Owwei Chow
I am actively engaged in academic researches that focus on cultural musicology, virtual ethnography, digital cultural studies, and particularly interested in projects on visual anthropology in the near future. I have contributed numerous articles in academic journals and publications for which I wrote on topics ranging from Buddhism-related music to online media and social identity in local music movement. Having previously worked as a newspaper columnist and a lecturer, I switch roles frequently as administrator, editor, translator, photographer, graphic designer and cultural researcher in my multidisciplinary undertakings. I have vast interests in subjects related to music, culture, ethics, humanity, philosophy, and the scientific ways of knowing.
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German translation by Gisa Jähnichen.
Edited by Frank Heidlberger, Gesine Schröder and Christoph Wünsch.
of the religious sound between secularism and sacredness within Buddhist society, the doctrine of ‘emptiness’ in the Buddhist philosophy that gives rise to the concept of phenomenality evokes a highly imaginative idea on the matter of ‘non-sounding’ music qualities and ‘non-musicality’ in the context of religious practice.
Cultural, social, material and cognitive conditions within communities that are highly affected by religious considerations in daily life shape the environment in which the behaviour towards ‘sound’ and the ‘non-sounding’ is embedded. Views on this issue allow for further applications on specific religious societies as well as an individuation of elements in dealing with ‘emptiness’ that is musically imagined and as such understood by a group of people.
The music analysis in this paper is limited to some selected features of the present understanding of the Buddhist philosophy since the historical dimension can only be roughly touched. The examples chosen to demonstrate the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’ are taken from two small archives in Malaysia and Laos that were set up in order to support further music studies in an Asian multi-ethnic, multi-social and multi-religious context. Buddhism-related music appears or should be deemed as ‘non-sounding’ is scrutinized as religious requirement, as an aesthetic preference, as an ideological state, and as a normative category that is widely individualised.
For these cases, individual descriptions of clear imagination are considered as in the following unconventional music examples: “lotuses in the sky flying to passengers on the missing Flight 370”; and “listening to the free reed pipe is as if being taken by high ocean waves while only occasionally diving under water and feeling temporarily deaf when the air flow is interrupted”. Other descriptions made in literature that is over thousand years old demand the absence of any distractive perception in sound in order to concentrate in the realm of subjectivity as a true living life. In contrast, other concepts consider ‘emptiness’ non-productive and fill the communal space with sound in order to avoid the ‘non-sounding’ moment. In narrative and metaphorical analyses, some surprising sonic appearances become more understandable and can be better related to local differentiations in dealing with the perspective of ‘emptiness’, as well as the human imagination on a construct of the an imagined ‘emptiness’ in music. The final outcome is the presentation of an overview of concepts and philosophies on the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’, as ‘Buddhist music’ is deemed as a musical genre that requires an imaginative sphere influencing an audience’s understanding and his ways to consume the music. This overview is set into the present Asian space at the threshold to a speedy and large urban development transforming with globalisation and some local counter currents in various Asian cultures.
Cultural, social, material and cognitive conditions within communities that are highly affected by religious considerations in daily life shape the environment in which the behaviour towards ‘sound’ and the ‘non-sounding’ is embedded. Views on this issue allow for further applications on specific religious societies as well as an individuation of elements in dealing with ‘emptiness’ that is musically imagined and as such understood by a group of people.
The music analysis in this paper is limited to some selected features of the present understanding of the Buddhist philosophy since the historical dimension can only be roughly touched. The examples chosen to demonstrate the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’ are taken from two small archives in Malaysia and Laos that were set up in order to support further music studies in an Asian multi-ethnic, multi-social and multi-religious context. Buddhism-related music appears or should be deemed as ‘non-sounding’ is scrutinized as religious requirement, as an aesthetic preference, as an ideological state, and as a normative category that is widely individualised.
For these cases, individual descriptions of clear imagination are considered as in the following unconventional music examples: “lotuses in the sky flying to passengers on the missing Flight 370”; and “listening to the free reed pipe is as if being taken by high ocean waves while only occasionally diving under water and feeling temporarily deaf when the air flow is interrupted”. Other descriptions made in literature that is over thousand years old demand the absence of any distractive perception in sound in order to concentrate in the realm of subjectivity as a true living life. In contrast, other concepts consider ‘emptiness’ as non-productive and fill the communal space with sound in order to avoid the ‘non-sounding’ moment. In narrative and metaphorical analyses, some surprising sonic appearances become more understandable and can be better related to local differentiations in dealing with the perspective of ‘emptiness’, as well as the human imagination on a construct of the an imagined ‘emptiness’ in music.
