Dear all,
This upcoming seminar for Endangered Languages Week at SOAS may be of interest:
The “Bones of Songs”: Exploring the Connections between Kam Minority Music and Language
Catherine Ingram (Newton International Fellow, Department of Music)
4:30-6:30pm, Wednesday 22 May 2013
SOAS, Room 4418
More info: http://www.hrelp.org/events/elw2013/index.html
Abstract:
For Kam (in Chinese, Dong 侗) minority people living in southwestern China, the lyrics to Kam songs are lak ga – the “bones of songs.” These “bones of songs,” together with Kam song melodies (the sor or “energy/life-force” of the songs), have formed Kam people’s unique singing traditions that are so central to their culture and history. Several of these rich Kam singing traditions have been recognized by the Chinese government as national items of intangible cultural heritage, and one has been inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Yet such recognition comes at a time when rural Kam communities are experiencing massive socio-economic transformations, leaving the future of Kam singing uncertain. Today, despite the promotion of Kam song traditions in staged performances and as intangible cultural heritage, implicit knowledge of many aspects of the complex relationship between language and music in Kam singing is dwindling within Kam communities. The relationship has also received little explicit study. In this presentation I discuss some of the main connections between Kam music and language, illustrating how both music and language are crucial for ensuring the sustainability of the centuries-old cultures of indigenous peoples such as the Kam that are now endangered by modernization, globalization, commercialization and massive social change.
Catherine Ingram
Newton International Fellow
Department of Music
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh St, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
Ph: +44 (0) 20 7898 4786<tel:%2B44%20%280%29%2020%207898%204786>
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
|