Introduction: The Project and its Authors

Welcome to Boston Hybrid Musics!


This website was developed as part of the following course:

CFA MU827: Special Topics in Musicology “Hybridity and Transculturation”

Prof. David G. Hebert, PhD - Boston University, Spring 2008

Course Description: This course examines how new musical fusions arise from cross-cultural contact. Sociological and aesthetic perspectives are used to explore the changing artistry and identity of musicians in Asia and the southern hemisphere, as well as how the music industry, governmental, and educational institutions respond to globalization and the emergence of new musical practices.

http://bu.edu

Our Final Project
The final project for this course is to document examples of urban hybrid musical traditions in the greater Boston area. Rather than formal research, these brief studies for the purpose of this course are best regarded as a fusion of narrative inquiry and cultural critique, akin to scholarly journalism. Projects will be posted on this website, using text, image and sound files, and links, enabling visitors to learn about some unique and interesting musical practices that may be found in the Boston area in 2008.


Click HERE for the Table of Contents.

The following Boston University graduate students have participated in this course:

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Erica Yennior

Erica Yennior began her musical career as a self-taught pianist and accompanist in her hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She moved to Boston after high school to attend the Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee, she majored in Music Synthesis, focusing her studies on digital audio editing, sound design, and MIDI sequencing. After graduating from Berklee summa cum laude, Erica spent several years as studio manager of Cybersound Recording Studio in Boston. Her experience at Cybersound included administrative duties, client relations, audio transfer, and voice-over recording.

In 2002 Erica made the decision to change careers and returned to Berklee to complete coursework for her Massachusetts teacher license in music education. Erica is now an Elementary Music Specialist in the Westwood Public Schools, teaching kindergarten through Grade 5 general music, as well as Grade 5 chorus and drama. She holds Levels 1, 2, and 3 Orff Schulwerk certification, and has a deep interest in African American musical traditions. She is currently completing her graduate studies in Music Education at the Boston University College of Fine Arts.

Outside of her elementary music classroom, Erica teaches private piano lessons to children of varying ability levels. A former competitive figure skater, she has also worked as an ice skating instructor. She currently lives with her husband Joel in Natick, Massachusetts. Joel, a trombonist with Boston’s Either/Orchestra, has inspired Erica’s recent interest in the music of Ethiopia.

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Yi Liu

Beginning at a young age with piano lessons from her mother in Shanghai, mainland China, Yi Liu continued her musical studies with pianist Chen Meng Xian who graduated from Shanghai Conservatory. Later, Liu was accepted to the Beijing Central Conservatory as a harp major under the tutorledge of harp teacher Zou Yin. After graduation Liu served as a professional harpist in Beijing

Yi Liu then traveled to the United States to further her education. She continued harp studies with Lucile Lawrence and earned a Master degree in Music Education from Boston University, Massachusetts state certified to teach music in the public schools grades pre-K through 12. At this time, Ms. Liu is in her 14th year of teaching in the Greater Boston area and is taking further graduate level courses in Music Education at Boston University.

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Katherine Baltrush

Katherine Baltrush, soprano, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Voice Performance from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University in May of 2007. A student of Phyllis Hoffman, Ms. Baltrush performed in opera scenes and sang regularly under conductors Ann Howard Jones and David Hoose as part of her undergraduate work. Ms. Baltrush consistently appeared on the Dean's List throughout her undergraduate career, is a member of the Golden Key International Honors Society, and was recently admitted as a member to the National Scholars Honor Society, all in recognition of her high level academic performance.

Ms. Baltrush has also been active as a music administrator. During her undergraduate studies, she served as the Music Program Administrator of the Marsh Chapel Choir at Boston University

under Music Director, Scott Allan Jarrett. In this capacity she organized several concerts a year, including a performance of Handel's oratorio Saul in 2006 and a performance of Bach's St. John Passion in the same year. This was all in addition to weekly rehearsals and Sunday morning services. In the summer of 2006, Ms. Baltrush was the Librarian and Assistant Manager at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (of which she is an alumnus) for the Young Artist Orchestra where she had the pleasure of working with conductors James Gaffigan and Federico Cortese.

She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Musicology from Boston University. She has written on a wide variety of topics ranging from such diverse topics as Ravel's Shéhérazade to David Bowie. For Dr. Hebert's course and this website, she is currently working on Arabic music in Boston, particularly the work of Kareem Roustom.

