Category Archives: Ethnomusicology

by rilm | December 22, 2024 · 6:00 am

Zakir Hussain, tablā virtuoso and world music pioneer

The emergence of the tablā as a solo instrument in the late 20th century, along with the shift from performances for musicians to those for non-musical audiences, transformed how performers discuss musical meaning. This change highlights the interaction between music and speech in shaping musical experiences, as well as the differences in communication between musicians and broader audiences. For renowned tablā players like Zakir Hussain, musical meaning conveyed through speech, supplemented what the music itself might not express. When musicians communicate with one another, the primary mode of discourse is bol, a language of spoken, onomatopoeic syllables that represent specific drum strokes, integral to the oral/aural tradition of music transmission.

Hussain’s global popularity played an integral role in bringing tablā and Hindustani music to the forefront of the international stage. Born in Mumbai in 1951, he began his training at an early age under the guidance of his father, the renowned tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakha Khan. Hussain fondly recalled, “From the age of seven, I sat on the stage with Abba (his father) while he played with so many greats. It was a lived experience for me, and it allowed me to absorb all that I had heard over the years.” By his teenage years, Hussain was already performing alongside the legendary Indian sitarist and composer Pandit Ravi Shankar, playing over 150 concerts annually, both in India and abroad. Despite the vast opportunities and his exceptional talent, Hussain always remained humble, emphasizing, “This is music’s appeal, not mine. I am a worshipper of music, who presents it in front of people.”

Hussain performs with flutist Rakesh Chaurasia in 2018 (photo credit: Juha Uitto).

As Hussain became one of Hindustani music’s most sought-after accompanists, he shifted away from performing with established stars of the genre, instead choosing to collaborate with younger and lesser-known musicians. By doing so, he leveraged his fame to help elevate emerging Indian artists to the global stage. Hussain was also widely regarded as a key figure in the development of the contemporary world music movement, having worked with pioneers like John Handy and George Harrison early in his career, and later gaining international recognition as a member of Shakti alongside guitarist John McLaughlin. A four-time Grammy Award winner, Hussain’s most recent accolade came in 2023 for his album As we speak, performed with Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer. Additionally, he was honored with the NEA National Heritage Fellowship and received numerous prestigious awards from the Indian government in recognition of his significant cultural contributions.

This according to “Ustād Zākir Hussain” by Sudhīr Bhāīṇakar (Sangeet 80/3 [2014] 24–25; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2014-94395) and “On musicians’ speech about music: Musico-linguistic discourse of tabla players” by Lowell Lybarger (Discourses in music 2/2 [winter 2000-2001]; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2000-5114).

Watch three performances by Zakir Hussain below. In the first video, listen for his vocalization of bol, the spoken onomatopoeic syllables representing specific drum strokes. The second video is a performance with his father Ustad Alla Rakha from 1976. The third is a 2023 performance of Shakti on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

Arabic language and music of the Middle East

Today, 18 December, marks UNESCO’s World Arabic Language Day, commemorating the date in 1973 when the United Nations General Assembly recognized Arabic as the sixth official language of the Organization. Arabic, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, has inspired a rich and diverse aesthetic across fields such as architecture, poetry, philosophy, and song. UNESCO highlights that Arabic provides access to a vast array of identities and beliefs, with a history that showcases its deep connections with other languages. The language has played a crucial role in the spread of knowledge, facilitating the transmission of Greek and Roman sciences and philosophies to Renaissance Europe. Arabic has also been a bridge for cultural exchange along the silk roads, linking cultures from the coast of India to the Horn of Africa.

The Arabic language also has played a crucial role in shaping the musical practices of the Middle East. The arrival of the Arabs in North Africa, for example, had a profound impact, leading to the widespread adoption of Islam throughout the region and the expansion of the Arabic language in cities, towns, and rural areas. While some groups, like the Berbers, maintained their own language, they adopted Arabic for use in public spaces such as shops, schools, and businesses. This linguistic shift influenced the development of musical traditions and practices across the region, with Arabic becoming a key component in the cultural and musical landscape.

From the 1930s to the 1950s, both Algerians and Moroccans were deeply involved in anticolonial struggles against France. Revolutionaries from both nations used the Arabic language as a tool to unite the population around the vision of a nation standing together against colonial rule. Following their respective independences–Morocco in 1956 and Algeria in 1962–both countries declared Arabic as the national language and positioned it as a key element of their cultural identity.