The final outcome is the presentation of an overview of concepts and philosophies on the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’, as ‘Buddhist music’ is deemed as a musical genre that requires an imaginative sphere influencing an audience’s understanding and his ways to consume the music. This overview is set into the present Asian space at the threshold to a speedy and large urban development transforming with globalisation and some local counter currents in various Asian cultures.
「佛教音樂」雖在近幾十年成為一個流行詞,但對文化音樂學者來說,它即強調一些音樂形式和宗教上的意識形態,又勾畫出一個含糊卻異樣而多面的想像空間。縱使這宗教性聲音的定位依然折中於佛教社會的世俗派和聖潔派之間,佛教哲學裡「空」的思想則喚起一種富想像力的構思,讓人可從宗教習俗的角度去探討「無聲」、「無樂」的音樂性質。
社群的文化性、社會性、物質性和認知性條件常被日常生活中的宗教考量影響。這些條件也同時塑造了依據「有聲」與「無聲」而衍生人類行為的一種環境。在這課題上的見解可採用在特定的宗教社會或組成的個性(individuation)去探討一些群眾所瞭解以及音樂想像中的「空」。
文章的音樂分析局限於佛教哲學當前特定的理解去分析,而對於歷史的論述只能略略帶過。本次探討「空」的音樂想像而採用的音樂檔案取自兩個分別位於馬來西亞和寮國的微型典藏庫。這些典藏庫是為了支援以亞洲多元種族、多元社會和多元宗教為背景的音樂研究而設。「佛教音樂」是否被視為「有聲」或「無聲」,本論文將從多角度細察。這些角度包括宗教需求、審美觀、意識形態、和廣泛被個性化的規範類型。
本論文其中的案例敘述一些個人所形容的清晰意象,例如:「空中許多的蓮花飄向失聯的MH370航班上的乘客們」和「聽著巴烏猶如被捲入巨浪,每當氣流中斷時,感覺像潛入深水而短暫失聰」。超過千年的文獻中有提及若要專注在成為真實生命的主體境界,由聲音而產生的意識形同干擾,故須去除之。反之,也有一些觀念認為「空」並無生產性,故須在公共場所注入聲音以去除「無聲」時刻。在本文的敘述和隱喻分析中,一些意想不到的聲音存在變得越可理解,以及越能與對「空」的看法上和音樂中想像的種種區別產生聯繫。
本篇論文最後要呈現的結果是關於「空」的音樂想像在觀念上和哲理上的概貌。「佛教音樂」被視為一個需要想像空間的音樂類型,而這空間牽動著聽眾去理解和決定如何運用所聽到的音樂。這個概貌設定在當代的亞洲場景,正當它頻臨全球化都市發展的劇變而遭受到本土文化的逆流衝擊。
In the teaching of Buddhist philosophy, the concept of kong (in Chinese) or śūnyatā (in Sanskrit), which is often emphasised in the practice of mind, speech and behaviours, means ‘emptiness’ but also often commonly understood by ‘nothingness’ as an underlying context in the Chinese character “空”. Instant questions are therefore raised: How do Buddhist practitioners treat any instrumental sound in a musical setting when ‘emptiness’ or ‘nothingness’ is stressed in the religious practice? How do they find an agreement and see the meaning of an instrumental sound in the Buddhist settings?
This paper examines how musical instruments are used in Theravāda Buddhism, what instrumental sounds means in the religious context and how the sounds fit into the teaching of the Buddhism philosophy in coherence.
Three perspectives will hence develop the outcomes. How Buddhist music associates itself with the increasingly popular music genres of ‘pop’, ‘folk’ and ‘new age’ as an adaptation of music of minority to the mass market, where folk ballads and ‘ethereal’ stylistic singing of mantra text are among the favourite options in music composition. The musical theme, often sounding optimistic and inspirational and dealing with the universal truth, the matters of life and death, is based on a common vision composers have employed through their involvement in music. Lastly, the questions of how Buddhist music negotiates with the ‘mainstream’ and whether a distinctive musical sound within a supposed heterogeneous ‘mainstream’ entity, which is often ironically referred to as of the ‘majority’, is more appealing than any other ‘mainstream’ music, will be discussed.
This paper deals with the contextualization of modern Buddhist music in the ‘mainstream’ and investigates its possible transformation in Malaysia from late 1990s until the early 21st century. Through inductive interviews with a contemporary Malaysian Buddhist composer who is actively involved in Buddhist music production, the vision and inevitable negotiation, which significantly reflects a minority’s stance in ‘mainstream’ marketing, are explored.
German translation by Gisa Jähnichen.
Edited by Frank Heidlberger, Gesine Schröder and Christoph Wünsch.
of the religious sound between secularism and sacredness within Buddhist society, the doctrine of ‘emptiness’ in the Buddhist philosophy that gives rise to the concept of phenomenality evokes a highly imaginative idea on the matter of ‘non-sounding’ music qualities and ‘non-musicality’ in the context of religious practice.
