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‘They throw Spears’ was written as part of the research for my PhD at the University of Sydney. The study was conducted in two primary schools: one in a remote area in the Northern Territory (NT) and one in an urban setting in Tasmania. It was conducted in 2009 and investigated Indigenous and non-Indigenous student, non-Indigenous teacher, nonIndigenous principal and Indigenous Teaching Assistant attitudes towards Reconciliation. The theories of Lev Vygotsky and Kieren Egan and the writing of Karen Martin informed the study. The article focuses on the importance of the contribution of the two Indigenous Teaching Assistants involved in the research and explores their role in its success. It concentrates on Marlene Primary School in Katherine in the Northern Territory. At the time that the research was conducted, the school population was over 90% students Indigenous. I used an arts-informed research methodology and the writing includes narratives written in the first person. I gathered the research data through semi-structured individual and group interviews, student definitions, song lyrics, t-shirt designs, digital recordings, video footage, sketches, collographs, photographs and researcher observations. This approach enabled my personal story to be told. The article also features an image I created to symbolise the spirit of the research. The image is a block printed collograph and depicts the spears that the Indigenous Teaching Assistant (Arthur) used in his classes with the students.
The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives
Youth music culture is relatively a new phenomenon in Nigeria, but the rise of hip hop/rap threatens the survival of other genres of popular music targeted at youth audience, such as rhythm and blues (R&B), reggae, afro-beat and yo-pop. Innocuous as youth music may seem to adult Nigerians, it may contain elements with potential to provoke or aggravate violence. To determine what this newly discovered culture could reveal about violence in the system, and particularly among youth, a group of youth were asked to assess popular music with bias to violence. The premise is that music could reveal the mindset of its composers and consumers. In a descriptive study, essays written by undergraduate students were analyzed to ascertain whether youth music contains elements of violence in title, lyric, beat, narrative and video presentation; and whether violent music elicits aggression from the consumers. Violence in society can be restrained by taking cognizance of potential causes of violence, and managing situations that can engender violence. This can be done by examining various aspects of community life, events, communication and language use. This study of music violence reveals that artistes, by being accepted by their youth audience, do influence their consumers‘ behaviours through their music.
NCUE Journal of Humanities
This book highlights the important role youth can play in processes of peacebuilding by examining music as a tool for engaging youth in such activities. As Lesley J. Pruitt discusses throughout the book, music—as expression, as creation, as inspiration—can provide many unique insights into transforming conflicts, altering our understandings, and achieving change. She offers detailed empirical work on two youth peacebuilding programs in Australia and Northern Ireland, countries that appear overtly peaceful, but where youth still face structural violence and related direct violence at the community level. She also pays careful attention to the ways in which gender norms might influence young people's participation in music-based peacebuilding activities. Ultimately, the book defines a new research area linking youth cultures and music with peacebuilding practice and policy.
On 13 February 2008 the Australian Parliament formally apologized to the members of the Stolen Generations. This was a historic moment for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Jackie Huggins believes that the Apology ‘generated a sense of hope, healing, forgiveness and unity’ and was the ‘first important steps towards a new national approach to reconciliation’. Music has the potential to capture this hope for reconciliation and a number of Indigenous and non-Indigenous musicians have responded to the Apology through song. This article explores how contemporary music-making intersects with discourses of reconciliation surrounding the Apology and considers the ways music underscores the hope for healing and justice for Indigenous Australians, recognition of colonial history, and relationships and collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Drawing on Indigenous and non-Indigenous responses and using examples of songs written since the Apology and interviews with the performers, I explore the ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian songwriters have musically expressed their responses to this powerful moment and their attempts to generate awareness and break the silence about the history of the Stolen Generations through the medium of contemporary song.
Perfect Beat
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cultural disintegration, political confusion and unresolved inter-ethnic conflict are just some of the hurdles that can face citizens in war affected areas. After the Dayton Peace Accord[1] was signed in 1995 ending the deadly armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), international government and charity organizations and a variety of NGOs flooded into the country to help rebuild the infrastructure and to offer transitional economic and political support for the beleaguered, fragmented population. Although arts-based activities, therapies and projects were also part of the international influx, this form of psychosocial intervention was piecemeal, somewhat random, and often unable to sustain a long term or systemic approach to the massive psychosocial needs of the people. There appears to be little peerreviewed fieldwork research to support claims of effectiveness of arts-based projects in post-conflict regions. Therefore, considering the growing number of projects that use the creative arts as an intervention for trauma, conflict transformation and community building in war affected populations, the purpose of this paper is to search for, and to critically examine, empirical arts-based research conducted in war affected areas and/or any population that may have been directly impacted by activities of armed conflict.
Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy
Music and dance offer creative means through which victims of conflict can express their pain, find healing, and move toward reconciliation. But, these arts are generally overlooked within the peacebuilding field. Peacebuilding practitioners lack a thorough understanding of how to strategically incorporate them into their work. This is largely due to the scarcity of substantial theory and research on arts-based practices, especially music and dance-based initiatives. This thesis seeks to move beyond general, simplistic assumptions about these arts to a deeper analysis of how music and dance function in peacebuilding and what effects they elicit in victims of conflict. It does this through an analysis of interviews with nineteen peacebuilding practitioners who have used music and/or dance to promote peace across cultures and conflict contexts. This thesis outlines two different approaches as well as tangible and intangible effects of music and dance-based peacebuilding.
[extract:] Within the last twenty years several historians, musicologists, and dance scholars have published their findings regarding the relationship between the U.S. government and its exportation of American culture through music and dance.1 This relatively recent body of work largely focuses on the Cold War period and understandably so as this was, by all accounts, the height of U.S. artistic exchange with other countries. Although these scholarly contributions exhibit a variety of ways of handling the intermingling of culture and politics, most authors neglect, and even ignore, the connections between the “cultural Cold War” and the events that preceded it in South America during the 1940s,2 when the State Department and the Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA) initiated a program of cultural propaganda to strengthen alliances between the United States and South America.3 In this article I argue that the model for American musical diplomacy was established much earlier through the work of the OIAA Music Committee and that an examination of the precedent set by this committee results in a fuller understanding of the events that took place thereafter. I discuss the circumstances surrounding the creation of the OIAA Music Committee, as it was a relatively new initiative on behalf of the U.S. government; explore the objectives and artistic priorities of the committee members and the processes by which projects were selected for government funding; and conclude by looking at how the decisions of this committee, made with the input and the approval of the U.S. government, formed an unwritten policy for U.S. musical diplomacy that would be revisited during similar subsequent undertakings.
Diplomatic History
In juvenile justice settings, interventions intended to address the effects of trauma are unavailable to most youth. This article describes the evolution of an innovative program for incarcerated adolescent girls in which youth work collaboratively with theater professionals to create, develop, and perform musicals based on their experiences. The article also examines the links between trauma and incarceration through the voices of the girls, as they appear in participants’ writing and lyrics. Finally, the article presents anecdotal evidence of the therapeutic benefits of the program and discusses implications for juvenile justice systems, psychotherapy with incarcerated adolescents, and trauma-focused intervention.
Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma
Objectives. Not all patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) respond to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Literature suggests group music therapy might be beneficial in treating PTSD. However, feasibility and effectiveness have not been assessed. The study objectives were to assess whether group music therapy was feasible for patients who did not respond to CBT, and whether it has an effect on PTSD symptoms and depression. Design. The study employed mixed methods comprising of an exploratory randomized controlled trial, qualitative content analysis of therapy, and patient interviews. Method. Patients with significant PTSD symptoms (n = 17) following completion of CBT were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 9) or control groups (n = 8). The treatment group received 10 weeks of group music therapy after which exit interviews were conducted. Control group patients were offered the intervention at the end of the study. Symptoms were assessed on the Impact of Events Scale-Revised and Beck Depression Inventory II at the beginning and end of treatment. Results. Treatment-group patients experienced a significant reduction in severity of PTSD symptoms (−20.18; 95% confidence interval [CI]: [−31.23, −9.12]) and a marginally significant reduction in depression (−11.92; 95%CI: [−24.05, 0.21]) at 10 weeks from baseline compared to the control. Patients viewed music therapy as helpful and reported experiences concur with current literature. Conclusions. Group music therapy appears feasible and effective for PTSD patients who have not sufficiently responded to CBT. Limitations include the small sample size and lack of blinding. Further research should address these limitations, test sustainability, and identify specific factors that address symptoms in treatment.
Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice
Based on theories that low self-esteem is related to criminal activity (Oser, 2006) and high self-esteem derives from competence and worthiness (Harter, 1985; Mruk, 2006), this study measured changes in community singers’ attitudes toward prisoners and documented changes in prisoner singers’ perceptions of their social competence. Participants included 22 prisoners and 22 community members over a 12-week choral program in a medium-security Midwest state prison. Community members completed an Attitudes Toward Prisoners Scale (ATPS) before meeting the prisoners and after the group’s concert. All answered open-ended questions summarizing the choir experience. Results indicated a significant difference (p < .01) between pre- and postmeasurements on the community singers’ ATPS. Two categories emerged from the open-ended answers: relationships with others and self-gratification. Five subcategories under relationships with others emerged from prisoner singers’ data: feeling respected, getting along with others, making friends, connecting to something outside prison, and improving family relationships.
International Journal of Music Education
Seeds of Peace International Camp for Coexistence in Otisfield, Maine is a summer camp and intensive dialogue program for teens from the Middle East. Campers come in national delegations of “Arabs” or “Israelis” for whom acknowledgment of the other side's humanity is equivalent to self-nullification and moral jeopardy. When they first arrive, scarred by conflict, they see their mission not as peacemaking but vociferous defense of their countries' policies and national histories. After three weeks, these identities have not been shed, but campers have acquired an additional shared identity as “Seeds” – members of a new community of enemies who choose to become friends, acknowledge their enemies' reality and pain, and engage in earnest dialogue about how to heal their region's wounds. Based on research over four summers, first as a camper and then as a music counselor, it is clear that music is integral to the profound personal and communal process of creating the intercultural identity of the “Seed.” I will discuss the role of the song “I am a Seed of Peace,” taught to all campers, in both the development and performance of the new, shared identity of the “Seed.” Through multiple performances of the song, campers create a space in which dialogue is not a betrayal of oneself or one's history but an embrace of one's fellow Seed and the collective hope for a peaceful and productive common future.
SSRN Electronic Journal
This article questions music’s particular stake in Indigenous initiatives of redress and reconciliation.It examines music’s media-specific relationship with redress and reconciliation,and public discourses that situate intercultural art music performance as a medium of reconciliation. In addressing intercultural art music’s abilities to engender reconciliation, the article considers its social and political efficacy from two perspectives. Firstly, it offers a brief survey of the public and academic discourses on music’s ability to engender reconciliation. Secondly, it examines how the discourse of music’s power for reconciliation played out in an a performance of Mohican composer Brent Michael Davids’ Powwow Symphony presented as part of the Dakota MusicTour (2010) in Minnesota.
MUSICultures
Musical group interaction (MGI) is a complex social setting requiring certain cognitive skills that may also elicit shared psychological states. We argue that many MGI-specific features may also be important for emotional empathy, the ability to experience another person’s emotional state. We thus hypothesized that long-term repeated participation in MGI could help enhance a capacity for emotional empathy even outside of the musical context, through a familiarization with and refinement of MGI empathy-promoting musical components (EPMCs). We tested this hypothesis by designing an MGI programme for primary school children consisting of interactive musical games implementing various EPMCs. We ran the programme for an entire school year and compared the emotional empathy of MGI children to control children using existing and novel measures of empathy before and after the programme. Our results support our hypothesis: MGI children showed higher emotional empathy scores after the study compared to its beginning, and higher scores than control children at the end of the study. These findings shed new light on the emotional processes involved in musical interaction and highlight the remarkable potential of MGI for promoting positive social-emotional capacities such as empathy.
Psychology of Music
Diplomatic History
While there are now numerous accounts of the use of music as a means of torture, this chapter sets recent practices in the context of a larger history of sonorous violence. After having sketched the general outline of such a reflection, it pursues a detailed reading of Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange and proposes the following hypothesis: violence begins when one tries to rivet, to nail, music to a meaning. It finds useful Lacan's concept of "button ties" (points de capiton) as a way of characterizing the sonorous stigmata of the wounded subject.
Speaking about Torture
Musicology Australia
This article celebrates the life and work of Australian musician and educator Steve Dillon (20 March 1953–1 April 2012). It focuses on the most significant pedagogical and philosophical ideas that informed his community music practice, and illustrates these concepts with examples from his work with the Sweet Freedom, Accessible Interactions, DIScoveringABILITIES, jam2jam and One Laptop Per Child projects. In particular, the article focuses on Steve Dillon’s belief that music has profound transformative effects on people of all ages and cultures, and has the power to enable people to express themselves, build relationships and find their place in the world.
International Journal of Community Music
Youth justice is an important public health issue. There is growing recognition of the need to adopt effective, evidence-based strategies for working with young offenders. Music interventions may be particularly well suited to addressing risk factors in young people and reducing juvenile crime. This systematic review of international research seeks to contribute to the evidence base on the impact of music making on the health, well-being and behaviour of young offenders and those considered at risk of offending. It examines outcomes of music making identified in quantitative research and discusses theories from qualitative research that might help to understand the impact of music making in youth justice settings.
Health Promotion International
The great saxophonist Charlie Parker once proclaimed "if you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn". This quote has often been used to explain the hedonistic lifestyle of many jazz greats; however, but it also signals the reciprocal and inextricable relationship between music and wider social, cultural and psychological variables. This link is complex and multifaceted and is undoubtedly a central component of why music has been implicated as a therapeutic agent in vast swathes of contemporary research studies. Music is always about more than just acoustic events or notes on a page. Music has a universal and timeless potential to influence how we feel. Yet, only recently, have researchers begun to explore and understand the positive effects that music can have on our wellbeing - across a range of cultures and musical genres
Recent developments in music neuroscience are considered a source for reflection on, and evaluation and development of, musical therapeutic practice in the field, in particular, in relation to traumatized children and postconflict societies. Music neuroscience research is related to practice within a broad biopsychosocial framework. Here, examples are detailed of work from North Uganda, Palestine, and South Thailand.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
This article focuses on the reported benefits of participation in music activities, identified by participants of the Music for Life Project. The participants engaged in weekly music activities offered in three locations: two centres in London and one in the North of England. Their responses were collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews. Music participants attributed improvements in quality of life to active engagement with music, and a wide range of cognitive, social, emotional and physical benefits were reported. This article offers an insight into what participants said about improved health, social interactions, emotional support and learning that occurred as a result of active involvement in music.
International Journal of Community Music
Music both articulates and offers the immediate experience of collective identity … In responding to a song, to a sound, we are drawn into affective and emotional alliances … Music is especially important for our sense of ourselves because of its unique emotional intensity—we absorb songs into our own lives and rhythm into our own bodies … Identity is always an ideal, what we would like to be, not what we are … What makes music special is that musical identity is both fantastic—idealizing not just oneself but also the social world one inhabits—and real: it is enacted in activity.
Context: Journal of Music Research
Diplomatic History
The purpose of this pilot project was to explore the use of popular music, songwriting, technology, and music and video production with at-risk youth in an urban environment. Through participating in the therapeutic music video process, the participants developed a healthy sense of group identity, a sense of control of their creative process, and experienced a safe space in which to channel their creative energy. Included in this article is an overview of music therapy practice with at-risk youth, a summary of the group process, and a description of the technology that was utilized in this program.
