Among the Yoruba people of S. W. Nigeria, there are innumerable poetic genres, or manners of intonation, rigidly prescribed by ritual convention (labelled simply “chant” in the West). Some of these genres—notably Ijálá and Rárà—have already been treated by scholars at the textual and/or linguistic levels. Śangó praise-poetry has hitherto received attention only from the literary standpoint. In a recent classification of indigenous poetic genres (Olatunji), the rendering of ritual praise-poetry with a particular intonation is given the name Pípé Òrìşá: for each órìşá, or deity, Pìpè has its own characteristic intonation. Thus, a sub-genre of Pìpè Òrìşá (the religious counterpart to the aforementioned secular Rárá chanting) is here referred to as Şángó-Pìpé. Literally, pìpè (pronounced KPEE-KPAY) means “to call or summon;” the indigenous term pìpè òrìşà derives from a specific moment in a cult ceremony when the priest or priestess invokes the òrìşá.

Frequent use of supplementary syllables distinguishes the singing from the speech of many Irish folk singers. These syllables are formed in the meaningful text by recourse to various procedures which have their basis in the spoken language; but the lengthening of speech in song greatly enlarges their scope. It is true that the extra syllables are weakly stressed ones; nevertheless, their number can be so great that their presence becomes quite obtrusive. They obtruded forcefully on the ear of an Anglo-Irish poet of the nineteenth century, William Allingham, as he listened to a fair-day ballad-seller singing a long Anglo-Irish song; and he took the opportunity to amuse his Victorian public by printing one of its stanzas in mock phonetic spelling:

after which he gave the orthographical text as follows:

This article presents a historical overview of traditional music studies in Chile, pointing out some of the main achievements and problems. It describes the origins of traditional music studies through the establishment of the Chilean Folk Society in 1909 and then offers a periodisation of studies during the twentieth century, followed by a critical review of the preference for facts over processes. Finally, it explores the renaissance of traditional music studies during the last 30 years (1990–2020), analysing 123 dissertations about traditional music and the concepts of “tradition” they employ. It concludes that Chilean folk studies have changed from a scientific to a humanistic approach, using the idea of tradition as a comprehensive concept and the idea of folklore as behaviour or performance.

Rāgī faqīrs are devotees who perform Shah Jo Rāg, a musical tradition for singing Sufi poetry at the shrine of poet-mystic Shāh ‘Abdul Latīf Bhiṭṭāī (1689–1752) in Sindh, Pakistan. Focusing on the life experiences of my teacher Manthār Faqīr, I historicise various subject positions that contemporary rāgī faqīrs refer to as faqīr (devotee), fankār (performing artist), kārīgar (skilled artisan), and artist. Through Manthār Faqīr’s performances, I analyse sonic manifestations of his complex subjectivities that at times shift, at times coexist, to demonstrate how he deploys sounded strategies emerging from different subject positions to balance devotion, artistry, legitimacy, and livelihood.

On 19-21 February 1998, the Chinese Opera Society (Singapore), an amateur opera society that promotes Chinese opera in Singapore, organised an event called “Street Wayang Revisited” as part of the annual Chinese Cultural Festival, which featured a three-night performance of the popular Chaozhou opera, Liu Ming Zhu, by the Sing Yong Hoe Heng Teochew Wayang, a professional Chaozhou opera group in Singapore. The ticketed performance, presented in what was called “street wayang-style” (Straits Times, 4 February 1998), took place in the Bras Basah Park within the shopping and business district of Singapore. Accompanying the performance was a month-long exhibition (13 February - 15 March 1998) at the Singapore History Museum, displaying old costumes, props, scripts and other Chinese opera paraphernalia, many of which belonged to Sing Yong Hoe Heng. Organised at a cost of approximately S$15 000 (US$ 8800), the event was widely publicised and well attended, and was partially sponsored by the Singapore Press Holdings and National Arts Council, amongst other national institutions. Aimed specifically at younger-generation Singaporeans, the English-speaking communities, expatriates and tourists, “Street Wayang Revisited” used slide projections of the Chinese script and corresponding English translations during the performance. The stage was double the size of the usual makeshift stages used daily by professional opera groups, the performance area was sheltered and well-ventilated with mobile fan units, and hawkers were specially engaged to serve food at this three-day event. Approximately 500 people watched the final performance on 21 February (Straits Times, 21 February 1998). On 23 February 1998, Sing Yong Hoe Heng resumed its normal practice and staged performances for a ritual celebration in an open space next to Newton Circus, another area that is popular with tourists, expatriates and younger Singaporeans. This time, however, a photograph published in the Chinese newspaper shows only a scatter of twelve people or so in the audience. The same newspaper article aptly questions this phenomenon with a metaphorical title: “Shuguang Zhaxian Haishi Xiyang Yuhui? [Emerging Sunshine or Lingering Sunset?]” (Lianhe Zaobao, 7 March 1998a).

