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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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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The 42nd session of the General Conference of UNESCO in November 2023 designated October 17 as the International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Today marks the inaugural celebration of this significant day. To commemorate the historic day, we explore research on China’s ICH, which boasts the highest number of recognized ICH items, as examined by both Chinese and international scholars.
– Mu Qian, Editor, RILM
Xiang, Yang. “Dui ‘huo huashi’ yuezhong de sikao” (Thoughts on “living fossil” musical genres), Zhongguo yinyue/Chinese music 2/90 (2003) 12–15. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2003-18281]
Abstract: Numerous musical genres of remote historical periods continue to exist in China, such as guqin music, Fujian nanyin, Xi’an guyue, and the Buddhist ritual music of Wutai Shan in Shanxi province; these provide valuable evidence of the history of the imperial court, local governments, military and religious establishments, and social change. Through a comprehensive account of such genres, the system of Chinese music can be deeply analyzed and the characteristics of traditional Chinese music culture understood. If they are not carefully studied and protected, the cultural tradition of Chinese music will be irremediably lost; legislation at the national level is needed to declare them as part of the “oral and intangible heritage”.
Wang, Yong. “Guojia yujing zhong de fei wuzhi wenhua yichan: Yi guqin wei ge an yanjiu” (Intangible cultural heritages in the nation-state context: A case study of guqin), Nanjing Yishu Xueyuan xuebao (Yinyue yu biaoyan ban)/Journal of Nanjing Arts Institute (Music & performance) 3/121 (fall 2009) 111–117. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2009-7652]
Abstract: The emphasis on national cultures of a nation state is a sign of the use of state power. Nation states make requisitions of historical and cultural resources to create cultural images of the state, integrate nations, reinforce national pride, and acquire international prestige and resources. Therefore, arts have political overtones. In the theoretical frame of sociology, this study inspects the renaissance of intangible cultural heritage, the universal imagination of national culture, and the power of the state in arts in the context of nation states. The focus of discussion is the relationship between the image of the state and the ideology of arts.
Geographic distribution of ICH sites in China (2021). Source: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (https://www.geodoi.ac.cn/WebEn/doi.aspx?Id=1925)
Yao, Hui. “Pochu ‘pochu mixin’: Dui Jing xi minjian Foshi yinyue baohu qianti ji fangfa de tanjiu” (Breaking the “breaking the superstition”: An investigation into the premises and methods of protecting Buddhist music in west Beijing), Zhongguo yinyuexue/Musicology in China 1/106 (2012) 14–23, 31. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2012-27995]
Abstract: The idea of “breaking the superstition” is the primary obstacle to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of west Beijing, and breaking the “breaking the superstition” is a premise for all the protection work of Buddhist music and religious ICH. The theoretical and ideological discussion in this paper demonstrate the relationship between religion, funerary customs, and superstition. On this basis, it is argued that the safeguarding of Buddhist music in west Beijing cannot be separated from the cultural whole that religion and mourning have built together, and corresponding countermeasures for the problems existing in the safeguarding of Buddhist music and religious ICH in west Beijing are proposed.
Hu, Xiaoman . “Cong hunduanzi kan min’ge Jicheng baohu wenhua yichan de queshi” (The lack of preservation of cultural heritage in the traditional song Jicheng from the perspective of erotic songs), Renmin yinyue/People’s music 6/566 (2010) 48–50. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2010-31307]
Abstract: The publication of Zhongguo minjian gequ jicheng (Collection of Chinese traditional song) has become a landmark achievement in the preservation of China’s musical and cultural heritage. While we rejoice in such an achievement of traditional song culture, we should also see its shortcomings. The Jicheng‘s shortcoming in documenting musical heritage is examined in terms of the absence of erotic songs to promote the in-depth development of musical heritage preservation.
