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, and on the basis of the participating researchers’ special interests. We have found that in all these cultures – cultures which, with the exception of Alaska, are concentrated in East and South-East Asia – there are vocal expressions that can be understood as being made from performance templates. These practices have some basic functions in common, functions that make the following features possible: variation, re-creation, and creation of vocal expressions; specific vocal expressions for
This book focuses on vocal expressions in the borderland between song and speech. It spans across several linguistic and musical milieus in societies where oral transmission of culture dominates. ‘Vocal expression’ is an alternative word for ‘song’ which is free from bias based on cultural and research-related traditions. The borderland between song and speech is a segment of the larger continuum that extends from speech to song. These vocal expressions are endangered to the same degree as the languages they represent. Perspectives derived from ethnomusicology, prosody, syntax, and semantics are combined in the research, in which performance templates serve as an analytical tool. The focus is on the techniques that make performance possible and on the transmission of these techniques. The performance templates serve to organize the vocal expression of words by combining musical and linguistic conventions. It is shown that all the cultures studied have principles for organizing these parameters; but each does this in its own unique way while meeting a number of basic needs on the part of human society, particularly communal interaction and interaction with the spirit world. A working method is developed that makes it possible to gain qualitative knowledge from a large body of material within a comparatively limited period of time.
. For this reason, a primary objective in this chapter is to try out how the possible performance templates are constructed, and whether new knowledge can be achieved by using them. Since so little was known about the object of study, the transcription models used are graphs and music notations. Athabascan languages are spoken in Alaska and also include Navajo and Apache, as well as certain languages of the west coast of North America. 4 All the eleven Athabascan languages spoken in Alaska are endangered
people in the Ryukyu Islands to compose waka than ryūka , since only the older generation can speak genuine Ryukyuan, whereas the younger generation speak Japanese only. 2 Waka and ryūka The terms waka and ryūka literally mean uta , ‘song/poem’, in Japan and in the Ryukyu Islands, respectively. It was clear from previous research that the vocal expressions which result from the performance of waka and ryūka lend themselves to study as performance templates. 3 Our
Thailand. Akha language and the shaman’s vocal expression The words of Akha shaman performances have been studied to some extent but, to our knowledge, there has been no previous study of the relationship between the linguistic and musical aspects of the performances. It was rather obvious that the long vocal expressions, based on a fundamental recurring melodic formula and variation, would be suitable for analysis from the performance-template perspective. Since Akha is a tone language, it was also obvious that
of new words, it would also make existing lines or stanzas more stable. This may explain the use of unchanged vocables as well as the use of archaic words which may have lost most or all of their meaning. The Seediq imitation performance template Melody Built on short melodic motifs of less than 4 beats, with a tonal centre (see Examples 98 , 99 ). Speech rhythm and intonation affect the tonal realization. Range: 7 semitones. Rhythm Regular
use plant-medicine to heal the wound or cure the illness. 3 Kammu language and vocal expressions Previous studies of Kammu language and music had made it clear that the analysis of some vocal expressions from the perspective of a performance template is a rewarding pursuit. 4 One main objective at the start of this study was to investigate more vocal expressions in a search for different performance templates, as well as for differences and similarities between them. There was also
international developments. The performance template In our approach, the term vocal expression for those expressions in which speech and song overlap serves as a culturally neutral term. It is also chosen as a neutral term in our interdisciplinary research. ‘Song’, ‘recitation’, ‘narrative’, etc. all have a research history and praxis in (ethno)musicology and the various linguistic specializations. Focusing the research on vocal expressions is a way to avoid bias based on existing practices by
significance for Survivors was the expansion over this period of ‘insert’ material, pre-filmed on location and subsequently ‘played in’ during the studio recording sessions. Although this practice dated back to the days of live television, the increased ratio of its use as compared with studio video was now beginning to disrupt the established rehearsal and continuity performance template. Whereas ‘Contact has been Established’ includes forty-two seconds of pre-filmed inserts, and ‘An Unearthly Child’ a mere twenty-four seconds, ‘The Fourth Horseman’ features twenty