Sacred Music in Transition Symposium

Event time: 
Friday, October 20, 2006 - 9:00am
Event description: 

Ethnomusicological Perspectives

on Religion, Ritual, and Society

A 2-day symposium at Yale and at Amherst


In an era of cultural, political, and ethical transition, sacred music offers individuals and societies throughout the world new possibilities for charting their futures by drawing upon their pasts. The scholars and musicians who bring their work to this symposium interpret the new and complex ways in which sacred music charts the transition of individual lives and emerging nations in a changing world.

Presented by Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Global Sound Project at Amherst College
 

Friday, October 20 at Yale University

1:00pm

Welcome: Martin Jean, Director, Institute of Sacred Music

 

1:15-3:45pm

Session 1: The Past Made Present

Session Chair: Martin D. Jean
Yale Institute of Sacred Music

Jeffrey Summit (Tufts University): Technology and the Transmission of Oral Tradition in the Contemporary Jewish Community

Jeffers Engelhardt (Amherst College): Transition, Imagination, and the Secular in the Sounds of Estonian Orthodox Christianity

Tore Tvarnø Lind (University of Copenhagen): Power and Past in the Revival of Byzantine Chant at the Holy Mountain

3:45-4:00pm

Coffee & Tea

4:00-5:30pm

Session 2: The Sacred Postcolonial in Southeast Asia

Session Chair: Markus Rathey
Yale Institute of Sacred Music

Marzanna Poplawska (Wesleyan University): New Christian Music in Indonesia: Inculturation in Transition

Sarah Weiss (Yale University): Risqué Ritual: Making Javanese Wayang Popular Today

5:30pm

Reception at the Institute of Sacred Music

8:00pm

Concert – Center Church on the Green

Program includes:

-A cross-section of Western Christian music performed by the Yale Voxtet, James Taylor, adviser

-Chanting of Sanskritic mantras by Sheenu Srinivasan and Joseph Getter

-Indonesian Christian music performed by Marzanna Poplawska and the Wesleyan Javanese Gadhon (Gamelan)

-Mystical Sufi song with Ney performed by Yusuf Gurtas

-Klezmer music organized by Institute student Becky Wexler (MAR 08)

 

Saturday, October 21 at Amherst College

10:00am

Coffee

10:20am

Welcome: Jenny Kallick, Amherst College

10:30am- 1:00pm

Session 3 – Trance, Transit, and Transformation

Session Chair: Jenny Kallick
Amherst College

Richard Jankowsky (Tufts University): Healing/History/Alterity: Sub-Saharans, Spirit Possession, and Music in Tunisia

Philip V. Bohlman (Yale University): The Poetics and Politics of Papal Pilgrimage

Mirjana Lausevic (Amherst College): Ilahiya in Bosnia: From Private Practice to National Symbol

1:00-2:30pm

Lunch

2:30-5:00pm

Session 4 – Gospels Resounded

Session Chair: Frank Reynolds
University of Chicago

Timothy Rommen (University of Pennsylvania): Traditional Spaces, Transitional Sounds: Gospel Music and the Negotiation of Proximity in Trinidad

Zoe Sherinian (University of Oklahoma): Transformative Christian music: Transforming Caste Identity in South India

Stephen Marini (Wellesley College): Music, Media, Message: Transitions in 21st-century American Protestant Sacred Song

5:00pm

Closing Reflections
Mark Slobin (Wesleyan University)

5:45pm

Reception

6:15pm

Dinner for participants

7:30pm

Concert – Buckley Recital Hall, Arms Music Center

A Liminal Hymnal: 
Tendrils of American Sacred Folksong

Performed by:

-Tim Eriksen (voice, fiddle, guitar, banjo)

-Shape-note Singers from the Pioneer Valley

-Students of Music 11 at Amherst College

 

Speakers:
Jeffers Engelhard (Amherst College)
Transition, Imagination, and the Secular in the Sounds of Estonian Orthodox Christianity

Philip Bohlman (University of Chicago/Yale University)
The Poetics and Politics of Papal Pilgrimage

Richard Jankowsky (Tufts University)
Healing/History/Alterity: Sub-Saharans, Spirit Possession, and Music in Tunisia

Mirjana Lauševic (University of Minnesota/Amherst College)
Ilahiya in Bosnia: From Private Practice to National Symbol

Tore Tvarnø Lind (University of Copenhagen)
Power and Past in the Revival of Byzantine Chant at the Holy Mountain 

Stephen Marini (Wellesley College)
Music, Media, Message: American Protestant Sacred Song in Transition

Marzanna Poplawska (Wesleyan University)
New Christian Music in Indonesia: Inculturation in Transition

Timothy Rommen (University of Pennsylvania)
Traditional Spaces, Transitional Sounds: Gospel Music and the Negotiation of Proximity in Trinidad

Zoe Sherinian (University of Oklahoma)
Tamil Christian Folk Music: Transforming Caste Identity in South India

Mark Slobin (Wesleyan University)
Closing Thoughts

Jeffrey Summit (Tufts University)
Technology and the Transmission of Oral Tradition in the Contemporary Jewish Community

Sarah Weiss (Yale University)
Risqué Ritual: Making Javanese Wayang Popular Today

 

Registration is optional and free.