Cultural, social, material and cognitive conditions within communities that are highly affected by religious considerations in daily life shape the environment in which the behaviour towards ‘sound’ and the ‘non-sounding’ is embedded. Views on this issue allow for further applications on specific religious societies as well as an individuation of elements in dealing with ‘emptiness’ that is musically imagined and as such understood by a group of people.
The music analysis in this paper is limited to some selected features of the present understanding of the Buddhist philosophy since the historical dimension can only be roughly touched. The examples chosen to demonstrate the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’ are taken from two small archives in Malaysia and Laos that were set up in order to support further music studies in an Asian multi-ethnic, multi-social and multi-religious context. Buddhism-related music appears or should be deemed as ‘non-sounding’ is scrutinized as religious requirement, as an aesthetic preference, as an ideological state, and as a normative category that is widely individualised.
For these cases, individual descriptions of clear imagination are considered as in the following unconventional music examples: “lotuses in the sky flying to passengers on the missing Flight 370”; and “listening to the free reed pipe is as if being taken by high ocean waves while only occasionally diving under water and feeling temporarily deaf when the air flow is interrupted”. Other descriptions made in literature that is over thousand years old demand the absence of any distractive perception in sound in order to concentrate in the realm of subjectivity as a true living life. In contrast, other concepts consider ‘emptiness’ non-productive and fill the communal space with sound in order to avoid the ‘non-sounding’ moment. In narrative and metaphorical analyses, some surprising sonic appearances become more understandable and can be better related to local differentiations in dealing with the perspective of ‘emptiness’, as well as the human imagination on a construct of the an imagined ‘emptiness’ in music. The final outcome is the presentation of an overview of concepts and philosophies on the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’, as ‘Buddhist music’ is deemed as a musical genre that requires an imaginative sphere influencing an audience’s understanding and his ways to consume the music. This overview is set into the present Asian space at the threshold to a speedy and large urban development transforming with globalisation and some local counter currents in various Asian cultures.
Cultural, social, material and cognitive conditions within communities that are highly affected by religious considerations in daily life shape the environment in which the behaviour towards ‘sound’ and the ‘non-sounding’ is embedded. Views on this issue allow for further applications on specific religious societies as well as an individuation of elements in dealing with ‘emptiness’ that is musically imagined and as such understood by a group of people.
The music analysis in this paper is limited to some selected features of the present understanding of the Buddhist philosophy since the historical dimension can only be roughly touched. The examples chosen to demonstrate the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’ are taken from two small archives in Malaysia and Laos that were set up in order to support further music studies in an Asian multi-ethnic, multi-social and multi-religious context. Buddhism-related music appears or should be deemed as ‘non-sounding’ is scrutinized as religious requirement, as an aesthetic preference, as an ideological state, and as a normative category that is widely individualised.
For these cases, individual descriptions of clear imagination are considered as in the following unconventional music examples: “lotuses in the sky flying to passengers on the missing Flight 370”; and “listening to the free reed pipe is as if being taken by high ocean waves while only occasionally diving under water and feeling temporarily deaf when the air flow is interrupted”. Other descriptions made in literature that is over thousand years old demand the absence of any distractive perception in sound in order to concentrate in the realm of subjectivity as a true living life. In contrast, other concepts consider ‘emptiness’ as non-productive and fill the communal space with sound in order to avoid the ‘non-sounding’ moment. In narrative and metaphorical analyses, some surprising sonic appearances become more understandable and can be better related to local differentiations in dealing with the perspective of ‘emptiness’, as well as the human imagination on a construct of the an imagined ‘emptiness’ in music.
The final outcome is the presentation of an overview of concepts and philosophies on the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’, as ‘Buddhist music’ is deemed as a musical genre that requires an imaginative sphere influencing an audience’s understanding and his ways to consume the music. This overview is set into the present Asian space at the threshold to a speedy and large urban development transforming with globalisation and some local counter currents in various Asian cultures.
