Abstracts presented at the Seventh Symposium of the “Music and Minorities” Study Group, of
the Zefat Academic College, Zefat, Israel, on August 7th-12th 2012
ÅBERG Kai Viljami
Musical documents and the Construction of their Musical identity by the Finnish Kaale some issues encountered in field research and film documentaries relating to the
identity of the Finnish Roma
An increasing amount of material about Finnish traditional Roma music is currently being
reproduced in the context of musical documents, ethnographic films and internet video-clips.
Historically this musical genre has been exclusive to the domain of the Roma community;
therefore these documents are essential to creating an awareness of the Roma community and
information about them available to the outside world. In my paper I present the argument that
these musical documents influence our ability to see things in certain ways; they paint a
particular picture of reality - either false or true, to which we adhere. I investigate how the ethnic
identity of the Finnish Kaale (Roma) is constructed and articulated through musical documents.
The approach of this paper is ethnographic, based on field work I carried out amongst the
Finnish Roma in the period from 1994 to 2011. My final recordings were made only two weeks
ago. I also worked as an expert consultant on the “Puhdistus” documentary (Cleaning, ed.
Erkko Lyytinen 2007); and as a musician in the “Laulava Heimo” documentary (Singing tribe,
Timo Humaloja 2008).
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ANZAROKOVA Marziet
Cultural Nationalism of the Adyghe Diaspora in Turkey: the Reasons for and Essence of
Reflection in the Instrumental-Dancing Tradition
The majority of the Adyghe or Circassian Diaspora is located in Turkey.
The Adyghe people are dispersed throughout modern Turkey, and are descendants of the
people violently displaced from their native land due to the Russian-Caucasian War.
The occurrence of cultural nationalism we see in the Adyghe Diaspora is motivated by a
number of principal causes:
1.
A historical memory based in the Adyghe ethnic genocide committed by Russia in the
19th Century.
2.
A policy of discrimination aimed at leveling ethnic identity perpetrated by Turkey in the
20th century. It closed Adyghkhase (Adyghe public organizations) and caused
prosecutions and pogroms. This resulted in hundreds of unique audio records, cultural
artifacts originally brought from the Caucasus, to be withdrawn from private collections.
3. Assimilation.
4. Religious ideology.
Due to partial loss of the mother-tongue in the Diaspora, dance became an alternative and
important means of communication. Assimilation caused a strong transformation in ceremonial
space and performance. In a number of Adyghauls (villages) the Turkish instrumental-dancing
tradition was predominant for many decades. However, positive democratic trends in Turkey in
the early 20th century saw many lost elements of traditional Adyghe music return to the cultural
life of the Adyghe Diaspora. Fear of another loss has promoted nationalism in Adyghe society.
Any Turk endeavoring to enter an Adyghe community is denied access (for example, in many
Auls there is a taboo on Turks in Adyghe ceremonies and it is strictly forbidden to integrate
Turkish instruments).
Thus, the cultural nationalism of Adyghe Diasporas is a compelled phenomenon formed during
their one-hundred-and-fifty years of struggle to adapt to a foreign land, whilst simultaneously
maintaining their ethnic identity.
BELISOVÁ Jana
The Documentary Film and Video is a Window portraying the life of Roma music. Use of
Two Different Methods: Film and Video, to present Slovakian Roma music.
“After Phurikane Gil’a” is a musical project based on the anthropological investigation of music
in Roma settlements in Slovakia. During research of the project Jana Belisova collected
hundreds of old Roma songs. She then organized a workshop of six Roma singers and three
professional musicians. Together they formed a powerful multicultural project of musical
collaboration. People from entirely different cultural and social layers sang and played together
with a breathtaking result. The documentary film “Cigarettes and Songs” chronicles the weeklong meeting of singers and musicians in Veľký Slavkov, August 2009, who recorded songs for
the musical project “After Phurikane Gila” in a local Evangelical church.
The actual “making” this document about the musical project, adds to this music a new
dimension of incongruity, realism and humour.
The project “Neve Gil’a”(New Roma Songs), is the continuation of a long term research project
on Roma songs and music. The project does not focus on old songs (Phurikane Giľa), rather on
new modern songs: the “Neve Giľa” or as otherwise known – the Rom-Pop. A very popular and
lively genre, Roma are glad to play and sing many of these songs.
The output is a DVD, and an eponymous songbook. The DVD “Neve Giľa” consists of
audiovisual recordings and MP3 sound recordings of the various songs gathered during field
research in the period 2008-2009. Roma songs were recorded in over thirty Roma settlements,
in particular the Slovak Roma, who are mostly located in East and Central Slovakia. The songs
on the DVD are divided according to the topics of their lyrics. Roma lyrics together with the
Slovak and English translations appear in the lower part of the screen, enabling a viewer to
sing along with the songs. One section of the DVD is dedicated to Roma dances. It is an edited
record of various dances from various locations.
COHEN Judith (Canada)
Were the "Last Marranos" the Last? Portuguese Crypto-Jews in Film.
