Ethnoheads Newsletter

#1 August 2006

This newsletter has been collated for the interest of students and staff associated with the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne who are doing research in ethnomusicology  - a very broad umbrella indeed. The aim of this publication is to facilitate connections between people who share a common interest and who might find a commonality of research dialogue in unexpected places.

In future editions I would like to include your brief reviews of recently-encountered books, journal articles, CDs, DVDs, films and websites, and your news of courses or other opportunities that you have found of interest, so please keep your messages flowing to me.

Enjoy!

Cathy Falk

Megan Crowle (Masters student, UoM)

m.crowle@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

Megan is continuing  the  research  she commenced  for her honours dissertation into the music of Tonga in diaspora  in Australia and New Zealand. Her thesis title is “Living with the Papalangi: Tongan Music in Australia and new Zealand.

Cally Brennan (PhD student, UoM)

carolyn.brennan@dotars.gov.au

Cally has almost finished her thesis on Singaporean  dikir barat  and the construction of Malay identity in Singapore and to some extent Malaysia.  She is currently living and working in Canberra.

Catherine Ingram (PhD student, UoM)

wahlenbergia@hotmail.com

Currently I am at the thesis-writing stage of my PhD, the topic of which concerns the ‘big song’ tradition of the Kam people (one of China’s 55 minority groups).  After returning from China several months ago I finished repatriating to the Kam people I worked with the last requested copies (on VCD & DVD) of some of the 100+ hours of video and 120+ hours of sound recordings I collected during my 18 months of fieldwork in Kam villages, and now I am beginning to archive all that material with PARADISEC.

(Catherine will be presenting a paper on her research in Kam music at the Musicology Society of Australia Conference in Armidale, NS W in Spetember.)

Reis Flora (Research Fellow, UoM)

rflora@unimelb.edu.au

At the moment I'm working on a set of twelve ragamala miniature paintings at the National Gallery of Victoria. They seem to be part of a larger set,possibly of 36, which, though noted in a survey (Andrew Topsfield, Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery of Victoria, 1980, pp. 107-08), deserve more attention and remain unreported in detail. Others participating in this project are Carol Cains, Curator, Asian Art (NGV), and Richard Runnels, a local independent scholar of the ragamala tradition. A ragamala painting is a visual representation of a melodic mode of India (raga), based on a poetic description of the mood of the raga. I'm also still interested in finding the first set of books on Indian music sent to Melbourne in April 1878 by the late-nineteenth century Bengali musicologist Raja Sir Sourindro Mohun Tagore (1840-1914) of Calcutta. I have one or two leads and anticipate that these books may be found among the materials of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society.

They will be rare books and could well contain music in both Bengali and Western notation. This data will throw light on Indian musicological activities at a particular time and place.

Stephen Morey (Research Fellow in Linguistics, LaTrobe University)

S.Morey@latrobe.edu.au

As a linguist working on Tai and Singpho languages in Northeast India, I have had a chance to record some fascinating songs in a variety of styles that are part of the traditional practices of the Tai and Singpho communities. In 2006, I am hoping to commence a deeper analysis of these songs, particularly looking at the way linguistic and musical features coexist. For example, how are the tones of these lexical tone languages expressed in music. In this I will be assisted by Emily Lynar  ( doing Special Study at the Faculty of Music, UoM) who is being supervised by Reis Flora.

Bronwen Robertson (PhD student, UoM)

b.robertson6@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

completed her Honours dissertation, “Persian pop  music: at home in exile and in exile at home”, in 2005 and presented her findings at the Media and Identity in Asia Conference in Miri, Sarawak in February 2006.  The first semester of 2006 saw Bronwen convert from Masters to PhD while she tutored and lectured in the Faculty of Music at the University of Melbourne.  She also took part in an ethnographic filmmaking course with Liz Cartwright, a professor from Idaho State University.  Bronwen is currently in Cambridge, England where she is conducting the first part of the field research component for her PhD thesis entitled “Subterranean sounds and reverberations of dissent: identity and expression in underground Iranian rock music”.  She will attend the International Society for Iranian Studies Conference in London in early August, and stay on in London to spend time at the School of Oriental and African Studies, absorbing their gargantuan collection of Iranian literature and polishing up her Farsi before venturing to Iran at the end of the month.  There, Bronwen will stay at the British Institute of Persian Studies and spend time with the many Iranian friends she has made via computer-mediated communication, another important facet of her research.  She will immerse herself in the culture of Iran, the sounds of underground rock and explore the vibrant arts scene before returning to Australia where she will present her findings at the annual Musicology Society of Australia Conference in Armidale, NSW, in September.

