Birgit Abels

This chapter explores musical ólai (magic) practices. The practice of magic in traditional Palau required for spells not only to be recited but to resound as chelitákl rechuódel, traditional chant repertoire. The reason for that is that the magic could be implemented only through the repertoire’s capacity to link, via the felt body, the present moment experientially with Palauan ‘deep time’. This shows to what extent the meaningfulness of chelitákl rechuódel resides in music’s capacity to connect the categories of time, space and sociality into a whole; that whole will then emerge as a deep sense of Palauanness. Chelitákl rechuódel make Palauanness felt in an encompassing sense. This is how “music worlds”.

The special issue explores how homes are built, made, imagined, remembered and (re)created through any form of sonic and aural activity (such as speaking, praying, singing, playing, hearing, dreaming sound/home). How do people physically, emotionally and psychologically find or create their space in an auditory chaos (LaBelle)? In what ways do sounds tune bodies to places (Feld) and what does such a nexus between the material and the social tell us about the relational positions in space and time that these bodies assume through temporary sensory experience? Such perspectives emphatically include modes of sonically, aurally or musically understanding or knowing processes of home-making.

In this chapter, I explore an ethnographic situation in Palau, Micronesia, in which the performance of a traditional chant was characterized by a shared sensation of irony. At the same time, a discrete yet powerful we-spirit took a hold of the audience for the duration of the chant. Building on the Schmitzian neo-phenomenology of atmospheres, I use the notion of resonance (see Griffero 2016) to explore these dynamics. My point of departure is the idea that music is material, acoustically palpable movement, a cultural practice enacting the already motion-laden body. Music actualizes the human body in movement, allowing it to continually transform in sound while recomposing along historical, social and cultural configurations. When musical movement acts on bodily movement like this, music and dance create resonances between the divergent registers from which lived experience emerges.

This chapter explores how meaningfulness and meaning relate in music, and how, structurally and texturally, music may ‘have meaning’ and yet mean far more beyond this meaning. Presenting an exploration of omengeredákl, a type of women’s group chant, and exploring Palauan notions of temporality, I single out “effects of meaning” and “effects of presence” (Gumbrecht 2003), showing how the dynamics arising between them lead to the emergence of a distinctly sonic atmosphere. There is no such thing as binary oppositions in atmospheres.

In this contribution, Birgit Abels explores music-making as a knowledge practice that can teach us a lot about a postcolonial world where hegemonic and disenfranchised epistemologies compete. Music ›is‹ not; music is only ever becoming, and that becoming interlaces with our own becoming. In music's evanescence lies its efficacy. Process-philosophically, the efficacy of music can never be categorical: a signified, a given or purely subjective (however defined). Instead, music affects, and interacts with, the felt body as a continuous, amorphous stream of layered complexity. This complexity straddles the territorial boundaries of the material and the immaterial, of the referential and the essential; and, it is deeply relational in nature. Outlining music-making's relational capacities through the terms ›sound knowledge‹ and ›sound work‹, in this contribution, Abels will quickly arrive at the atmospheric workings of sonic practices. We know through music not least atmospherically, and we act on that knowledge in ways that cannot possibly be pinned down to either the signified or the sonically essential. Exploring music-making in terms of sound knowledge, she argues, has the potential to open up post- colonial studies' much lamented, but nonetheless persistent heavy textual bias in favour of a more encompassing consideration of cultural practices.

In this article, I explore facets of the complex musical experience afforded by omengeredakl, a genre of traditional vocal music from Palau, Western Micronesia. The concept of atmosphere will lead me to propose a conceptual distinction between musical meaning(s) and musical meaningfulness as well as enable an integrated analysis of both. With this, I am pointing at weaknesses in some of the recent ethnomusicological literature on atmosphere: atmosphere should not be identified with affect, or looked at as part of a two-stage process in which affective experience is followed by reflective interpretation. The potential of atmospheres for the study of music lies precisely in that the concept enables us to transcend this and other pairs of opposites. Overcoming this binary will allow us to draw closer to the efficacy of music: after all, the proverbial “power of music” exceeds the impact of affective experience and discursive meaning by far.