In the early 1990s the film "Les derniers Marranes" appeared and quickly made the rounds of
Jewish film festivals, as well as French television and other venues. It was followed by an
Israeli production, a series called "Out of Spain", which included a section on the same people,
the Crypto-Jews of rural Portugal. Other films or sections of films and videos have appeared, or
been planned, but not brought to completion. Secrecy is a central aspect of Crypto-Jewish
culture, yet despite all religions being legal today in Portugal, the appearance of these films and
their music, raised ethical questions; leading to controversies both within and outside the
communities portrayed in the films. This paper examines the music portrayed in the two main
films mentioned above. How these portraits reflect actual practice in the communities, both at
the time the films were made in the early 1990s, and today. During the two decades since the
films appeared, availability of internet in the villages coupled with dramatically increased
tourism, has made many other musical choices available. These choices, and how they reflect
and differ from the music portrayed in the films, will be discussed. The ethics of fieldwork videotaping in this context will be discussed, including my own experience with these communities
over the past fifteen years. Finally, it has become fairly common in academic conferences to
video-stream sessions. Therefore, the case of a culture for whose members secrecy is built-in,
even if no longer required for safety, raises the question of what are the ethics involved in
video-streaming a presentation which includes, for example, not only audio examples but
PowerPoint images?
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COHEN Judith (Israel)
Literature, Visual Arts and Music in a Multicultural Academic College
A few years ago I was asked to chair a new and unique program at Zefat Academic College
and to prepare a three-year curriculum leading to a BA in Literature, Visual Art and Music.
Zefat (or Safed), a city in the north of Israel, is surrounded by Arab villages and thus serves as
an educational center for Arab students of Moslem, Christian-Orthodox, Druze and other
denominations who study side by side with Jewish students. The new curriculum, developed by
a group of the College lecturers and approved both by the College Authorities and the Israel
Ministry of Education, consists of three branches: literature; visual art; and music. It offers the
student both a specialization in his chosen area and a comprehensive view of the world of art
and culture. Furthermore, the rationale of the program is based on an equal proportion between
Western and Eastern culture. Thus, for instance, all the music students study Western and
Eastern (Arab) music theory and perform music alternately in an Eastern and a Western
ensemble.
My paper, based on observations and interviews, will concentrate on the music section of the
program and discuss the students’ motivations, expectations, achievements and frustrations, as
well as describing the fragile relations between the various ethnic groups learning to cooperate
and to respect each other's culture.
DeFRANCE Yves
Shima-uta Recordings and Competitions as a Conservatory of Living Music in the
Amami Islands
Nowadays, the Shima-uta, folk songs of the Amami islands situated 1.500 kms south of Tokyo,
are famous in Japan. This was not always the case. Coming from the old local traditions, this
vocal repertory was in danger of disappearing thirty years ago. Today, few people under fifty
years old can speak the local Amami language correctly. The revival of singing Shima-uta
seems to be a result of the Amami people who emigrated to Osaka and Tokyo on the main
Japanese island Kyushu; and of those who went to Brazil after World War II. The publication of
both records and DVDs, and the organization of contests on the Amami islands themselves,
take a large part in the transmission and diffusion of this beautiful and intangible heritage by the
young Amami generation. [Includes a presentation of new fieldwork video material].
EREZ Oded and KOLCU Julia Aylin
A Musical Postcard from Istanbul: Turkish Music through German Ears as Portrayed in
the Films of Fatih Akin.
Music is a key element in structuring meaning in the films of German-Turkish director Fatih
Akin, particularly in his 2004 film “Gegen die Wand” (Head-on). The film takes place in
Hamburg and Istanbul, and portrays the social environment and tragic love story of two young
Turkish-German migrants. Although the cultural spaces of Hamburg-Istanbul are constructed
using popular and traditional music: Turkish, German and others, these are not the only layers
of musical construction. The film is divided into five “Acts” consisting of scenes of a band
playing “traditional” Turkish music outdoors, seated in front of a picturesque Istanbul view.
These scenes function as a kind of “musical postcard”. This paper will focus on these scenes,
and endeavor to unlock their meaning and the perspectives of Istanbul and Turkey that they
unfold.
In the course of investigating these scenes, in conjunction with Akin’s documentary “Crossing
the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005)”, the complexity of this seemingly stereotypical
representation of Turkish music is revealed. The singer (Idil Üner) is German-born as any
native Turkish speaker can surmise from her foreign accent); the music, frequently played by
Selim Sesler’s band in tourist clubs in Istanbul is Rom music (one of the songs is actually
Albanian, and only its instrumental introduction is included in the film); and the perspective for
this musical representation of Istanbul is that of the musical producer, German musician
Alexander Hacke. All these features and others render the musical postcard, a concept we
develop in this paper, as a layered, multivalented form, which allows for the exploration of
migrant subjectivities in dialogue in both traditional and contemporary musical and narrative
forms.
ESCRIBANO María
Existential Soundtracks and Visual Metaphors. Ritualizing the Basque Txalaparta in Film.