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Jane Leggiero

Jane Leggiero is pursuing a combined Master degree in musicology and historical performance. She did her undergraduate work at Oberlin College, where she studied musicology, including a

directed study in music of the English Chapel Royal under the auspices of Dr. Steven Plank. Jane enjoys learning about music in ways that do not conform to the status quo, and took a Music and Embodied Cognition class at Oberlin which dealt with the ways in which humans physically and mentally interact with the music they hear. This class introduced Jane to one of her areas of particular interest, namely modern electronic dance music. Jane studied baroque cello with Catherina Meints at Oberlin, and continues her studies in Boston with Sarah Freiberg Ellison. Jane is an active performer in early music circles, and enjoys collaborative music making of all kinds. She is currently preparing a recital of music written for the five string cello.

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Dave Adams

Dave Adams graduated from the University of Southern Maine School of Music in 2002 with a degree in Jazz Performance where he studied jazz and classical saxophone. He is an original member of the nationally touring, Boston-based funk band Addison Groove Project (AGP), winner of the 2004 and 2005 Boston Music Award for Best Funk Band. Dave toured extensively with AGP for four years. He has studied with Bill Street, Christopher Oberholtzer, and Ryan Parker. Dave currently works at the Career Development Office at the Boston University School of Law and teaches the Jazz Workshop at The Boston University College of Fine Arts, while he pursues a Masters in Music Education at BU.

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Sheerin Hosseini

Sheerin Hosseini is a graduate student at Boston University pursing a Master’s Degree in Music Education. In 2007 she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music with a concentration in music education and a minor in sociology from "UMass Boston". At the University of Massachusetts, she studied piano with Timothy McFarland, horn with Anne Howarth, and played French horn in the UMass Boston Chamber Orchestra. Sheerin is a member of the Alpha Lamda Delta National Honor Society, and the Golden Key International Honor Society, and a past member of the Beacon Leadership Project at UMass Boston. Sheerin was nominated for the JFK award by the College of Liberal Arts and was one of two students nominated for the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship by UMass Boston in 2007.

Sheerin currently teaches private music lessons in piano, flute, and French horn in Malden, Cambridge, and at the Timeline Music School in Wakefield, Massachusetts. In addition, she volunteers as a French horn instructor for the Malden Public Schools. Sheerin has been passionate about music from a young age, deciding in elementary school that she wanted to go on to study music in college. She decided that she wanted to become a public school music teacher as high school student, and became particularly interested in teaching instrumental music. Since then, Sheerin has consistently pursued this path and holds initial licensure to teach K-12 music in Massachusetts; she would like to teach either middle school instrumental or general music. In particular, Sheerin is interested in using music as a tool to help at risk youth and would like to one day open a non-profit music school.

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Megan Felts

Megan Felts began her love of music at a very early age, enjoying 'playing' on her great aunt and uncle's player piano in her hometown of Juneau, Alaska. At age four she began taking piano lessons, which ultimately revealed her passion for singing. Megan attended Berklee College of Music as a voice principle, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Music Education in May 2007. She is currently attending Boston University's College of Fine Arts for a graduate degree in Music Education, and lives in Norwood, Massachusetts with her husband Brandon and their dog.

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Professor David G. Hebert

David G. Hebert (PhD, University of Washington) is a music teacher educator and ethnomusicologist who has taught for Seattle Public Schools and universities in Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Finland, and the USA. Born in the 1970s, he is among the most widely published and cited music researchers of his generation. With cross-cultural interests that include musical creativity, transculturation / hybridity, online learning, popular music, competition, and musical identity, he serves in editorial roles for International Journal of Education and the Arts, Research and Issues in Music Education, and Research in New Zealand Performing Arts. Dr. Hebert is author of Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools (forthcoming, Springer), the first scholarly book to identify and describe the world’s largest music competition. Other recent projects include the first research studies of Maori brass bands, New Zealand Tongan bands, patriotism in music education of various nations, and management of online music education programs. He has received grants from Simpson Humanities Center, National Band Association, Japan Ministry of Education, Arts Council of New Zealand, and United States Department of Education. In addition to being an instrumental conductor, he is active as a jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and songwriter, and recently recorded a jazz CD at Tokyo JVC Studios with vocalist Midori Takamura and jazz pianist Johnny Todd. He has recently accepted a new position as Professor of Music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, and as Visiting Research Scholar with Nichibunken, a division of Japan's National Institutes for the Humanities, in Kyoto. Please visit sociomusicology.blogspot.com for more information about Dr. Hebert.