Rees, Helen. “Intangible cultural heritage in China today: Policy and practice in the early twenty-first century”, Music as intangible cultural heritage: Policy, ideology, and practice in the preservation of East Asian traditions, ed. by Keith Howard (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012) 23–54. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2012-6419]
Abstract: Reflects on how attitudes towards local and traditional music have changed and evolved over a 25-year engagement with Chinese music. Noting the legacy of Mao Zedong’s 1942 Zai Yan’an yishu zuotanhui shang de jianghua (Talks at the Yan’an forum on literature and art), in which artists were required to guide the masses, she explores how attitudes began to shift from developing and modernizing arts (including music) towards an acceptance that something needed to be done to encourage the performance and transmission of traditional music. She sets out the major official policies that have been enacted and outlines the discussions and rhetoric that surrounds them. She then offers three case studies to illustrate practice on the ground, which lead her to conclude that the shift in attitudes can be put down to several factors that include nationalism and international competitiveness, the rise of the market economy in China, and the emergence of environmental and ecological agendas. Her first case study concerns ritual music in Yunnan, specifically the dongjing associations (dongjinghui) of lay musicians and ritualists that have a documented history among Han Chinese and certain minorities stretching back some 450 years. In some areas these amateur groups are flourishing today, while in others they are on the decline. Rees explores the social and economic reasons for this and focuses on two groups and traditions that are being maintained, noting their historical depth as well as their close ties to place and their community cohesion. Her second case study concerns the Naxi ethnic minority, the majority of whose members live in Lijiang county, Yunnan. She considers the survival and use of folksong and folk dance, the revival underway in the training of young dongba religious specialists, and the grassroots use of the Naxi dongjing tradition for tourism—initially local, but then showcased in international tours, and coupling to changed contexts for performance and pride in music as intangible cultural heritage. Her third case study moves to the world of the literati, and the music of the seven-stringed zither, guqin (or qin). Rees learned the guqin at the Shanghai Yinyue Xueyuan in the late 1980s, when it was marginal and had little presence within the institution; today it is a UNESCO Masterpiece, and many studios flourish in Beijing and Shanghai that teach and sell the instrument. Antique instruments are highly sought, and new instruments have multiplied in price some 60 or more times over two decades.
Kuutma, Kristin. “Inside the UNESCO apparatus: From intangible representations to tangible effects”, Safeguarding intangible heritage: Practices and politics, ed. by Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018) 68–83. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2018-100476]
Abstract: Explores the case of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in translating the term “intangible cultural heritage” to illustrate how translations can vary, even when the same target language is used, revealing the complicacy of cultural politics. To many people in Asian regions, cultural heritage is a translated term. Variations in the translated expression mirror diversified notions of intangibility rooted in different knowledge traditions, which in turn may lead to distinct policies implemented and heritage discourses. Which translation to adopt reveals something of the cultural politics at the state level. In the first place, which source language version among the authoritative texts is taken as the base for translation is indicative of diplomatic relations, knowledge genealogy, and often postcolonial interconnections. For numerous local or Indigenous communities, gaining recognition of their intangible cultural heritage would entail a formidable process involving re-translation, re-interpretation and negotiation, inevitably endowing power to those eligible to translate.
Su, Junjie. “Understanding the changing intangible cultural heritage in tourism commodification: The music players’ perspective from Lijiang, China”, Journal of tourism and cultural change, 17/5 (2019) 247–268. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2019-19251]
Abstract: While intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has been an emerging topic in the fields of heritage studies and tourism studies, the relationship of ICH and commodification is still under-researched. The tension between protection and commodification of ICH is intensified when the term “heritage” is used as a form of protection and a resource for commodification. Using musical elements of ICH in Lijiang, China as a case study, a critical heritage studies approach is used to investigate the values and components of ICH from the perspective of musicians. The study shows that the musicians construct their own values of ICH in a diverse and dynamic process. Commodified forms of performance are not clearly differentiated; rather, they are regarded as equally important to realize musicians dynamic and subjective needs. This study reveals the dynamic aspects of ICH, rethinks the commodification of ICH, and examines the creation of ICH from a critical approach.
D’Evelyn, Charlotte. “Khöömii, chooryn duu, and dissonant heritage in Inner Mongolia, China”, Asian music: Journal of the Society for Asian Music, 52/2 (summer-fall 2021) 139–169. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-5617]
Abstract: Sheds light on the logics that informed China’s 2009 successful application and nomination of höömii as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. It explores how bureaucrats charged with overseeing cultural heritage applications, while expertly aware of the requirements to satisfy the terms of the UNESCO Convention, often unknowingly distance and disenfranchise local knowledge in the process. Just such a phenomenon occurred in Inner Mongolia, in which bureaucrats created a new musical taxonomy to justify the existence of and need for safeguarding of höömii in China. Offering a close investigation into the UNESCO application, this article spotlights the practice of chooryn duu (tsooryn duu, chogur-un dagu) and the logic through which it became strategically subsumed within and conflated with höömii for the purposes of the UNESCO application.
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Brazilian pianist and bandleader Sergio Mendes began studying piano at a young age, continuing his education under Carmelita Lago. However, drawn to jazz and popular music, he eventually departed from his classical training and embarked on a successful career in commercial pop music around 1960. Mendes participated in jam sessions at the Little Club in Rio de Janeiro and, in 1961, led the Brazilian Jazz Sextet at the Third South American Jazz Festival in Montevideo. Following the military coup d’état in Brazil in 1964, Mendes relocated to Los Angeles, where he restarted his career by auditioning at various local jazz clubs.