»Man weis nie, wie eine Kuh einen Hasen fangt«, sagt ein niederlandisches Sprichwort: Auch das zunachst so unmoglich wie wenig sinnvoll Scheinende kann gelegentlich ganz uberraschend positive Ergebnisse zeitigen, wenn vielleicht auch nur im Ansatz. So verhalt es sich auch mit dem in Ganze abstrakt bleibenden (und bleiben wollenden) Versuch, noch in den 2010er Jahren in (ein klein wenig trotziger) Adorno-Tradition einen universalistischen Musikbegriff anzurufen, diesen dann im kuscheligen Raum des hehren ›Kunstwerks‹ zu verorten und ihm die inzwischen etwas mude gewordene Idee der Autonomie zuzuschreiben. Laurenz Lutteken resumiert in seiner Rezension des in Rede stehenden Buchs des Philosophen Gunnar Hindrichs mit dem Titel Die Autonomie des Klangs. Eine Philosophie der Musik, es bleibe am Ende doch

The Austronesian-speaking Sama peoples make up one of the most widespread cultural groups within the Southeast Asian island world. The so-called sea-nomadic Sama Dilaut, part of the linguistic sub-group of the Sama-Bajau, form a very distinct community both socially and culturally. The performing arts are a crucial part of their life and cultural identity. Yet, previous studies of Sama Dilaut societies have hardly touched upon their music or dance forms. This edited volume attempts to close this gap in our knowledge. Contributions focus on kulintangan and other types of instrumental music, song repertoire and dance. Other topics include: Continuity and transformation in Sama Dilaut performing arts; Issues of globalisation and identity negotiation through music; Transnational flows and their impact on Sama Dilaut music and dance; The relationship between Sama Dilaut performing arts and those of surrounding communities; The impact of constructions of nationhood on Sama Dilaut music-ma...

Die These, dass es ab den 1870er Jahren zu einer Re-Internationalisierung des Symphonik-Repertoires kam, nachdem dieses zuvor, ab der Kanonisierung des klassischen Wiener Modells, primär von Werken deutscher Komponisten bestimmt wurde, wird am Beispiel der Musikstadt Leipzig überprüft. Leipzig bietet sich für eine repertoire- und rezeptionsgeschichtliche Erforschung der Symphonik im Zeitalter des Nationalismus aus einer städtischen Perspektive besonders an aufgrund des bürgerlichen Symphoniekonzertwesens, international bedeutender Einrichtungen wie Verlagen, Konservatorien und dem Gewandhaus sowie nicht zuletzt aufgrund einer kontinuierlichen und reichhaltigen Quellenüberlieferung. Primär wird das Konzertrepertoire berücksichtigt, wobei hinterfragt wird, ob das das damalige Konzert- und Musikalienrepertoire überhaupt hinreichend Gelegenheit bot, einen Prozess der (Re-)Internationalisierung wahrzunehmen und die neue Werkproduktion kennenzulernen. Weiterhin werden die Reaktionen auf d...

It was one of those balmy, humid nights in the Western South Pacific. Koror's community meeting spots were bustling with activity, with people chatting, customers flocking to sales booths, kids darting around, vendors preparing and selling food, stray dogs scavenging for food scraps at their premises, music blaring from loudspeakers and teens hanging out. This was the sound, sight, smell and flurry of the Olechotel Belau Fair (henceforth OBF), the Western Micronesian island nation's annual combined celebration of Palau's Independence Day, United Nations Day and World Food Day. Throughout the two-day celebration, the heart of the fairground was the central stage. Here, artists, bands and dance groups from across the Palauan islands performed traditional and contemporary music and dance. Artists took quick turns, but, as usual, the traditional men's dance performances (ruk) reigned supreme. Palauan oral history is full of stories about the importance of the ruk for traditional major village festivities (mur). Without an elaborately prepared ruk, a mur-no matter how glamorous-hadn't happened. Weeks before a mur, the whole village helped build a wooden stage for this single, meticulously choreographed dance performance, which was the culmination of the festivities. Once a mur began, attendees were eagerly anticipating the ruk. During traditional mur festivities and this twenty-first-century OBF alike, the ruk is performed for everyone to partake in klebelau, "Palauness": so that [Palauans] would not be lost on where they are from, whom and what they stand for. We must earnestly (meral tekoi er a rengud) teach our children our Palauan ways [i.e. klebelau] and instill in them the pride [to] honor our ancestors and stand tall among all the other peoples of the world. (Asanuma 2016, n.p.) Clearly, it is taken for granted here that the dancing body possesses experiential knowledge of how to stand tall in the world. This existential meaningfulness Palauans find in the cultural practice of the ruk invites further inquiry into the bodily dimensions of the interlacing of world with self, into the role of bodily experience in negotiating historical and cultural...

