Abstracts - American Musicological Society

34 Thursday Afternoon: Session 1- 30
AMS/SEM/SMT New Orleans 2012
the intersubjective experience of music as a mutual “tuning in” (Schutz, 1977[1951]; Porcello, 1998) to others through a concurrent
experience of internal-time consciousness. The present moment is built upon retention of the moments preceding it and
a protention of the expected moments to come. This results in an experience of duration and time that is malleable, and that
is a prime site for the creation of meaning. In the case of the Irish singing session the interactive experience of the moment is
one that is full of participatory discrepancies in the form of different tempos, pitches, and vocal qualities. Consequently this
paper will address how this shared moment in song is experienced both individually and collectively, and how this experience
shapes conceptions of performative time awareness for Irish traditional singers.
Filling the Space: Field Hollers and the Social Role of Singers in African-American Communities
Gianpaolo Chiriacò (University of Salento, Italy)
Field hollers have been commonly deemed as a primary step in the historical evolution of African-American music. Nevertheless,
the topic has never received the appropriate consideration. Some opinions regarding field hollers (such as their
influence on blues) became widely accepted ideas, even though some prominent scholars were skeptical about them. As Paul
Oliver’s definition suggests, field hollers established a relationship between voice and space. Following some pioneer studies on
this relationship (by literary historians like Paul Zumthor and philosophers like Adriana Cavarero), my aim is at proving that
field hollers implied a specific use of singing voice in the African-American context: not only a means of communication but
also a peculiar means of self-expression. They constitute a specific combination of self-expression in English and musical figures
related to their African origins: what Olly Wilson called “intensifiers”. Furthermore, nineteenth century sources—such as
descriptions of corn-shucking ceremonies—prove that the social role of the most talented hollers-singers was prominent. They
were acting as leaders of a community and they were allowed to talk to white people on its behalf. In other words, their voices
were heard, recognized and accepted. In conclusion, analyzing the evolution of field hollers leads to a better understanding of
the social role of singers in the development of African-American communities. As Walter Ong claimed: “Because of the very
nature of sound as such, voice has a kind of primacy in the formation of true communities of men”.
Session 1-30 (SEM), 1:45–3:45
Film Session
Songs of the New Arab Revolutions: A Collaborative Documentary Film by Members of the Society
for Arab Music Research and Members of the Facebook Group “Songs of the New Arab Revolutions”
Michael Frischkopf (University of Alberta, Edmonton), Organizer
Laith Ulaby (Independent Scholar), Jonathan Shannon (Hunter College, City University of New York)
Music has not usually been understood as playing an active role in the grand moments of modern history. Yet, throughout
the new Arab revolutions, from the onset of the Tunisian uprising, to ongoing struggles in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere, music
has consistently demonstrated its critical power to galvanize sentiment and mobilize civil society. Likewise, Arab political
establishments have used music as an ideological tool for maintaining authority. In both cases music-in a wide array of
styles—has played an active role in the unfolding of the Arab Spring. In June 2011 a Facebook group “Songs of the New Arab
Revolutions” was founded, harnessing the power of social media to document and disseminate videos representing musical
dimensions of these social movements. A filmmaking collective is presently creating a documentary film out of this Facebook
archive, now including over 100 videos. Guided by the three presenters, each member of this collective is identifying a theme
(e.g. “folk music”, “street protests”, “style”, “gender”) and editing a short illustrative segment, which the presenters will arrange
into a film sifting, summarizing, and analyzing the phenomenon. This project is methodologically groundbreaking for: (a)
drawing exclusively on an online archive assembled through social media; (b) catalyzing collaborative filmmaking among ethnomusicologists
and community activists. The three presenters will introduce the project (15 minutes), show the film (1 hour),
and lead discussion about the phenomenon, the film, and the method, exploring its wider implications for technologically
mediated ethnomusicological engagement with current events and communities beyond academia (45 minutes).