That same year, Mendes, along with bassist Tião Neto and drummer Edson Machado, formed the Sergio Mendes Trio, touring North and South America as well as Japan. In the United States, the trio recorded the groundbreaking LP The Swinger from Rio for the Atlantic label. Mendes also created another group called Brasil 65, which lasted for seven months and produced the LP Brasil 65. He later achieved international acclaim with his next ensemble, Brasil ’66. While in New York, Mendes collaborated with renowned musicians such as Art Farmer, Bud Shank, and Tom Jobim on new bossa nova recordings. For this new group, he secured a contract with Herb Alpert, the leader of Tijuana Brass and owner of A&M Records.
Alongside singers Lani Hall, Sílvia Vogel, and later Karen Phillips, Mendes recorded the album Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66, which sold over a million copies. Their vibrant cover of Jorge Ben‘s song Mas que nada became a number one hit, with other tracks from the album also climbing into the top 40 charts. To align with U.S. market preferences, Mendes produced stylistic arrangements of Brazilian songs by composers like Chico Buarque, Edu Lobo, and Gilberto Gil. The following year, his group ranked as the third most popular act in U.S. pop music. Each decade brought updates to his ensemble’s name and style: Brasil ’77, Brasil ’86, Brasil ’88, and Brasil ’99. The stylistic evolution of these groups spanned from early bossa nova in the 1960s to more sophisticated interpretations of well-known songs, culminating in an experimental blend of jazz, funk, and modern Brazilian pop. Mendes won a Grammy Award in 1993 for the album Brasileiro, and in 1997, Down Beat magazine honored his album Ocean as the best album of the year in the “beyond jazz” category.
Sergio Mendes passed away on 5 September 2024 at the age of 83. Read more a out his life and career in MGG Online.
In February 1929, the Spanish dancer Antonia Mercé Luque, better known as La Argentina, arrived in the Philippines during her groundbreaking international tour. This pioneering journey marked a significant expansion of Spanish dance, introducing it to traditional stage circuits across the Americas as well as cities in Asia and Oceania. The Philippines, a former Spanish colony, represents a particularly intriguing case for analyzing the impact of her work. During her visit, La Argentina honored Philippine culture by creating a piece inspired by the cariñosa–a traditional Spanish colonial dance–which she subsequently integrated into her international repertoire.
La Argentina’s brief visit to Manila and the creation of her solo piece, La cariñosa, highlight how early 20th-century Spanish dance served as a colonial gesture, presenting Spanish dance as both a colonizing force and one that was itself influenced by colonial contexts. This solo stylized the Filipino national dance for Western audiences, ostensibly paying tribute to the Filipino people. However, it also obscured a deeper colonial power dynamic, framing the performance in the context of a shared Hispanidad—a constructed cultural policy that promoted a fictive unity in the postcolonial Philippines.
Stills from footage of a 1929 performance of the Philippine cariñosa by La Argentina in Manila.
Like her earlier Latin American tour, La Argentina’s Asian tour should be viewed in the context of other contemporary Western dancers who were effectively conducting a type of fieldwork. Many of these dancers sought artistic and documentary inspiration from cultures considered exotic to Western audiences, primarily drawing from influences in India and Southeast Asia, as well as Indigenous American traditions. By the time La Argentina arrived in the Philippines, her artistic vision had already gained legitimacy within the dominant circles of Western culture. Her critical and public success, especially after founding her company, Les Ballets Espagnols–a name that mirrored Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes–in the autumn of 1927, further elevated her status. The acclaim she received from her peers further solidified her position as the foremost international exponent of Spanish dance.
This according to “Antonia Mercé ‘La Argentina’ in the Philippines: Spanish dance and colonial gesture” by Idoia Murga Castro (Dance research journal 54/3 [2022] 45–67; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-16064).
Below is a performance of the cariñosa folk dance of the Philippines.
Arriving in India in the mid-1930s in search of performance opportunities and a better quality of life, African American jazz musicians significantly contributed to the growth of jazz and Western popular music in the country. In 1935, Bombay’s premier hotel, the Taj Mahal, hired the first all-African-American jazz band to play in India. The eight-member band, led by Leon Abbey, a violinist from Minnesota, included a host of experienced musicians who had performed alongside jazz legends. Their success and influence attracted local Anglo-Indian and Goan musicians, who began to perform jazz in the cosmopolitan centers of India. In Bombay, Goan musicians incorporated Western popular music into local cabaret performances and even into early film songs. In this context, African American musicians played a pivotal role in broadening the landscape of Western popular music in India, shaping early Bombay cabaret songs and the hybrid sounds of the emerging film industry.
Goan jazz musician Rudy Cotton.
