On the relationship between performance and intangible cultural heritage

This chapter deliberately ranges across disciplines because we wish to move towards a better understanding of the notion of performance in relation to ICH, where both terms are inherently transdisciplinary. We fi rst examine the concept of performance as it is understood in Theatre and Performance Studies, focussing on those aspects which are pertinent to ICH – embodiment, liminality and effi cacy. Second, we turn to Heritage Studies and outline how ideas of and about performance shape our understanding of heritage and its sociocultural dimensions. Thirdly, and fi nally, we investigate aspects of the tension between the performance of and the research on ICH through the lens of ethnomusicology, a discipline that is shaped by the tensions between the wealth of tacit cultural knowledge acquired by learning to perform works of ICH and the need to communicate such knowledge in research outputs

Valuing and evaluating musical practice as research in ethnomusicology and its implications for research assessment

In this article, we argue that ethnomusicology holds valuable epistemic insights for considering how to measure and evaluate research for academics, as well as for research policy and management professionals. We focus on two notable instances of standardised national research assessment frameworks: the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF), and Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) and identify the advantages of practice as research models for music research by considering the benefits of ethnomusicology’s reflexive and relativist methodologies to formal research assessment processes. To support our argument, we refer to published case studies of ethnomusicological research that reach beyond Western practice and thought to highlight the advantages recognising practice as research as a more inclusive modality of original knowledge production. We call upon ethnomusicologists to pro-actively engage with the formal processes of research assessment to make them more equitable and representative of our discipline’s broad commitment to decolonising academic practice

Scottish competition bagpipe performance : sound, mode and aesthetics

This study is an ethnomusicological analysis of Scottish competition bagpiping, examining three fundamental aspects of performance: sound aesthetics, performance aesthetics and the modal complex of the core repertoire. Through a mixture of discussions, modal analysis and reflections upon performance, it deconstructs the music of the 2/4 competition pipe march and the aesthetics surrounding competition performance. Focussing on a small number of the world’s leading Highland bagpipers, this research demonstrates how overall sound combined with the individual choices about repertoire and how to play it, results in the maintenance of individual identity. In chapter three, analysis of the ‘modal complex’, comprising pitch sets, hierarchies, phrasing-structure, the double-tonic, structural tones, melodic motifs and rhythm-contour motifs reveal the characteristics of various modes in the 2/4 competition pipe march. As an insider of this music-culture, I offer a definition of mode based upon motivic content rather than pitch set. The modal complex is framed by an understanding of how pipers themselves think about their competitive tradition. Understanding the concepts presented in this thesis provides an original and holistic picture of how Scottish bagpipe competition performance sounds the way it does