Monthly Archives: May 2016

City Students at the 3rd Westminster-Goldsmiths Symposium for Student Research in Popular Music

By Rachel Cunniffe, MA Music Student

On Friday 20th May, fellow MA student Michael Alloway and I attended the 3rd Westminster-Goldsmiths Symposium for Student Research in Popular Music. Located at the University of Westminster’s Marylebone Campus, the event was hosted by Chris Kennett (Westminster) and Tom Perchard (Goldsmiths, University of London). The day comprised a series of presentations from both Masters and PhD students, including City University’s Steve Wilford, and also featured a fascinating talk by Anthony Farsides, Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster. It was extremely interesting to hear a selection of forthcoming research in the field of popular music studies.

The opening session focused on ‘Industry and Mediation’ and included presentations on the mediation between managers and emerging popular musicians (Olivia Gable, Open University), the relationship between the two record labels, Mute and Some Bizarre (Leon Clowes, Goldsmiths) and a history of the ‘Golden Age’ of the Columbian recording industry (Lucas Mateo Guingue Valencia, Westminster). The first session was concluded by Anthony Farsides, who presented his research on pop stars and brand patronage. Using recent figures as evidence, he noted the ways in which the contemporary music industry is heavily reliant on global stars such as Adele and Ed Sheeran, and discussed the increasing use of non-music brands such as Burberry for the advertisement and exposure of new artists.

The second morning session was entitled ‘Politics and Performance’ and featured an exploration of PJ Harvey’s Revolving Wheel as ‘political assemblage’ (Jacob Downs, Oxford), followed by a discussion of masculine identity in hip-hop, which focused on the work of Kanye West (Carl Emery, Keele).

After lunch, papers were given on the social motivations behind the purchase and collection of Vinyl (Pete Gofton, Goldsmiths), music and meaning in the Algerian community in London (Steve Wilford, City University London), the influence of Louis Armstrong on Django Reinhardt (Jeremiah Spillane, Goldsmiths) and finally, a proposal of an ‘environment-based connective model’ which will bridge the music industry and academia (Max Cervellino, Westminster).

Steve Wilford presenting his paper

Steve Wilford presenting his paper

The final session focused on gender. Here Katrina Fuschillo (UEA) outlined the early stages of her research on contemporary listening practices and musical tastes of ‘working-class women and teenage girls’, and this was followed by a discussion of the representation of women in Bob Dylan’s Tarantula (Sara Martinez, Lancaster).

Many thought-provoking ideas were raised throughout an enjoyable and interesting day.

‘Soundspaces of the Middle East and Central Asia: Exploring the Intersection of Sound Studies and Ethnomusicology in the Middle East and Central Asia’

by Rachel Cunniffe, MA Music Student

On Friday 13th May 2016, the Middle East and Central Asia Music Forum was hosted by the Music Department at City University, in conjunction with the Institute of Musical Research. Convened by Dr Laudan Nooshin, this twice-yearly event has been running since 2007 and is open to researchers, students and anyone interested in the music and culture of the region.

The event was attended by over 60 people, and current research projects were presented by both scholars and research students. The morning session was opened by Meri Kyotö (University of Tampere, Finland), who examined the dynamics of private and common soundscapes in Istanbul. Ruard Absaroka (PhD student, SOAS) and Rachel Harris (SOAS) then presented their work on the Islamic soundscapes of contemporary China. In the second morning session, Rachel Beckles Willson (Royal Holloway) focused on interpreting and situating sound-making involving the  oud (Arabic lute), followed by a screening of the documentary film Telling Strings (Anne-Marie Heller, Switzerland, 2007).

After lunch, a roundtable discussion explored the opportunities and challenges offered by the ‘intersection of sound studies and ethnomusicology’ in the region, generation some lively discussion. The session was chaired by Katherine Butler Schofield (King’s College London) and included the following speakers: Aaron Einbond (City University London), Jason Stanyek (University of Oxford), Elizabeth Tolbert (Johns Hopkins University) and Abigail Wood (University of Haifa).

The final session of the day included a presentation by Abigail Wood on the soundscape of Jerusalem’s Western Wall, a ‘seamline’ of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Stefan Williamson Fa (PhD student, UCL) on Shi’ite Muslim soundscapes in Northeastern Anatolia. The day concluded with Laudan Nooshin talking about her work on the soundscapes of Tehran, Iran, and presenting a paper on behalf of Mohsen Shahrnazdar (Iranian Institute of Anthropology and Culture) on his Tehran Soundscapes Project.

All in all, this was a very stimulating and thought-provoking day.

http://www.city.ac.uk/events/2016/may/middle-east-and-central-asia-music-forum

Ruard Absaroka and Rachel Harris (SOAS)

Ruard Absaroka and Rachel Harris (SOAS)

Meri Kyto (University of Tampere, Finland)

Meri Kyto (University of Tampere, Finland)

Coffee Time

Coffee Time

Roundtable Discussion

Roundtable Discussion

 

 

AHRC Cultural Engagement researcher Andrew Pace talks about his work with a collection of British and Irish folk music

Since January – as an Arts and Humanities Research Council Cultural Engagement Fellow – I’ve been cataloguing a collection of paper files at the British Library that belonged to Peter Kennedy (1922–2006), a renowned collector of British and Irish traditional music and customs. His archive spans roughly 1600 open reel tapes (around half of which are his own field recordings), 1500 photographs and 170 boxes of correspondence and song texts – a vast collection!

Whilst trawling through Peter’s papers, I discovered a number of reports he had written in the 1950s that detail his daily activities when he was travelling the UK and Ireland recording hundreds of traditional performers, including Harry Cox, Margaret Barry, Fred Jordan and the McPeake family. I realised that these detailed reports would provide an ideal focal point for a website which would collate and contextualise all of the material from his collection that I have helped the British Library to digitise over the past few years:

www.peterkennedyarchive.org

Here, Peter’s reports can be scrolled through as interactive images, where clicking on a performer’s name reveals related sound recordings and photographs from his collection. Links to currently undigitised recordings in the Library’s catalogue are also present. This simple interface holds a large amount of information, but presents it in a way that encourages its discovery rather than relying on users navigating it by text searches.

Encouraging users to explore the collection in this way also draws attention to Peter Kennedy as a collector – a narrative that is easily lost in the impersonality of library catalogue systems, but is one which lies at the heart of this collection. As an ethnomusicologist, I find these kind of insights into Peter’s fieldwork methodologies fascinating.

However, interest in Peter’s work is not limited to academics, but extends to practicing musicians, too. It’s hoped that this site will stimulate musicians and researchers to continue to engage with his work and to explore the large amount of material that hasn’t yet made it onto my website.

Peter Kennedy Records Edgar Allington in Weeting, Suffolk, 1955

Peter Kennedy Records Edgar Allington in Weeting, Suffolk, 1955

Andrew Pace completed his BMus and MA at City University London and has recently completed a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Manchester.