Members of Duke Ellington’s orchestra in India with tabla player Chatur Lal.
The presence of jazz orchestras in Bombay during the 1940s and 1950s highlighted various historical connections. These orchestras supplied essential musical resources for creating cabaret scenes in Hindi-language films. African American jazz musicians residing in India inspired local musicians to join urban jazz orchestras, which led to the development of a vibrant jazz cabaret economy. This economy was centered around recording in film studios, collaborating with film music composers, performing as backdrop dance bands in movies, and engaging in ghost composing and arranging.
Furthermore, ragtime and jazz were performed in Calcutta’s hotels and clubs, which were vital to the social lives of the elite during colonial India. While the musicians were often European or American, especially when foreign bands were brought in for a season, some ensembles included Anglo-Indian members. These Anglo-Indian musicians served as intermediaries, transmitting theoretical knowledge of Western harmony and teaching the use of Western instruments to subsequent generations of musicians in post-independence India. They were also the first Indian musicians to perform jazz and blues standards in Calcutta and Bombay around World War II, playing a significant role in the spread of jazz and blues music throughout the country.
This according to “Orchestras and musical intersections with regimental bands, blackface minstrel troupes, and jazz in India, 1830s–1940s” by Bradley G. Shope, Global perspectives on orchestras: Collective creativity and social agency, ed. by Tina K. Ramnarine (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2017, 226–241; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2017-33724), and “Jazz and race in colonial India: The role of Anglo-Indian musicians in the diffusion of jazz in Calcutta” by Stéphane Dorin (Jazz research journal 4/2 [November 2010] 123–140; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2010-19314).
The Senegalese singer, songwriter, musician, and politician Youssou N’Dour was born just six months before Senegal achieved independence. His mother hailed from a long line of griots, or gawlo, who served as hereditary musicians and custodians of oral history in traditional Senegalese culture. In contrast, his father, who did not come from a griot background, discouraged him from pursuing a career in music. Nevertheless, at the age of 12, Youssou began performing at local events, including kassaks (circumcision ceremonies) and ngentes (baptisms). By 13, he had his first major public performance with the song M’Ba, marking the start of his professional singing career.
For a brief period, N’Dour attended the École des Arts but quickly lost interest in classical Western music education. In 1975, he joined Ibrahim Kassé’s Star Band, the house band at the popular nightclub Le Miami. After two years, he left the band along with several other members to form a new group, Étoile de Dakar, in 1977. In 1984, Youssou N’Dour was invited to perform in Paris alongside the Ghanaian-English band Osibisa on April 4th, celebrating Senegalese Independence Day before an audience of 12,000 at the Espace Bala. Among the attendees was British rock musician Peter Gabriel, who was so captivated by N’Dour’s voice that he later traveled to Dakar to meet him.
N’Dour performs Nelson Mandela on his 1987 tour with Peter Gabriel.
In 2012, N’Dour declared his candidacy for the Senegalese presidential elections. His song Fekke ma ci boole became an anthem for his political campaign. Although he was ultimately disqualified from the election due to alleged irregularities with his signatures, his candidacy played a crucial role in uniting the opposition. In addition to his political endeavors, N’Dour has received numerous honors for his musical and humanitarian work, being appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and a FAO Global Goodwill Ambassador in 2000. In a recent interview, N’Dour spoke of music’s power to bring people together. According to him, “When you’re a musician you speak a universal language that overcomes divisions and [can] bring people together, remind them of our common humanity and promote understanding and solidarity. Music is a melody and a word that can speak of love, friendship, peace, and subjects that concern us all, such as the environment and immigration – subjects that we all experience in our daily lives. Also, throughout my career, I’ve always been open to world cultures while putting an African stamp on them.”
Read the new entry on Youssou N’Dour in MGG Online.
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The main entrance to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s exhibition Lou Reed: Caught between the twisted stars opens up on Lincoln Plaza, directly adjacent to the The Metropolitan Opera house. On a sunny day, the Met’s … Continue reading →
Seven strings/Сім струн (dedicated to Uncle Michael)* For thee, O Ukraine, O our mother unfortunate, bound, The first string I touch is for thee. The string will vibrate with a quiet yet deep solemn sound, The song from my heart … Continue reading →
Introduction: Dr. Philip Ewell, Associate Professor of Music at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, posted a series of daily tweets during Black History Month (February 2021) providing information on some under-researched Black … Continue reading →
For it [the Walkman] permits the possibility…of imposing your soundscape on the surrounding aural environment and thereby domesticating the external world: for a moment, it can all be brought under the STOP/START, FAST FOWARD, PAUSE and REWIND buttons. –Iain Chambers, “The … Continue reading →