In this article, I suggest that the transitory and, to a significant extent, disciplined techniques of music and dance can be used towards a flexing of the lived experience. Such flexing invites an intensification of the sensation of being in the world which, in turn, allows those partaking in music and dance to make the world their own through sound and body movement. Music and dance, therefore, are dwelling practices themselves. As such, they do not represent or occupy time and space. Instead, they become strategies of (felt-)bodily practicing and rearranging time and space. This capacity of music and dance vis-à-vis everyday life worlds accounts for their significance in everyday life. Here, I explore music and dance as dwelling practices through the work of the French dance duo Les Twins. Casting light on the role of the performing arts in making a home in the world, I will approach the dynamics of Les Twins's dwelling with music and dance through the experiential, the moving and the relational.

In December 2017, the Pacific Island nation of Palau changed its immigration policy in a globally unprecedented way. As of that month, tourist visas are only issued to visitors who upon entry sign the Palau Pledge, an eco-statement stamped into their passports. The pledge addresses the “children of Palau,” whose islands the inbound visitors personally commit to protecting as they take the pledge. To prepare inbound visitors prior to their arrival for this unusual visa procedure, and to get their message across more strongly, the campaign has also created a video spot, The Giant. This highly acclaimed clip is required inflight viewing for all inbound visitors to Palau. The clip begins with a traditional chesols. The lyrics of the recitation attribute ownership of the (Palauan) land exclusively to the water and the rocks. This chesols is used here to evoke a sense of deep connectedness with the land: an old, oceanic wisdom viscerally connected with the islands themselves, inscribed into traditional Palauan value structures and customs but apparently overrun by the speed and inequalities of both a long and burdensome colonial history and a present carrying the legacy of that history.
Exploring the nature of this wisdom, in this article, I take a closer look at the traditional performing arts in Palau as “sound knowledge.” I analyze chesols, a type of recitation, as a mode of knowledge that is substantive in nature and at the same time distinct to the qualities and affordance of its medium, i.e. sound. I pursue this idea by, first, conceptually exploring the notion of sound knowledge as a resource for Pacific Island cultures and loosely situating it within recent debates in phenomenology, the theory of knowledge as well as music studies. Following this, I will return to The Giant, PLP’s inflight video, looking at what can be gained from the idea that music offers a resource that may be key to survival in the complex environmental predicament of Palau, and by extension, Micronesia. What do Palauan musical practices know about sustainable ecologies and how do they know it? How does music-making make this knowledge operable and, consequentially, how do humans mobilize on this knowledge in coping with their changing life-world through music? Addressing these questions, I take a closer look at the musical genre employed in The Giant, chesols. In closing, I adumbrate the implications of the notion of sound knowledge for a Palau seeking to ensure its future livelihood.

Der Text ist eine kleine Meditation über die mögliche Tragweite des Konzepts des Eigensinns von Musik, das ich hier, ausgehend von einer grundständigen Kritik an Gunnar Hindrichs "Die Autonomie des Klangs. Eine Philosophie der Musik" (2014)  kontextualisieren und vor allem zu einer musikalischen Eigenasthetik fortspinnen möchte. Das Ziel hierbei ist, es in seinem theoretischen Potential für ein dann tatsächlich auch an Musik interessiertes Nachdenken über Musik auszuloten. Meines Erachtens eröffnet es die Möglichkeit, wichtige Impulse aus der Autonomie-Debatte produktiv zu machen für konkrete Versuche, Musik besser zu verstehen: allem voran das Adornosche Diktum, Form als artikulierter Inhalt erzeuge eine anders nicht zu erreichende Erkenntnis. Ich werde bei meinen Überlegungen auf ausgerechnet das zurückgreifen, was Hindrichs von vornherein mit herrischer Geste und im Zirkelschluss in die Unbedeutsamkeit verweist: nämlich die »phänomenologische Herangehensweise«, in meinem Fall genauer: die Neue Phänomenologie vor allem im Sinne eines Hermann Schmitz. Das tue ich deswegen, weil sowohl musikalische Bedeutung als auch musikalische Bedeutsamkeit  einerseits primär prozessual-experientiell sind und andererseits nicht losgelöst von jenen Affordanzen betrachtet werden können, die spezifisch entweder für das Medium Klang oder aber für musikalische Struktur und Form sind. Mit letztgenanntem Aspekt nähern wir uns Hindrichs’ Idee vom Eigensinn schon auf Zehenspitzen. Beide Aspekte kann man nicht einfach im Namen einer sich selbst definierenden und damit mit sich selbst wunschlos glücklichen Ontologie ausklammern, es sei denn, man ist mit einem künstlich-reduktiven Musikbegriff schon zufrieden. Anschließend werde ich die Idee von der Eigenästhetik im Rahmen einer kleinen Fallstudie analytisch anwenden, um zu sehen, ob sie jenseits des Schöngeistigen auch als sensibilisierendes Konzept verwendet werden kann.