Music Therapy Perspectives
For the last few years reports have surfaced that music has been used to torture prisoners. The chapter investigates this particular kind of no-touch torture and describes the kind of music that is most commonly used, the contexts of its use, and what exactly it is about music that makes this kind of practice possible. It argues that, besides the sheer force of its loudness, music's ability to engage our physical, emotional and mental capacities without the possibility of escape accounts for the devastating effect that music torture has on its victims.
Speaking about Torture
The use of traditional versus nontraditional instruments is an important decision to consider when working with clients from different cultures, especially when traveling to work as a music therapist in another country. The purpose of this paper is to share personal experiences and the information gathered while preparing for and working with children traumatized by the ongoing conflict (Thabet, Abed, & Vostanis, 2002) in Bethlehem within the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). In deciding to incorporate traditional and nontraditional instruments, the author discusses the differential use of these instruments while simultaneously presenting theories on multicultural counseling that support their use. In addition, the author discusses how an analysis of session transcripts supports observations that the children tended to play traditional instruments using a traditional pattern and to play nontraditional instruments using other rhythmic, creative improvisations that facilitated emotional expression.
Music Therapy Perspectives
It gives me great pleasure to introduce this text written by music therapy colleague Alpha Woodward. For quite some time Alpha and I have been exploring how to communicate to the international music therapy community through ‘Voices’ something of the essence of the work of a quite remarkable man, Nigel Osborne. Alpha has provided a creative solution to this challenge by interweaving excerpts of an interview with Nigel within the context of a case study exploring the background and evolution of the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar. As Alpha points out in her text Nigel Osborne is a great friend and ambassador of music therapy, although not ‘formally trained’ as a music therapist. His work touches on so much that is fundamental to the work of music therapists and as he says ‘enlivening children through song.’ But Nigel goes further in combining this passion for music with his burning desire for social justice and action.
Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy
This essay explores the possibility of Music Therapy being one of the creative responses to the terrorist question within the Singapore context. A general background to the Music Therapy scene in Singapore, and a brief overview of Singapore’s multi-ethnic history and response to terrorist threats are presented. Singapore is a multi-religious society with various ethnic groups living together in her short independent history. In 2001, Singapore was the target of planned attacks by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members who were Singaporeans. (JI is one of several radical militant groups with close ties with Al-Qaeda.) The application of Music Therapy in countering terrorism is explored - in terms of increasing community resilience, responding in times of crisis, as well as incorporating Music Therapy in detainee rehabilitation. Challenges relating to the implementation of crisis intervention using Music Therapy, and its implications in detainee rehabilitation are briefly discussed.
Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy
In recent violent conflicts around the world, music has often been used to channel emotions and make combatants’ fluid identities more explicit and oppositional in order to create or sustain the conflict. In addition, in industrialized countries music is used by groups from different geographical origins to maintain group borders and thus emphasize their differences with other groups. At the same time there is an increased interest in the use of aesthetic materials such as music to attempt to transform these conflicts and tensions, with highly variable results. From an academic standpoint, although there is a lot of high-flown rhetoric about music and its abilities to ‘soothe the beast’, little empirical work exists on music and its use for reducing conflicts. Rather more is written from speculative and opinionated viewpoints, often by those involved in the projects in the first place. In this article I first discuss the problems involved in writing and researching this highly charged area, even for academics, before drawing on Sloboda’s academic work related to music and emotion and music education when discussing empirical data from conflict transformation projects in Norway and Sudan. I end by summarizing some potential real world uses for this new area of conflict transformation, thereby covering both areas that Sloboda has been involved in, first music psychology and now conflict resolution as the Director of Oxford Research Group.
Music and the Mind: Essays in honour of John Sloboda
Previous research has predominantly focused on negative effects of music exposure by demonstrating that listening to antisocial music increases aggression and aggression-related variables. The present research tests the idea that listening to prosocial (relative to neutral) music decreases aggressive outcomes. In fact, five studies revealed that prosocial music exposure decreased aggressive cognition, affect, and behavior. Mediational analyses showed that the effect of music condition on aggressive behavior was accounted for by differences in aggressive affect. Implications of these results for the predictive validity of the general learning model (Buckley & Anderson, 2006) for the effects of media exposure on social tendencies are discussed.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
The performing arts can play a key role in intercultural education in a variety of contexts. New creative initiatives are constantly developed, but there is still little theory to support such initiatives. The fusion of Ethnomusicology and Education offers a particularly fruitful perspective as a theoretical dimension to the work being done. This article looks at teacher education and school management and their relationship to intercultural education, collaborative interaction, performance-related behaviour and creative production. The article takes the project music, synergies and interculturality as the starting point for a deeper analysis of these issues. As práticas performativas podem representar um papel fundamental na Educação Intercultural em vários contextos. Novas iniciativas têm sido testadas neste sentido mas o suporte teórico é escasso. A fusão entre a Etnomusicologia e a Educação pode ser particularmente produtiva neste domínio, produzindo dimensão teórica para o trabalho a realizar. Este artigo considera a formação de professores, a gestão escolar, e o seu relacionamento com a Educação Intercultural nas perspectivas da interacção colaborativa, do comportamento performativo e da produção criativa. Refere o projecto Música, sinergias e interculturalidade como ponto de partida para análises futuras.
Intercultural Education
Social, cultural, and political integration involves multiple interactions between and among migrant minorities and the indigenous majority. Measures of integration include frequency of contact, feeling of belonging, and mutual acceptance of other cultural groups. Intercultural exchange and the construction of new cultural identities can both promote and hinder integration. The literature on integration addresses language skills, education, occupation, income, (un)employment, and social capital. What is the role of culture, including music? Twenty-four participants in a musicology course unit interviewed 54 migrants living in Graz, Austria. The interviewees came from Albania, China, Egypt (Copts), Iraq (Kurds), Italy, Nigeria, and Serbia. They spoke about music in their everyday lives, music they perform, their cultural identity and social contacts, the music, customs and traditions of their group, their favourite CDs, and the relationship between music and integration. Qualitative analysis yielded theses such as: migrants identify emotionally with the music of their culture, which helps them to feel at home in a new environment. Music is easier to understand across cultures than language. Music promotes intercultural contact by arousing curiosity and creating a social atmosphere.
Music and the Mind: Essays in honour of John Sloboda
Within the field of positive psychology, hope has been shown to be related to individuals’ ways of coping with success and failure. The present study examined the effect of music and dispositional hope on state hope, after experiencing failure. Sixty participants filled out a dispositional hope questionnaire, and completed a computer task for which they received false failure feedback. Thirty participants listened to positive music following the task, while 30 participants did not receive the music stimulus. Participants then filled out a state hope questionnaire and a positive and negative affect scale. Results showed a significant effect of music on state hope: participants listening to positive music scored higher on state hope than participants in the control group. No significant effect for dispositional hope was found. However, an interaction between dispositional hope and music was found, such that music was shown to affect only high dispositional hope participants, and had no effect on low dispositional hope participants. No significant effects on affect were found. Results are discussed in relation to individual differences in music’s effect. Future directions for research and implications for music therapy are suggested.
Psychology of Music
Music and Politics
This article provides a brief sketch of how scholars may be actively involved in conflict transformation efforts using music or the arts beyond their purely artistic connotations. Here I will explore the ways in which music has been employed in some ethnomusicological projects based on my personal experiences, which can hopefully stimulate debate and provide some ideas for other scholars in different branches of humanities and social sciences.
Music and Arts in Action
Building peace in societies torn apart by violence is a long, frustrating, and extremely difficult process. From the Middle East to Afghanistan, from Somalia to East Timor, years and often decades of conflict have left societies deeply divided and traumatised. New forms of violence constantly emerge, generating yet more hatred. Commentators speak of so-called intractable conflicts: situations where antagonisms have persisted for so long that they have created a vicious cycle of violence.
