AHRC Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance
The aim of project 6 is to produce and disseminate material in order to delineate continuity and change in the performance of ritual in Asia and Britain on the basis of three detailed and interdisciplinary case studies. The studies are of Chinese shawm bands/village ceremonials, Asian shaman music and dance, and UK tours of Asian ritualists.
Research questions to be addressed, in respect to music and dance, include (but not exclusively), in order to develop strategies that combine the accounts of performers and/or ritualists with those of scholars:
• conflict and continuity in religious ritual and staged performance;
• the transformation of ritual elements in staged performance;
• the relevance of notions of ‘tradition’, ‘preservation’ and ‘change’
While there is considerable literature on some Asian ritual music and dance in its traditional/religious contexts, little concern has to date been shown on how staged performance at home and abroad leads to changes in music and dance, or how performers conceive and account for aspects of continuity, preservation, and transformation. This project aims to delineate continuity and change in performance by combining documentation, analysis, and performer accounts in order to explore transformations and preservations occurring in contemporary practice. At the same time, we recognise that in respect to Chinese shawm bands’ ceremonial practice, continuity and preservation is a more important concept than transformation; this will be reflected in the research conducted.