「佛教音樂」雖在近幾十年成為一個流行詞,但對文化音樂學者來說,它即強調一些音樂形式和宗教上的意識形態,又勾畫出一個含糊卻異樣而多面的想像空間。縱使這宗教性聲音的定位依然折中於佛教社會的世俗派和聖潔派之間,佛教哲學裡「空」的思想則喚起一種富想像力的構思,讓人可從宗教習俗的角度去探討「無聲」、「無樂」的音樂性質。
社群的文化性、社會性、物質性和認知性條件常被日常生活中的宗教考量影響。這些條件也同時塑造了依據「有聲」與「無聲」而衍生人類行為的一種環境。在這課題上的見解可採用在特定的宗教社會或組成的個性(individuation)去探討一些群眾所瞭解以及音樂想像中的「空」。
文章的音樂分析局限於佛教哲學當前特定的理解去分析,而對於歷史的論述只能略略帶過。本次探討「空」的音樂想像而採用的音樂檔案取自兩個分別位於馬來西亞和寮國的微型典藏庫。這些典藏庫是為了支援以亞洲多元種族、多元社會和多元宗教為背景的音樂研究而設。「佛教音樂」是否被視為「有聲」或「無聲」,本論文將從多角度細察。這些角度包括宗教需求、審美觀、意識形態、和廣泛被個性化的規範類型。
本論文其中的案例敘述一些個人所形容的清晰意象,例如:「空中許多的蓮花飄向失聯的MH370航班上的乘客們」和「聽著巴烏猶如被捲入巨浪,每當氣流中斷時,感覺像潛入深水而短暫失聰」。超過千年的文獻中有提及若要專注在成為真實生命的主體境界,由聲音而產生的意識形同干擾,故須去除之。反之,也有一些觀念認為「空」並無生產性,故須在公共場所注入聲音以去除「無聲」時刻。在本文的敘述和隱喻分析中,一些意想不到的聲音存在變得越可理解,以及越能與對「空」的看法上和音樂中想像的種種區別產生聯繫。
本篇論文最後要呈現的結果是關於「空」的音樂想像在觀念上和哲理上的概貌。「佛教音樂」被視為一個需要想像空間的音樂類型,而這空間牽動著聽眾去理解和決定如何運用所聽到的音樂。這個概貌設定在當代的亞洲場景,正當它頻臨全球化都市發展的劇變而遭受到本土文化的逆流衝擊。
In the teaching of Buddhist philosophy, the concept of kong (in Chinese) or śūnyatā (in Sanskrit), which is often emphasised in the practice of mind, speech and behaviours, means ‘emptiness’ but also often commonly understood by ‘nothingness’ as an underlying context in the Chinese character “空”. Instant questions are therefore raised: How do Buddhist practitioners treat any instrumental sound in a musical setting when ‘emptiness’ or ‘nothingness’ is stressed in the religious practice? How do they find an agreement and see the meaning of an instrumental sound in the Buddhist settings?
This paper examines how musical instruments are used in Theravāda Buddhism, what instrumental sounds means in the religious context and how the sounds fit into the teaching of the Buddhism philosophy in coherence.
Three perspectives will hence develop the outcomes. How Buddhist music associates itself with the increasingly popular music genres of ‘pop’, ‘folk’ and ‘new age’ as an adaptation of music of minority to the mass market, where folk ballads and ‘ethereal’ stylistic singing of mantra text are among the favourite options in music composition. The musical theme, often sounding optimistic and inspirational and dealing with the universal truth, the matters of life and death, is based on a common vision composers have employed through their involvement in music. Lastly, the questions of how Buddhist music negotiates with the ‘mainstream’ and whether a distinctive musical sound within a supposed heterogeneous ‘mainstream’ entity, which is often ironically referred to as of the ‘majority’, is more appealing than any other ‘mainstream’ music, will be discussed.
This paper deals with the contextualization of modern Buddhist music in the ‘mainstream’ and investigates its possible transformation in Malaysia from late 1990s until the early 21st century. Through inductive interviews with a contemporary Malaysian Buddhist composer who is actively involved in Buddhist music production, the vision and inevitable negotiation, which significantly reflects a minority’s stance in ‘mainstream’ marketing, are explored.
Employing the method of autoethnography, the author inspects the experiences of matsuri throughout the years of discovery in Japanese culture by limiting his findings from his personal encounter as a Malaysian national in the Bon Odori in Malaysia, as well as the Gion Matsuri and the Tenjin Matsuri in Japan. This study is to hopefully provide hindsight in the festivalisation of Japanese culture of a homogenous nature in a heterogenous, multicultural society like Malaysia.
Employing an autoethnographic approach in cultural musicology, this study examines the ‘musical grandeur’ from the opening ceremony telecast of Pyeongchang 2018, Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 via the internet platform, and interprets music-related performances including popular culture prowess as traces of soft power despite the prevalent spectacles of athletes, sports records and the medal count. The authors hopefully offer an outsider’s perspective onto the imagined East Asian countries as projected, as well as an insider’s gaze as witnesses to the shaping of the Asian Century over time.
This discussion deals with metaphors envisaged by Anderson that correspond with parallel incidents from 2020 onward. The author also inspects whether Anderson’s revelations of a dystopian future are overly optimistic as multiple social divides caused by Covid-19 may still eclipse the fate of humanity during the pandemic.