Peacebuilding: Critical Developments and Approaches
The ‘Holiday of Holidays’ is a unique event of coexistence in the Israeli landscape as well as in the entire Middle East. The festival unites the three religions: the Christian Christmas, the Jewish Hanukkah and the Muslim Ramadan. It has been taking place for the past 15 years in November–December in the Wadi Nisnas neighbourhood of Haifa, Israel. This is a colourful celebration of art, music, fragrances, tastes and magnificent holiday lighting that creates syncretism between old and new, languages and religious symbols. The organizers choose universal elements: food, commerce and art, which are disengaged from conflictual contexts. Beyond the commercial-tourist aspect, this festival creates ‘another place’ with encounters between hostile groups.
Middle Eastern Studies
This article investigates music in the concentration camps before the second world war. For the camp authorities, ordering prisoners to sing songs or play in orchestras was an instrument of domination. But for the prisoners, music could also be an expression of solidarity and survival: inmates could retain a degree of their own agency in the pre-war camps, despite the often unbearable living conditions and harsh treatment by guards. The present article emphasizes this ambiguity of music in the early camps. It illustrates the emergence of musical traditions in the pre-war camps which came to have a significant impact on everyday life in the camps. It helps to overcome the view that concentration camp prisoners were simply passive victims.
Journal of Contemporary History
Yothu Yindi stands as one of Australia’s most celebrated popular bands, and in the early 1990s became renowned worldwide for its innovative blend of rock and indigenous performance traditions. The band’s lead singer and composer, Mandawuy Yunupiŋu, was one of the first university-trained Yolŋu educators from remote Arnhem Land, and an influential exponent of bicultural education within local indigenous schools. This article draws on my comprehensive interview with Yunupiŋu for an opening keynote address to the Music and Social Justice Conference in Sydney on 28 September 2005. It offers new insights into the traditional values and local history of intercultural relations on the Gove Peninsula that shaped his outlook as a Yolŋu educator, and simultaneously informed his work through Yothu Yindi as an ambassador for indigenous cultural survival in Australia. It also demonstrates how Mandawuy’s personal history and his call for a constitutional treaty with indigenous Australians are further grounded in the inter-generational struggle for justice over the mining of their hereditary lands. The article’s ultimate goal is to identify traditional Yolŋu meanings in Yothu Yindi’s repertoire, and in doing so, generate new understanding of Yunupiŋu’s agency as a prominent intermediary of contemporary Yolŋu culture and intercultural politics.
Popular Music
Since the early 1990s, there has been an increase in the use of music and the arts within a conflict transformation context. This guest editorial discusses the developments in this research and practical area. The current status of the field, and challenges it faces, are then examined within the context of this issue's theme of the arts and conflict transformation/peace building.
Music and Arts in Action
This volume charts a new frontier of applied ethnomusicology by highlighting the role of music in both inciting and resolving a spectrum of social and political conflicts in the contemporary world. Examining the materials and practices of music making, contributors detail how music and performance are deployed to critique power structures and to nurture cultural awareness among communities in conflict. The essays here range from musicological studies to ethnographic analyses to accounts of practical interventions that could serve as models for conflict resolution. Music and Conflict reveals how musical texts are manipulated by opposing groups to promote conflict and how music can be utilized to advance conflict resolution. Speaking to the cultural implications of globalization and pointing out how music can promote a shared musical heritage across borders, the essays discuss the music of Albania, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, North and South Korea, Uganda, the United States, and the former Yugoslavia. The volume also includes dozens of illustrations, including photos, maps, and musical scores. Contributors are Samuel Araujo, William Beeman, Stephen Blum, Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, David Cooper, Keith Howard, Inna Naroditskaya, John Morgan O'Connell, Svanibor Pettan, Anne K. Rasmussen, Adelaida Reyes, Anthony Seeger, Jane C. Sugarman, and Britta Sweers.
This study is based on interviews conducted with twenty-two musician-activists in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States in 2009 to explore perspectives about the role of music in community engagement with the aim of considering how music might be used in the field of conflict resolution. The study followed the qualitative approach of constructivist grounded theory as designed by Charmaz (2000, 2002). Two themes, “Music for Self,” and “Music for Society” emerged from interviews and comprise the internal and external meanings of music to the research informants. The results of the study indicate that the relationships people have with music make it a potentially powerful tool in conflict situations within the realms of both conflict resolution and conflict transformation. More extensive research exploring these benefits is recommended.
Can music play a role in positive conflict transformation? Having developed a theoretical basis from a previous examination of the contrasting musical conflict transformation projects of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Hip Hop, I have collected data on an inter-religious choir in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina with an explicit conflict transformation remit. Data was collected using ethnographic interviews and participant/observations with fifteen of the choristers in an attempt to answer this question. There was no direct access to audience data and any references to audience reception are from the choir members’ points of view. This detail highlights the issue of application of cultural findings within the choir to the wider social context. For the purposes of this paper therefore any discussions of wider social context are assumed to be mediated through the choristers themselves as members of the choir and the larger Sarajevo and Bosnian society. This data is compared with the previously developed theories and emerging themes are discussed. The fieldwork is ongoing and this article is a summary of findings thus far.
Music and Arts in Action
This article offers a brief review of literature which demonstrates how interdisciplinary collaboration could help understand the role music plays in conflict situations. Research into the anthropology of armed conflict and into propaganda are two areas where the focus has only rarely covered music and musical activity. A number of concrete examples demonstrate how the use of music in conflict situations has implications for the justice system and policing. Recent studies into the potential of music to promote non-violent resolution of conflict are also reviewed, and in conclusion the authors note a number of other scientific disciplines — including music psychology and evolutionary musicology — that could provide further input into the issue of music and conflict research.
Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
In this article I discuss my recent exploration into the operational interface between applied ethnomusicology and peacebuilding in post-conflict states. I explore how a summer youth music festival provides opportunities to transform conflictual interethnic relationship in contemporary Macedonia (FYROM), a former republic of Yugoslavia. I investigate the role of intercultural music making in promoting ethnic reconciliation and consider how music making processes may motivate young people to engage in an intercultural dialogue through creative and emotional musical engagement. I consider how young participants negotiate their own ethnic identities and relationships with their peers on and off stage and consider their role in promoting a culture of peace and non-violence. I argue for considering applied ethnomusicology in advocating the primacy of the voices and goals of the participants themselves and explore the role of the ‘native’ ethnomusicologist/anthropologist as an applied practitioner.
International Journal of Community Music
Hamas (Harakat al-Muqawamat al-Islamiyya) was established in 1987 as a resistance organization against Israel and as an alternative to Fatah. One of the resistance tools of Hamas is music, which it produces, performs, records, and uses. Music in the Palestinian context can be seen as creating a political space for expression that the Israelis cannot control; inasmuch as as Hamas was established as a result of the occupation, so also, to a large extent, was its music. Palestinian resistance music has existed ever since the 1948 al-nakba (the catastrophe), and music centers in Cairo and Beirut have been influential factors in its production. Originally, the music was constituted by a wide range of popular music, which included lyrics about the Palestinian struggle. This article scrutinizes how Hamas music is being created, how it is used, and how it is linked to the organization’s resistance struggle against Israel and for a Palestinian homeland in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. It concludes that Hamas resistance music is not permeated by the religious affiliation of the organization. Rather, it has as its aim social connection, spreading the messages of the organization, and exhorting resistance against Israel. In addition to resistance music, Hamas produces and uses music of grief and tributes to political and religious leaders, as well as anashid, songs different from the resistance music saturated by a religious character.