This paper is concerned with portrayal in film of the ritual use of the Txalaparta instrument and
percussive tradition in self-representation by a European minority, the Basques. The Txalaparta
was recovered from near extinction in the 1960s. Transformed and promoted, mainly by left
wing and independent Basques, it became an icon of the Basque struggle for selfdetermination. The paper engages in the ritualizing processes of Txalaparta in relation to the
Spanish-Basque conflict as explored in documentary films, such as: “Ama Lur “(1968); “Ez”
(1977); “Euskal Herri Musika” (1978); “El Proceso de Burgos” (1979); “Euskal Herriko Musika
Tresnak” (1985); “The Basque Ball” (2005) or the more recent Txalaparta (2009) among others.
It investigates the kinds of values ritualized and enacted in documentary films in relation to
Txalaparta during some of the toughest years of the struggle? What actions do the different
audiovisual discourses seek to mobilise? How are Basques represented, and how is the
struggle articulated in relation to Txalaparta in film by its revivalists? How do different
representations relate to different understandings of what Txalaparta is, or relate to those who
identify with it? These are some of the questions that will be explored in relation to a sound
making tradition that strongly articulated the existential concerns of a people during their
struggle for survival and continuity within an armed conflict which it seems is now over.
HILARIAN Larry Francis
Minority Arab Music and Dance within the Multicultural Nation-State of Singapore
This study deals with the arrival of Arab immigrants from southern Yemen (Hadhramaut) during
the advent of the trans-oceanic trade to the Malay World (alam Melayu). In the early 20th
century many Hadhrami Arabs settled in Singapore, primarily with commercial interests but also
to promulgate Islam. They subsequently exercised great influence on the economic, political,
social and religious development of the entire Malay Archipelago (Nusantara). Incongruously,
Hadhrami Arab contributions are seen today as negligible in Singapore. They have yet to
receive much attention as a separate cultural group within the multicultural City State.
The focus of this paper is to explore the cultural and musical practices of this minority group in
Singapore. Hadhrami musical instruments such as the Gambus (pear-shaped lute) and Marwas
(hand-held drums) play a pivotal cultural role. This paper also explores the significance of
music and dance (Zapin) in weddings, circumcisions, religious festivals and other social events.
The dance is exclusive to the men-folk during Samra celebrations. The most important musical
element in Zapin is the structured use of interlocking rhythms, played on framed-drums. The
Sharah on the other hand is a fast tempo warriors’ dance usually performed in pairs only by
men.
Arguably, Hadhrami music and cultural practices are unique within a complex majority-minority
and minority–minority expression. Recent re-emergence of Hadhrami identity is visible in the
public sphere as a cohesive cultural group. This further begs the complex question on how a
separate identity can be envisaged for the Hadhrami without being lumped together with ‘other’
minority Muslim groups in Singapore. In short, evidence of Hadhrami representation is slowly
re-emerging. This inevitably challenges the status quo as they materialize into a ‘separate’
Muslim ethnic grouping within the larger multicultural society of Singapore.
KLEBE Dorit M.
Discussing the Specific Aspects and Problems in Interactive Communication Methods in
Musical Performance Practice of the Turkish Minority (Berlin Diaspora) in their Dynamic
Relations with the Predominant Society.
The Turkish minority in the Berlin Diaspora/FRG is a complex phenomenon. About fifty ethnic
groups of differing religious beliefs exist inside the national borders of their homeland Turkey.
Various interactions exist with the neighbouring cultural regions such as, the Balkans, the
Mediterranean and Arab countries, extending into Central Asia and India. Many, but not all, of
these influences are represented within the Turkish communities in Berlin and the FRG. In
addition to this diversity, new groups have emerged. We cannot refer to a monolithic or solid
unity; although some tendencies to encapsulation may be observed, for example among
specific radical youth groups. In Berlin, members of the Turkish communities live under very
specific conditions whilst maintaining individual dynamic interaction, as described in my
research in the field of “Urban Ethnomusicology since the 1970s.”
In my paper I focus on the aspects and problems of musical performance practise arising from
interactive collaboration in various cultural projects and music seminars at universities since the
1980s. Conducted with members of the Turkish communities, especially professional musicians
performing türk halk müziği ( traditional Turkish folk music), partly comprised from genres of
religious (Alevi) ceremonies; klâsik türk müziği/sanat müziği (Ottoman courtly music) – popular
Turkish art music and hybrid forms resulting from mixing pieces from the pre-mentioned areas
with occidental composition techniques, tone systems and western instruments. Recently, a
general feeling of irritation developed among musicians and individuals working in the
transmission of Turkish (music) culture due to the emergence of an international, global hybrid
music structure, characterised by strong amalgamations. On the basis of such music artefacts
as audio tracks and files, various questions arose. Such as, are orally transmitted “traditional”
pieces getting lost? What can be perceived as being “typically Turkish?” What is an “original?”