Adopting a combined methodology of autoethnography and virtual ethnography, the speakers explore their encounters with the informants and the development of the creative arts scene. The subject of disruption in the norm of creative arts industry was approached through feasible methods and tools they could render in this unique lived experience. They hope to construct perspectives on the transcendence of creative practitioners from the disruption and survive the pandemic impact, as well as the regeneration of how creative arts would persevere in the ‘new normal’ of the post-COVID-19 era.
inquiry emerges from a hypothetical consideration: can Buddhist music with a nature to accentuate the universality in most popular faiths weld the vulnerable status of interfaith communication in a non-Buddhist state? Can Buddhist music that sounds more philosophical and less religious refills the ‘in-betweens’ without causing discomfort, offence and intrusion for an audience of a diversified background? And what lesson can be learned from the inter-religious encounters with Buddhist music in 21st-century Malaysia?
This qualitative study presents a scenario of interfaith dialogues as well as efforts of institutions and organisations to promote an inter-religious understanding in Malaysia. The author also aims to invoke thoughts based on selected samples of diverse styles and languages which are available in the Buddhist music soundscape, and to suggest how a Buddhist’s comprehensive approach towards ‘sentient beings’ potentially
allows its music to connect with major faiths in the least insensitive way. With a consideration on the complication caused by social stigmas in the current world, this study is hopefully to offer an preliminary discussion on a possibility whether Buddhist music can operate as an inspirational rhetoric for an inter-religious understanding in a cosmopolitan society post COVID-19.
A recent doctoral research in Buddhist music, which employs a methodology in virtual ethnography, embarks on a perspective of parallel ideas in phenomenality and virtuality that is tailored to the rising of the Internet. One of the findings is that predictable contradictions resulted from both the ethnographic methodology positioned in this study and the problematic appearances of the music could be resolved when the virtual property is deemed integral to the reality and the causation of phenomenality in the making of the ethnographic object is significantly considered. Though the nature of the music acquires an extensive understanding in the Buddhist philosophy, this study proposes a possible approach in the sense-making of contemporary researches in music and dance as a way of knowing.
‘Buddhist music’, which has become a commonly used term only in the recent decades in the Sinophone, articulates an ambiguous but yet incongruously multi-faceted sphere of imagination for cultural musicologists with certain emphasis in musical shape and religious ideology. Despite the negotiation of the religious sound between secularism and sacredness within Buddhist society, the doctrine of ‘emptiness’ in the Buddhist philosophy that gives rise to the concept of phenomenality evokes a highly imaginative idea on the matter of ‘non-sounding’ music qualities and ‘non-musicality’ in the context of religious practice. Sociocultural anthropology contributes in some aspects to a holistic understanding of the non-sounding. Cultural, social, material and cognitive conditions within communities that are highly affected by religious considerations in daily life shape the environment in which the behaviour towards ‘sound’ and the ‘non-sounding’ is embedded. The anthropological view on this issues allows for further applications on specific religious societies as well as an individuation of elements in dealing with ‘emptiness’ that is musically imagined and as such understood by a group of people. Drawing on cultural musicology and anthropology, the music analysis in this interdisciplinary paper is limited to the present understanding of the Buddhist philosophy since the historical dimension can only be roughly touched. The examples chosen to demonstrate the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’ are taken from two small archives in Malaysia and Laos that were set up in order to support further music studies in an Asian multi-ethnic, multi-social and multi-religious context. ‘Buddhist music’ appears or should be deemed as ‘non-sounding’ is scrutinized as religious requirement, as an aesthetic preference, as an ideological state, and as a normative category that is widely individualised. For these cases, individual descriptions of clear imagination are considered as in the following examples: “lotuses in the sky flying to passengers on the missing Flight 370”; and “listening to the free reed pipe is as if being taken by high ocean waves while only occasionally diving under water and feeling temporarily deaf when the air flow is interrupted”. Other descriptions made in literature that is over thousand years old demand the absence of any distractive perception in sound in order to concentrate in the realm of subjectivity as a true living life. In contrast, other concepts consider ‘emptiness’ as non-productive and fill the communal space with sound in order to avoid the ‘non-sounding’ moment. In narrative and metaphorical analyses, some surprising sonic appearances become more understandable and can be better related to local differentiations in dealing with the perspective of ‘emptiness’, as well as the human imagination on a construct of the an imagined ‘emptiness’ in music. The final outcome is the presentation of an overview of concepts and philosophies on the musical imagination of ‘emptiness’, as ‘Buddhist music’ is deemed as a musical genre that requires an imaginative sphere that influences an audience’s understanding and his ways to consume the music. This overview is set into the present Asian space at the threshold to a speedy and large urban development transforming with globalisation and some local counter currents in various Asian cultures.