Contemporary Islam
Around the world communities that have suffered the trauma of unspeakable violence--in Liberia, Somalia, West Africa, Columbia, and elsewhere--are struggling to recover and reconcile, searching for ways not just to survive but to heal. In When Blood and Bones Cry Out, John Paul Lederach, a pioneer of peace-building, and his daughter, Angela Jill Lederach, show how communities can recover and reconnect through the power of making music, creating metaphors, and telling their extraordinary stories of suffering and survival. Instead of relying on more common linear explanations of healing and reconciliation, the Lederachs demonstrate how healing is circular, dynamic, and continuing, even in the midst of ongoing violence. They explore the concept of "social healing," a profoundly important intermediary step between active warfare and reconciliation. Social healing focuses on the lived experience of those who have suffered protracted violence and their need to give voice to that experience, both individually and collectively. Giving voice, speaking the unspeakable, in words and sounds that echo throughout traumatized communities, can have enormous healing power. Indeed, the Lederachs stress the remarkable effects of sound and vibration through tales of Tibetan singing bowls, Van Morrison's transcendent lyrics, the voices of mothers in West Africa, and their own personal journeys. And they include inspiring stories of transformation: a mass women's protest movement in Liberia that forces leaders to keep negotiating until a peace agreement is signed; elders in Somalia who walk between warring clans year after year to encourage dialogue; former child soldiers who run drum workshops and grow gardens in refugee camps; and rape victims in Sierra Leone who express their pain in poetry. With equal measures of insight and compassion, When Blood and Bones Cry Out offers a promising new approach to healing traumatized communities.
This book explores how people may use music in ways that are helpful for them, especially in relation to a sense of wellbeing, belonging and participation. The central premise for the study is that help is not a decontextualized effect that music produces. The book contributes to the current discourse on music, culture and society and it is developed in dialogue with related areas of study, such as music sociology, ethnomusicology, community psychology and health promotion. Where Music Helps describes the emerging movement that has been labelled Community Music Therapy, and it presents ethnographically informed case studies of eight music projects (localized in England, Israel, Norway, and South Africa). The various chapters of the book portray "music's help" in action within a broad range of contexts; with individuals, groups and communities - all of whom have been challenged by illness or disability, social and cultural disadvantage or injustice. Music and musicing has helped these people find their voice (literally and metaphorically); to be welcomed and to welcome, to be accepted and to accept, to be together in different and better ways, to project alternative messages about themselves or their community and to connect with others beyond their immediate environment. The overriding theme that is explored is how music comes to afford things in concert with its environments, which may suggest a way of accounting for the role of music in music therapy without reducing music to a secondary role in relation to the "therapeutic," that is, being "just" a symbol of psychological states, a stimulus, or a text reflecting socio-cultural content.
This article adds to the emerging literature on music and conflict transformation by highlighting the use of collective singing by U.S. peace activists when engaged in various peace movement activities. Based on preliminary findings from focus groups with peace activists and in-depth interviews with notable peace musicians, this article asserts that group sing alongs have helped in mobilizing U.S. peace activism efforts over the last four decades through three specific functions: 1) extending frames to include broader peace and justice issues; 2) strengthening cognitive liberation amongst activists; and 3) appealing to and reinforcing a wide range of activists’ emotions. Although the group sing along may seem passé within some activist circles, this article affirms that it has served and continues to serve key functions in the peace protest repertoire. The article concludes with a discussion of issues that threaten the future of group sing alongs and urges conflict transformation practitioners and peace movement leaders to recognize the utility of collective singing so as to reinvigorate this long-standing tradition within social movements.
Music and Arts in Action
Macalester International
Previous research has shown that exposure to violent media increased aggression-related affect and thoughts, physiological arousal, and aggressive behavior as well as decreased prosocial tendencies. The present research examined the hypothesis that exposure to prosocial media promotes prosocial outcomes. Three studies revealed that listening to songs with prosocial (relative to neutral) lyrics increased the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, led to more interpersonal empathy, and fostered helping behavior. These results provide first evidence for the predictive validity of the General Learning Model [Buckley, K. E., & Anderson, C. A. (2006). A theoretical model of the effects and consequences of playing video games. In P. Vorderer, & J. Bryant, (Eds.), Playing video games: Motives responses and consequences (pp. 363–378). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] for the effects of media with prosocial content on prosocial thought, feeling, and behavior.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
In the present article we describe a special project (Let’s talk music) in which a multi-cultural group, including immigrants and Israeli-born students (Sabras), was formed. The group was designed according to recommended guidelines for successful contact between groups (Amir, 1969) and implemented music therapy techniques based on psychodynamic principles. Twelve immigrants and Sabras, themselves children of immigrants, met for 24 weekly sessions, conducted by a music therapist. Quantitative and qualitative research which accompanied the project showed that the group process enabled most students, immigrants as well as Sabras, to be more identified with their cultural roots as well as with the Israeli "host" culture. As a result of the group process, students could express more acceptance and openness towards the "other". It was found that music was a key ingredient in these developments. Results are discussed in light of the common ingroup identity model.
Nordic Journal of Music Therapy
Music is important in most people‟s lives independent of their cultural origin. Music can foster bonds between people and communicate values and identity. This thesis examined the social psychological functions of music across cultures. It investigated two social functions in detail: music preferences as expressions of personal and cultural values, and the social bonding function of shared music preferences. Furthermore, this thesis explored how these social functions relate to personal and cultural functions of music. This broader perspective offered an integration of the social functions into a holistic topography of musical functions. Six cross-cultural studies were conducted with the overarching objective to advance research on social functions of music preferences in cross-cultural contexts. Studies 1 and 2 explored the associations between music preferences and personal and cultural values drawing on Attitude-Function Theory and ExpectancyValue Theory. Study 1 revealed that preferences for global music styles (such as Rock, Pop and Classical music) were consistently associated with personal value orientations across four cultures and across two value measurements. Study 2 explored the tendency of societies to appreciate global music styles in association with their cultural values. Findings of a multicultural study and a meta-analysis confirmed that cultural values were related to societal music appreciation. Studies 1 and 2 advance our understanding of people‟s musical choices based on personal and cultural values. Studies 3 and 4 tested a novel model illuminating social bonding through shared music preferences. The model proposes that the value-expressive function of music preferences plays a crucial role in musical social bonding. Two studies supported the model empirically. A dyadic study among roommates in Hong Kong (Study 3) demonstrated that roommates who shared music preferences had similar value orientations, which contributed to perceived similarity between roommates leading to interpersonal attraction. The social perception experiment (Study 4) among German Metal and Hip-hop fans showed that shared music preference with a musical ingroup member was a robust vehicle for social bonding. In both studies, musical social bonding was facilitated by value similarity. Studies 5 and 6 offered holistic psychological investigations situating and relating individual, social, and cultural functions of music as perceived and used by culturally diverse samples. While the multicultural qualitative Study 5 identified iv variety of personal, social and cultural functions of music, the quantitative Study 6 aimed to measure a selected number of these functions. Both studies revealed that the social bonding function of music was closely related to the value-expressive function. The social bonding function represented the centre of a holistic topography of musical functions. Its importance was independent of cultural background and sociodemographic variables in the present samples indicating universal characteristics. The findings of this thesis contribute novel perspectives to contemporary music reception research as well as cross-cultural psychology. Using an explicit culturalcomparative approach beyond previous mono-cultural social psychological research on music it advances our understanding of music in a global context. It revealed that people use music similarly across cultures for expressing values, for social bonding and for multiple other functions. This thesis underscores that music is a powerful prosocial resource.
The significance of music as a healing agent permeates across the cultural spectrum. Hitherto, we find people of many cultures incorporating music to transform those unhealthy individuals into healthy ones. This paper extrapolates from the events that led to Kenya�s post-election violence of 2007 and enumerates how a Kenyan community musician embraced the therapeutic qualities inherent in the cultural music of the Kenyan people to help the violence victims who developed post-traumatic stress disorder following the disputed elections. The story adds nuance to our understanding of how community musicians are still an invaluable therapeutic resource albeit their lack of professional training.
Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy
Communicative musicality: Exploring the basis of human companionship.
