Ruard Absaroka | University of Salzburg (original) (raw)
I have a AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) -funded PhD in Ethnomusicology from SOAS, University of London, where I am currently a Senior Teaching Fellow, convening courses for both Masters and Undergraduate levels on Musical Traditions of East Asia, The Music Business and Performance as well as teaching on courses including Ethnomusicology Themes and Variations, Urban Soundscapes, and Music of Central Asia. I also work with Dr. Rachel Harris as a research assistant on the AHRC/Leverhulme “Sounding Islam in China” project. I completed my BA in Modern History at Oxford with a focus on anthropology and social and political science. At masters level I studied Ethnomusicology at SOAS, where I also continued to develop a long-standing interest in Chinese Studies. My research interests include the impact of digital technologies on informal, independent musicking, and my doctoral dissertation focuses on urban musical geographies and networks in Shanghai. I am an active musician in London and also serve as Treasurer on the committee of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology.
Supervisors: Rachel Harris
Address: London, England, United Kingdom
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Papers by Ruard Absaroka
Music as Atmosphere. Collective Feelings and Affective Sounds (Riedel & Torvinen), 2019
This chapter suggests that the musical concept of timbre can function as an ideational “trading z... more This chapter suggests that the musical concept of timbre can function as an ideational “trading zone,” or Unscharfer Begriff. It explores some diverse treatments of timbre in Western and in Chinese music performance practice, in composition, and in musicological scholarship. The chapter discusses a parallel between the respective epistemic function of “atmosphere” and of “timbre,” as vague concepts in music scholarship. A combination of phenomenal dimensions together, atmospherically, form a gateway to such experiential possibilities. That they can be loosely conceived of as a single conceptual entity, timbre, Klangfarbe or yinse, speaks to the epistemological productiveness and affective power of vagueness. The chapter argues that in the West the notion of timbre has served as a mid-level conceptual “placeholder,” in the absence of more concrete analyses of acoustics and perception. As such it has travelled between music, aesthetics, psychology, physiology, acoustics and studies of culture more generally.
Book Reviews by Ruard Absaroka
Ethnomusicology Forum, 2011
Selected Conference Papers by Ruard Absaroka
Paper to be presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the ICTM, Astana, Kazakhstan.
Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) 2014 Annual Conference. University of Pittsburgh, USA. [Society... more Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) 2014 Annual Conference. University of Pittsburgh, USA. [Society for Asian Music sponsored panel].
CHIME Conference, 2014. University of Aarhus, Denmark.
BFE-AAWM Conference, 2014. SOAS & IMR, University of London, UK.
IACSS Conference, 2013. National University of Singapore, Singapore.
BFE-ICTM Ireland Conference, 2013. Queens University, Belfast, UK.
British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Annual Conference, 2012. University of Durham, UK.
ICTM (MEA) Conference, 2012. Hong Kong Chinese University (CUHK), Hong Kong.
British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, 2011. Falmouth, UK.
CHIME Conference, 2010. Basel, Switzerland.
The Sensory City Workshop. 2010 Conference at SOAS, University of London, UK.
CHIME Conference, 2007. University College, Dublin, Ireland.
Thesis by Ruard Absaroka
Music as Atmosphere. Collective Feelings and Affective Sounds (Riedel & Torvinen), 2019
This chapter suggests that the musical concept of timbre can function as an ideational “trading z... more This chapter suggests that the musical concept of timbre can function as an ideational “trading zone,” or Unscharfer Begriff. It explores some diverse treatments of timbre in Western and in Chinese music performance practice, in composition, and in musicological scholarship. The chapter discusses a parallel between the respective epistemic function of “atmosphere” and of “timbre,” as vague concepts in music scholarship. A combination of phenomenal dimensions together, atmospherically, form a gateway to such experiential possibilities. That they can be loosely conceived of as a single conceptual entity, timbre, Klangfarbe or yinse, speaks to the epistemological productiveness and affective power of vagueness. The chapter argues that in the West the notion of timbre has served as a mid-level conceptual “placeholder,” in the absence of more concrete analyses of acoustics and perception. As such it has travelled between music, aesthetics, psychology, physiology, acoustics and studies of culture more generally.
Ethnomusicology Forum, 2011
Paper to be presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the ICTM, Astana, Kazakhstan.
Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) 2014 Annual Conference. University of Pittsburgh, USA. [Society... more Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) 2014 Annual Conference. University of Pittsburgh, USA. [Society for Asian Music sponsored panel].
CHIME Conference, 2014. University of Aarhus, Denmark.
BFE-AAWM Conference, 2014. SOAS & IMR, University of London, UK.
IACSS Conference, 2013. National University of Singapore, Singapore.
BFE-ICTM Ireland Conference, 2013. Queens University, Belfast, UK.
British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Annual Conference, 2012. University of Durham, UK.
ICTM (MEA) Conference, 2012. Hong Kong Chinese University (CUHK), Hong Kong.
British Forum for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, 2011. Falmouth, UK.
CHIME Conference, 2010. Basel, Switzerland.
The Sensory City Workshop. 2010 Conference at SOAS, University of London, UK.
CHIME Conference, 2007. University College, Dublin, Ireland.
Masters Thesis (MMUS). SOAS, University of London, UK.