In the teaching of Buddhist philosophy, the concept of kong (in Chinese) or śūnyatā (in Sanskrit), which is often emphasised in the practice of mind, speech and behaviours, means ‘emptiness’ but also often commonly understood by ‘nothingness’ as an underlying context in the Chinese character “空”. Instant questions are therefore raised: How do Buddhist practitioners treat any instrumental sound in a musical setting when ‘emptiness’ or ‘nothingness’ is stressed in the religious practice? How do they find an agreement and see the meaning of an instrumental sound in the Buddhist settings?
This paper examines how musical instruments are used in Theravāda Buddhism, what instrumental sounds means in the religious context and how the sounds fit into the teaching of the Buddhism philosophy in coherence.
Three perspectives will hence develop the outcomes. How Buddhist music associates itself with the increasingly popular music genres of ‘pop’, ‘folk’ and ‘new age’ as an adaptation of music of minority to the mass market, where folk ballads and ‘ethereal’ stylistic singing of mantra text are among the favourite options in music composition. The musical theme, often sounding optimistic and inspirational and dealing with the universal truth, the matters of life and death, is based on a common vision composers have employed through their involvement in music. Lastly, the questions of how Buddhist music negotiates with the ‘mainstream’ and whether a distinctive musical sound within a supposed heterogeneous ‘mainstream’ entity, which is often ironically referred to as of the ‘majority’, is more appealing than any other ‘mainstream’ music, will be discussed.
This paper deals with the contextualization of modern Buddhist music in the ‘mainstream’ and investigates its possible transformation in Malaysia from late 1990s until the early 21st century. Through inductive interviews with three contemporary Malaysian Buddhist composers who are actively involved in Buddhist music production, their common vision and inevitable negotiation, which significantly reflects a minority’s stance in ‘mainstream’ marketing, are explored.
The ‘listen, listen, listen’ phenomenon started when a video, which depicts a moderator named Sharifah Zohra Jabeen dismissing a student from asking questions at a forum held in a local university, went viral on social media on 14 January 2013, while her abusive ‘listen’ catch-line and other humiliating remarks catapulted the public uproar overnight. Immediately following the incident, there came a few parody videos, which appear both satirical and entertaining, to underscore a typical paradox that apparently parallels the many underlying problems of the education and politics in Malaysia, and thus ‘listen, listen, listen’ significantly emerges as a contemporary Internet meme.
This paper deals with a hermeneutic study on the ‘listen, listen, listen’ phenomenon based on online comments YouTube members have posted (3,583 as of 10 October) for a musical parody produced and published by Yuri Wong on 14 January. As commentary from other available Internet platforms is analysed, the use of audiovisual data is also technically observed and interpreted. When net citizens drastically involved themselves through actions of liking, disliking, sharing or commenting on the social media, are they more voluble and honest on the Internet platform? Through this musical parody, what idea did they gather to reflect the reality in Malaysia? Are they ready to appreciate musical parodies?
The discussion continues on possible reactions of the censors in the event when musical parodies allegedly ‘collide’ with the ‘national security concerns’.
This paper intends to illustrate a discussion on musical parody by analysing the case of “Dance Remix: Listen! Listen! When I Speak, Listen!”, mainly focusing on the conditions when a musical product of the same likes is put under the censorship in Malaysia. While musical parody, being a derivative of an existing musical or non-musical product and popular in global urban areas, displays somewhat a distortion of the original product it derives from, how appropriate musical parody is to the general audience across different social strata in Malaysia is inevitably becoming questionable. Other possible outcomes of the discussion are how distortion can be assessed in musical parody according to a set of rules in Malaysia and whether the idea of parody is generally welcomed. Moreover, the query of whether the censorship that has also been functioning to neutralize social biases overshadows the social norm as another distortion in the digital age is addressed and discussed.
Malaysians embrace an innovatory ‘tech’ life that drastically transforms urban lifestyle with a newly developed ‘mobile-only’ culture in the 21st century, a time widely regarded as the digital era. However, the adaptation of a ‘tech’ lifestyle brings about a question of existence in virtuality, which is also connected to the online experience of Buddhist music. Spreading fast through a virtual platform, Buddhist music somehow appears in diverse styles but it also perpetuates a possibility for its musical attributes to remain questionable.
This qualitative research explores possible connections of music related to Buddhism with parallel ideas of phenomenality and virtuality, and investigates the emphasis of the contexts of ‘Buddhism’ and ‘music’ as well as aspects that makes music ‘Buddhist’ by considering music seen from multiple perspectives. Employing a contemporary view of virtual ethnography by Hine, this musicology on Buddhist music in 21st-century Malaysia undertakes a combination of qualitative analytical methods in which discourse analysis, hermeneutic phenomenology, metaphorical analysis, ethnostatistics and music analysis significantly operate on data sources as a way of knowing.
