Hi all,
An interesting opportunity to hear about ethnomusicology, and the contribution of Sonic Visualiser to this pursuit.
In the ITL, 2nd floor larger room. And then after we should go for Thursty Thirsday!
University of Bologna, Department of Music
Abstract:
The focus of the seminar is the effectiveness of Sonic Visualiser as a tool for ethnomusicological research. Through the discussion of a case study, we will consider the main methodological problems encountered during a specific (but methodologically
generalizable) ethnomusicological investigation and the way those problems have been confronted and solved with the aid of the software.
The discourse will begin with a more general introduction: we will run through the major objectives of an ethnomusicological investigation and we will talk about the role of audio documentation analysis when dealing with the interpretation of
others’ musical cultures. We will discuss how working on the documentation is essential to the research in three main directions: in the recursive process of in-depth analysis of the materials, in the negotiation of musical meaning with the inter-preters,
and in the research of an effective method for translating the results of the investigation to its beneficiaries.
We will then consider a case study example: the Field Hollers, a solo-singing genre that has been in use among strictly African-American interpreters until the middle of the last century in the South of the United States. We will go through a
brief introduction of the musical genre, its context of use, and the critical aspects of the main theories and descriptions historically given (and still accepted) about it. After that, we will discuss how the use of Sonic Visualiser has contributed to my
investiga-tion on the genre: by suggesting alternative analytical solutions, by giving more precise and concrete answers to specific problems, and by granting an effective way to translate the results into an easily communicable form.
Bio:
At the moment I’m working as a PhD researcher in Ethnomusicology in the University of Bologna, Italy. The path that led me here started with a degree in Cultural Anthropology, paired with studies on jazz piano: those two parallel itineraries merged,
in a sense, into my master degree in Musicolo-gy (with a final thesis in Ethnomusicology).
My PhD research focuses on the study of the repertoire of Field Hollers. Apart from that, during my studies I had the chance to work in the fields of music and festivals production and to make some ethnomusicological field research in Marocco,
studying Gnawa music, as part of the European pro-ject D.R.U.M (coordinated by prof. Staiti of the University of Bologna).
Cheers.
-Bob L. Sturm
-------
Bob L. Sturm, Lecturer of Digital Media
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science
Eng. 111
Queen Mary University of London
Mile End Road London E1 4NS
United Kingdom