Music Ecology, Music Sociology, Music Locality - the case of Epirus by Mpiliax Mpiliens

This master’s thesis investigates and interprets locally produced music and particular music traditions of the world that have strong aesthetics and characteristic sounds. Through the concepts of music ecology, music sociology, and music locality, it identifies the link of the music with its place of origin, in an attempt to find the tools to understand how the world works when it comes down to the tiny but hugely important matter of music traditions. Through music examples from different countries, and with a special focus on the music of Epirus, Greece, music ecology, sociology, and locality become the lenses through which answers are sought to crucial questions, such as: How natural and built environments affect, almost dictate locally produced music; what kinds of tools do music traditions become in the hands of communities; and how can communities express, come together, and function through music traditions? Additionally, this thesis explores the effects on music traditions when they are relocated from one environment to another. Finally, this thesis investigates how immersion into any music tradition can affect ones’ personal musical identity, and how this enhances the development of an individual’s personal style, always taking into consideration the aspects of music ecology, sociology, and locality. In the Case of Epirus, Greece I attempt to answer these questions by visiting the birthplace of the music during my field work, which allows me to immerse myself in the environment as well as the music, communicate with the carriers of the tradition, and learn the music directly from them. Findings emerge in terms of a deep connection between music traditions and the triptych of music ecology, sociology and locality, in the example of the music of Epirus but also in general. These triptych influences, shapes and guides locally produced music, to the extent that one, when researching, should acknowledge its connection to local music to deepen the understanding of why things happen as they happen within a music tradition. Awareness of this connection would also be a powerful tool of an individual’s immersion process into new music traditions, empowering them to come to a deeper understanding of it.

The research of this master’s thesis/project started in the fall of 2020 out of the need to understand and investigate how locally produced music and the music traditions of the world happen to have strong aesthetics and characteristic sounds. Music can suggest, indeed almost demand, the listener to link the sound with the music’s place of origin. In many countries, such as Greece where I was born, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, several countries of the Caribbean and many more, we can observe the phenomena of different musical idioms and traditions within the same borders rather than a uniform music style that would characterise a whole country. One of the characteristic examples is the case of Lijiang, in Yunnan province, China where the diversity is an outcome of coexisting ethnic groups (Rees, 1996). Opposite to cases like this, this thesis will explore the co-existence of musical idioms, but also the reasons of their creation and development based on locality, ecology, and sociology.

I feel the need to underline that this work does not seek to discover the world anew, but is a mere attempt to find the tools to understand how the world works when it comes down to the tiny but hugely important matter of music traditions.

In the process of discovering factors that contribute to the formation of the aesthetics and their sonic depiction, one comes across the tools of music making, instruments, voices and anything that can produce sound and can be utilised in the process of music making. The use of similar musical instruments differs from place to place. In the process of construction of unique aesthetics and distinctive sound, there are several variants that dictate the use of them. This construction involves aesthetic choices, which in turn are derived from value systems that develop within the cultural environment (Mans, 2005). In reality, the purpose of music making, the local history, the local environment, the external influences but also the social characteristics of local groups, are the factors that make local music distinct and recognisable. Even though the sonic diversity in local music is undeniably a result of all the above-mentioned reasons, the question remains, “What is the variable that dictated the development of such diverse vocabularies for local music?”

1.0 Introduction

Tip

Tip