Ritual Music and Archaeology. Problems and Perspectives (original) (raw)
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Ritual and music – parallels and practice, and the Palaeolithic
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Publications of the ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology is a book series published by Ekho Verlag, Berlin. The ICTM Study Group on Music Archaeology was founded in the early 1980s and has a prolific history of publications. The volumes of the new series are anthologies of peer-reviewed chapters focused around a specific topic. In reflecting the wide scope of music-archaeological research world-wide, the series draws in perspectives from a range of different disciplines, including related newly emerging fields such as archaeoacoustics, but particularly encouraging both music-archaeological and ethnomusicological perspectives.
Telestes, 2023
Sound Experience and Musical Performances in Funerary Rituals of the Ancient World · The study of funerary rituals in ancient societies has been profoundly renewed thanks to new archaeological discoveries as well to new approaches related to performance. Within this context, the evidence offered by material culture should play a critical role in improving our knowledge of music, sounds, body movements, and dance, all of which constituted an important aspect of ceremonies in funerary contexts. Considering funerary rituals in the ancient world, this paper aims to explore material evidence related to musical performances, sounds, and rhythmical movements, and highlight the contribution of this evidence to a deeper understanding of the cultural, sensorial, and social meanings and functions of these performances, by reconstructing the many different ways, spaces, and contexts in which they were experienced. Keywords · Soundscape, Sonic Experience, Funerary Ritual, Sonic Space, Sensory Experience of Death, Body Movements.
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R. Eichmann, E. Hickmann og L.-C. Koch (eds.), Studies in Music Archaeology VII. On Ethnographic Analogy in Music Archaeology, s. 103–108., 2010
‘Music’ is a surprisingly new invention. Most of the languages of the world lack a concept of music, yet in all known cultures people play, sing and dance. Historical musicologists too often employ an ethnocentric understanding of music, arisen from the western art music tradition. Does music archaeology represent an alternative voice that challenges ethnocentric approaches to music? Since the field consists of individual researchers with different interests and views, there is no easy answer to this question. But the fact that music archaeologists use material culture as their primary point of departure means that they arrive at other perspectives and approaches to musical activities than historical musicologists using written sources. Most music archaeologists will probably understand music in the widest sense. On the other hand, does our discipline need ‘music’ at all? Some music archaeologists tend to abandon the concept of music, in favour of ‘intentional sound’ or similar, and some prefer to label their field of study ‘archaeomusicology’ or ‘archaeo-organology’. Such strategies could be seen as a response to an unwanted ethnocentric perspective.
n° 115 - Percussions antiques. Organologie – Perceptions - Polyvalence / L’affichage de la parenté dans le monde antique Auteur : Arnaud SAURA-ZIEGELMEYER (coord. Dossier 1), Karine KARILA-COHEN, Jérôme WILGAUX (coord. Dossier 2) N° ISBN : 978-2-8107-0730-0 Percussion instruments are spread across a broad geographical space and a wide chronological spectrum in the ancient world. Yet it is only recently that percussion instruments have been considered in connection with the contexts of their discovery and their use in performance places and spaces in order to understand their functions in sacred, domestic, and funerary spheres. The difficulty in treating the question of location arises from the fact that, in many cases, it is complicated to establish the precise dating and location of instruments in a given space and this specific location's particular meaning. However, when percussion instruments survive in an archaeological context along with images, inscriptions, and possibly other written sources, it is possible to outline the aspects of the occasion for which they were played and offered within a ritual performance; they serve as valuable pieces of evidence not only for reconstruction of their function in religious and social practices, but also for enriching our understanding of music and dance performances in daily life of the past. Thus, through an archaeomusicological approach to performance which places musical and choral activities within an actual or symbolic space, the study of percussion instruments constitutes a valuable subject of investigation to shed light on the ritual meaning and social function of sonic events, as well as on the role of musicians and dancers in antiquity. This volume, which consists of the proceedings of a workshop held at the University of Toulouse II Jean Jaurès in January 2019, shows how the study of percussion instruments has involved a wide variety of specialists within and beyond the boundaries of anthropology and archaeology, sound studies and archaeomusicology (including, among others, ethnoarchaeomusicologists), as well as history of religion, classics, and history. In organising the workshop, Arnaud Saura-Ziegelmeyer was particularly concerned with approaching the subject from as global a perspective as possible, and was therefore eager to focus on work outside his own particular area of expertise, namely, the Greek and Roman worlds. Thus, the essays included in this publication represent a significant number of geographical areas and cultures of the ancient world, including the Mediterranean, the PALLAS, 115, 2020, PP. 19-23
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