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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Simon McKerrellORCiD
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This paper argues for ethnomusicologists to begin using performance not just as a tool to understand the social and cultural field, but to use music and dance as methods in ‘translational’ ethnomusicology that focuses upon the translation and communication of artistic performance aesthetics and to theorize a space for research outcomes that are sited in original performative knowledge, explored, produced and delivered through performance itself. The paper briefly surveys some of the key historical discussions of musical performance in/as research and the epistemological challenges that surround a methodologically-defined field such as ethnomusicology where there is no central musical canon. The paper introduces the concept of 'emic resistance' where the researcher-performer resists translating their non-verbal, somatic aesthetic musical knowledge into text. The paper concludes by drawing on some of the most recent developments in both ethnomusicological and closely related performance-analytical scholarship to propose a translational model for practice research in ethnomusicology.
Author(s): McKerrell S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Ethnomusicology Forum
Year: 2022
Volume: 31
Issue: 1
Pages: 10-27
Online publication date: 25/08/2021
Acceptance date: 09/08/2020
Date deposited: 11/03/2021
ISSN (print): 1741-1912
ISSN (electronic): 1741-1920
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2021.1964374
DOI: 10.1080/17411912.2021.1964374
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