1st Edition

Current Directions in Ecomusicology Music, Culture, Nature

Edited By Aaron S. Allen, Kevin Dawe Copyright 2016
    322 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    322 Pages 25 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    AWARD WINNER OF THE 2018 SOCIETY OF ETHNOMUSICLOGY ELLEN KOSKOFF PRIZE

    This volume is the first sustained examination of the complex perspectives that comprise ecomusicology—the study of the intersections of music/sound, culture/society, and nature/environment. Twenty-two authors provide a range of theoretical, methodological, and empirical chapters representing disciplines such as anthropology, biology, ecology, environmental studies, ethnomusicology, history, literature, musicology, performance studies, and psychology. They bring their specialized training to bear on interdisciplinary topics, both individually and in collaboration. Emerging from the whole is a view of ecomusicology as a field, a place where many disciplines come together. The topics addressed in this volume—contemporary composers and traditional musics, acoustic ecology and politicized soundscapes, material sustainability and environmental crisis, familiar and unfamiliar sounds, local places and global warming, birds and mice, hearing and listening, biomusic and soundscape ecology, and more—engage with conversations in the various realms of music study as well as in environmental studies and cultural studies. As with any healthy ecosystem, the field of ecomusicology is dynamic, but this edited collection provides a snapshot of it in a formative period. Each chapter is short, designed to be accessible to the nonspecialist, and includes extensive bibliographies; some chapters also provide further materials on a companion website: http://www.ecomusicology.info/cde/. An introduction and interspersed editorial summaries help guide readers through four current directions—ecological, fieldwork, critical, and textual—in the field of ecomusicology.

    1. Ecomusicologies Aaron S. Allen and Kevin Dawe  Part 1: Ecological Directions  2. The Ecology of Musical Performance: Towards a Robust Methodology Alice Boyle and Ellen Waterman  3. Ecomusicology, Ethnomusicology, and Soundscape Ecology: Scientific and Musical Responses to Sound Study Margaret Q. Guyette and Jennifer C. Post  4. "No Tree—No Leaf": Applying Resilience Theory to Eucalypt-Derived Musical Traditions Robin Ryan  5. Why Thoreau? Jeff Todd Titon  Part 2: Fieldwork Directions  6. Natural Species, Sounds, and Humans in Lowland South America: The Kïsêdjê/Suyá, Their World, and the Nature of Their Musical Experience Anthony Seeger  7. Of Human and Non-human Birds: Indigenous Music Making and Sentient Ecology in Northwestern Mexico Helena Simonett  8. Materials Matter: Towards a Political Ecology of Musical Instrument Making Kevin Dawe  9. "Keepin’ It Real": Musicking and Solidarity, the Hornby Island Vibe Andrew Mark  10. Late Soviet Discourses of Nature and the Natural: Musical Avtentyka, Native Faith, and "Cultural Ecology" after Chornobyl Maria Sonevytsky and Adrian Ivakhiv  Part 3: Critical Directions  11. Critical Theory in Ecomusicology James Rhys Edwards  12. Nature and Culture, Noise and Music: Perception and Action W. Luke Windsor  13. Aural Rights and Early Environmental Ethics: Negotiating the Post-War Soundscape Alexandra Hui  14. Music, Television Advertising, and the Green Positioning of the Global Energy Industry Travis Stimeling  15. Pop Ecology: Lessons from Mexico Mark Pedelty  Part 4: Textual Directions  16. Ecocriticism and Traditional English Folk Music David Ingram  17. The Peasant’s Voice and the Tourist’s Gaze: Listening to Landscape in Luc Ferrari’s Petite symphonie intuitive pour un paysage de printemps Eric Drott  18. Negotiating Nature and Music through Technology: Ecological Reflections in the Works of Maggi Payne and Laurie Spiegel Sabine Feisst  19. Musical Actions, Political Sounds: Libby Larsen and Composerly Consciousness Denise Von Glahn  20. New Directions: Ecological Imaginations, Soundscapes, and Italian Opera Aaron S. Allen

    Biography

    Aaron S. Allen is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA.

    Kevin Dawe is Professor of Ethnomusicology and Head of the School of Music and Fine Art at the University of Kent, UK.