An exploration of the production, transmission, and mutation of affective tonality—when sound helps produce a bad vibe. Sound can be deployed to produce discomfort, express a threat, or create an ambience of fear or dread—to produce a bad vibe. Sonic weapons of this sort include the “psychoacoustic correction” aimed at Panama strongman Manuel Noriega by the U.S. Army and at the Branch Davidians in Waco by the FBI, sonic booms (or “sound bombs”) over the Gaza Strip, and high-frequency rat repellants used against teenagers in malls. At the same time, artists and musicians generate intense frequencies in the search for new aesthetic experiences and new ways of mobilizing bodies in rhythm. In Sonic Warfare, Steve Goodman explores these uses of acoustic force and how they affect populations. Traversing philosophy, science, fiction, aesthetics, and popular culture, he maps a (dis)continuum of vibrational force, encompassing police and military research into acoustic means of crowd control, the corporate deployment of sonic branding, and the intense sonic encounters of sound art and music culture. Goodman concludes with speculations on the not yet heard—the concept of unsound, which relates to both the peripheries of auditory perception and the unactualized nexus of rhythms and frequencies within audible bandwidths.
The German-American relationship was special long before the Cold War; it was rooted not simply in political actions, but also long-term traditions of cultural exchange that date back to the nineteenth century. Between 1850 and 1910, the United States was a rising star in the international arena, and several European nations sought to strengthen their ties to the republic by championing their own cultures in America. While France capitalized on its art and Britain on its social ties and literature, Germany promoted its particular breed of classical music. Delving into a treasure trove of archives that document cross-cultural interactions between America and Germany, Jessica Gienow-Hecht retraces these efforts to export culture as an instrument of nongovernmental diplomacy, paying particular attention to the role of conductors, and uncovers the remarkable history of the musician as a cultural symbol of German cosmopolitanism. Considered sexually attractive and emotionally expressive, German players and conductors acted as an army of informal ambassadors for their home country, and Gienow-Hecht argues that their popularity in the United States paved the way for an emotional elective affinity that survived broken treaties and several wars and continues to the present.
Though a part of American soldiers' lives since the Revolutionary War, by World War II music could be broadcast to the front. Today it accompanies soldiers from the recruiting office to the battlefield. For this book, Jonathan Pieslak interviewed returning veterans to learn about the place of music in the Iraq War and in contemporary American military culture in general. Pieslak describes how American soldiers hear, share, use, and produce music both on and off duty. He studies the role of music from recruitment campaigns and basic training to its use "in country" before and during missions. Pieslak explores themes of power, chaos, violence, and survival in the metal and hip-hop music so popular among the troops, and offers insight into the daily lives of American soldiers in the Middle East.
This study explores intergroup dynamics through group singing during the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Interviews with 14 protesters and 14 security force members showed how different genres of songs affected intergroup conflict or proximity. When protesters sang Israeli folk songs, rhythmic Jewish religious songs and protest songs, these songs evoked negative feelings among security force members, thus increasing intergroup conflict. When protesters expressed pain and sadness through singing slow, quiet, spiritual songs, these songs evoked empathy on the part of security force members, thus increasing intergroup proximity. This dynamic is discussed in the light of socio-psychological studies and the emotional influences of music.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
The two studies reported in this article agree in demonstrating that activating a positive side of the stereotype of a traditionally prejudiced group could be a useful strategy to improve the implicit attitude toward that group. The goal of the current research was to explore whether activating the present association between Flamenco music and Gypsy people would decrease the negative view of this group in Spain, using the IAT measure. In the first study, when a stereotype-consistent but positive feature of Gypsies (i.e. Flamenco music) was used as a positively valued attribute in the IAT measure, the IAT effect was lower than when a different positive stimulus was used (classical music clips). The findings of Study 2 showed that for the North African community—another highly discriminated group in Spain—the use of Flamenco or classical music clips did not have any effect on the implicit attitudes of participants toward them. The implications for attitudes toward discriminated groups and the use of music to improve intergroup relationships are discussed.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Music and Politics
Min-ad: Israeli Studies in Musicology Online
This article explores the difficulties and necessities of applied ethnomusicological research in an urban American neighborhood. A theory of method for activist centered work which connects academia with local, grassroots communities is discussed as well as the challenges of positioning oneself as an applied ethnomusicologist in the field. ; Članek raziskuje nujnost in težave, pred katerimi stoji aplikativna etnomuzikologija pri raziskovanju ene izmed ameriških urbanih sosesk. Predmet raziskave je tako metodološka teorija aktivistično usmerjenega dela, ki povezuje akademski pristop z lokalnimi skupnostmi, kot tudi izzivi, do katerih se mora aplikativna etnomuzikologija ustrezno opredeliti.
Musicological Annual
Beginning with a short overview of the strate-gies and activities in applied ethnomusicology in Southeast Asia, this paper focuses on the develop-ment of a socially engaged approach to empower young people in Malaysia to address two concerns: revitalizing traditions and bridging cultural barriers in a multiethnic and multireligious society where tensions often occur. | Začenši s kratkim pregledom strategij in aktivnosti aplikativne etnomuzikologije se pričujoči prispevek osredotoča na razvoj socialno angažiranega pristopa k omogočanju mladih Malezijcev, da se lotijo dveh vprašanj: oživljanja tradicij in preseganja kulturnih pregrad v multietnični in multikulturni družbi, v kateri so nestrpnosti često prisotne.
Musicological Annual
The article consists of three parts. The first part presents an outline of the historical developments of applied ethnomusicology in Europe and USA, from the public sector activities of comparative musicologists in the early 20th c. all the way to the announcement of the first conference of newly-established ICTM’s study group in Ljubljana in 2008. The second part is dedicated to the issues of definition and classification of approaches. The third part features five categories of subjects (minorities, diasporas, ethnic groups, immigrants, refugees) and based on selected examples from the territories of what was Yugoslavia presents ethnomusicological interventions that exceed the obvious academic goals of broadening and deepening of scholarly knowledge.
Musicological Annual
Written against the academically dominant but simplistic romanticization of popular music as a positive force, this book focuses on the 'dark side' of the subject. It is a pioneering examination of the ways in which popular music has been deployed in association with violence, ranging from what appears to be an incidental relationship, to one in which music is explicitly applied as an instrument of violence. A preliminary overview of the physiological and cognitive foundations of sounding/hearing which are distinctive within the sensorium, discloses in particular their potential for organic and psychic violence. The study then elaborates working definitions of key terms (including the vexed idea of the 'popular') for the purposes of this investigation, and provides a historical survey of examples of the nexus between music and violence, from (pre)Biblical times to the late nineteenth century. The second half of the book concentrates on the modern era, marked in this case by the emergence of technologies by which music can be electronically augmented, generated, and disseminated, beginning with the advent of sound recording from the 1870s, and proceeding to audio-internet and other contemporary audio-technologies. Johnson and Cloonan argue that these technologies have transformed the potential of music to mediate cultural confrontations from the local to the global, particularly through violence. The authors present a taxonomy of case histories in the connection between popular music and violence, through increasingly intense forms of that relationship, culminating in the topical examples of music and torture, including those in Bosnia, Darfur, and by US forces in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay. This, however, is not simply a succession of data, but an argumentative synthesis. Thus, the final section debates the implications of this nexus both for popular music studies itself, and also in cultural policy and regulation, the ethics of citizenship, and arguments about human rights.
Combat stress reaction is common among soldiers and can develop to a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This distressing condition embraces symptoms such as feelings of loneliness and isolation from society, intrusive memories, outbursts of anger and generalized feelings of helplessness. Drumming has been receiving considerable attention in music therapy. Only few references relate to such activity among those who suffer from PTSD, and even fewer relate to combat induced post-traumatic syndrome, none of them empirical. The current study presents music therapy group work with six soldiers diagnosed as suffering from combat or terror related PTSD. Data were collected from digital cameras which filmed the sessions, open-ended in-depth interviews, and a self-report of the therapist. Some reduction in PTSD symptoms was observed following drumming, especially increased sense of openness, togetherness, belonging, sharing, closeness, connectedness and intimacy, as well as achieving a non-intimidating access to traumatic memories, facilitating an outlet for rage and regaining a sense of self-control.
The Arts in Psychotherapy
Reflecting upon recent changes in socio-scientific paradigms and thinking over his own research experience with musical communities in Brazil, the researcher presents four case studies in which he finds evidence of a considerable transformation of research scenarios toward growing and more politically charged demands placed by communities upon academics.
