Doppia possessione, doppia inversione: breve storia di una coppia in Marocco

In Meknes over the last decade a couple consisting of a man possessed by a female spirit and a woman possessed by a male spirit has established themselves in the context of spirit possession. The events comprising their individual life stories and marital relationship are extraordinarily closely integrated with their experiences with the world of the invisible. The alliance with the spirits provides a picture of their personal drama, which unfolds around their daily lives and ritual activities, and is also proposed to the wider community of adepts in possession cults as proof of their expertise as rites officiants. Hamid is possessed by a female spirit, Lalla Malika, which makes him a specially qualified officiant of female possession rites. Iman is possessed by David, a Jewish spirit, which gives her a double otherness, of both gender and religious affiliationA Meknes nel corso dell’ultimo decennio una coppia composta da un uomo posseduto da uno spirito femminile e da una donna posseduta da uno spirito maschile si è affermata nell’ambiente della possessione spiritica. Gli eventi di cui si compongono le loro storie individuali – e, con essi, la storia della loro relazione coniugale – sono inestricabilmente integrati con le loro esperienze con il mondo dell’invisibile. L’alleanza con gli spiriti fornisce un quadro del loro dramma personale, che si dispiega intorno al loro vissuto quotidiano e alle loro attività rituali, ed è anche proposta all’ampia comunità degli adepti ai culti spiritici come garanzia della loro competenza di officianti dei riti. Hamid è posseduto da uno spirito femminile, Lalla Malika: il che fa di lui un officiante specialmente qualificato dei riti di possessione delle donne. Iman è posseduta da David, uno spirito ebraico, che le conferisce una doppia alterità, sia di genere che di appartenenza religiosa

Zhang Yifei’s Notebooks: Contributions to Transnational Music Teaching

The aim of this paper is the presentation of reflections on the main issues that arose in the reorganization of the Second Cycle of Drama, Art and Music (University of Bologna), which is conducted by teachers of musicological and ethnomusicological disciplines together with students, in order to examine the need to employ different approaches to multidisciplinary teaching in graduate studies. Graduate studies have recorded a significant number of foreign students in recent years, mostly from the Far East, and especially from China, which represents a challenge for multidisciplinary teaching of musicology and ethnomusicology due to the differences between the language cultures. The authors recognize two levels of problems in the implementation of study programs and the organization of teaching: 1) the need to make a specific music lexicon suitable even for non-specialized students without lowering the level of didactic proposals for music curriculum students; 2) the strategy of relations with international students, mostly from the Far East, who generally possess excellent technical musical skills (resulting from the previous schooling at music academies or conservatories), who encounter several language problems, which are often related to the idea of studying and learning human sciences in general (in the case of students of the Far Eastern origin, the culture of learning and the perception of the methodology of teaching humanities differs significantly from the European approach to the same issue). The paper is based on sociological and ethnographic research on foreign students’ learning techniques and reflects on the analysis of collected notes of Chinese students as particular examples of the addressed problems in the perception and adoption of the musicological and ethnomusicological content taught in drama, art and music studies

Zhang Yifei’s Notebooks: Contributions to Transnational Music Teaching

The aim of this paper is the presentation of reflections on the main issues that arose in the reorganization of the Second Cycle of Drama, Art and Music (University of Bologna), which is conducted by teachers of musicological and ethnomusicological disciplines together with students, in order to examine the need to employ different approaches to multidisciplinary teaching in graduate studies. Graduate studies have recorded a significant number of foreign students in recent years, mostly from the Far East, and especially from China, which represents a challenge for multidisciplinary teaching of musicology and ethnomusicology due to the differences between the language cultures. The authors recognize two levels of problems in the implementation of study programs and the organization of teaching: 1) the need to make a specific music lexicon suitable even for non-specialized students without lowering the level of didactic proposals for music curriculum students; 2) the strategy of relations with international students, mostly from the Far East, who generally possess excellent technical musical skills (resulting from the previous schooling at music academies or conservatories), who encounter several language problems, which are often related to the idea of studying and learning human sciences in general (in the case of students of the Far Eastern origin, the culture of learning and the perception of the methodology of teaching humanities differs significantly from the European approach to the same issue). The paper is based on sociological and ethnographic research on foreign students’ learning techniques and reflects on the analysis of collected notes of Chinese students as particular examples of the addressed problems in the perception and adoption of the musicological and ethnomusicological content taught in drama, art and music studies

