing ex... more This paper considers different ways in which we might think about musical performance. Drawing examples from my research into the revival of traditional music in Corsica and the culture of contemporary community choirs in the UK, I discuss the reasons for which musicians and others might be ambivalent about the conventional model of a formal performance presented as entertainment for an audience. In particular, I address some of the problems associated with staged performances of traditional or folk music. At a theoretical level, I note the need to distinguish between stage culture and living tradition, and between presentation and participation. I consider a range of alternative models of performance, informed by ideas about performing as a way of creating social relationships and sustaining community.
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This article considers the concept of translation as applied to the phenomenon of amateur singers... more This article considers the concept of translation as applied to the phenomenon of amateur singers in the West learning songs from 'other' cultures. Following an examination of the reasons why some people may prefer to sing in a language that is not their mother tongue, I go on to explore the processes involved in learning a new musical language, taking as my case study traditional polyphonic songs from Corsica and Georgia. I consider the roles of the native practitioner as teacher and transmitter and the non-native teacher as transmitter and intermediary, examining the methods developed by particular teachers to help students reach a deeper cultural understanding while also finding an 'authentic' sound. Pursuing the notion of social relations being implicit in the acts of both translation and music making, I conclude by reflecting on the kinds of transformations—personal and political, as well as musical—that may result.
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This piece interrogates and problematises the notion of impact, with particular reference to ethn... more This piece interrogates and problematises the notion of impact, with particular reference to ethnomusicology. Following a brief overview of ethnomusicology’s historical engagement with matters of impact, I ask how we might account for not only the consequences of our own research but also the work of those we study and collaborate with in the terms required by UK government and funding council agendas.
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In the UK, there is a new 'tradition' of community choirs whose repertory includes multi-part son... more In the UK, there is a new 'tradition' of community choirs whose repertory includes multi-part songs from around the world. These songs can also be learnt at workshops and summer camps. Many of these activities are associated with the natural voice movement, founded on the belief that 'singing is everyone’s birthright'. I consider the following questions: Why do songs from other cultures play such a prominent part in this scene? How have specific repertories found their way to the UK? Why are individuals attracted to particular sounds? What do they identify as the rewards of polyphonic singing? What does the performance of culturally specific songs by non-natives say about the relationship between music and identity? What is the potential of the 'world song' phenomenon for building bridges between cultures? What part have the UNESCO declarations played in promoting this trend? Edisher Garakanidze, in the book 99 Georgian Songs, speaks of workshop participants becoming 'co-owners of a culture': what exactly does this mean?
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Antropologia Della Musica Nelle Culture Mediterranee Nterpretazione Performance Identita Alla Memoria Di Tullia Magrini 2009 Isbn 9788849131666 Pags 159 170, 2009
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The concept of hybridity has been of central importance to recent musical developments in Corsica... more The concept of hybridity has been of central importance to recent musical developments in Corsica, where the French concept of métissage (associated with the multicultural turn within France itself) already had its parallel in that of polyphony, reified in the 1990s as 'the symbol of the profound Corsican being'. In this paper I examine the incremental progression from a concern with the insular style of vocal polyphony to a broader commitment to 'hybrid' musical forms involving collaboration with musicians from outside the island and the way in which this was underpinned by a series of socio-political and ideological developments, including: the ecumenical impulse that followed the more inward-looking nationalist phase of the 1970s and early 1980s; the mapping of postmodern notions of polyphony as a rhetorical device accommodating multiple discourses onto the indigenous paghjella style; a desire to re-embrace a Mediterranean identity, with the Mediterranean itself being represented as syncretic by nature; a reflection of the notion of a new 'Europe of regions', in which linguistic minorities come together in a mosaic of different cultures; and the impact of the EU structural funds, which has directly enabled Corsican musicians to enter into collaborative projects with artists from other 'fringe' areas of the Mediterranean and beyond. Via an account of the genesis of representative songs/albums, I argue that the métissage trend is by no means a theoretical abstraction but rather that individual cases represent meaningful encounters, each with its own specific history, motivation and inner logic that is both artistic and profoundly human. Through these examples, I also examine the way in which the different 'voices' are woven together to form a multi-textured musical fabric.
