New Directions in Music Studies, University of Cambridge
7-9 July 2006, UK

Well-known musician Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam was invited to present a paper at this conference. Her paper was titled-- ‘What’s the point of studying music and culture in today’s world?’
She shares some of her experiences at the conference—

The conference hoped to provide an unprecedented forum in the UK for graduate students in ethnomusicology to meet, discuss, and network with graduates from other disciplines interested in the relationship between music and culture, to explore new and interdisciplinary ways of doing music research, how methodologies or theories from disciplines beyond music/ethnomusicology can be applied to the study of the world's musical cultures, to explore new methods and formats of presenting research, such as film, lecture-demonstrations, multimedia, the integration of performance and spoken discourse, and so on.

The conference had participants from Europe, America and Australia, among others. The keynote speaker was eminent Ethnomusicologist Louise Meintjes of Duke University, North Carolina.

The focus being Ethnomusicology, most of the speakers were musicologists. I was perhaps the only professionally performing musician. It was interesting to see that the word ‘Ethnomusicology’ has widened its perspective to the study of a people and their culture. It used to puzzle and annoy me earlier that a scientific and extremely well developed music system as ours should be clubbed under a combined chapter on Ethnomusicology! There is a lot of Anthropological focus to their studies and this gave the whole conference a different perspective.

The most significant talk was by the keynote speaker, Dr. Louise Meintjes , Associate Professor at the Duke University. She is a very charming and unassuming person who strikes a rapport with you instantly. She carries her scholarship lightly and you do realize the in depth work she has done when you talk to her or hear her presentation. She has worked many years with Ngoma tribe in Africa.

Prof. Meintjes made an interesting observation by saying she has often wondered how musicologists, particularly ethnomusicologists, can help make the world a better place. In this context her work is indeed of relevance.

She has studied the lives of the young males of the Ngoma tribe over a period of 5-7 years. She has captured the community dance that the males participate in and is a sign of their active and energetic lives. She has documented on video the song and the dance that is typical of their culture. In the subsequent film that she showed, one that she had made about five years later, the most athletic of the dancers was down with AIDS and could barely walk straight. It was indeed hard to believe it was the same man—such was the havoc wrought on him by the disease. In the course of her study she was able to focus on a number of serious problems faced by the society there. It was against their culture to take medication, to have birth control, rape was rampant, children were born with diseases, et al.

For me, it was an astonishing presentation as it was totally tangential to my understanding of a music conference………..it was an eye opener of sorts!

She has written a book on this study titled—

Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Song, Dance and the Masculinity in the Post Apartheid Struggle

There was another interesting presentation by Natalie Kirschstein (Harvard University) that focused on her study of ---
‘The Uruguayan murga --- 'the voice of the people'.
In this genre song and metaphor formed the language of political agency. This is rather akin to our ‘therukoothu’ kind of presentation. The songs and dance are usually anti establishment and not taken lightly by the administration. The performers usually had to be underground for fear of persecution. It is only after the country’s regime changed that things are in the open now. I also wondered at the word ‘Murga’—if there was any etymological connection anywhere??
Continuing in the same session on ‘The Voice of the Subaltern’, there was a presentation by Menaka Bora (Goldsmith's College). She spoke on “Borders still count: the politics of 'national' and 'regional' identity in Indian contemporary music and cultural identity of           globalizing India.”
She is an Indian dancer based in England and gave a good perspective on the confusion that prevails around ‘what is globalisation.’ With such a widespread diaspora, it has indeed become difficult to identify something as that which belongs and something else as ‘foreign’.
           
Another talk was by Karin Lagergren (University of Gothenburg). She spoke on --
The use of song in European monasteries in the divine office and mass: liturgical strategies after 1965
           

She has been doing an indepth study of the songs and chants in various monasteries. I find their music is fairly similar to ours. The singers have to rigidly adhere to form and have, therefore been able to retain their form and style of singing over centuries. This is very much akin to our temple rituals and the singing of the ‘tevarams’ and ‘pasurams’ where the ‘pann’ is strictly adhered to.