The desire to discuss forms of documentation; establishment of archives; create reliable
methods of heritage preservation; is present on the one hand. At the same time, the wish exists
for a “common voice” to be formed, to arrive at concepts in dialogic editing; to develop specific
techniques of music transcription; to record elements of micro areas and modules; to come to a
“definiens” with the purpose of determining invariants and variants; how to evaluate
interactively; to explore the development of “inventive” creations. The latter area belongs,
according to Bruno Nettl (2005), to the most difficult problems found in music. All the methods
to be discussed will be in the context of the pre-described areas and refer to musical
performance practice and not to global, holistic or universal philosophies.
LECHLEITNER Gerda
The Methodology Justifies the Methods.
The publications of the preceding Study Group Meetings feature a great number of manifold
perspectives. These include accounts of distinct minority communities and the role and type of
the music used, with the historical, political, social and religious implications as well as different
kinds of tradition or identity as discussed from the insider or outsider’s perspective. All in all,
these contributions mirror the aims and goals of the Study Group, which is simultaneously both
open - in the sense of approach, and restricted - by the topic.
This presentation will pick up the topic of Methodology and will offer a central, somewhat basic
approach: Fieldwork, “a hallmark of many social sciences, including anthropology and
ethnomusicology” (Myers 1992: 22). The Methodology, a guideline system for solving problems,
in this case the specific relationship between music and minorities, is grounded in fieldwork.
Fieldwork itself comprises different methods, such as sound and video recording, participant
observation or observant participation, communication and interviews etc. Different techniques
and tools allow for data collection and subsequent interpretation.
By way of example, some results will be analysed on the basis of three epistemic approaches
as used in the interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies: the first-person, the sub-personal
(or third-person) and the other-person approach (cf. Bakka & Karoblis 2010: 179 ff). When
discussing the Methodology of Fieldwork from those three points of view, the methods will
appear in a new light showing that sources and documentation serve as the basis for
knowledge enrichment in the field of music and minorities. Such an approach is intended to
lead to a more general result accompanied by theoretical understanding and worked out in
comprehensible and documented discourse.
Bakka, Egil & Gediminas Karoblis 2010. “Writing a Dance: Epistemology for Dance Research.”
Yearbook for Traditional Music 42: 167-193.
Myers, Helen. 1992. “Fieldwork.” In: Myers, Helen (ed.). Ethnomusicology: An Introduction.
London: Macmillan, 21-49.
MARKS Essica
Culture and Education: Musical and Cultural Aspects in Teaching Methods of Two Israeli
- Arab Music Teachers.
The existence of a large Arab minority in Israel lead to the establishment of two parallel
educational departments: one for Jews and one for Arabs. Both departments are part of the
Ministry of Education, but each has its own educational administration. In the last few years
there has been a considerable development of music programs in pre and elementary schools
in the Israeli-Arab educational system. This development is due to the accumulation of IsraeliArab graduates of academic music programs in universities, colleges and music academies in
Israel. Interviews with many of these graduates reveal that one of the main issues they are
concerned with is how to transmit to children the Arab musical culture, which they see as an
important base of Arab cultural identity.
The paper presented here will focus on two Israeli-Arab music teachers who are also lecturers
in an academic program of music teaching. Both have developed through their many years of
experience, their own methods and philosophies about music teaching, culture and identity.
The two teachers are trying to combine both the didactic aspect and the cultural aspect of
music education. The paper will describe and examine the different methods and ideas of these
two teachers and will try to address the general problems of cultural transmission of a minority
group in a nation-state and in a global world.
MUSZKALSKA Bozena
Musical Portraits of Jews in Movies Made in Poland
Movies on Jewish subjects were produced in Poland from the first decades of the 20 th century. Then
owners of most local film companies were Jews and initially these films were predominantly screen
adaptations of plays exhibited in Jewish theatres, with roots immersed in Jewish literature and folklore.
The paper will focus on films whose creators are involved in the discourse of the so called “salvage
ethnography.” This trend is related to a style of filmmaking that captures a civilization or people's former
way of living. It is, according to the James Clifford definition, an allegory of ethnographic writing where
the "other" construed as primitive or traditional, "is lost in disintegrating time and space".
Incidents performed in the films belonging in the category under consideration, do not fairly represent the
current Jewish way of life, but rather their "former majesty." Ritual and prayer, as well as dance scenes
(including a dance macabre, toytntants), are used as a canvas for the reconstruction of traditional Jewish
musical culture.
Musical scenes from two films “The Dybbuk” of 1937, and “Austeria” (The Inn) of 1982, will be analyzed
in terms of their connection with Jewish musical traditions. These films were produced under differing
historical circumstances. The first is “a kind of premonition of the elimination of Polish Jewry” and was
created by a director of Jewish origin, Michał Waszyński. The second movie was made, as stated by its
non-Jewish Polish director, Jerzy Kawalerowicz “to commemorate the Polish-Jewish people and culture
destroyed in the Holocaust.” Both films show a correlation with a famous play by S. Ansky also titled
“The Dybbuk”. Created between 1912-1919, it contains information about Jewish folklore gathered by the
author in his ethnographic expeditions in the years 1911 and 1914 in the Volhynia and Podolia areas.