In this regard, the music of the Arab world—a vast region stretching from western North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia—can be studied as a unified domain, especially when considering common factors such as the prevalence of Islam and Islamic institutions, the widespread use of the Arabic language, and the historical, political, and artistic connections that link the various Arab communities. However, music also exhibits significant internal diversity, reflecting the rich cultural variations across the region.

This according to The Garland encyclopedia of world music. The Middle East. Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias. The volume on the Middle East features expert writers on the region who present the major traditions of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, together with personal accounts of performers, composers, teachers, and ceremonies. Also included are dozens of brief essays that offer stories of typical musicians and genres, along with first-person descriptions of specific music performances and events, maps, and music examples.

The sonic weaponization of Saydnaya prison

The complex intersections of carceral violence and acoustics are particularly evident in the case of Saydnaya, the infamous military prison in Syria, known for its state-run torture practices under Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Often referred to as “the slaughterhouse”, the prison witnessed the hanging of as many as 13,000 individuals between 2011 and 2015. Survivor testimonies, along with the recent digital reconstruction of the prison’s interior, reveal that sound played a pivotal role in shaping the power dynamics within the Syrian prison system. Much of the violence inflicted in Saydnaya was acoustic in nature, intentionally designed around specific elements of the aural experience. The weaponization of sound in Saydnaya suggests that listening itself was manipulated as a mechanism of surveillance and torture, while paradoxically, it also became a means of resistance and survival.

Image credit: https://www.lightwork.org/archive/political-listening-the-forensic-acoustics-of-lawrence-abu-hamdan/

The Syrian prison can be conceptualized as an acoustically surveilled site, marked by intentional sensory deprivation, weaponized silence, extreme listening practices, and acousmatic violence–violence whose sound lacks a visible source. Such practices were not isolated but part of a broader pattern of sonic warfare, which some critical sound theorists have increasingly highlighted in their exploration of the role of sound in incarceration.

This according to “Prisonniers du son: La prison de Saydnaya en Syrie” by Maria Ristani, Lieux de mémoire sonore: Des sons pour survivre, des sons pour tuer, ed. by Luis Velasco-Pufleau and Laëtitia Atlani-Duault (Paris: Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 2021, 21–35; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-107654).

North Korean pop, dictator celebrity, and the “big family”

After more than a decade of silence, the South Korean Ministry of Defense resumed its propaganda broadcasts into North Korea in August 2015. Although an agreement between North and South Korea led to the cessation of these broadcasts two weeks later, South Korea restarted its loudspeaker campaign in early January 2016 in response to North Korea’s latest nuclear test. Since then, South Korea has escalated its efforts along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), installing additional loudspeakers and broadcasting a variety of content, including popular K-pop songs from South Korea. While it is debatable whether South Korea’s K-pop broadcasts have had a direct impact on North Korean soldiers stationed at the DMZ, the sound of K-pop forced Kim Jong-un’s regime to address the globalization of the genre. More specifically, it showed how external cultural influences, particularly those from the south, could act as a threat to the regime’s authority and control over its citizens.

Although K-pop’s themes of love, desire, erotic pleasure, and physical attraction are not overtly provocative, its lyrics challenge North Korea’s ideological demand that expressions of affection be reserved solely for the leader, rather than between ordinary citizens. Although some North Korean pop songs aired on state media incorporate elements of romance and courtship, these are often stylized with a mix of electronic synthesizers, Western instruments, and an upbeat tempo. North Korean propaganda has historically emphasized the leader as the central object of affection, often promoting images of adoring citizens jubilantly rejoicing in his presence. In this context, the North Korean leader can be understood as what the French theorist Guy Debord calls “absolute celebrity”, where his image and authority dominate public devotion.

The Moranbong Band performs in front of an image of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

Overt displays of affection for the North Korean leader are framed as demonstrations of familial love, positioning the leader as a father figure of the Korean race and all citizens as his children. In recent years, however, North Koreans have become more accustomed to expressing affection in public, with some young men and women serenading each other with South Korean pop songs. Kim Jong-un, the current leader, has not been oblivious to such behavioral changes among the younger generation, especially toward the libidinal pleasures offered by K-pop. In 2012, his establishment of the Moranbong Band could be seen as a strategic effort to draw North Korean youth back into the orbit of state-controlled entertainment, while channeling their enthusiasm in a way that reasserts the cult of absolute celebrity.

