Lessons Learned, Questions Raised: Writing a History of Ethnomusicology in Canada (II)

Dans la foulée du débat de l’article de James Robbins (paru dans un no du Journal de l’an dernier), Beverley Diamond se penche sur les problèmes de définition et de délimitation, une question qui a surgi lors de la préparation de l’article conjoint avec Robbins sur V'Ethnomusicologie”, pour la deuxième édition de V Encyclopédie de la musique au Canada. Plus particulièrement, Diamond pose un regard critique sur les acceptions d’ethnomusicologie, d’ethnomusicologues et même de Canada, telles qu’elles ont pu être délimitées à travers les siècles

MacEdward Leach and the songs of Atlantic Canada

This essay describes a website that brought the earliest audio recordings made in Atlantic Canada to the attention of scholars, singers, and cultural historians: MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada (http://www.mun.ca/folklore/leach). Among the many collections of traditional song that have been made in Newfoundland and Labrador, there was until 2004 a noticeable gap in their accessibility. Collections by Karpeles (1970), Greenleaf and Mansfield (1965 [1933]), Peacock (1965), and Lehr (1985)--as well as Leach's Labrador collection (1966)--were published in print editions, and selections from Peacock (1956) were released on LP, but the earliest audio recordings made on the islands of Cape Breton and Newfoundland by American folklorist MacEdward Leach were largely unknown.1 His collections are important not only for their size but also for their geographic and generic range.Not

A critical narrative analysis of shared decision-making in acute, inpatient mental health care

Shared decision-making (SDM) is a high priority in healthcare policy and is complementary to the recovery philosophy in mental health care. This agenda has been operationalised within the Values-Based Practice (VBP) framework, which offers a theoretical and practical model to promote democratic interprofessional approaches to decision-making. However, these are limited by a lack of recognition of the implications of power implicit within the mental health system. This study considers issues of power within the context of decision-making and examines to what extent decisions about patients? care on acute in-patient wards are perceived to be shared. Focus groups were conducted with 46 mental health professionals, service users, and carers. The data were analysed using the framework of critical narrative analysis (CNA). The findings of the study suggested each group constructed different identity positions, which placed them as inside or outside of the decision-making process. This reflected their view of themselves as best placed to influence a decision on behalf of the service user. In conclusion, the discourse of VBP and SDM needs to take account of how differentials of power and the positioning of speakers affect the context in which decisions take place

Ethnomusicology Matters:Influencing Social and Political Realities

This book gathers international voices from the field of ethnomusicology discussing the socio-political relevance of the discipline. The articles draw from contemporary discourses that take into account the role of music and dance in shaping social and political realities. An important field connected to political relevance is heritage, either in connection with the UNESCO or with archives. Ontologies of indigenous groups and their relevance in knowledge production is discussed in ethnomusicology nowadays as well as the possibilities of decolonising the discipline. Two articles from ethno-choreology explore dance from the gender perspective and in the post-socialist political structures. Different approaches from applied ethnomusicology deal with social justice, participatory dialogical practice, and the socio-political relevance of performance. Forced migration is seen as comprehensive topic for future ethnomusicology. The contents of the book mirror influential discourses of ethnomusicology today that will definitely shape the future development of the discipline

The New Generation Atlas of Quasar Spectral Energy Distributions from Radio to X-rays

We have produced the next generation of quasar spectral energy distributions (SEDs), essentially updating the work of Elvis et al. (1994) by using high-quality data obtained with several space and ground-based telescopes, including NASA's Great Observatories. We present an atlas of SEDs of 85 optically bright, non-blazar quasars over the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to X-rays. The heterogeneous sample includes 27 radio-quiet and 58 radio-loud quasars. Most objects have quasi-simultaneous ultraviolet-optical spectroscopic data, supplemented with some far-ultraviolet spectra, and more than half also have Spitzer mid-infrared IRS spectra. The X-ray spectral parameters are collected from the literature where available. The radio, far-infrared, and near-infrared photometric data are also obtained from either the literature or new observations. We construct composite spectral energy distributions for radio-loud and radio-quiet objects and compare these to those of Elvis et al., finding that ours have similar overall shapes, but our improved spectral resolution reveals more detailed features, especially in the mid and near-infrared.Comment: 46 pages, 10 figures, 10 tables, Accepted by ApJS. Composite SED data files for radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars (rlmsedMR.txt, rqmsedMR.txt) are included in the source (Other formats -> Source). Supplemental figures are not include

What's the Difference? Reflections on Discourses of Morality, Modernism, and Mosaics in the Study of Music in Canada

In different periods of Canadian cultural history, social difference has been articulated by means of discourses of morality, modernism, or mosaics (among others). Each realm of discourse has negotiated various fields of tension between, for instance, the local and the global, tradition and hybridity, or mediated and live performance. These fields of tension are not easily apparent unless we compare discourses relating to different genres of music and sociomusical spheres. The ways in which Canadian ethnomusicology has been complicit with strategies of "managing difference" become clearer with such analysis. Possible post-colonial strategies for empowering voices of difference are also considered in relation to Canadian studies