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The class also invited Prof. Sarah Weiss from Yale University as a guest lecturer:

http://www.yale.edu/yalemus/people/faculty.html

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Here are some other recommended links:

http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_04/uk/edito.htm

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/key-concepts/Hybridity.htm

http://www.mca.org.au/web/content/view/55/6

http://www.creativecommunities.org.uk/pdf/2.3GlobMusicIden.pdf

http://bandinbostonpodcast.com/

http://wayneandwax.blogspot.com/2005/07/mashpolitik.html

http://www.bprlive.org/

http://www.yorku.ca/topia/docs/conference/Morris.pdf

http://www.people.iup.edu/rahkonen/Ethno/Readings/WorldMusic.htm

http://www.isme.org/en/community-music-activity/community-music-activity-cma.html

Table of Contents

A) Introduction: This Project and its Authors

B) Table of Contents (this page)

C) Project Titles and Abstracts

D) Overview from the Professor

List of Projects (alphabetized by author surname):

E) Adams, David: Examining Malian Musicians and their Performances in Boston

F) Baltrush, Katherine: Arab-America in Boston: Profile and Music of Composer Kareem Roustom

G) Felts, Megan: The Berklee Reverence Gospel Choir: An American Musical Hybrid

H) Hosseini, Sheerin: In Search of Meaning: Indo-Jazz Music in Boston

I) Leggiero, Jane: Afrobeat for the 21st Century: The Superpowers

J) Liu, Yi: The Boston Chinese Dulcimer Ensemble: Music Hybridity

K) Yennior, Erica: A Mingling of Musical Hybrids: Ethio-Jazz and Boston’s Either/Orchestra

Overview from the Professor

Why Boston Hybrid Musics?

David G. Hebert

This section introduces the theoretical background of our class project Boston Hybrid Musics.

Course Description

• MU 827: Special Topics in Musicology: Hybridity and Transculturation (Spring, 2008)

This graduate seminar at Boston University examines how new musical fusions arise from cross-cultural contact. Sociological and aesthetic perspectives are used to explore the changing artistry and identity of musicians in Asia and the southern hemisphere, as well as how the music industry, governmental, and educational institutions respond to globalization and the emergence of new musical practices. The course has interdisciplinary interest, and advanced students from anthropology, sociology, and Asian studies may participate along with students from musicology and music education.

• Textbooks:

(1) Timothy Taylor, Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.

(2) Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton, eds., The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2003.

(3) Yayoi Uno Everett and Frederick Lau, eds., Locating East Asia in Western Art Music. Wesleyan University Press, 2004.

(4) Frances R. Aparicio and Candida F. Jaquez, eds., Musical Migrations: Transnationalism and Cultural Identity in Latin/o America, Vol. I. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Community Music Activity in Boston

The purpose of the final projects for this Boston University graduate seminar was to document examples of community music activity in the Boston area, with particular attention to hybrid music genres. Much of the inspiration for this project came from a little-known book called Community of Music, the outcome of a seminar taught by ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl about 15 years ago (Livingston, et al., 1993). Community of Music consists of brief reports from graduate students on various examples of community music activity from the vicinity of the university in which Nettl taught. Another important source of inspiration was Patricia Shehan Campbell’s qualitative research methods seminar, taught biennially at the University of Washington, in which her students are required to write “micro-ethnographies” of music teaching and learning.

The study of community music in postmodern industrial societies is of increasing interest to scholars in a diversity of fields that include ethnomusicology, sociology of music, and music education.[1] Community Music, whether recognized as a distinct academic field or merely an interdisciplinary subject area, inherently bridges the gap between theory and practice in musical studies. We are hopeful that others might enjoy and take inspiration from our efforts, perhaps even implementing similar projects in other urban areas in the coming years. It would also be interesting to see the development of a more robust survey in Boston (through a year-long seminar) based partly upon the model developed here, or to see the results of a similar project conducted after a decade or more has passed, providing some sense of how the Bostonian music scene is changing.

Hybrid Musics in Musicology

Margaret Kartomi observed the following regarding the traditional musicological view of hybrid music genres:

Although the exact reasons for the disapproval of musics of mixed Western and non-Western descent were not normally explained, the vocabulary used by writers to describe them has generally implied that they lacked authenticity or were degenerate and oversentimental, having been influenced only by the ‘lowest’ forms of Western music (Kartomi, 1981, p.227).

With this point in mind, our seminar began with discussion of cultural traditions: how they emerge and become institutionalized. Later, we considered the role of creative artists in proposing new innovations that subvert established traditions, and we also interrogated the very notion of “hybrid”. We found that hybrid music genres are particularly notable in terms of musical creativity and innovation, yet they have tended until recently to receive little attention from musicologists. We found that the field of ethnomusicology, however, provides many relevant insights. According to Kay Shelemay (2001), “music historians would do well to draw upon ethnomusicologists’ experience in studying complex urban musical traditions, transnational musical movements, and the manner in which music and musicians actively construct their own social, political, and economic worlds” (p.24). Indeed, we found that an inquiry based on the ethnomusicological practice of empathetic interaction with living musicians - in addition to interpretation of their creative work - is a particularly effective way of examining the topic of hybrid music genres in urban settings.

