Abstracts - American Musicological Society

4 Thursday Morning: Session 1- 4
AMS/SEM/SMT New Orleans 2012
potential publics are imagined and represented in the rehearsals of an amateur ensemble for Turkish Art Music in Berlin,
Germany. Drawing on participant observation at rehearsals and concerts, as well as interviews with ensemble members, I will
argue that the activity of rehearsing enables participants in this ensemble to imagine themselves as members of multiple publics,
as well as to situate the ensemble itself as a form of public-making. I will argue that this process of public-making through
rehearsing is crucial to understanding the political context of musical practice for Turkish Germans in Berlin, where the
formation of publics is deeply intertwined with local constructions of ethnic, religious, and musical difference. By imagining
multiple forms of local, national, and diasporic publics through the practices of rehearsing, performers of Turkish Art Music in
Berlin can craft varied interventions in struggles over the representation of identity and citizenship in contemporary Germany.
Rehearsing the Social: Becoming a Performer in Kampala’s Classical Music Scene
Suzanne Wint (University of Chicago)
Methodologically, rehearsals are some of the most fruitful spaces for ethnomusicological research; yet monographs prioritize
the performance or ritual over the rehearsal, despite the critique that studies of the everyday (de Certeau, De Nora, Berger
and Del Negro) have levied upon ritual studies. In practices in which improving a sound product for public consumption is
a goal, the rehearsal is often overshadowed. In this paper, I shift the focus to the rehearsal as an important space of socialization,
both in terms of learning to be part of a performance tradition, and attending to social bonds important to the local
performance scene. By examining the case of Western art music performance in Kampala (Uganda), I show how practitioners
use the space of the rehearsal to rehearse the etiquette of classical performance, the presentation of oneself within boundaries
of appropriate behavior for the performing group, and the cultivation of relationships of reciprocal obligation so important
within society beyond the rehearsal. Specifically, I consider a number of ethnographic moments in rehearsals with Christ the
King 10 O’Clock Choir that highlighted what the group considered proper interaction between conductor and choir, choir
and audience, between members, and between musicians of different performing groups.
Recording Rehearsing: The Hidden “Process of the Classical Studio Session”
Gregory Weinstein (University of Chicago)
Western classical music recordings provide a complete and continuous interpretation of a musical work. However, the
record’s apparent linearity obscures the complex musical processes and collaborations involved in producing that rendition.
These processes include fixing mundane technical details, as well as instances of musicians and recordists collaborating to
work out musical ideas and interpretations. Moreover, the technological features of the recording studio allow musical collaborators
to refine or alter their interpretations. Musicians have the opportunity to listen back to a recording and adjust
their performance accordingly; they can discuss the musical work and benefit from the feedback of colleagues; and recordists
have the ability to edit a convincing and “continuous” interpretation during post-production. This paper will consider these
“hidden” elements of classical record production as a part of a multi-linear rehearsal process through which a musical work is
brought into linear existence on record. I will draw on my experiences at a variety of classical recording sessions in the United
Kingdom in order to demonstrate how a musician’s concept of a work can change dramatically during the course of a recording
session, and how such shifts in interpretation are usually uniquely mediated by the studio environment. By considering
the recording process as a rehearsal where musicians and recordists can experiment musically and technologically, we can shed
new light on conventional notions of the musical work and the nature of musical collaboration.
Session 1-4 (SEM), 8:30–10:30
Cultural Authority and Music: Historical Questions from the Middle East and Central Asia
Ann E. Lucas (Brandeis University), Chair
Music and Authority: The Changing Function of Music Under the Safavid Dynasty, 1501–1722
Ann E. Lucas (Brandeis University)
In the literature on Persian music, the Safavid Dynasty is often depicted as overseeing a period of drastic musical decline
(for instance, Mashun 2003, Zonis 1973). Yet there is no actual evidence that either musical performances or consumption of
music were curtailed under the Safavids. In fact, the Safavids memorialized their own music patronage in many visible ways,
including a codex of musical writings compiled by imperial decree towards the end of their reign. In this paper, I will look at
the changing place of music in the Safavid Empire. I analyze both song texts collections and music treatises from the Safavid
codex, as well as musical writings from their dynastic predecessors, the Timurids, in order to demonstrate that music took
on new significance within the Safavid’s gunpowder empire, rather than simply declining. As divine monarchs, the Safavids
sought to project a new kind of divine greatness at every opportunity. Thus, more music set out to convey the omnipotence of