Musik Traditionen / Music Traditions

The participation of skilful - in addition to soundful - bodies in action is essential to the interaction of individuals in creating music for dancing. Since cultures, being products of human individuation, exist only in performance (Blacking), the recent awareness in anthropology of varying worlds and worldviews (Heywood) reveals particularities of diverging ontologies as an effective object of research. Exploring music for dancing in this context provides significant insights of inter-individual relations and social context, which do not simply arise from the behaviour of individual agents, but themselves enable and shape the individual agents on which they depend (De Jaegher and Froese). Diverging ontologies in music for dancing may therefore be perceived as an indispensable constituent component of the music∼dancing coupling.

European Voices IV presents new perspectives on two basic performance styles of traditional music of Europe: 1) Solo playing on single instruments with the possibility for multipart texture, for instance different bagpipes and bowed instruments. 2) Practices of playing in small ensembles with a leading role of the violin and later of wind instruments, widespread in Central and Eastern Europe. 14 renowned ethnomusicologists from eleven countries offer new insights on style, repertoire, ways of musical thinking and performance behaviour. Their studies are based on historical sources as well as of a vivid exchange with local musicians during in-depth ethnographic fieldwork.

This book gathers international voices from the field of ethnomusicology discussing the socio-political relevance of the discipline. The articles draw from contemporary discourses that take into account the role of music and dance in shaping social and political realities. An important field connected to political relevance is heritage, either in connection with the UNESCO or with archives. Ontologies of indigenous groups and their relevance in knowledge production is discussed in ethnomusicology nowadays as well as the possibilities of decolonising the discipline. Two articles from ethno-choreology explore dance from the gender perspective and in the post-socialist political structures. Different approaches from applied ethnomusicology deal with social justice, participatory dialogical practice, and the socio-political relevance of performance. Forced migration is seen as comprehensive topic for future ethnomusicology. The contents of the book mirror influential discourses of ethnomusicology today that will definitely shape the future development of the discipline.