Erschienen in: Nikolaus Urbanek & Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann (Hg.), Die Autonomie des Klangs, Heidelberg: Springer 2018, pp. 87–102.

In this article, I explore facets of the complex musical experience afforded by omengeredakl, a genre of traditional vocal music from Palau, Western Micronesia. The concept of atmosphere will lead me to propose a conceptual distinction between musical meaning(s) and musical meaningfulness as well as enable an integrated analysis of both. With this, I am pointing at weaknesses in some of the recent ethnomusicological literature on atmosphere: atmosphere should not be identified with affect, or looked at as part of a two-stage process in which affective experience is followed by reflective interpretation. The potential of atmospheres for the study of music lies precisely in that the concept enables us to transcend this and other pairs of opposites. Overcoming this binary will allow us to draw closer to the efficacy of music: after all, the proverbial 'power of music' exceeds the impact of affective experience and discursive meaning.

During a traditional wedding parade of the sea-nomadic Sama Dilaut community in insular Southeast Asia, the bride's flotilla of brightly decorated boats sets out to greet the groom's flotilla as it approaches the moorage. On several boats among both parties, gong ensembles play independently, and their music coalesces into a thick, multi-part texture. While the couple ties the knot, all involved in the wedding literally move through the layers of the music, which becomes a sonic manifestation of the new multi-family network sealed in the ceremony. The annual Regatta Lepa, a cultural festival in Borneo (Malaysia) dubbed " a celebration of the Sama Dilaut, " makes ample use of that same musical practice, sounding out what it might mean to be Sama Dilaut in the 21st century. Drawing on extensive ethnographic materials, I argue that, for the duration of the Regatta Lepa, the gong music is central to the emergence of a shared feeling that manifests as an atmosphere of Sama Dilautness. This atmosphere reverberates with an alternate, distinctly sea-nomadic and Sama Dilaut spatiality that is both intrinsically mobile and intrinsically sonic in nature. I explore the dynamics that transduce structured sound into an atmosphere, rendering this distinct sense of spatiality tangible. In this process of transduction, music, atmosphere, and movement form a relationship that is as triangular as it is circular and dynamic.

“Music, In-Between Spaces and the Sonosphere (Or, a Musicologist’s Very Short Introduction to Relational Skills)”, in: Charissa Granger, Friedlind Riedel, Eva-Maria van Straaten & Gerlinde Feller (eds.), Music Moves. Musical Dynamics of Relation, Knowledge and Transformation. Hildesheim: Olms 2016, pp. 137–156.

Music Worlding in Palau: Chanting, Atmospheres, and Meaningfulness is a detailed study of the performing arts in Palau, Micronesia as holistic techniques enabling the experiential corporeality of music's meaningfulnessthat distinctly musical way of making sense of the world with which the felt body immediately resonates but which, to a significant extent, escapes interpretive techniques. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research alongside Pacific Islander and neophenomenological conceptual frameworks, Music Worlding in Palau distinguishes between meaning(s) and meaningfulness in Palauan music-making. These are not binary phenomena, but deeply intertwined. However, unlike meaning(s), meaningfulness to a significant extent suspends language and is thus often prematurely considered ineffable. The book proposes a broader understanding of how the performing arts give rise to a sense of meaningfulness whose felt-bodily affectivity is pivotal to music-making and lived realities. Music Worlding in Palau thus seeks to draw the reader closer to the holistic complexity of music-making both in Palau and more generally.