Ethnomusicology and Musicology

The relative short history of jazz has such a rich narrative of lineages and canons one might associate it with a much older musical tradition. Although the tradition is conventionally portrayed as a definite and logical succession of styles, with their master performers and their idealized renditions, the history of jazz has not been so clear cut or logical. Indeed jazz has exhibited and continues to exhibit a far more complex musical development, reflecting the multitude of socio-economic issues surrounding its origins and transformations. Given this rhetorical obsession with the past, this paper considers whether representations of the past in jazz could shed understanding to the controversies surrounding its practice.

Drawing on collective memory theory and the literature of nostalgia, this paper will offer an introductory survey on this subject. Based on ethnomusicologists work before me (Bithell 2006; Seeger 1991), and recent musicological scholarship concerned with collective memory and African American musical forms (Muller 2006; Solis 2005; Ramsey 2003), this paper considers how representations of the past is constructed through musical performance as well as through the rhetorical activities surrounding that practice. Although there are many different narratives or texts of the past, this paper focuses on two opposing themes, which seem to immediately emerge from a review of the literature. The first concerns narratives that associate African American ancestry with innovation and the other with nostalgic and primitivist sentiments often associated with musical revivals and neoclassicist movements.

As musicologist and Theloneous Monk biographer, Gabriel Solis describes, jazz, as an oral improvising tradition, is based on “thousands of hours of collective creation and intergenerational learning” (Solis, 2007, 2). This lineage, however, does not ring so true when considering the standardized written arrangements for jazz choir and their lack of collective improvisation in performance. If existent at all, improvisation in the jazz choir context is limited to that of a single individual: the lead singer interpreting the lyric or scatting a solo over the changes. This seems so far removed from not only the African American shouts and spiritual roots of the music as documented by the likes of Portia Maultsby 2005, ALan Lomax 1998, and Eileen Southern 1997 (among others) but also the nature of instrumental jazz.

In an attempt to challenge this convention, this paper explores alternative methods of arranging and charting for jazz choir that incorporate variation and collective improvisation. It does so by equating improvisation and variation with choice, choices the singers have to make in a performance, and in short, discusses how to build variability into the arrangements. Based on arrangements that have been workshopped with the Toronto based group Broulala, the paper will demonstrate, through visual and audio examples, the possibilities of these choices, how they are scored, and how they are performed. A final section then considers the meaning of these choices and, drawing on gender and new jazz studies as well as similar de-standardization music movements in some post-Soviet traditional cultures, I will consider how these choices empower the singer and question this significance within jazz practices.

Looking at Georgian polyphonic singing practices, the author argues that the historical rural background of the ensemble, linked to the nation’s sacred singing tradition, played a critical role in the preservation of Georgian polyphonic songs. In so doing, she also identifies numerous historical revival movements in the musical practice and thus suggests a better understanding of revival is to see it as part of the tradition - a tradition of revivals. (Please note, this last point was omitted from the published abstract.)

The indie classical genre is generally used to describe the music that follows certain classical music practices but is produced and distributed through independent record labels. The term was brought into widespread circulation by New Amsterdam Records’ publicity apparatus, intended to represent composers whose “music slips through the cracks between genres.”

There is a substantial amount of research on the creative process of the composer, and there has been an increasing interest in detailing the relationship between composer and performer. Yet, there is little research about the dynamics between the composer and listener, a subject which merits consideration. Thanks to the internet and online video-sharing platforms, composers can directly interact with their listeners and fans. This paper will focus specifically on Jacob Collier and Andrew Huang, two artists who make use of these online resources to collaborate with their audience by requesting compositional material from them. This crowd-sourced music is not a new phenomenon, but due to the popularity of these musicians it is now a recurrent dynamic online. Huang, a Toronto-based musician and YouTube personality, is known for his "Fan Mash” series, where he produces a song by processing fan-submitted short videos of random sounds. Collier, a Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist based in London, England, became widely popular by producing complex reharmonizations from fan-submitted melodies and livestreaming the arranging process for his listeners. These two young artists have in common a platform for interacting and submitting content; they both share their compositional process as a video and are able to receive audience feedback before, during, and after the creative process. The result gives the audience a sense of participation and identity, ultimately leading to a stronger community. This paper provides a detailed description of their corresponding approaches to audience collaboration and studies the reception of the final product by reviewing user commentary.

This article provides a thorough comparison between two live performances of Jacob Collier's song "Don't You Know": his 2015 performance with the band Snarky Puppy, and his performance during his 2016 One-Man Show, a multimedia display of multi-instrumental virtuosity using custom equipment. These two performances are published on YouTube with similar popularity, and I supply an analysis of the comments that provides useful insight into the audience's behaviour and preferences. The parameters in each performance are similar enough to isolate the performer factor and answer key questions regarding differences when performing as an individual or a collective. The principal distinguishing factor between performances comes down to the use of pre-recorded tracks or performers. My research shows how the perception of complexity in music can be informed by the medium, and how the presence of live performers invites the listeners to imitate with their body and engage in a collective ecstasy.

This article provides a thorough comparison between two live performances of Jacob Collier's song "Don't You Know": his 2015 performance with the band Snarky Puppy, and his performance during his 2016 One-Man Show, a multimedia display of multi-instrumental virtuosity using custom equipment. These two performances are published on YouTube with similar popularity, and a concise analysis of the comments is supplied, providing useful insight into the audience's interests and behaviour. The parameters in each performance are similar enough to isolate the performer factor and answer key questions regarding differences when performing as an individual or a collective. The conclusions of this research highlight how the venue layout influences engagement, how the discourse within the virtual audience shifts between the different renditions, and how the Snarky Puppy collaboration stands out as a more impactful interpretation due to their effective manner of communication with the audience through controlled nuance of musical gestures.