“Global Musics and Musical Communities” builds from the question of how certain types of music travel and lead to the formation of new musical communities around the world. Genres such as hip-hop, gamelan, and taiko are examples of musical genres that have become global in the past century. These genres are regularly performed in locales that may have little or no connection to the genre’s country of origin. While cross-cultural musical interaction is neither novel nor surprising, the widespread transmission of these genres to musical communities around the world beginning in the late twentieth century is nonetheless remarkable. Although many important studies of global musics consider how music has traveled via structures of Western imperialism, media technologies, and along diasporic paths, very few have actually engaged in trying to understand the musical reasons as to why certain musical genres move with apparent ease. Indeed, there are certain musics that compel people—who may have little or no connection to the genre’s origin—not just to listen to, but also to learn and perform such genres.
Day One
Charles E. Young Grand Salon (Kerckhoff Hall)
- 1 pm – Registration
- 1:30pm – Donna Kwon Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Kentucky, “Sustaining Communities of Protest through Korean P’ungmul Drumming”
- 2:00pm– Adriana Helbig Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh, “Hip Hop’s Trope of Revolution”
- 2:30pm– Patricia Tang Associate Professor of Music, MIT, “Representing Rambax/Rambax Represents”
- 3:00pm– Deborah Wong Professor of Ethnomusicology, UC Riverside, Title TBA
- 3:30pm– Henry Spiller Professor of Ethnomusicology, UC Davis, “The Hereness of the There: Making Sense of Gamelan in the United States”
- 4:00pm– Coffee break
- 4:30pm – Keynote Presentation by Michael Tenzer : Professor of Ethnomusicology. University of British Columbia , “Narrowing the Aperture: Focus on Cyclic Music”
Schoenberg Hall
- 8pm – Performance by Red Sun/SamulNori (Korean percussion/jazz collaboration featuring Kim Duk Soo, Wolfgang Puschnig, and Jamaaladeen Tacuma)
Concert by Red Sun/SamulNori, a Korean percussion/jazz collaboration that began in 1987. Features master percussionist Kim Duk Soo from South Korea (founder of the samul nori genre), renowned jazz saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig from Austria, legendary bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma of Philadelphia, and percussionists from SamulNori Hanullim. Red Sun/SamulNori has released several recordings and the ensemble has performed in Europe and in Asia. The “Global Musics and Musical Communities” concert marks their debut performance in the United States
Visit the UCLA Center for Musical Humanities website for more information, including a schedule of events and their locations.
With support from the Center for Musical Humanities and the Department of Ethnomusicology, this interdisciplinary event will be held on May 10-11, 2019 at UCLA. “Global Musics” includes an academic conference, an evening musical performance, and music workshops. The event places music/performance analysis in conversation with global music genres. The objective of the conference is to bring together a community of scholars, music pedagogues, and musicians to explore how and why specific musical genres travel outside their countries of origin and lead to the formation of new musical communities.