23 February 2008
SOUNDSCAPES OF INDIA:
TRADITION, TRANSFORMATION AND TOPOGRAPHY
This one-day conference is organised jointly by the British Forum for
Ethnomusicology and the Horniman Museum. It will be held at the Horniman
Museum's Education Centre on Saturday 23 February 2008. The conference
will explore the diverse environments of musical performance in India and
its Diaspora, drawing attention to (1) the kinds of ethnomusicological
research projects that have been pursued in these contexts and (2)
cultural repositories and their impact on musical practices. It coincides
with the Horniman Museum's "Utsavam - Music from India" exhibition
(February - November 2008), which showcases regional traditions of Indian
music through musical instruments and film footage made in rural areas of
India between 2001 and 2006. Features include performance arts of the
temple musicians and priests of rural Kerala, musician-farmers of the
villages of Adivasi (indigenous minorities) of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh,
fishing and farming communities on the island of Majuli in Assam, and
communities of farmers and artisans in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh
and the plains of Punjab.
Programme:
10.00 - 10.30am
Margaret Birley and Rolf Killius: Welcome and introduction to the Utsavam
Exhibition
10.30am - 12.30pm
Chair: Rolf Killius
Anna Morcom "Mujra, dancing girls, and anti-nautch of the 21st Century:
Seeing the hidden worlds of Indian performing arts"
Martin Clayton "The environments of north Indian raga music"
Laura Leante "Performing bhangra: changes in context and practice in
Punjab and its Diaspora"
Rolf Killius "Great musical traditions in little villages - short films
for the Utsavam exhibition"
12.30pm - 2.00pm Lunch (a light lunch will be provided in the Museum's
Music Gallery Performance Space, and there is also a cafe at the Horniman
Museum. Hot drinks will be available for purchase at the Museum's cafe.)
2.00pm - 3.00pm Keynote Lecture
Chair: Tina K. Ramnarine
Richard Widdess "Musical instruments as instruments of power in South Asia"
3.00pm - 4.00pm
Chair: Stephen Cottrell
Peter Pannke "Dhrupad is alive and well in Darbhanga - History, Presence
and Future of the Mallik Family of Musicians"
Katherine Brown "When theory makes no earthly sense: medicine, astrology
and the North Indian ragas c.1650"
Nicolas Magriel "Organology at home: living with bowed instruments of
North India"
4.00pm - 4.30pm Tea
4.30pm - 6.30pm Performances (Music Gallery Performance Space)
Somjit Dasgupta: Lecture-recital, "The string instruments of Bengal"
Somjit Dasgupta from Kolkata plays stringed instruments of West Bengal
(including sarod, dotara and ektara).
Rishi and Samyami from Leicester present traditional Assamese songs with
bahi (flute) and tabla accompaniment.
Registration is free but places are limited. Please indicate your
attendance by emailing Rolf Killius at <[log in to unmask]>
Conference organisers: Stephen Cottrell and Tina K. Ramnarine (British
Forum for Ethnomusicology), Margaret Birley and Rolf Killius (Horniman
Museum)
Information on the conference will be available on the BFE and Horniman
Museum websites (www.bfe.org.uk and www.horniman.ac.uk).
Supported by : Renaissance London
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