NARODITSKAYA Inna
Two Jewish Minorities and Early Cinematography: A Historical Ethnomusicology
Perspective.
The first American “talkie,” “The Jazz Singer” (1927), and the first Soviet film musical, “Jolly
Fellows” (initially “Jazz Comedy,” 1934), both share an association with Jazz and Jews.
Produced by Jewish screenwriters and composers with Jewish lead actors both feature
Broadway type jazz. While the scholarship on both films encompasses issues of early
cinematography, popular music, race (American film), and the socialist agenda (Soviet), there
has been no comparative study made of the two films and their teams of filmmakers and their
link based in their cultural roots in the Jewish Pale of Settlement.
The American film focuses, via adaptation of an old Yiddish fable, on Jewish American
assimilation in the American jazz age; the Soviet movie shows a shepherd who learns to play
the violin from a Yiddish-speaking fiddler and somehow develops an affinity for jazz. The
American protagonist, born into a Russian Jewish cantor’s family, breaks away from four
generations of cantors and chooses the career of a jazz singer. Musically, the conflict between
father and son involves a shift between Russian classical music (Tchaikovsky) and American
pop. In the Russian film, a curious Russian peasant, migrating to the city, finds himself in
episodes suggestive of Busby Berkeley, Charlie Chaplin and experiences a New Orleans jazz
procession. Finales of the two films celebrate Jack Robin’s (Rabinowitz) debut on Broadway
and his counterpart’s under the Soviet insignia in the Bolshoi Theater. In this paper we explore
how these two cinematographic hits each signify their respective national agendas and quite
contrasting social aspirations of the time? And how they simultaneously convey the Jewish
story?
PETTAN Svanibor
ICTM and Music and Minorities: Historical and Contemporary Considerations
This introductory paper presents the circumstances, particularly in Europe and in its
ethnomusicological schools of thought within the last quarter of the 20th century, which led to
the establishment of the study group with focus on music and minorities. ICTM was for a
number of reasons, the most suitable host for this new research direction and the proposed
study group was approved at the 34th world conference in Nitra in 1997. Looking back fifteen
years later, it becomes clear that the study group made a major contribution and continues to
contribute to the systematic research of multifarious and intricate relations between music and
minorities, and that the interest in this focus is growing up in terms of the number of
researchers and their geographic distribution, theoretical frames and approaches. With more
than 300 members from all continents, it is the second largest and one of the most active study
groups within the umbrella of the ICTM.
NOWAK Teresa
The Role of Choirs and Songbooks in the Music Education of the Serbian Minority
Since the appearance in the 19th century of the choir movement and the organization of
Serbian Singing Fests, Serbian musical life has changed rapidly. Music is used to arouse and
establish an ethnic identity. The compositions (often composed especially for the Singing Fests)
and traditional songs (published in songbooks) serve to remind the Lusatians about their
Slavonic roots and reinforce their cultural identity. Today a choir can be found in nearly every
village with a predominant Serbian population and also in nearly every school. Music education
takes place for the most part in these choirs. Since the 19th century the main musical repertoire
has not changed. Even once orally transmitted traditional songs are now a fixed selection
preserved in songbooks. Of course nowadays, new compositions and arrangements are also
included but they are often similar in character and style to the older repertoire. Today the
works of the Serbian national composers are accepted as traditional Serbian music and not as
”artificial” music. Various questions arise: Why has the musical repertoire not changed over so
many years? Why are these 150 year-old ideas and methods of the national awakening still
relevant in the present day? These questions I will explore and hope to answer in my paper by
applying the method of historical perspective and by using my field research results (qualitative
interviews, discourse about music).
NOWAK Tomasz
The Function of Music in the Movies of Polish Jews during the Interwar Period
Poland was the only country in Europe which produced in the interwar period, several fulllength films in Yiddish (including ”Jidłmit'nfidl,” ”Frajliche Kobconim,” “Der Purymszpiler,” “The
Dybbuk,” “Tkijat Kaf,” “Mamełe,” “A Birwełeder mamen,” and ”Una Hejm”). In addition, a series
of short films were created, as well as Polish-language films with Jewish topics. However, the
movies in the Yiddish language are filled with music (including traditional music), which
provides essential and diverse functions.
The underlying reasons for the use of special musical emphasis are the movies’ topics. In
addition to the author’s intentions and the viewer’s expectations, the movies portray the culture
of Polish Jews. Music was used in films produced for Polish audiences similarly to the way
movies are produced for American audiences. There is a big difference in the function of music
in the movies made by theatrical film professionals to those movies made by the communists.
The aim of this paper is to show the various ways music is presented in Yiddish movies, its
functions, as well as the intentions of the film authors who were for the most part Polish Jews.
RODA Jessica
Heritization as a Tool for the Construction of the Nation: the Example of Judeo-Spanish
Musical Practices.
In any process of constructing a nation, understood as the nation-state or as imagined
communities (Anderson 2006), the heritization of objects and\or practices is indispensable.
