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- Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012
International Journal of Community Music - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2012
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Drumming in the transcultural imagination: Taiko, Japan and community music making in Aotearoa/New Zealand
More LessThis article discusses one community taiko (Japanese drumming) group, called Takumi, in Aotearoa/New Zealand as a case study for understanding multicultural community music-making in the transcultural imagination. The group under study operates by a community of performers working together with a shared purpose, and is essentially the result of its members’ existence amongst the Japanese diaspora. Takumi can be seen as an example of a distinctly bottom-up community music activity that was established with a specific group of people in mind and primarily based on ethnicity and expressions of cultural and diaspora identity. Local community musicians such as those in Takumi occupy a place that is based on their dedication to their music, and usually receive little or no funding resources to maintain the group’s existence, yet are an integral part of any creative community.
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Toka Boot/The Big Jam: Making music in rural East Timor
Authors: Gillian Howell and Kim DunphyThis article discusses a community music project in rural East Timor. Australian musician Gillian Howell lived for three months in the isolated town of Lospalos as an Asialink artist-in-residence, where she worked with local community members and visiting Australian musicians to share music and ideas, and to communicate across cultures. Three activities are described in detail: a songwriting project, a large-scale community music event and a series of informal jam sessions, particularly with respect to the context, teaching and learning models used. An evaluation of the impact of the project on participants, other community members and visiting musicians, indicated that stakeholders valued the project highly for a range of different reasons. These included fun and enjoyment, maintenance of cultural heritage, creative expression, English language learning and cross-cultural exchange. Learnings and recommendations for future similar cross-cultural collaborations include the value of integrating local music traditions with new participatory arts approaches.
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Joys of community ensemble playing: The case of the Happy Roll Elastic Ensemble in Taiwan
Authors: Yuan-Mei Hsieh and Kai-Chi KaoThe Happy Roll Elastic Ensemble (HREE) is a community music ensemble supported by Tainan Culture Centre in Taiwan. With enjoyment and friendship as its primary goals, it aims to facilitate the joys of ensemble playing and the spirit of social networking. This article highlights the key aspects of HREE’s development in its first two years (2009–2011), including musical and administrative decisions and operations. In addition, several problems within the HREE are described along with their solutions as well as the implications for the future of this ensemble. Through carefully planned directing and tailored arrangement of music, the HREE confirmed that community music activities could provide opportunities to construct personal and communal expressions of artistic and social concerns. Feedback from its members indicated their enjoyment and progress in developing musical literacy. The HREE is an example that demonstrates how a joyful community music ensemble could serve as the seed that grows and brings the residents towards a richer and better life together.
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A place for singing: Active music engagement by older Chinese Australians
Authors: Sicong Li and Jane SouthcottPositive, active engagement in community singing groups can provide emotional, social, cognitive and physical benefits to older participants. This article explores these benefits through the experiences of a group of older Chinese Australians still active in their local community. Using a qualitative, phenomenological case study approach, it draws on the participants’ own understandings and experiences with singing and music. In settings such as this, language barriers can compound social isolation and loneliness in individuals, and may hamper studies of culturally and linguistically diverse older people. Thus, participants were interviewed in their first language, Mandarin Chinese. The data from these interviews were thematically analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which explores how participants make sense of their personal and social world. Four broad themes were identified from the data: Emotional well-being, connections with the past, shared interests and mental and physical well-being. Each of these themes is explored in the article through the words and experiences of the participants.
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TraLaLa Blip: Community music for the electronically abled
More LessThis article presents a personal reflection on the use of electronic music as a vehicle for community music in a disability setting. In order to do this, I draw on my experiences as the founder, facilitator, producer, tutor, sound artist and musician of TraLaLa Blip. I established the group in 2008, after having worked with people with disabilities for over fifteen years. From a health worker/music practitioner’s perspective, I describe some of the experiences and understandings I have developed working with this group, with the hope that these insights might be useful to others working with differently abled young people and electronic music in community music settings.
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Community music: History and current practice, its constructions of ‘community’, digital turns and future soundings, an Arts and Humanities Research Council research review
Authors: George McKay and Ben HighamThe United Kingdom has been a pivotal national player within the development of community music practice. There are elements of cultural and debatably pedagogic innovations in community music. These have to date only partly been articulated and historicized within academic research. This report, funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, brings together and reviews research under the headings of history and definitions, practice, repertoire, community, pedagogy, digital technology, health and therapy, policy and funding, and impact and evaluation. A 90-entry, 22,000 word annotated bibliography was also produced an informed group of fifteen practitioners and academics reviewed the authors’ initial findings at a knowledge exchange colloquium and advised on further investigation. Some of the gaps in research identified are: an authoritative history, an examination of repertoire, the relationship with other music (practice), the freelance practitioner career, evidence of impact and value, the potential for a pedagogy.
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