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In: The New (Ethno)musicologies, ed. Henry Stobart. Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press, 2008
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In this introduction to a selection of case studies on the theme 'the past in music' I offer a fe... more In this introduction to a selection of case studies on the theme 'the past in music' I offer a few thoughts on the nature of the past and the role of memory in constructing historical narrative, with reference to the way in which these concepts have been theorised by historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and ethnomusicologists. In reviewing the different ways in which echoes of the past can still be heard in the music of the present, I consider the capacity of music to evoke, embody and transform the past and, by so doing, to act as a medium for history and its interpretation.
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This paper focuses on the revival and reconstruction of polyphonic settings of the Latin Mass in ... more This paper focuses on the revival and reconstruction of polyphonic settings of the Latin Mass in selected villages in Corsica. Many such mass settings, often unique to a single village and preserved only in oral tradition, fell into disuse during the first half of the 20th century for a variety of reasons that are briefly explored. In some cases, however, fragments remained in the memories of surviving singers or on old recordings and these were to provide the seeds for the repertoire's later renaissance. My account of the processes of retrieval, reconstruction and reabsorption of the musical material itself is balanced by an examination of the different motives and ideologies of the various parties involved, together with an exploration of the broader theoretical implications of the enterprise of reclaiming the musical patrimony and, in particular, what it reveals about attitudes towards the past, authenticity, ownership and local identity. In the course of my analysis I draw on a series of metaphors and paradigms from the fields of archaeology and heritage conservation. Ultimately, I argue that the renewed practice of singing the mass in the 'old way ' should be viewed as an authentic part of the Corsican present.
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In this article I consider issues relating to the impact of the fieldworker on the communities st... more In this article I consider issues relating to the impact of the fieldworker on the communities studied, both in the immediate present through our involvement in the field, and retrospectively (notably in cases where our recordings might serve to fuel musical revivals by future generations). In the process I revisit aspects of the post-modern dilemma (representation, repatriation etc.) in the context of my own fieldwork in Corsica, aiming to highlight the particular sensitivities called for in a field where questions of identity and tradition are keenly debated, where musical developments command widespread public attention, where there is an especially close relationship between musical discourse and political activity, and where representations constructed by the players themselves are already well-established.
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In: Music and Gender: Perspectives from the Mediterranean, ed. Tullia Magrini. Chicago: University of Chicago Press , 2003
In the words of the Corsican singer Patrizia Gattaceca,to sing polyphony is to affirm oneself as ... more In the words of the Corsican singer Patrizia Gattaceca,to sing polyphony is to affirm oneself as a Corsican; it is to say 'I exist.' 1 Certainly the human voice has traditionally served as the privileged instrument of musical expression on the island, with the traditional polyphonic ...
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In: Celtic Modern: Music at the Global Fringe, ed. Martin Stokes and Philip V Bohlman. Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press, 2003
A number of links exist between Corsicans and Celts, both historically and in their present posit... more A number of links exist between Corsicans and Celts, both historically and in their present position as peoples ‘on the fringe’. The indigenous, rural style of Corsican singing has often been branded, like the Corsicans (and Celts) themselves, as ‘uncivilised’ when compared with Continental and urban styles. In parallel with the growth of the autonomist movement in the 1970s, new groups such as Canta u Populu Corsu, identifying themselves as ‘cultural militants’, set about reclaiming the ‘old’ songs. Influenced by the Chilean group Quilapayún, they began to compose new songs directly inspired by contemporary political troubles and often shared stages with Bretons, Basques and other ‘soldier-singers’. The new genre was baptised cantu indiatu. The polyphonic paghjella also became central to the expression of Corsican identity. In the era of world music, a new wave of collaborations with musicians from other cultures by groups such as Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses and I Muvrini reflected a new ecumenical discourse of a shared humanity.
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This paper attempts to document aspects of an important period in the development of semi-profess... more This paper attempts to document aspects of an important period in the development of semi-professional and professional musical activity in Corsica, with particular reference to the debate regarding 'tradition' and 'creation' which has preoccupied many Corsican musicians throughout the past decade as they have sought to negotiate and rationalise a marriage of traditional and contemporary elements in their own compositions. The paper includes analyses of representative songs from some of the most celebrated discs of the early 1990s and draws on later interviews with members of these and other groups in which they reflect on this stage in their careers in a way that encapsulates many of the sentiments, values and motivations central to the thinking of the time.
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