Music of Place : the Performance of Identity in Contemporary Australian
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Music of Place The performance of identity in contemporary Australian community music festivals Michelle Elizabeth Duffy Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2001 School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental studies 11 Abstract This thesis interrogates the ways in which spatialised identities are constituted within a musical event, the community music festival, in contemporary Australia, as exemplified in three specific case studies: the Brunswick Music Festival, the Top Half Folk Festival and the Festival of Asian Music and Dance. An examination of the literature in such areas as musicology, ethnomusicology, sociology, cultural geography and philosophy established the argument that identity is constituted within dynamic, heterogeneous, and complex social relationships. The basis of this research is that within the framework of the community music festival, identity is constituted within and through the interactions between musician, listener and the various contexts in which these musics are performed, resulting in complex and multifarious sets of meanings that are constantly formulated and reinscribed. The ways in which the relationships of music, place and identity was interrogated was through a cross-disciplinary manner, using a number of methodological appróaches in order to capture the elusive and ephemeral nature of the festival event. The focus of data collection was on qualitative, interpretive methods and two major methods were used to collect data: participant observation and interviews. Field notes, photographs, sound and video recordings of festival events were compiled. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with festival organisers and promoters, members of local council in festival locations, festival performers and a sample of audience members. Moreover, the musical and performative aspects of these events and the argument on which this thesis is based — that a spatialised identity is constituted in and through the event — required a (re)performance of the researched event. Two methods were chosen to do this. First, ethnographic field notes were incorporated into the analysis as a means to present a sense of these festival events. Second, the inclusion of a CDrom in the presentation of the research was a strategy to signal the significance of the performative in the creation of spatialised identities. 111 In the case of the Brunswick Music Festival, the spatialised identities arising within the festival were a local constitution of identity based around notions of multiculturalism. The Top Half Festival illustrated a spatialised identity based on regional and national imaginaries. The Festival of Asian Music and Dance was self-consciously based on transnational identities, particularly with regards to Asia/Australia relations. The communal identities arising within these events suggest that the identity/place/music relationship is embedded along traditional lines of an ideal community, bounded geographically and in which social relations are characterised by small-scale, personal ties. Yet, within this tradition-based setting, numerous performances demonstrated identities that were created across boundaries and cultural vectors. Central to understanding the constitution of identity in such a context was the concept of performativity. The identity/identities constituted within the framework of each festival were created out of performative acts that were themselves about the individual's articulations of the complexities of being and belonging. Festival participants understood such performances as operating within a network of identity in which a constantly changing assemblage of expressive and musical forms was nonetheless understood as a coherent whole. Moreover, this thesis demonstrates that the spatial scale of the event has significant influence on the sorts of identities that are constituted and the ways in which they are regulated. iv This is to certify that (i) the thesis comprises only my original work except where indicated in the preface (ii) due acknowledgment has been made in the text to all other material used (iii) the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices signed: ittditt(c-I() 31 OcPk, Zoo/ date: Acknowledgments I would like to thank the many people who have helped me through my candidature. They are in no way responsible for any errors in this work. My thanks to those people who took part in my research for their interest, patience and especially their generosity, as this made my work so enjoyable. I would like to thank my supervisor, Associate Professor Jane Jacobs, for her insight into and support of my work. During the period of