A recent article by Jairazbhoy in Ethnomusicology is perhaps the first cogent account of the oboe in India. Here I wish to offer a few comments on his paper and give some supplementary material and ideas.

The survival of any type of music in Ghana is dependent upon the extent to which the music is able to satisfy the values the people look for in such music. The values, which may be aesthetic or structural, social or religious, may operate individually or in a simultaneous complexity. In other words the factors that shape and maintain the folk music in Ghana may be found in the music per se, in the artist or in the context of performance.

There are musical norms which the community expect in a musical performance. One such norm is the sound quality. The Ghanaian concept of music (and this may go for other African peoples too) does not unduly discriminate between sounds of definite pitches and sounds of indefinite pitches. It is true that in some situations the emphasis may be on one or the other. However, examples abound in which musical ensembles employ both pitched and unpitched instruments. And both categories of sound are given relatively equal roles in a performance.

Sangyŏ sori are Korean folk songs sung by pallbearers during a funeral procession.

Tonangebende Richtungen der Avantgarde haben aus der seit langem tiefgreifend schwelenden gesellschaftlichen Krise der Musik in diesem Jahrhundert die Konsequenz gezogen, musikalische Kunstwerke setzen zu können, die aller Konvention entrückt sind und keinen außermusikalischen Zwecken zu genügen haben. Aus frei mit dem Material umgehender Subjektivität heraus, die bereit ist — ohne das Engagement einer sozialen Selbstverpflichtung — ganz auf sich verwiesen und unter Erleiden einer zuweilen bitter quälenden Einsamkeit zu existieren, entstanden mithin Kompositionen, die ohne Rücksicht auf die nahe Mitwelt und die Realitäten ausschließlich an künstlerischen Notwendigkeiten orientiert waren. Neben der Anbiederung an die gemeine Menge mittels verbindlichen, gefälligen, von Trivialitäten und Klischees durchwirkten Werken der großen Zahl, rangen um keinen Konsensus nachsuchende, gänzlich frei sich wähnende “Schöpfer neuer Musik” um die Realisation von Tonstücken, die die Allgemeinheit brüskiert ablehnte. Paul Hindemith ist als “Bürger-schreck,” als aufrührerisches enfant terrible sowie als rücksichtslos empfundener “Neutöner” der letzt genannten Tendenz während einiger junger Jahre nachgefolgt. Mit dreistem Gestus schrieb und interpretierte er eine antiromantisch gemeinte Musik ohne Weihe, Pathos und konventionelle Schönheit. Diese frech wirkende Demonstration des Unbehagens am Etablierten wurde ihm zeitlebens nicht vergessen und mancherseits auch nicht verziehen, obwohl Hindemith sehr bald in einem Prozess von “Selbstbescheidung” (Winfried Zillig) davon abließ und gesellschaftlich wie auch künstlerisch um ein erneuertes Verhältnis des Einverständnisses bemüht war. Er ging einen Weg des “Hin und Zurück,” der ihm wieder eine Heimstatt eröffnen sollte und somit eine lebhafte Resonanz im Hier und Jetzt.

This paper discusses an interrelationship of linđo dancing that occurs in both social and ritual contexts within Croatian Dubrovnik-area villages. In February 1977 during poklada (carnival), I video-recorded maškare (masqueraders), with their house-to-house visitations, a noisy procession, boisterous and outrageous antics, heavy wine drinking and the clowning of linđo dancing. During the 1976-1977 winter season I also recorded a series of social dance events in the same villages during holidays and Sunday evening dance events when only linđo was actively danced for hours. Now that several years have passed, and a theme of this symposium (held in Skierniewice, Poland, July 1994) is ritual and ritual dancing in contemporary society, I am led to analyse the process of continuities and changes related to this winter carnival (poklada) event. This paper suggests that the continuities and changes of dancing in a “ritual” event are in correlation to the changes in the music and dancing at “social” dance events, which were in turn influenced by major socio-economic changes during the 1970s and 1980s.