The band, dressed in military-inspired outfits, on the way to a performance.

The Moranbong Band has a number of distinct characteristics that make it appealing to a generation already familiar with foreign pop music. As North Korea’s first and only all-girl pop group, the band was modeled on South Korea’s popular all-girl groups. Although their fashion has been significantly toned down, with the adoption of more conservative dresses and military-inspired outfits, they still bear a striking resemblance to the sartorial styles of South Korean K-pop acts. This blend of familiar pop aesthetics with state-controlled messaging makes the Moranbong Band both accessible and captivating to many North Korean youth.

Despite employing many of the stylistic elements of K-pop, one key aspect noticeably absent from the Moranbong Band’s repertoire is the lyrical incitement to libidinal pleasure. Instead, their songs focus on the familiar themes of party loyalty, military prowess, national prosperity, and the benevolence of the leader. For example, North Korean state media reported that the Moranbong Band’s concert commemorating the 1953 armistice agreement with South Korea featured a song titled Our beloved leader, which portrayed Kim Jong-un caring for the “big family” of the country and providing it with happiness. This song reinforced the state’s effort to align popular culture with its ideological framework, emphasizing devotion to the leader rather than personal desires or individual expression.

This according to “Rockin’ in the unfree world: North Korea’s Moranbong Band and the celebrity dictator” by David Zeglen (Celebrity studies 8/1 [2017] 142–150; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2017-64247).

Below, the Moranbong Band performs Our beloved leader in 2012.

Read a related post in Bibliolore:

https://bibliolore.org/2020/10/26/k-pop-and-political-activism/

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Filed under Asia, Performers, Politics, Popular music, Reception

Tagged as celebrity, K-pop, Kim Jong-un, Moranbong Band, North Korea, Pop, propaganda, South Korea

by rilm | November 29, 2024 · 6:00 am

Neapolitan song and identity

With the unification of Italy, Naples lost its status as the capital, and following the devastating 1884 cholera epidemic, authorities launched a massive urban reorganization project similar to that of Paris. This overhaul largely obliterated the port districts, known as the “belly of Naples“, a dense network of alleys, warehouses, and narrow streets, which had been alive with cultural events, processions, collective rituals, and performances by storytellers, street actors, and barkers. The city’s historic urban fabric was replaced by modern, fast-flowing roads primarily designed for commercial purposes, marking what became known as the gutting of Naples—although, it also represented a redevelopment of the city. This transformation ushered in a dramatic shift in the city’s identity, turning it into a modern urban organism while leaving behind the image of the old, vibrant Bourbon capital. The changes also reshaped social dynamics, fostering the rise of a small bourgeoisie that, with a few exceptions, wholeheartedly embraced the national cause and capitalist development, which manifested in the realms of journalism, theater, painting, literature, and art song.

The poet Salvatore Di Giacomo was the driving force behind the emergence of the new Neapolitan art song. His poetry, set to music by composers such as Enrico De Leva, Mario Pasquale Costa, and Francesco Paolo Tosti, signaled a decisive break from previous traditions. This collaboration between respected scholars and accomplished composers established the foundation for what would come to be known as the “Neapolitan song”, marking the beginning of a new era in the genre.

While Di Giacomo and his collaborators pioneered a new approach to song, the form of the song itself was evolving. It adopted a structure characterized by a verse-and-refrain format, and over time, this structure became more refined and simplified compared to Di Giacomo’s earlier, more elaborate courtly compositions. The new Neapolitan song emerged as a distinct form, better aligned with modern entertainment standards, and in an era of a burgeoning popular culture, this new song form proved to be a more versatile and adaptable genre, suitable for various settings, yet still preserving the lyrical and musical qualities that had defined earlier forms.

Neapolitan song was a key element in a broader, successful effort to redefine the image of a city that, after the unification of Italy, needed to forge a new identity. However, the city was burdened by long-standing issues, including a largely illiterate population with unstable employment. This population had swelled over the centuries due to the unique relationship between the urban elite and the rural peasantry in the Kingdom of Naples. A significant portion of this population consisted of common people, possessing a cohesive and resilient culture deeply rooted in pre-Christian, magical, and irrational traditions. This cultural foundation both influenced and clashed with the emerging new Neapolitan identity.