my candidature, many people have read various versions of this thesis, and their comments and questions have been invaluable. First, thank you to Dr Kate Darian-Smith, Dr Ludmilla Kwitko, Dr Graeme Smith, Professor Susan Smith, Dr Sara Cohen, Michael Cathcart and Dr Lily Kong. Second, I am very thankful for family and friends who not only assisted me in my work, but have provided such wonderful friendship and support: Sally Denning, Jackie Pallister, Jillian Bennet, Mehmet Mehmet, Natalie Jamieson, Haydie Gooder, Rachel Hughes, Melissa Permezel, Elif Kendirli, my mum, Denise, father, Patrick, and sisters Robyn and Cathie. Thank you to Chandra Jayasuriya for preparing the map shown on page 106a. I would like to thank my colleagues at Melbourne Pathology who covered my shifts when I needed time for my research work, especially in the last few months. Thank you to the staff and postgraduate students of the Institute of Popular Music, Liverpool, for their hospitality and interest in my work during my stay there. Thank you, too, to Dr Susan Smith and Nichola Wood for an enjoyable, if hectic, week in Edinburgh. I would also like to thank Russell Evans, Media Specialist, and especially Bernard Meade, Multimedia Project Officer, both of the Information Division, University of Melbourne, who assisted me in the preparation of the CDrom that accompanies this work. Vi Part 1: Thesis Contents Preface Abstract ii Declaration iv Acknowledgements v List of figures x List of references to accompanying CDrom xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Aim of research 3 1.3 Research approach 4 1.3.1 Music as social practice 5 1.4 Thesis outline 7 Chapter 2: Literature review 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Music and identity 11 2.3 Music and place 20 2.4 Festival 31 Chapter 3: Chasing shadows: methodology and research design 3.1 Introduction 38 3.2 Research methods 40 3.2.1 field sites 40 3.2.2 participant observation 44 3.2.3 interviews 48 3.3 Interpretation 54 3.4 Conclusion 56 Chapter 4: Acts: performing identity 4.1 Introduction 58 4.2 'Multicultural' Moreland 60 4.3 Performing identity: being here and there (1) 67 4.3.1 dialogues with a place called 'home' 67 4.3.2 'not you lot in here!' 72 4.4 Performing the local 80 4.4.1 taking it to the streets 80 4.4.2 mediations 87 4.4.3 marking out identity 92 4.5 Performing identity: being here and there (2) 94 4.5.1 musical acts 94 4.5.2 reconfiguring space 98 4.6 Conclusion: identity effects 102 vii Chapter 5: Markings: connecting to place 5.1 Introduction 104 5.2 Towards mapping the festival space 108 5.3 Musical practices as community forming practices 111 5.3.1 gathering the folk 114 5.3.2 'no strangers here' 118 5.3.3 inclusivity 122 5.3.4 signs of belonging 124 5.3.5 troubled imaginings 127 5.4 I identity: people and place 129 5.4.1 landscape 132 5.4.2 giving voice to the land 134 5.5 Performing the landscape 137 5.5.1 sonic imaginings 142 5.5.2 reinscriptions 144 5.6 Conclusion: terrains of belonging 146 Chapter 6: Utterances: the becoming-expressive 6.1 Introduction 149 6.2 Performing 'Asia' in multicultural Australia 154 6.3 'We find ourselves again' 156 6.3.1 displacement 157 6.3.2 musical dialogue 164 6.3.3 utterance 168 6.4 Kathak incursion 171 6.4.1 hybrid encounters 176 6.4.2 transgressing borders 178 6.4.3 hearing awry 180 6.5 Conclusion: becoming expressive 185 Chapter 7: Conclusion 7.1 Findings 187 7.1.1 chapter summaries 187 7.1.2 thematic summaries 193 7.2 Future work 196 7.3 Postlude 199 Bibliography i. Primary sources ii. interviews 200 iii. correspondence 202 v. government documents and publications 202 vi. newspaper articles 204 vii. pamphlets and brochures 205 viii. performances and exhibitions 205 ix. performance programs 206 x. public addresses 207 xi. sound recordings 207 iv. web pages 207 v. Secondary sources 207 via Part 2: Appendices Appendix 1: Questionnaires 1.1 questionnaire to be completed by performer(s) 1 1.2 questionnaire to be completed by audience member 3 1.3 questionnaire to be completed by a member of the festival committee 4 1.4 questionnaire to be completed by a member for the local council 6 Appendix 2: Participant observations 2.1 diagram illustrating use of venue space 7 2.2 diagram of stage 8 2.3 participant observation: performers 9 2.3.1 schedule for participant observation 10 2.3.2 recording of observations about the music performed 13 2.4 participant observation: audience 14 2.4.1 schedule for participant observation 15 Appendix 3: Letter of introduction 17 Appendix 4: Written information to be given to the subject 18 Appendix 5: Release forms 5.1 release form: questionnaire 19 5.2 release form: photographs 20 5.3 release form: audio recordings 21 5.4 release form: video recordings 22 ix Appendix 6: Brunswick Music Festival 6.1 interviews: Sydney