A talk that impacted me significantly was –
‘Towards an ethnomusicology of violence’ by Matthew Sumera (University of Wisconsin). His presentation, based on his study, focused on music as an instrument of violence. We are so accustomed to the aesthetics of music, it is almost unthinkable to stretch it beyond that but to actively treat music as a tool of violence…….. it was almost sacrilege! It was a very distinct presentation. He spoke of instances where the US army has used music as a weapon in Iran. Offensive lyrics and repetitive loud percussive music form means of tormenting people to elicit information. It is an approved method of interrogation. Sometimes they are also accompanied by repelling videos. While the thought of ‘music beyond aesthetics’ itself is abhorrent to most of us, it was an eye opener to come in contact with reality and see what is actually happening around the world!

There was a round table conference with some senior ethnomusicologists participating—
Louise Meintjes - ethnomusicology (Duke University)
Ian Cross - music and science (University of Cambridge)
Georgina Born - anthropology(University of Cambridge)
The subject was-- Rethinking Methodologies and Musicologies -- New Directions in Music Studies. Each of the speakers spoke about their areas of research and opened it to the house for discussion. Dr. Ian Cross has done much work on music and neurological sciences.
Among the lighter moments was a joke by one of the speakers who said he did have a problem with Immigration when they saw ‘ Ethnomusicologist’ under—Occupation in his passport. He said the authorities were quite foxed by it and wondered if it had anything to do with ‘Bacteriologist’ and so on!!
Dr. Katherine Brown had organized the whole conference. Interestingly, she has done work on manuscripts in India and we could talk about the Marina among other things!

There was a professional evening – a Gammelan concert. It is an interesting presentation with shadow puppetry making an appearance too. There were many shades of raga Mohanam in the presentation.

My paper was entitled— What’s the point of studying music and culture in today’s world?

The topic generated wide interest and I had a fairly captive audience listening to me. The gist of my presentation was—
Classical music is by definition ‘Traditional’. When we say traditional, the image that comes to mind is one of steadfast adherence to certain values or systems. In a sense, it gives an impression of ‘ lack of change’. This could be interpreted as ‘static’. But a study of classical music shows us that the way it is being performed today is significantly different from the way it was, perhaps, a century earlier. That certainly makes it far from Static. Thus we find that music is a dynamic art form that accommodates change even as it maintains tradition. There is a certain apparent dichotomy in this statement.
If we take a look, on a parallel at how society has progressed in different cultures, we find this apparent dichotomy inherent there too. Values are changing as also life styles, but we still find ‘Traditional societies’. Does that mean these societies are not progressing? Or that they are trapped in a time capsule?

Music has been an inseparable part of the cultural development of any society. An empirical study of one reflects undoubtedly trends in the other. Time was when music was an integral part of a society and everyone was a part of everything. Today, study of music is more by choice than by default.
In India, musical development has taken place along quite specific lines as also the society. We find significant changes taking place in the structure of our society in recent times and these changes are clearly reflected in the merging of genres of music today. It therefore becomes imperative to study music and culture in today’s world.

I demonstrated with a few pieces of classical music. I also played some excerpts from different styles of music, including today’s fusion and film music. It was very well received.

Cambridge in summer is the place to be in!! It is so idyllic. The colleges were bustling with activity as it was admission time. It was impossible to walk a short stretch without bumping into some Indians! The place was abounding with students. They often have to work alongside to make money and ‘Punting’ across the river seemed a popular occupation. There was a lovely Italian restaurant by the riverside that served us some delightful vegetarian food.

With pound sterling exchange rates being what they are, things were pretty expensive for me. But it was delightful to just walk around the place. No dust, no smoke, no noise, no honking vehicles…. I felt rejuvenated after even a brief walk. I cannot but wait for good ol’ Chennai to be like this……. Rather unlikely in my own lifetime but hope keeps one going!

An unforgettable experience was spending the evening in Cambridge with the World Cup and the Wimbledon finals on!! It was a local pub—for a feel of the way the Brits enjoy their sports! I enjoyed it too, a la the British.