This according to the article of the week in DEUMM Online.

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Filed under Europe, Geography, Musicology, Space

Tagged as genre, identity, Italy, Naples, Neapolitan song, Popular culture, popular song, redevelopment, Salvatore Di Giacomo, Urban studies

by rilm | November 18, 2024 · 6:00 am

Moroccan sung poetry and recitation

Many Moroccans, especially those outside the conservatory tradition, view malḥūn not as music, but as the recitation of poetry. The very name malḥūn adds to this ambiguity. Derived from the Arabic root laḥana, the term has various meanings, including speaking ungrammatically, chanting, and setting words to music. Moroccan scholars themselves are divided on which interpretation is most fitting. The late Mohamed el-Fassi, a prominent scholar and former minister of culture, argued that malḥūn was always intended to be sung while others have suggested that some malḥūn poetry is meant to be recited, not sung. A similar debate exists in Yemen, where a comparable form of dialectical song poetry, known as homayni (or sometimes malḥūn), closely mirrors the Moroccan style. This debate is unlikely to reach a definitive conclusion, as both perspectives hold merit. Malḥūn often breaks standard Arabic grammar and uses nonstandard vocabulary for metrical or poetic effect. Ultimately, it is best experienced through listening—whether recited or, more fittingly, sung.

To this day, malḥūn continues to resonate with both the working class and the elites in Morocco. King Hassan II was a prominent patron of Moroccan music, including malḥūn. During his reign, a rising cultural nationalism fostered a renewed interest in traditional Moroccan art forms, such as malḥūn, as well as proverbs and other forms of oral literature in both Arabic and Berber. This cultural revival was part of a broader effort to assert a distinct Moroccan identity, particularly in response to the intellectual dominance of France, and to the cultural influence of Egypt and Lebanon in the Arab world. Malḥūn can be found in a diverse range of contexts, from street performances and religious lodges to the royal palace, often accompanied by various ensembles. According to some sources, malḥūn singers originally accompanied themselves with the deff, a square, double-headed frame drum measuring about 20 to 25 centimeters on each side. Since the primary focus of malḥūn is the poetry itself, no additional instrumentation was required.

This according to The Garland encyclopedia of world music. The Middle East (2013). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.

Watch a performance of malḥūn in Morocco below.

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Filed under Africa, Popular music, Religious music, World music

Tagged as Arab world, cultural identity, Drumming, Instruments, malḥūn, Morocco, Religious music, sung poetry

by rilm | November 14, 2024 · 6:00 am

Zitkala Ša, Dakota composer and activist

At the end of the 19th century, a series of narrative essays published in The Atlantic Monthly by Dakota composer and activist Gertrude Bonnin, better known by her self-chosen name Zitkala Ša, focused on the violence of compulsory U.S. boarding schools. Existing research on her activism, however, has overlooked the subversive role of music, dance, and sound in her literary and musical projects, which reveal Zitkala Ša’s sophisticated sonic politics.

The historical tension between the prohibition and appropriation of Indigenous sounds highlights how the boarding school press functioned as a powerful engine for assimilation projects. A close reading of Zitkala Ša’s essay, The Indian dance: A protest against its abolition, along with an examination of its reception, reveals her reverse-gaze strategy and demonstrates her effectiveness in challenging aggressive assimilationists. Similarly, her collaboration on The sun dance opera resulted in a project that defied neat categorization and withheld complete disclosure of the ceremony, establishing its own sonic politics of self-determination. Zitkala Ša wrote the libretto and the songs for the opera, while William F. Hanson, a professor of music at Brigham Young University, composed the score. The songs were inspired by a sacred ritual that was federally outlawed from 1904 to 1978. The opera was groundbreaking, allowing Zitkala Ša to bridge her worlds through music. It premiered in February 1913 at Orpheus Hall in Vernal, Utah, featuring performances by members of the Ute Nation residing on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation.

Zitkala Ša’s years on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation, often mischaracterized as a period of domesticity in her literary career, were marked by significant creative sonic productivity, representing an important phase in her evolving activism that bridged her earlier years of serial publication with the sophisticated vocal activism of her later work.

