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.

Since the beginning of this research process there has been the understanding that different music traditions carry what we call signature sounds. (Definition of signature sounds from somewhere). As mentioned previously, this could be due to their (since the beginning, naturally existing, born with) characteristics such as strong aesthetics and idiosyncratic sound, defined due to music locality, ecology and sociology, or due to strong influences based on an individual or a group experience or, finally, because this is a constructed characteristic that promotes and brands music tradition. It is very important to acknowledge that the three cases that were identified are not mutually exclusive but, in most of the cases and localities, they tend to appear conjointly.

The first case is of aesthetics, and consequently the sound draws its characteristics primarily from the local and surrounding natural and built environments. Following this becomes a reality for local communities and serves as a common knowledge and understanding, and transforms into a social tool that primarily serves the local community. In this case, even though there is the understanding that these types of music traditions can and will be eventually influenced by external factors, such as social interaction with non-local communities, travelling of the tradition and so forth, we will stay in the original format or as close to the roots of the tradition as possible. It is this fact of remaining as close to the roots of each tradition as possible that makes them stand out, with a sound different to the mass sound of the music industry of any given genre, and finally being able to hold this as a distinct signature sound.

In the second case of strong influences of an individual or a group, we have the person in the centre of creating an individual signature sound and following, gifting these signature sounds to the community. It seems that in this case we have individual or collective influences, deriving from the environment (social and natural) where a person spends a great deal of time, and this input can be both conscious and subconscious. Phraseology, aesthetics, and way of playing and understanding music have become part of the musician’s toolkit, and are offered back to the community through ‘digestion’, reflection and practice through the personal lenses and filters of the individual or the group. Further than that, though, the group or the individual can acquire influences, inputs, and inspiration from outside the place of origin, when the exposure to external factors is dealt with openness and respect to what comes as different from conquered knowledge. In this case, time and personal aesthetics become the key factor for the integration of the external influences into forming the individual’s or the group’s unique sonic thumb print.

Schematically it is always useful to think of the sofa metaphor. Imagine a beautiful grey sofa that matches the house environment in a perfect way, creating balance between its existence and the house environment. Now imagine a resident of the house opening a bottle of wine and towards the end of it, accidentally spilling a glass of wine on it, leaving a small hardly noticeable stain. Initially we need to assume that the resident wanted to have this wine, as the better part of the bottle is consumed. Then we must acknowledge the unintentional spill of the liquid. Let’s now focus on the sofa as a tool of the resident.

There is the strong belief that the stain of the wine on the sofa is something unintentional, unwanted and something that alters the looks and the aesthetics of the sofa. We claim that the stain will be considered a stain if it stays there for a short period of time and the resident will most probably always notice it, it will attract the look as something foreign and unmatching. If the stain remains there for a long period of time, it stops being a stain and it becomes itself sofa or part of the sofa. The colour of the stain fades, blends with the rest of the wear of the sofa and finally becomes something natural and incorporated in the aesthetics of the sofa in the eyes of the resident. It becomes a small part of it.

In the third case where a signature sound becomes a constructed characteristic that promotes and brands a music tradition, things are getting simpler. It is usually due to the existence of the environments’ strong influences and the individuals’ offered additions and novelties when a signature sound becomes so strong that people with a certain vision, influence and power are able to make a brand out of the sound. In the best-case scenario, the brand works as a tool of preserving an alive tradition and a special sound that promotes the existence of it as an introduction of this sound and its tradition to the world, not to take over but to be present and interact. In the worst-case scenario though, branded signature sounds can easily become a product, with a price to be sold and bought, going far away from the original intention of its creation, distorting the original purpose. In even more problematic cases, we are obliged to acknowledge that sometimes the very creation of a brand is intended to be a product leading even further from what is considered ethical or elaborate or acceptable in the researcher’s mind, personal aesthetics, and this thesis.

7.0 Signature sounds

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