We also actively sought lessons learned from recent studies of related topics. One key theme that emerged was that of music technology, which is appropriate considering that we decided at the beginning of the class to post our writings on an internet website for free public access. On this topic, Leslie Gay (1998) observed that “Ethnomusicology has mostly ignored cultural practices tied to technological adaptations or simply rejected newly adapted technologies as threats to canonized older ones” (p.92). Recognizing this concern, the class made a point of discussing music technology in some detail, including effects of the recent worldwide digital revolution in the recording and distribution of both audio and visual recordings. It certainly helped that some of the students were experienced as professional musicians and sound engineers, and most were professional educators, for whom such issues are already of daily concern.

Another important issue was how to address the role of individual musicians as active agents within the newly emerging traditions (or social structure) of hybrid music genres. Tina Ramnarine has recently suggested that the political context and aesthetic choices of individual musicians requires greater attention in studies of musical hybridity:

Diasporic music-making should not be understood as merely the result of population movements, the settlements of diasporic groups and cultural contact in the multicultural society. Rather, diasporic music-making can be understood in the ordinariness of creative production, as musicians working as individual agents in their everyday environments, making musical choices that suit them and their audiences. In moving beyond simple understandings of hybridity as musical cultures in contact that result in ‘new’ musical expressions we move towards politically articulated readings of social relations and creative processes (Ramnarine, 2007, p.7).

Therefore, the students were encouraged to consider aesthetic and sociological aspects of the cases they examined, both of which are theoretical areas of great interest to the instructor.[2] Ruth Stone (2008) has acknowledged that theoretical discussions are “typically brief and cursory in most ethnomusicological accounts,” but this seminar aimed to bring theory to the fore of all discussions regarding musical hybridity. We also benefited from the teaching of two excellent guest lecturers: (1) musical theatre composer Nancy Rosenberg and (2) Yale University ethnomusicologist Sarah Weiss,[3] a specialist in musical hybridity. While much of the course entailed explicit critique of theories, in writing up their articles the students aimed to use language that is as approachable and “reader friendly” as possible, appropriate for an open-access internet website.

A Broad Sampling of Hybrid Genres

The graduate students chose to individually examine a fascinating cross-section of topics associated with hybrid music genres in Boston, including the following:

• Indo-Jazz Music
• Ethio-Jazz Music
• Malian-American Dance Music
• Chinese-American Dulcimer Ensemble
• Afro-American Gospel Ensemble
• American Afrobeat
• An Arab-American Composer

About the Individual Studies

David Adams, in his “Examining Malian Musicians and their Performances in Boston” introduces readers to the Malian music scene in Boston, as well as the approach to hybridity associated with its various musicians. An accomplished saxophonist, David played with some of the Malian musicians in order to develop stronger rapport with them.

Katherine Baltrush focuses on one particularly successful musician in her “Arab-America in Boston: Profile and Music of Composer Kareem Roustom”. Her interviewee is quite successful as a film composer, and clearly combines elements of both Arabic and European music traditions in his work.

Megan Felts examines the Afro-American gospel voice ensemble at a renowned local music school in her “Gospel Singing in a Bostonian Music College”. She describes both the history and rehearsal techniques associated with this influential ensemble.

Sheerin Hosseini’s “In Search of Meaning: Indo-Jazz Music in Boston” provides a glimpse into the exciting world of Indo-jazz. She compares characteristic traits of traditional Indian music with jazz, and examines how these elements were combined in the development of this unique fusion genre.

Jane Leggiero’s “Afrobeat for the 21^st Century: The Superpowers” describes the work of an instrumental dance ensemble that is inspired by African popular music. She examines what performance of instrumental music based on African forms means to people who are not African.

Yi Liu’s “A Qualitative Study of a Chinese Dulcimer Ensemble in Boston” examines the work of a specific teacher and his students in Boston’s Chinatown. Yi combines biographical, observational, and analytical approaches in her writing, giving an interesting perspective on musical practices among Boston’s Chinese-Americans.

Finally, Erica Yennior provides a detailed analysis of the Ethio-Jazz scene in her “A Mingling of Musical Hybrids: Ethio-Jazz and Boston’s Either/Orchestra”. The musical examples discussed in Yennior’s work are especially interesting, and she demonstrates how Ethio-Jazz developed and gained a strong footing in the musical landscape of Boston.