Il Ruggiero: storia di una forma di danza

Ruggiero, documented in written sources in the 16th and 17th centuries, is a form of dance. The discanto melody in this genre is often accompanied by a bass over top of which variations were built beginning in the last decades of the 16th century. The origin of Ruggiero appears to be linked to Naples (or Spain, through the mediation of the Neapolitan milieu); from there it quickly spread to large parts of Italy, where it can be found mentioned in both written and oral traditions. The places where 16th-17th century written sources document the existence of this dance form are those in which it has also survived in oral traditions. In historical musicology, Ruggiero is considered a bass formula over top of which an octave of Orlando furioso was sung (XLIV, 61). However, it will be shown that the assumptions underlying this view are inconsistent. Numerous accounts contribute to shedding light on the relationships between oral and written traditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and offer an opportunity to reflect methodologically on the intersections between historiography and ethnography.Il Ruggiero, attestato da fonti scritte nei secoli XVI e XVII, è una forma di danza. La melodia di discanto è spesso accompagnata da un basso, sul quale a partire dagli ultimi decenni del Cinquecento si costruivano variazioni. L’origine sembra legata a Napoli (o, per la mediazione dell’ambiente napoletano, alla Spagna); da lì si è rapidamente diffuso in ampie zone d’Italia, ove è attestato nella tradizione scritta e nelle tradizioni orali. I luoghi in cui le fonti scritte cinque-seicentesche ne documentano l’esistenza sono quelle in cui questa forma di danza è sopravvissuta nelle tradizioni orali. La musicologia storica ha ritenuto che il Ruggiero fosse una formula di basso sulla quale si intonava un’ottava dell’Orlando furioso (XLIV, 61). I presupposti di questa teoria sono, lo si dimostra, inconsistenti. Numerose testimonianze contribuiscono a far luce sui rapporti tra tradizione orale e scritta nel Cinquecento e nel Seicento, e offrendo l’opportunità di una riflessione di metodo circa le intersezioni tra storiografia ed etnografia

Kajda. Music and Women's Rites among Kosovarian Roma. With contributions by Silvia Bruni

At the beginning of the 20th Century following the establishment of the kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro compulsory military service was introduced. However, as the conscripts from Kosovo moved with a totally different rhythm in respect to those from other areas it was soon deemed necessary to introduce special courses in which they were taught to march to the rhythm of tambourines. In Kosovo, the sense of rhythm has developed in a unique way; the rhythmic structures used in the area are based on the juxtaposition of non proportional duration which produce musical forms among the most complex and sophisticated in the world. These traditions are the by-product of the interpretation of local music by specialized musicians from the Rom community. Therefore, a population which is different to and marginalized by all the other ethnic groups has indispensable to the cultural life. The Albanian, Turkish, Serbian and Goran populations\u2019 musical memory is preserved by the Rom. The principle element of this peculiar tradition is the music played and sung (originally for women\u2019s rituals), by duos of specialized musicians, Rom women or male homosexuals. The historic relationship between the tambourine, female rituals, transvestite phenomena and homosexuality are demonstrated, from antiquity to the present day, in a area between the Indian sub-continent and the Mediterranean basin. Thus Rom become the heirs and interpreters of an ancient tradition which has developed into modern forms. In their vast repertoire the most rare yet typical in its complexity is the tamburine music played usually by a duo of either Rom male homosexuals or Rom women during the rituals reserved for the female participants in either marriage or circumsision ceremonies. Their music is based on an intricate juxtaposition and variation of complex rhythmic structures. Each dance is made up of rythmic formulas in continual transition. These rhythmic formulas (which consitute the piece) are called kajda: a word of north Indian origins like the Rom people. A word brought to the Balkans about a thousand years ago by Rom women who then applied it to a different musical structure. In the kajda music each and every (asymmetry) rythmic irregularity imagineable and feasable is included. Not only are the kajda themseles un-even, their duration is never proportional, the effect being that of a continuous anticipation or delay in the beat which gives the structure an over-all feeling of instability. All of the extrordinary beauty and complexity of kossovan traditional music is present in these complex rhythmic structures which have their origins in sacred ceremonial music dating back to the 8th Century BC. Thus, those most emarginalized among the emarginalized, Rom homosexuals and Rom women have become the guardians of ancient traditions, both theirs and that of others. They are the sole custodians of a musical knowledge which is fundamental to the cultural identity of even the largest ethnic goups in the area

Toccata, variazione, aria, concitato. Per una riflessione su tradizione orale e scritta della musica, tra etnologia e storia

La gran parte delle indagini condotte sulle relazioni fra tradizione orale e tradizione scritta della musica tra la metà del Cinquecento e la metà del Seicento riguarda l’acquisizione di brani di tradizione orale da parte della tradizione e il percorso inverso: la circolazione in ambienti orali di brani elaborati sulla pagina scritta. Queste indagini hanno accresciuto un’attività incrociata di ricerca e di riflessione, tra musicologia storica ed etnomusicologia. A partire da queste indagini e dalle ulteriori riflessioni che queste comportano, le letture tradizionali si possono in parte rivedere, valutando anche le tecniche e i linguaggi, ovvero il modo in cui una nuova sensibilità tonale, sviluppatasi dalla fine del Cinquecento e determinata all’interno di forme di pensiero scritto, pure si inscrive in una koiné orale mediterranea ed europea, dalla quale scaturisce e con la quale continua a intrattenere relazioni dinamich

L'influenza turco-ottomana e zingara nella musica dei Balcani

Testo inedito di Roberto Leydi sulla musica dei Balcani, accompagnato da un'antologia musicale contenuta in due cd, pubblicato postumo dai due curator

La Soffitta: Musica

Ideazione e progettazione di 8 Concerti, 3 conferenze-lezioni, una giornata di studio dal titolo "Musica, multiculturalit\ue0, globalizzazione" L'ampia rassegna stampa completa della stagione musicale della Soffitta, che comprende concerti, conferenze-lezioni e giornate di studio, \ue8 disponibile nell'Ufficio stampa del Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo, via Azzo Gardino 65/a ([email protected]