This according to “Tiny taps and noisy hacks: Listening to Zitkala Ša’s sonic politics” by Kristen Brown (Resonance: The journal of sound and culture 2/1 [spring 2021] 348–362; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-7615).

Watch a short documentary on Zitkala Ša’s life in music and activism below.

https://www.pbs.org/video/zitkala-sa-american-indian-composer-author-activist-qqjsyq/

Related Bibliolore posts:

https://bibliolore.org/2022/11/03/national-native-american-heritage-month-an-annotated-bibliography/

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Filed under North America, Performers, Politics, Reception, Voice, Women's studies

Tagged as assimilation, Gertrude Bonnin, Indigenous Americans, Indigenous composers, Opera, United States, women composers, Zitkala Ša

by rilm | November 4, 2024 · 6:00 am

Myanmar’s hsaìng waìng ensemble

The hsaìng waìng ensemble of Myanmar (Burma) derives its name from its primary instrument, a circular drum set consisting of 21 drums suspended in a round wooden frame. The ensemble leader plays melodies on this drum, also known as the pat waìng. The frame comprises eight gold-plated sections adorned with inlaid glass pieces. Inside, the 21 double-headed drums are conical with a rounded bulge at the top, and while they have two membranes, only the upward-facing one is struck. Each drum is tuned to a fixed pitch using paste and has a range of over three octaves. Alongside the oboe, the drum serves as a leading melodic instrument in the ensemble.

Myanmar’s relative geographic isolation has allowed certain traditional instruments, such as the bow harp and drum circle, to endure from earlier periods of Indian influence in Southeast Asia, while such instruments have largely disappeared in neighboring countries. The distinctive sound character of the hsaìng waìng is strongly influenced by Indian traditions, particularly in how its drums are tuned to a fixed pitch. Unlike many membranophones that produce rhythmic beats, the drum circle in the hsaìng waìng plays melodies. The hsaìng waìng is closely connected to the orchestral traditions of the neighboring countries including Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, as well as Java and Bali (Indonesia). These ensembles play an integral role in accompanying religious ceremonies and theatrical performances, highlighting their cultural significance in the region. They typically combine hump gongs with wind and string instruments, drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments, often incorporating related phase structures characterized by repeating counts of four.

Watch a contemporary performance by a hsaìng waìng ensemble.

The oldest surviving musical instruments from Myanmar are bronze drums, likely cast in the last centuries B.C.E. and now held in private collections. The earliest descriptions of musical instruments can be found in the annals of the Tang Dynasty, which provide detailed accounts of the 35 musicians and dancers from the Pyū Kingdom who performed at the Chinese imperial court in Chang’an during the New Year celebrations of 801/802. Their ensemble included four cymbals, two iron clappers, four conch shells, two harps with phoenix heads, two zithers with crocodile heads, a lute with a dragon head, another lute with a cloud-shaped neck, five stick zithers, four flutes, a pipe, six drums, and two large and two small mouth organs, each with eight pipes. Additionally, there was a unique mouth organ featuring two elephant tusks as a calabash wind chamber, along with two mouth organs made from two or three ox horns for pipes.

Read the new entry on Myanmar in MGG Online.

The image at the beginning of the post is of Burmese musicians at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon circa 1895. Below are two images of hsaìng waìng ensembles performing. In the first, the ensemble is accompanied by three women singers.

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Filed under Asia, Dramatic arts, Instruments, Religious music, World music

Tagged as Burma, Dramatic arts, Drumming, ensembles, hsaìng waìng, Indian classical music, Instruments, Myanmar, Religious music, Southeast Asia

by Michael Lupo | October 28, 2024 · 6:00 am

RILM Launches DEUMM Online

RILM cordially invites you to join us for the release of DEUMM Online on Wednesday, 30 October 2024, at 7:30 pm CET / 1:30 pm EST. Co-sponsored by the Associazione fra i Docenti Universitari Italiani di Musica (ADUIM) and IAML-Italia, the event will take place in the Teatro Palladium auditorium in Rome, Italy.

Teatro Palladium, Ph. © Francesco Ciccone

DEUMM Online digitizes, enhances, and extends the Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti (DEUMM), the most important modern music dictionary in the Italian language. Comprising a broad range of entries (persons, topics, dances, genres, geographical locations, institutions, instruments, and works), DEUMM Online uses advanced and intuitive search and translation functionalities. This venerable music encyclopedia, which has set the standards in modern Italian music lexicography, is, in its new online format, once again an indispensable node in a comprehensive, international, networked research experience.