This study consciously regards all music related to Buddhism as an all-inclusive genre called ‘Buddhism-related music’, while the term ‘Buddhist music’, which is adopted to classify or describe this typical music, is employed interchangeably though both terms are not entirely the same in contexts. As the outcomes, it is found out that Buddhism-related music hardly constitutes significant typological criteria based on its sonic and stylistic attributes. Though variously defined, this music can be identified simply through a conceptualised content that interpretatively represents an idea related to Buddhism. With the understanding of ‘emptiness’, a more universal view can be projected in the ethics of the making of Buddhist music. Virtuality as an integral part of reality affects the making of the object in parallel with the causation of phenomenality. Buddhist music can be considered as both a phenomenal and virtual being, therefore suggesting an insight to consider separable contexts of ‘Buddhism’ and ‘music’, as music is deemed secondary to the goal of Buddhist practice. The notion of ‘emptiness’ advocates an undertaking of the ‘middle path’ for composers, musicians and audiences to access Buddhist music. Finally, this leads the study to formulate an idea of the ‘Buddhist being’ in music.
The primary objective of this study is to determine the identity and the sustainability of chuangzuo activities in Malaysia. The specific objectives are to produce a description on the settings of gongzuofang in Penang, an analysis of musical materials of chuangzuo, and a clarification of the identity and sustainability of chuangzuo based on the former two specific objectives.
Observation through fieldwork is rendered for this ethnographic research. The primary setting is gongzuofang in Penang, namely the Wanderers and CZMusic which have been actively involved in chuangzuo activities. Observation, interviews and video recordings of important rehearsals and actual performance were rendered. The secondary setting of the fieldwork is based on related song-writing competitions, concerts and music camp, which were held in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
The general phenomenon of chuangzuo depicts a scene where youth perform their own music compositions with guitars or light instruments. Chuangzuo is a music activity for the youth in Malaysia, as the music, mainly performed in Chinese, often depicts the youth’s life-cycle events. The music is commonly composed in the sentimental style or of a ballad that usually adopts a major key and the common simple quadruple time. Instrumentation is usually simple, and Chinese texts with rhymes are used. Though mixed language and vocables are included sometimes, the texts are commonly written in the discursive style.
A gongzuofang is the basic unit of chuangzuo that accommodates youth’s music activities. It exists as an important space for music practice, music learning, idea sharing, planning, music presentation, socialisation, and also life-cycle events. The studied gongzuofang represents a typical organisation that provides its members with abundant opportunities in music compositions, as members learn to compose, perform, compete in music contests and produce music concerts or music recording.
Chuangzuo is an opportunity for youth to engage with music. They usually adopt elements of cultural fusion in their compositions, and they show amateurish characteristics in their music. This has formed the musical identity of chuangzuo. The social identity of chuangzuo is built through identity construction, individuality, communion formation and aspiration. Nevertheless, the need to survive changes for the long term has triggered the implementation of sustainability in the handling of chuangzuo. The sustainable ways, as observed, are organisation, commercialisation, hegemony and exclusion of certain music genres.
Numerous local and international academicians will present their papers as research outcomes of broad topics in music and also music-related fields, despite scholarly discussions by 2 invited keynote speakers, namely Prof. Dr. Yu Hui from Yunnan University, China, and Mr. Eddin Khoo, the Director-Founder of Pusaka, Malaysia. Scholarly discussions and presentations are to revolve the main theme of "Music and the Cosmos", while scholarship of novel research frameworks, methodologies, analysis and interpretation of the topic on music studies in line with the wide coverage of the sub-themes of this colloquium as highlighted below:
1. Interpreting an organised sound in a world-system: A world-system, in the general sense, has established or been establishing cultural, social, economic, political and techno spheres. The expression from music practices in the system delivers to the spheres a defining landscape illustrated with senses, order, reasoning and ideas that reflect the kind of the world the music exists. In this context, we question how an organised sound can be linked to the world it is meant to belong to, and how the carriers of the music practice connect themselves to the world, the universe, or the cosmos. Within this universal view, we encourage discussions on the scientific, cultural, or philosophical observation on the music in macrocosmos or microcosmos and its nature or reasons in existence, or on an intellectual discourse of a typical system as observed in such an organised sound. The discussion can also stretch into connecting ideas in organised sounds, as well as interpretations of interconnectivity of things with music or sound in a world-system.
2. Cosmopolitanism as a way of knowing about music: In the narratives of musicological scholarship, frameworks based of facts on obligatory affiliations, such as culture and nation in particular, are difficult to avoid or refrain from. However, from cosmos to cosmopolitanism with ‘localisation’, ‘globalisation’ and ‘glocalisation’ of music practices in mind, we look into the alternatives in the narratives of music across the dimension of space or time that embrace views of cosmopolitanism as a way of knowing about music. How is the knowledge on certain music practices constructed through the world view of carriers and practitioners with the status of ‘world citizen’? How does the approach of decolonisation influence ways of knowing music scientifically and artistically? And how difficult is it to achieve this notion? We welcome discussions on methodological strategies or a reconstruction of scholarship frameworks in light of the idea of cosmopolitanism.