Heritization helps the community to support the construction of its national identity by
establishing clearly recognizable elements, such as symbols, history, music, language, etc.
Thus, it is a process of making an inventory of the society, selecting, materializing, and finally
institutionalizing these objects and these practices to transform them into heritage, which then
becomes the carrier of national identity.
At the beginning of the 20th century during the Ottoman Empire crisis, the Jews of the region,
mainly Judeo-Spanish, began to construct an identity for the purpose of singularizing
themselves from any future national majority. In this process heritization was a central tool.
Proverbs, beliefs, history, and musical practices were heritized and identified as representative
of the Judeo-Spanish identity. In the case of musical practices, their music became a
dominating identity flag which has survived to the present day and is visible on several
international stages. How was such a process effectuated? How and why did the music
acquire such a prestigious position?
In this paper, I will highlight the means developed by the Judeo-Spanish to constitute their
musical heritage that will identify, what I dare to appoint, as the “Judeo-Spanish nation”. In
other words, I am proposing a track response to the problem of the definition of this music and
the way it was established. From this historic glance, I will emphasize the current contextual
significance of the process, which is marked by the considerable rise of “world music” on an
international scale.
Selective bibliography:
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AIU, (1913). Bulletin de l'Alliance Israélite Universelle. Vol. 38, p. 106.
Anderson, Benedict, [1983] (2006). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread
of nationalism. London; New York:Verso.
Babelon,Jean-Pierre; Chastel, André, (1994). La notion de patrimoine. Paris : Liana Levi, p. 49.
Benbassa, Esther, (2002). Histoire des Juifs sépharades. De Tolède à Salonique. Paris : Seuil,
p. 313-315.
Benbassa, Esther, (1992). Processus de modernisation en terre sépharade. La société juive à
travers l’histoire. (Shmuel Trigano, ed.). Tome 1, Paris : Fayard, p. 604-605.
Galante, Avram, (1940). Histoire des Juifs de Turquie. Vol. 2, Istanbul: Isis, p. 92-100.
Hobsbawm, Eric, (1991). Nations and Nationalism. Since 1780: programme, myth, reality.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Morisset, Lucie, K. (2009). Des régimes d'authenticité : essai sur la mémoire patrimoniale.
Rennes : Presses universitaires de Rennes, Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Passeron, Jean-Claude ; Revel, Jacques, (2005). Penser par cas. Paris: éditions de l’EHESS,
p. 9.
Puymaigre, Comte de, (1896). Notes sur un recueil de romances judéo-espagnoles. Revue des
Études Juives. Vol. 33, p.269-276.
Thiesse, Anne-Marie, (2001), [1999]. La création des identités nationales. Paris: Seuil.
Wiener, Leo, (1903). Songs of the Spanish Jews in the Balkan Peninsula. Modern philology.
Vol. 1, p. 205-216 ; 259-274.
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ROSS Sarah
Sense or Absence of Nationalism: Searching for a Swiss National Essence in Jewish
Music.
The Schweizersicher Israeitischer Gemeindebund (or SIG) states that in comparison to Eastern
Europe no distinct Jewish music making has ever emerged in Switzerland. In other words: there
is no Jewish music which has been influenced by Swiss folk music.
Only a few Jewish composers, such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy ("Schweizer Sinfonie,"
1823) and Rolf Liebermann ("Suite über Schweizer Volkslieder") processed a sliver of
indigenous folk music in their works. But this cannot be regarded as a profound synthesis of the
Swiss-national sound with specific Jewish music styles, as the SIG further argues.
The SIG’s appraisal may be explained by a lack of detailed ethnomusicological research on
Jewish (folk) music in Switzerland. Studies on Jewish music undertaken by local scholars
mainly refer to art music or questions pertaining to classical synagogue music. However, this
does not mean that there is no sense of a Swiss national identity among Jews in Switzerland
and in their music making. On the contrary: since World War II, and again, since the debate on
so-called Nazi Gold between the World Jewish Congress and Swiss Banks in the late 1990s,
Jewish communities as well as individual Jews have tried to construct a distinct Swiss-Jewish
identity. This symbiotic relationship between the Jewish and Swiss cultures is reflected in a
unique dialect called Surbtaler Jiddisch (Surbtal-Yiddish). Until the 19th century, Surbtal-Yiddish
was spoken by Jews living in Aargau, more precisely in the Jewish villages Endingen and
Lengnau. Although Surbtal-Yiddish is a dead-language that disappeared together with the
communities of Endingen and Lengnau, it has become central again within the context of the
Swiss-Jewish cultural and intellectual scene of the 1990s.
Against this background, the paper focuses on “original” as well as “newly invented” songs
written in Surbtal-Yiddish, in order to demonstrate how Swiss Jews – in their attachment to their
past and present culture – are trying to create not only a Swiss-Jewish national essence in their
music, but even more through a Swiss-Jewish minority nationalism. Thus, as far as possible,
the first part of the paper seeks to reconstruct the history of songs of the Jews of Endingen and
Lengnau. The second part gives a portrait of the Jewish singer-songwriter Denise Alvarez.