Musicological Annual
This volume of Musicological Annual is dedicated to Prof. Emeritus Dr. Kjell Skyllstad on his 80th birthday and to applied ethnomusicology, the development of which owes him a considerable gratitude.
Musicological Annual
Researchers have increasingly begun to critically assess local engagements with globalizing notions of civil society that have been introduced via Western-based supranational political, economic, financial, and cultural programmes (Fischer 1997; Okongwu and Mencher 2000; Yúdice 2003). Following the notion of thinking globally and acting locally, such programmes are usually set up by transnational structures such as the World Bank, UNESCO, the European Union, or global foundations such as the Open Society Institute, and put into practice by local actors, among them non-governmental organizations. This article positions music within intra-national discourses that work hand-in-hand with the political and cultural economics of Western cultural initiatives and aim to promote an understanding of pluralism in countries throughout Eastern and South Eastern Europe. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by Nino Tsitsishvili, Erica Haskell, and myself in Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, ...
Yearbook for Traditional Music
Radical Musicology
this article examines the representation of arab music produced and played by the Arab minority in Israel, on the cultural stage of the Jewish Israeli Society. The article discusses the representation of Arab music in certain cultural institutions in two major cities in Israel: Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Institutions in these two cities are considered influential and important for the Israeli cultural arena as they represent a number of socio-cultural groups of the Jewish-Israeli majority. The central issue of this article deals with the changes in representation of Arab music in Israel during the 1990s and a significant change in the dialog between Arab music and Jewish Israeli society in the 21st century. The role of individuals in this development is further on presented as a significant factor in the process of change.
International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies
The arts offer peacebuilders unique tools for transforming intractable interpersonal, intercommunal, national, and global conflicts—tools that are not currently prevalent or available within the peacebuilding field. The task for peacebuilding practitioners is to find strategic ways of incorporating the arts into the work of peacebuilding and to create a space where people in conflict can express themselves, heal themselves, and reconcile themselves through the arts. There is very little solid theory, research, or evaluation of arts-based peacebuilding. This article seeks to move beyond a simplistic approach that asserts the “arts are powerful” to a richer articulation of how they function in peacebuilding, when to use them, what they can do, and how to evaluate their usage. This article provides examples of and the conceptual frameworks behind strategic arts-based peacebuilding.
Peace and Change
This article reports a systematic review of literature published between 1994 and 2004 on the effects of performing arts for health in young people aged 11–18. The review includes research on music, performance, drama and dance in community settings and non-curricular mainstream education. A total of 17 electronic databases were searched and 3670 papers identified, 104 of which met relevance criteria. Full text scrutiny of 85 papers was undertaken and 14 of these were identified for review. The research was heterogeneous, making overall synthesis of results inappropriate. The review demonstrates that research on the impact of the performing arts on young people is at a relatively early stage.
Journal of Health Psychology
How do international music festivals produce experiences of the sacred in multifaith audiences? What is their part in creating transnational communities of affect? In this article, I theorize what I call "the promise of sonic translation": the trust in the ultimate translatability of aural (as opposed to textual) codes. This promise, I assert, produces the "festive sacred," a configuration of aesthetic and embodied practices associated with festivity wherein people of different religions and nations create and cohabit an experience of the sacred through heightened attention to auditory and sense-based modes of devotion conceivd as "universal." The festive sacred is a transnational (thus mobile) phenomenon inextricable from the enterprise of sacred tourism. Such festive forms not only produce a Turnerian communitas but also create new transnational categories that mediate religious sentiment and reenchant the world.
American Anthropologist
This article focuses on how young people can use music and dance for peacebuilding. It utilises the framework of positive peace so it is concerned with much more than the absence of war or direct violence.1 Positive peace is a peace with justice, including gender justice. It involves an assurance of fair ‘social, economic and political arrangements’2 and the preservation of human rights.3 Peacebuilding from this perspective seeks ‘to prevent, reduce, transform, and help people recover from violence in all forms, even structural violence that has not yet led to massive civil unrest’.4 As Elisabeth Porter suggests, it requires a broad process of creating a societal environment to promote ‘peace through development and aid, human rights education, and the restoration of community life’.
Australian Journal of Peace Studies
Based on first-person accounts of interrogators and former detainees as well as unclassified military documents, this article outlines the variety of ways that “loud music” has been used in the detention camps of the United States’ “global war on terror.” A survey of practices at Bagram Air Force Base, Afghanistan; Camp Nama (Baghdad), Iraq; Forward Operating Base Tiger (Al-Qaim), Iraq; Mosul Air Force Base, Iraq; Guanta´namo, Cuba; Camp Cropper (Baghdad), Iraq; and at the “dark prisons” from 2002 to 2006 reveals that the use of “loud music” was a standard, openly acknowledged component of “harsh interrogation.” Such music was understood to be one medium of the approach known as “futility” in both the 1992 and the 2006 editions of the US Army’s field manual for interrogation. The purpose of such “futility” techniques as “loud music” and “gender coercion” is to persuade a detainee that resistance to interrogation is futile, yet the military establishment itself teaches techniques by which “the music program” can be resisted. The article concludes with the first-person account of a young US citizen, working in Baghdad as a contractor, who endured military detention and “the music program” for ninety-seven days in mid-2006—a man who knew how to resist.
Journal of the Society for American Music
Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law
Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics
Music is commonsensically thought of as something that unites people, hence it is frequently deployed in multicultural contexts. However, little research has been done to see how this works over time. This article discusses new research from 2006 into a project that originally took place from 1989–1992. The original three year project aimed to improve relations between different ethnic groups through the use of music in schools in Norway. The project, which was documented at the time through annual reports and evaluations, consisted of performances of traditional folk and classical music by musicians from the home countries of different immigrant groups. This has been re-examined by interviewing the initial participants, 13 years after the project finished. Working from a grounded theory approach, semi-structured interviews of 23 people, primarily former pupils, took place in 2005–2006. The key focus was to learn how important the musical intervention had been in the participants' life-worlds, how they viewed it at the time and in retrospect and if it made any impact on their relations to pupils from other ethnic groups. The key finding indicates that although all participants remember the project and generally enjoyed it at the time, in particular the participatory events, it had little impact on their daily lives and their relations with other groups. The lack of impact seems to be due to the fact that the pupils did not see any connections between the musical performances or the musicians and the local population from these countries. This raises questions about the use of music to represent social groups, and how to effectively embed musical experiences into people's everyday cultures.
Musicae Scientiae
Critical scholars have noted a tendency in the field of music education toward idealization of the socially transformative power of music and a disregard of the counterproductive or ambiguous outcomes of social music making. In this article, I discuss some of the dominant conceptualizations addressing music as a means of social transformation, and I argue that these conceptions need to be expanded to fully account for these complex processes. By applying a theoretical model derived from critical musicology dealing with music’s mediation of the social on multiple levels, I propose an analytical strategy more attentive to the antagonistic and ambiguous social effects of musicking. This strategy is exemplified through an analysis of a music program in a Palestinian refugee camp, and I show how such critical analyses of musical sociality potentially result in recognition of a complex intersection of transgressive and normative functions of musical practice.
Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
In 1999 the Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Palestinian writer Edward Said organised a concert in Weimar in which half the performers were Palestinians and the other half Israelis.The performance itself and the rehearsals which preceded it had a lasting effect on all the participants. How far can the relationship between music and politics be used to promote a more peaceful world? That is the central question which motivates this challenging new work by some of the leading musicians and music scholars of our time. Combining theory from experienced academics such as Johan Galtung, Cindy Cohen and Karen Abi-Ezzi with compelling stories from musicians like Yair Dalal, the book also includes an exclusive interview with folk legend Pete Seeger. In each instance, practical and theoretical perspectives have been combined in order to explore music's role in conflict transformation. The book is divided into five sections. The first, 'Frameworks', reflects in-depth on the connections between music and peace, while the second, 'Music and Politics', discusses the impact of music on society. The third section, 'Healing and Education', offers examples of the transformative power of music in prisons and settings of conflict-resolution, while the fourth, 'Stories from the Field', tells true stories about music's impact in the Middle East and elsewhere. Finally, 'Reflections' encourages the reader to consider a personal evaluation of the work with a view to further explorations of the power of music to promote peace.
Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties
Some music may help to make some kinds of peace some of the time, but, like many other good things, music has a dark side as well. There is music that celebrates war, viciousness, hate, and humiliation. Music does have the power to heal, but we need to see that it also has the power to hurt. Music can bring us together, and it also can divide us.
Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics
This article describes a framework for assessing the positive influence of music activities in community development programs. It examines hybrid music, health and rich media approaches to creative case study with the purpose of developing more compelling evidence based advocacy that examines the claims of a causal link. This preliminary study examines the problems with the research methods and seeks to design a more media inclusive approach that allows music experience to be heard in more compelling ways than text alone. The framework outlined in this paper provides a measure of effectiveness for community development programs that integrates social and cultural aspects. The framework connects notions of resilience as a fundamental building block for healthy communities with indicators of musical meaning and engagement. These indicators have previously been used individually in evaluating the effectiveness of music experience. This article reports on an exploratory research project that utilises this framework across a series of case studies in several culturally diverse Australian communities. The relevance of the research is that it seeks to identify the critical components of music education that have significant transferable implications for community development programs.
Music Education Research
According to the current literature, special skills in empathy are needed to implement culturally sensitve and appropriate-music therapy services. The purpose of this study was to assess levels of cross-cultural empathy among music therapists in two countries. Professional members of the Australian and the American Music Therapy Associations (N=78) completed on-line tests of cross-cultural empathy and social desirability. Test scores were analyzed according to (a) country of residence, (b) academic degree, (c) previous cross-cultural training received, and (d) years of clinical experience in music therapy. Results showed a significant relationship between cross-cultural training and cross-cultural empathy scores. Common misconceptions concerning aspects of cross-cultural music therapy are discussed as is the need for systematic and comprehensive cross-cultural training programs.
Music Therapy Perspectives
Recent research has successfully applied social identity theory to demonstrate how individuals use music as a basis for intergroup differentiation. The current study investigated how music might also be used to encourage the development of positive intergroup attitudes. Participants (N = 97) were allocated to one of two experimentally created social groups and then led to believe that the groups had similar or different musical preferences. They then evaluated each group and reported their perceptions concerning how they expected their own group to be evaluated by the other group. Participants who believed the groups had similar musical preferences reported more positive intergroup attitudes relative to a control group; they also expected to be evaluated more positively by members of the other group. However, positive intergroup perceptions were also reported by those who believed the two groups had different musical preferences. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
One of the most startling aspects of musical culture in the post-Cold War United States is the systematic use of music as a weapon of war. First coming to mainstream attention in 1989, when US troops blared loud music in an effort to induce Panamanian president Manuel Norriega’s surrender, the use of “acoustic bombardment” has become standard practice on the battlefields of Iraq, and specifically musical bombardment has joined sensory deprivation and sexual humiliation as among the non-lethal means by which prisoners from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo may be coerced to yield their secrets without violating US law.
Trans. Revista Transcultural de Música
The study assessed the effectiveness of a musical programme at reducing anti-dark-skinned stereotyping among light-skinned Portuguese children aged 7-10 years, as measured through the Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II (Williams et al., 1975). The programme consisted of introducing a sub-series of Cape Verdean songs into the series of regular Portuguese songs studied and learned by the pupils during school music courses. At the beginning of the study, all children showed a moderate mean level of pro-white-skinned/anti-dark-skinned stereotyping. At the end of the study, the level of stereotyping among the control group of pupils who were not exposed to Cape Verdean songs ( N = 97) was not altered, but the level of stereotyping among the pupils exposed to the programme ( N = 96) was significantly reduced. Strong differences as a function of age were evidenced: among participants aged 7-8 years, there was practically no change in stereotyping; in contrast, there was a dramatic change among 9- to 10-year-olds.
Psychology of Music
When a Western musician thinks of Israel, the immediate association is of incessant political conflict and terrorism, not the country's rich cultural life. Yet, for a state that has endured one terrorist outrage after another over the last four years, Israel's thriving contemporary music scene — a part of classical music events, blossoming with over 2,300 classical concerts a year — is an astounding feat. In March 2002, while biweekly suicide attacks ended the lives of over 120 Israeli civilians, concert halls were unbelievably full despite the fear, or perhaps just because of it, as a constructive escapism. A year later, still under shaky political and economic conditions, Avigail Arnheim, the director of music events at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, and Dan Yuhas, the newly-elected chair of the Israel Composers' League (and the music director of the Israel Contemporary Players) initiated preparations for three concurrent festivals of contemporary music in October 2004. A Western musician, not knowing the details, would think that they were planning events for Berlin and Munich audiences, and not for Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem listeners.
Tempo
Music therapists have traditionally worked with survivors of different types of trauma. But they are increasingly involved in providing services to war trauma survivors. In the post 9/11 world, many have been, and continue to be traumatized by war, acts of terrorism, and violence worldwide. Some music therapists have sought to respond actively to these events and the resulting trauma, by reaching out to trauma survivors. In addition, some are also involved in peace advocacy. From information obtained from interviews conducted with eight music therapists regarding the nature and outcomes of these therapeutic practices and their involvement in peace advocacy (as applicable), the relevance of this realm of work within the Singaporean context is explored.
Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy
In my country of Kosovo, where we endured 10 years of terrible conflict, even in the most difficult of times songs were created speaking of freedom. As children sang these songs, it brought them hope for a better life in the future. When the conflict came to an end and peace was established in 1999, a special concert (the first classical concert in 10 years) brought 600 people together with glorious music to heal our souls and give us the hope and strength to move forward.
International Journal of Music Education
To date, no research has been conducted on the field of music therapy within international humanitarian aid. The aims of this study are to explore the situation in more detail and to include descriptions of organisations and projects that are involved in the psychosocial aid of trauma survivors in areas of post-conflict using music therapy. The article will give an outline of programmes, describe their work, and serve as an information source for other organisations involved in international mental health aid.
Intervention
This book explores a provocative area of inquiry for critical theory and research into world politics and popular culture: music. Not just because political science barely engages with anything musical, but also because it is clear that many opportunities for critical scholarship and reflection on global politics and economics are present in the spaces and relationships created by organized sound. It is easy to focus on the textual elements of music, but there is more at stake than just the words. Critical reflection on the intersections between music and politics also need to take into account the visceral and non-verbal elements such as counterpoint and harmony, polyphony and dissonance, noise, rhymes, rhythms, performance and the visual/aural dimensions to music-making.
The importance and potential of arts as a tool for peacebuilding should not be underestimated. To illustrate this, my introduction tells some modern “Pied Piper” tales. The cases following this text elaborate further on how the arts are currently being used in peacebuilding activities in different regions around the world.
People building peace II: successful stories of civil society
This book argues that the arts must begin to develop a robust evidence base that underpins the unique contribution that the arts can make to society. The arts and cultural sectors are at a crossroads. Since 1997 the range and diversity of arts provision has been extended and developed new and innovative approaches to engagement with all levels of society. All this has been supported by record increases in spending from government, local government, the Lottery and corporate donors. However, in the current financial climate tough choices will have to be made.
This essay explores the significanceof art in political and social change by way of evidence from the Swahili coast of East Africa. Analysis of two musical genres, ngoma and dansi (typically glossed as "traditional dance"and "urban jazz"), exposes common aesthetic principles of innovation, inventive appropriation,competitiveo pposition,linguistic indirection,and intertextuality. Historical analysis further reveals that both genres haves erved as effective modesof political action in Swahili communities. I use this data to question prevailing assumptions about Swahili cosmopolitanism, challenge traditional/modern binarism, and theorize the relationship between art and society
Anthropological Quarterly