Christine Yong (Dissertation, UoM, completed June 2006)

may_y@hotmail.com

Hi all!

I'm Christine and I've only very recently completed my dissertation project on the musical ethnography of the Melanau people in Sarawak, Malaysia. The Melanau people are just one of the many 'orang asli' ("original people")  of Malaysia and they reside along the coasts of Sarawak, which is located in Borneo.

My work with the Melanau people dates back to 2001. I got involved with the community through friends and community work. It was only from 2003 onwards that I started giving serious thought to documenting their music-making activities. What resulted in that is the dissertation project entitled 'A Musical Ethnography of Melanau Culture'.

The end of the dissertation project does not signify the end of my work with the Melanau people. In the near future I hope to be working with the community through their upcoming cultural programmes. As I will be returning to Malaysia soon enough, please feel free to email me just to keep in touch.

Rebekah Plueckhahn (Honours student UoM, 2004)

bekkaskye@hotmail.com

My latest activities have been working as a research assistant for PARADISEC, where I have been digitizing analog recorded formats such as reel-to-reels and cassettes of recorded language and music for inclusion in the PARADISEC catalogue. I have also been working on computer catalogue entries and integrity/accuracy of documentation in the PARADISEC database, and correspondingly with AUSTEHC (The Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre). I have also been preparing for my upcoming role at the Arts Council of Mongolia, where I will be working as a Cultural Heritage Education Program Coordinator. So far I have been researching Mongolian society, language, history, music and arts, preparing for work as an arts researcher and educator. I am also psyching myself up to relinquish my vegetarianism for lots of mutton dishes, and look forward to learning horse riding.

(Bek does not mention that she had an exciting year in 2005 as an intern at the Smithsonian Institute,  Washington DC, working with their cultural collections and learning about cultural advocacy and developing and implementing cultural policy. Her honours dissertation grew out of field work at the Garma Festival, Arnhem land. She is also giving a paper at the Musicology Society of Australia Conference in Armidale, NSW in September.)

Elina Yasumoto (UoM)

elinamitten@hotmail.com

Elina Yasumoto is currently completing her Master of Music degree. She has been selected to speak at the upcoming East Asian Music and Modernity Conference in Taiwan. The conference is organised by the National Centre for Traditional Arts and Nanhua University and is part of the Asia Pacific Traditional Arts Festival. The theme of her paper will be New Perspectives: Japanese Anime Music. Elina was also recently invited to be the featured soloist in a series of Anime music concerts held at the Melbourne Town Hall and Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In addition she was invited to perform in collaboration with Youmi Kimura, the composer of the anime theme music from 'Spirited Away'.

Holly de Jong (3rd year student, Faculty of Music, UoM)

h.dejong@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au

I am currently exploring various styles of Japanese music, including gagaku and shakuhachi music, as a result of continued interest in and exposure to Japan’s unique culture and language. In particular, the focus of my recent attention has been the shakuhachi, which I am learning with Andrew McGregor and hope to continue with in the future.

This is the second year I have been a member of the university’s Gamelan Ensemble and I will be working on an exciting project this semester: a Significance Assessment of the gamelan collections held at the University of Melbourne. The resultant report will be held by the university and used to inform any cultural collection management decisions regarding the gamelan collections.

Unofficially I am also exploring Indian classical music and learning the sitar!

Emma Roper and Edwina Byrne

are currently writing their dissertations in the Faculty of Music. The working title of Emma’s thesis is “An exploration of the Musical Elements of Australian Magpie (gymnorhina tibicen tyrannica) vocalisations. Dr Raoul Mulder, from Zoology, is co-supervising.

Edwina’s thesis   explores an evolutionary basis for the development of speech and song. Both Emma and Edwina presented fascinating synopses of their work at the Faculty’s Dissertation Day recently.

Adam Downs and Sarah el-Atm

are also third year students in the Faculty of Music who are preparing to write their honours dissertation in 2007. Sarah’s topic is firming up around the contemporary performance  of taqsim, possibly extending into an examination of the role of female superstar singers in the Islamic world. Adam is working around ideas concerning the modes of musical transmission (pedagogy) in various cultures.

Hyun Chae Kim,

who joined us as a study abroad student from Korea between mid-2005 and mid-2006, has, sadly for us, returned home to complete her undergraduate studies . Just before her departure she  provided us with a most beautiful performance on the  kayagum . Thanks to Elina Yasumoto, Catherine Ingram and Holly de Jong for organising this event at the Gryphon Gallery. I have a recording of the concert available for loan. Hyun Chae presented me with a most magnificent collection of Cds, VDOs and DVDs of Korean traditional music before she  left. I would be pleased to lend these to interested people.

top