Denise lives in Berne and writes new Jewish songs in Surbtal-Yiddish. According to her, singing
songs in Surbtal-Yiddish means to combine her two mother cultures, namely Judaism and
Swiss German.
SCHWOERER-KOHL Gretel
The importance of Music Education in Cultural Identity of the Hmong people in Northern
Thailand
Throughout the kingdom of Thailand in many Hmong villages, the Thai national education
system has been introduced during the last thirty years. The Hmong children learn to speak,
read and write the Thai language. They get instruction in Buddhism and learn to sing Thai
songs and to play Thai musical instruments.
This curriculum, although helpful in the integration of the Hmong minority group into Thai
society, does endanger the Hmong sense of cultural identity; not only of the Hmong children,
but of the Hmong society as a whole. The children start to consider their language, their poetry,
their religion and their music as unimportant and are inclined to forget it. Conflicts with the
culture of the nation state arise as the Thai authorities also want the Hmong children to convert
to Buddhism. State schools can only provide some basic education. Fortunately in some
Hmong villages, at least part of the musical repertoire for the mouth-organ, ritual songs in
animated ceremonies, and music for use in shamanism sessions are handed down traditionally.
With support from their community and private families famous masters (professional or semiprofessional musicians also working as farmers and or musical instrument makers) will teach
their sons, nephews, or other male relatives about their musical traditions and practice. For
many centuries they have followed their own way of teaching and only a few Thai people can
appreciate the power of the Hmong culture. Some like the sound of the mouth-organ; especially
its unique timbre and integrate the traditional Hmong funeral music into their popular-music. In
the Northern capital of Chiang Mai, Hmong music is performed for tourists.
Nowadays the majority of Hmong people live in China. There are also Hmong communities in
France, Canada, the United States and South America; diasporas formed by the refugees of
the Vietnam War. A lively internet exchange among Hmong clans all over the world has
developed and also focuses on their music. If a particular piece of music is needed for a special
ceremony, it is sent via the internet. In rare cases even musicians will be sent. This lively
interchange of music and musicians will be discussed my paper.
SHISHKINA Elena
The Rise of a Cultural Identity in Muslims of the Astrakhan in the Lower Volga region.
The Astrakhan area today is a platform for growing contacts between Europe and Asia, and
acts as a powerful transmitter of cultural ideas. The Eurasian content of the region is intensified
by its nearest neighbor the Caucasus, originally a cradle of major cultures in European and
world civilizations. The Astrakhan is characterized by ethnic and religious diversity; there are
more than 100 ethnic groups and 30 religious sects united into 193 communities. These include
the Russian Orthodox Church (74 communities); Muslim (58 communities); Buddhist (4
communities); Jewish (1 community); Catholic (2 communities). The Astrakhan regional
population is approximately 1 million people; half of which are made up of: Muslims; Tartars;
Kazakhs; Dagestanians; Chechens; Azeri and others
The cultural roots, values and essential differences of other cultures have always been
important to the Astrakhan Muslims. In the Astrakhan area the ethnic groups of the Kazakhs
(149,415 or 16.3%) and the Tartars (60,503 or 6.6%) make up the most significant ethnic
minorities. They have to a great extent, retained and are steadily reviving elements of their
traditional spiritual and religious culture. Chechens who recently appeared in the area have
increased the Muslim presence. Their number throughout Russia is about 1.5 million, of which
7,224 reside in the Astrakhan area. Though their quantity is relatively small, this ethnic
minority’s influence on cultural life of the area is steadily increasing.
The Muslim minorities living in Astrakhan have quite different mentalities to the Chechens:
neither the Astrakhan Tartars nor the Kazakhs have been exiled from their territories; they have
their own states and keep friendly contacts with the respective republics. Tolerant relations
between the Astrakhan Muslim religious leaders and the Russian Orthodox Church were
established as far back as the 16th century. Revival of Orthodoxy as the leading belief is taken
by most ethnic minorities in the Lower Volga area as a natural phenomenon.
Muslim festivals such as “Novrus” and “Sabantuy” with their elements of ethnic ritual, vocal and
dancing culture have been actively revived as public celebrations in the Astrakhan region.
Material elements of Muslim tradition have become more and more important in everyday life
here, such as. eating horse meat and wearing the tuybeteika – an embroidered skull cap for
Tartars, and the attire of the female national dress in public for Chechens.
My paper focuses on material collected by the author in archives and expeditions during 19742012 in the various settlements of the Astrakhan and Volgograd region, Krasnodarsky and
Stavropolsky krai, in Dagestan and the Chechen Republic. Included are photos and videos.