3. Musicking in the digital age: Humans claim to have been advancing into a ‘new’, digital age when almost every single act in life involves a digital element. Living in a digital world and time, modern people seem to be universally driven with the phenomenal idea of ‘digitalisation’, and musicking in this age and time seems no different. When almost everything about music is digitalised, how obscure have all geographical boundaries in the world become? And what impact does time still have on music and the act of musicking? From electronica, electrophones, electroacoustic enhancements, digital workstations to the act of digital documentation of the musicking process including the application of computer-mediated communication and ‘cloud’ computing tools, we would like to hear about the research findings in light of a seemingly new and unchartered puzzle on the problematisation of the subject matter.
4. New Research: Any music- or sound-related investigations, projects, new findings of individual research or interdisciplinary fields within the broad area of ‘new research’ are welcomed.
Please continue reading the attached document for methods of registration, fee payment and other linked activities of this colloquium.
Any queries, please contact icmus.upm@gmail.com.
This year, we warmly invite local and international academicians to gather in Kuala Lumpur and dedicate their papers and audiovisual works which will be presented and discussed as research outcomes of broad topics in music and also music-related fields.
Keynote Speakers:
Yu Hui
Professor, Yunnan University, China
Eddin KHOO
Director-Founder, PUSAKA, Malaysia
We welcome panel and individual paper proposals, as well as proposals of acoustic/ electroacoustic/ audiovisual work, that allows discussions and presentations revolving the main theme of "Music and the Cosmos". Exploration into the designated sub-themes below is highly encouraged:
1. Interpreting an organised sound in a world-system: A world-system, in the general sense, has established or been establishing cultural, social, economic, political and techno spheres. The expression from music practices in the system delivers to the spheres a defining landscape illustrated with senses, order, reasoning and ideas that reflect the kind of the world the music exists. In this context, we question how an organised sound can be linked to the world it is meant to belong to, and how the carriers of the music practice connect themselves to the world, the universe, or the cosmos. Within this universal view, we encourage discussions on the scientific, cultural, or philosophical observation on the music in macrocosmos or microcosmos and its nature or reasons in existence, or on an intellectual discourse of a typical system as observed in such an organised sound. The discussion can also stretch into connecting ideas in organised sounds, as well as interpretations of interconnectivity of things with music or sound in a world-system.
2. Cosmopolitanism as a way of knowing about music: In the narratives of musicological scholarship, frameworks based of facts on obligatory affiliations, such as culture and nation in particular, are difficult to avoid or refrain from. However, from cosmos to cosmopolitanism with ‘localisation’, ‘globalisation’ and ‘glocalisation’ of music practices in mind, we look into the alternatives in the narratives of music across the dimension of space or time that embrace views of cosmopolitanism as a way of knowing about music. How is the knowledge on certain music practices constructed through the world view of carriers and practitioners with the status of ‘world citizen’? How does the approach of decolonisation influence ways of knowing music scientifically and artistically? And how difficult is it to achieve this notion? We welcome discussions on methodological strategies or a reconstruction of scholarship frameworks in light of the idea of cosmopolitanism.
3. Musicking in the digital age: Humans claim to have been advancing into a ‘new’, digital age when almost every single act in life involves a digital element. Living in a digital world and time, modern people seem to be universally driven with the phenomenal idea of ‘digitalisation’, and musicking in this age and time seems no different. When almost everything about music is digitalised, how obscure have all geographical boundaries in the world become? And what impact does time still have on music and the act of musicking? From electronica, electrophones, electroacoustic enhancements, digital workstations to the act of digital documentation of the musicking process including the application of computer-mediated communication and ‘cloud’ computing tools, we would like to hear about the research findings in light of a seemingly new and unchartered puzzle on the problematisation of the subject matter.
4. New Research: Any music- or sound-related investigations, projects, new findings of individual research or interdisciplinary fields within the broad area of ‘new research’ are welcomed. We encourage scholarship of novel research frameworks, methodologies, analysis and interpretation of the topic on music studies in line with the wide coverage of the theme of this colloquium.
Limit of abstract length: max. 250 words (individual paper or compositional work)/ max. 300 words (panel proposal)
The DEADLINE of proposal submission has been extended to July 15, 2019, 23:59 (UTC+8), and the notification of proposal acceptance will be announced via email by August 15, 2019. All proposals should be submitted via email in a word document attachment to icmus.upm@gmail.com.
Please find in the attachment for submission criteria, instructions of submission, fees details and other related information.