Disclaimer: It is important to recall that these writings are student projects completed for a class, and should not be regarded as formal research. Nevertheless, much was learned in the process, and we hope these articles will be informative and useful for readers interested in Boston’s diverse music scene, as of mid-2008.

Click HERE for Introduction: the Project and its Authors.

Click HERE for the Table of Contents.

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ENDNOTES

[1] Due to burgeoning interest in this subject area, Master degree programs in Community Music have been launched at some universities in the United Kingdom, and the field is also being further defined by a new publication entitled International Journal of Community Music.

[2] Much of my own research has been on related topics, such as the teaching of graduate courses in music aesthetics and sociology of music (Hebert, 2008a), the transmission of hybrid genres in Japan (2008b), and in Polynesia among both Maori and Tongan musicians (Hebert, 2008c, Hebert, 2008d), as well as the emergence and integration of fully developed hybrid genres – such as rock and jazz – into American schools (Hebert, in press; Hebert & Campbell, 2000).

[3] As part of the class, we discussed an insightful article on musical hybridity that Weiss has since published in the journal Ethnomusicology (Weiss, 2008).

REFERENCES

Gay, L. C. (1998). Acting up, talking tech: New York rock musicians and their metaphors of technology. Ethnomusicology, 42(1), 81-97.

Hebert, D. G. (in press). Jazz and rock music. In W. M. Anderson & P. S. Campbell (Eds.), Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education (third edition). Lanham, MD: Rowman-Littlefield Publishers.

Hebert, D. G. (2008a). Reflections on teaching the aesthetics and sociology of music online. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 39(1), 93-103.

Hebert, D. G. (2008b). Alchemy of brass: Spirituality and wind music in Japan. In E. M. Richards & K. Tanosaki (Eds.), Music of Japan Today. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Hebert, D. G. (2008c). Music transculturation and identity in a Maori brass band tradition. In R. Camus & B. Habla, (Eds.), Alta Musica, 26 (pp. 173-200). Tutzing: Schneider.

Hebert, D. G. (2008d). Music transmission in an Auckland Tongan community youth band. International Journal of Community Music, 1(2), 169-188. [http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/doi/abs/10.1386/ijcm.1.2.169_1]. [Click on "View PDF with links" for free access.]

Hebert, D. G. & Campbell, P. S., (2000). Rock music in American schools: Positions and practices since the 1960s. International Journal of Music Education, 36(1), 14-22.

Kartomi, M. J. (1981). The processes and results of musical culture contact: A discussion of terminology and concepts. Ethnomusicology, 25(2), 227-249.

Livingston, T. E. et al. (1993). Community of Music: An Ethnographic Seminar in Champaign-Urbana. Champaign, IL: Elephant and Cat.

Ramnarine, T. K. (2007). Musical performance in the diaspora: Introduction. Ethnomusicology Forum, 16(1), 1-17.

Shelemay, K. K. (2001). Toward an ethnomusicology of the early music movement: Thoughts on bridging disciplines and musical worlds. Ethnomusicology, 45(1), 1-29.

Stone, R. M. (2008). Theory for Ethnomusicology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Weiss, S. (2008). Permeable boundaries: Hybridity, music, and the reception of Robert Wilson’s I La Galigo. Ethnomusicology, 52(2), 203-238.

K) A Mingling of Musical Hybrids: Ethio-Jazz and Boston’s Either/Orchestra (Erica Yennior)

Click here to access a PDF file of the report produced by Erica Yennior:

http://www.box.net/shared/g7v656zyg9

NOTE: More media files will be posted shortly.

J) A Qualitative Study of a Chinese Dulcimer Ensemble in Boston (Yi Liu)

Click here to access a PDF file of the report produced by Yi Liu:

http://www.box.net/shared/pzsup63zeb

I) Afrobeat for the 21st Century: "The Superpowers" (Jane Leggiero)

Click here to access a PDF file of the report produced by Jane Leggiero:

http://www.box.net/shared/a5uqjjp4wk

The Superpowers can be found on MySpace where one can see photos of the band in performance, as well as tracks from their CDs.

Here are links to the sounds of these musicians:

http://www.box.net/shared/z04lerdskk

http://www.box.net/shared/sfnn2ptogs

Additional multimedia files will be uploaded soon.

H) In Search of Meaning: Indo-Jazz Music in Boston (Sheerin Hosseini)

Click here to access a PDF file of the report produced by Sheerin Hosseini:

http://www.box.net/shared/60g1erj4fk

For an example of this genre, readers may visit the following website to hear a clip of the song Dhani Medley, available under the Audio heading: http://www.sonicbids.com/bangalore