SOKOLOVA Alla
Film 'Learn Yourself' 30 minutes
Author Alla Sokolova, producer Svetlana Khushu
The first Kurds appeared in the Adygheya Republic (Russia) in 1988. In the 1989 population
census in their number was recorded at 262 persons. Today their number has increased to
5000. By 2011, some Russian villages of Krasnogvardeysky region have become compact
Kurdish settlements. The cultural distance between the Kurds and the prevalent social
environment has proved to be so considerable thatit has generated manysocial conflicts. As a
result, a sociocultural opposition of “our people” vis a vis “the strangers” has evolved. “Our
people” are the Russian and the Adyghes, belonging to different religious faiths. The Adygheya
Kurds remain a closed community and their social adaptation is painful and difficult.The
concept of the film “Learn Yourself” is based in the author’s perception of the cultural isolation
of the Adygheya Kurds, and the consequential detrimental effect it has on their society and that
of the original host community; its inability to promote a socially healthy society. Music, dance
and traditional culture are amongst the important tools of adjustment and constructive
intercultural contacts between migrants and a receptive host. This concept is apparent in
interviews conducted with officials, religious leaders, and common folk. The film encourages
the importance of open dialogue and contact between both parties - migrant and host
community. Only in this way will cultural dialogue, understanding and stability prevail in the
region. The film shows the traditional dances and ceremonies of the Kurds of Adygheya. The
film was made specifically for the Seventh Symposium of the Study Group "Music and
Minorities."
SOLOMON Tom
Ethnic and Racial Stereotypes in American Cartoons
From their very inception, American cartoons have made extensive use of racial stereotypes in
both image and sound. While “Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid,” the featured character of the earliest
Looney Tunes cartoon shorts (whose screen career ran from 1929 to 1938), was explicitly
defined as a “Negro boy,” the combination of physical appearance and characterization of
many other early cartoon characters can also be interpreted as barely-disguised variations on
the blackface “darky” and “coon” stereotypes that developed out of nineteenth-century
American minstrelsy. The music of these early cartoons was also marked as black in various
ways, drawing extensively on the early jazz that was popular at the time, as well earlier
minstrelsy and ragtime traditions. The practices of ethnic and racial stereotyping through the
interaction of image and sound in early cartoons set a precedent that continues to this day, with
a trajectory beginning in the 1920s and continuing through such infamous racial
representations such as: the “Indians” in Walt Disney’s “Peter Pan” (1954); and the Caribbean
patois-speaking anthropomorphized sea creatures of “The Little Mermaid” (1989).
This paper provides an initial exploration of sonic ethnic stereotyping in American animated
films. I draw on examples from over eighty years of cartoon productions in order to one:
document the varieties of musical stereotyping used in cartoons; and two: suggest some initial
theorizations about how music and animated images work together to create these stereotypes.
I argue that, as multimedia cultural texts, cartoons draw on a set of complexly intersecting
representations of race (phenotype/physical appearance), gender, language, geography, and
other culturally defined tropes of behavior to create characters that embody racial and ethnic
stereotypes, and that music plays a particularly important role in these representations.
TERADA Yoshitaka
A Circulatory Flow of Indian Music and Minority Nationalism
The large-scale movement of people is one of the tangible effects of globalization. The
migration of people from South Asia and their settlement in North America and Europe has
increased sharply since the 1960s, and the US alone has more than 2 million people of Indian
descent today. In this paper, I will take up the example of South Indian classical music and
dance which are actively practiced by people of Indian and Sri Lankan origin in North America
and England. I will analyze the roles of music and dance in transmitting cultural values and
nationalistic sentiments to the next generation and in negotiating their ethnic identity in the
multicultural contexts of their respective host society.
In doing so, I will propose an analytical model of the “circulatory flow” between the homeland
and Diaspora communities, which are now so intimately and inseparably connected with each
other that it is no longer viable to conceive music and dance as simply spreading from their
place of origin to the Diaspora. The strong interests in Indian music and dance among Diaspora
Indians and Sri Lankan Tamils have generated closer contacts between India and these
communities, through concert tours and migrations of Indian musicians, long-distance teaching
through internet and performances in India by Disapora musicians and dancers. The music and
dance as practiced in India have been in turn affected by the increasing presence of NRIs
(Non-Resident Indians) and overseas Sri Lankan Tamils in terms of repertoire, language and
manner of performance.
Finally, I will assess the implications of this emerging global network in studying minority
nationalisms and suggest the ways in which Indian music and dance can be studied in this
circulatory model.
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WEICH-SHAHAK Susana
A Requiem to Musical Oral Tradition? The Sephardic Communities – a Case Study.
This paper, based on my own observations during the last three decades, will offer open
questions about the relationship between a community’s musical tradition and its bearers,
performers and listeners. I will consider how the individual sees, evaluates, knows and
transmits musical tradition inherited from their older generation. Questions and observations
such as those posed in this paper, may be applied nowadays in many countries in which the
phenomenon of migrant communities is present, due to the active mobility of people from less
developed countries who are driven by poverty moving into more promising regions. Studying
the music of the Sephardi Jews as a case study, we may even consider the pertinence of the
concept of tradition in other societies with resident and not migrant communities, both rural and
urban. The examples to be presented as illustrations are DVD recordings from my own fieldwork.