For those unable to join the Rome event in person, the event will be live streamed on YouTube by Fondazione Roma Tre Teatro Palladium, accessible directly from the following QR code:

The program (below) will include Daniele Trucco’s DEUMM-inspired music, greetings from Luca Aversano (President, ADUIM), Marcoemilio Camera (President, IAML Italia), and Tina Frühauf (Executive Director, RILM), as well as presentations by Zdravko Blažeković (Executive Editor, RILM), Stefano Campagnolo (Director, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma), Alex Braga (composer), and DEUMM Online’s general editors Antonio Baldassarre and Daniela Castaldo. Pianist Giuseppe Magagnino will also perform works by Ellington, Beethoven, The Beatles, and more.

And mark your calendars: DEUMM Online will be featured again at the following events:

19 November 2024: Turin, hosted by Istituto per i Beni Musicali di Piemonte at the Teatro Regio
21 November 2024: Milan, hosted by the Archivio Storico Ricordi in the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense

Hear more about DEUMM Online and download the DEUMM Online brochure and logo.

DEUMM Online trailer (Italian)

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Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Africa, Analysis, Antiquity, Asia, Australia and Pacific islands, Baroque era, Black studies, Central America, Classic era, Dance, Dramatic arts, Ethnomusicology, Europe, Film music, Geography, Iconography, Iconography, Instruments, Jazz and blues, Literature, Mass media, Middle Ages, Musicologists, Musicology, North America, Opera, Opera, Politics, Popular music, Religion, Religious music, Renaissance, RILM news, Romantic era, Sound, South America, Visual art, West Indies, World music

Tagged as DEUMM, Italy, music dictionary, music lexicography, online

by rilm | October 25, 2024 · 6:00 am

Utopian desire and ukulele music in Japan

Historical and contemporary Japanese attitudes toward the ukulele have framed both the instrument and Hawaii as objects of idealized longing and utopian desire. This yearning embodies what Christine Yano describes as a “plucked paradise”—a concept that combines music-making on a stringed instrument with the imagery of flowers being harvested for personal enjoyment. In this context, plucking a string creates a soft, fleeting sound, while plucking a flower represents a subtle act of aesthetic appropriation. Both evoke a paradise that is temporary, sensual, and aestheticized.

Cover of a Japanese book of ukulele sheet music.

These perspectives raise important questions about the meanings that participants ascribe to the ukulele and its music in Japan. How do infrastructural elements, particularly the influence of Japanese Americans, contribute to the growth of ukulele culture in Japan? For instance, Japanese Americans like Haida “Harry” Yukihiko, considered the “Father of Hawaiian music in Japan”, and his brother Katsuhiko brought their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the ukulele to Japan in the 1920s when they visited to repatriate the ashes of their father but stayed to study at a university. Their enthusiasm for Hawaiian music and in-between status, with direct access to both Hawaii and Japan, helped foster the first ukulele boom in Japan. By examining the various dimensions involved in creating this “plucked paradise,” we can uncover the tensions, conflicts, and creative forces that shape this cultural exchange.

This according to “Plucking paradise: Hawaiian ukulele performance in Japan” by Christine R. Yano (Japanese studies 35/3 [2015] 317–330; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2015-82904).

Below, the Japanese duo Fukulele perform Clap your hands and sing with me, a song about world peace composed by Roy Sakuma. The group played the song at the 2022 Ukulele Festival Hawaii’s Global Play Along. The following video features the Japan Junior Ukulele Orchestra performing the same song.

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Filed under Asia, Australia and Pacific islands, Instruments, Migrations, Popular music, Reception

Tagged as Aesthetics, Hawai'i, instrument, interculturality, Japan, ukulele

Category Archives: Ethnomusicology

Zakir Hussain, tablā virtuoso and world music pioneer

Arabic language and music of the Middle East

The sonic weaponization of Saydnaya prison

North Korean pop, dictator celebrity, and the “big family”

Neapolitan song and identity

Moroccan sung poetry and recitation

Zitkala Ša, Dakota composer and activist

Myanmar’s hsaìng waìng ensemble

RILM Launches DEUMM Online

Utopian desire and ukulele music in Japan

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