Search

In the British region of Cornwall, state intervention in long-standing practices of the translation of music lyrics for song competitions has created major shifts, including remarkable competitive successes. Proponents of the Kernewek (Cornish) Language have long used translated musical lyrics as a tool for language revival, especially in annual song competitions, like the Pan Celtic festival. Cornish musicians – who, with few exceptions, cannot speak Kernewek – work with volunteer translators to produce songs for competitions for audiences who also rarely speak Kernewek. This essay is built upon ethnographic fieldwork in Cornwall among language enthusiasts and musicians, as well as on recent interviews with musicians and translators who have competed in the Pan Celtic and similar festivals. It demonstrates a conscious use of language by non-fluent speakers to build identity and community among Cornish people and to promote the recognition of Cornwall's distinctiveness outside of the region. This builds upon previous work on metalinguistic community (Avineri and Harasta 2021) and ethnolinguistic infusion (Benor, Krasner, and Avni 2020), demonstrating the complex and important impact of state funding and coordination to increase the recognition and scope of use of the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a new form of live music – streaming music festivals – has been popularised in China. With a particular reference to the Chinese indie music scene, this article critically examines the changes that streaming music festivals bring to audiences and music. Through a comparison to offline live music activities, this article examines the spatial change and its consequences for audiences, the shift of shared meaning within indie music communities, and the alteration in the value of music. This article argues, based on interviews and online ethnography, that by immersing themselves in live music, indie music lovers position themselves in multiple social relationships, seek shared meanings with peers, and construct the self through cultural participation; however, streaming music festivals cannot achieve similar effects as offline live music. The findings help us understand more about the digital trend of live music and allow us to reflect on what 'live' really means to the audience and the music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the motivations, approaches and results that occurred when six composers/musicians devised works of experimental music that involved community participants over six years at the annual classical Tyalgum Music Festival in regional Australia. The main aim of this study was to investigate how this music was shaped by community participation in its creation and performance. This qualitative research study drew on retrospective interviews with the musicians involved and the author's observations and reflections on their music events. The musicians discussed how they responded to people and place in creating and performing their works; they maintained that their involvement with the community resulted in valuable and creative music-making. This study demonstrates that artists can inspire interesting and enjoyable music-making with a community that also expands the possibilities for mainstream arts, cultural practices and festival curation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the efforts of the young musicologists Ekaterina Blazhkova in Leningrad, Friedrich Hommel, and Wilhelm in West Germany between 1990 and 2000, the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt and Russia exchange was strengthened. The interplay of the letters that were sent reveals that a musical constellation was created. The IMD helped Blazhkova when she authored and defended the first academic work in Russian with regard to the history of Darmstädter Ferienkursen. For other Russian composers, such as Alexander Knaifel and Alexander Alexander Radvilovich, whose attendance to Darmstadt in 1992 and 1994 opened doors for the New Sounds Festival in St. Petersburg, which attracted musicians from Central Europe, Blazhkova's involvement was also significant. This article aims to reconstruct the background of the relationship between Darmstadt and St. Petersburg after the cold war. It is based on correspondence preserved at the IMD Archiv and Stadtarchiv Darmstadt, interviews with some musicians involved in that bicultural project, and specialized literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a former French colony, Mali's musical landscape contributed in important ways to the formation of the world music scene in France, where many of its most famous musicians have recorded, performed, and sometimes settled, especially from the 1980s onwards. Drawing on this context, the essay offers an overview of the African world music scene in France through some of its main vectors of development, including labels, festivals, and cultural institutions. This is approached through the analysis of programmes from important French world music festivals showcasing Malian musicians, such as Africolor or Musiques Métisses, and by exploring examples of musical collaborations—referred to in France as 'transcultural musical creations'—which were often implemented within cultural institutions and featured in festivals. Elaborating on how an elitist art culture was created, by stressing certain features of Malian music to the detriment of others, it is argued that these musical productions perform a play with otherness, which, in turn, has enabled western canons to take the guise of praising Malian music genres and instruments. Ultimately, these creative processes—and the discourses that foreground them—shed light on how France articulates and negotiates the postcolonial relationships it sustains with some of its former colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible or desirable at all to establish a museum for music? The question was first posed by Franz Liszt in the 19th century. This essay will not only present the background and context of the question, but also the contradictory conclusions that emerge from the idea of the musealisation of music, and which still linger in 20th-and 21st-century music culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]