Why is musical mimesis so much a part of the cultural world of indigenous Filipinos? What does it tell us about their musical sensibilities and their social world? This book addresses these issues through a study of the relations between musical poetics, myth, and magic in the musical and spiritual lives of T'boli men and women from the highlands of southwestern Mindanao. Manolete Mora's study shows that musical mimesis is an intrinsic part of the cultural process of interpreting, articulating, making, and remaking the world. More significantly, it suggests that musical mimesis is intimately linked to a moral universe that is grounded in reciprocity. Musical mimesis is a way of establishing contact, fusion and identity with the other, and this is possible because of the existence of concepts of knowledge and being that are fundamentally different from our own. This book embraces wide-ranging ethnographic materials and issues that will be of interest to the musicologist, anthropologist, and student of Southeast Asian folklore and cross-cultural aesthetics.

Babaylan Sing Back depicts the embodied voices of Native Philippine ritual specialists popularly known as babaylan. These ritual specialists are widely believed to have perished during colonial times, or to survive on the margins in the present-day. They are either persecuted as witches and purveyors of superstition, or valorized as symbols of gender equality and anticolonial resistance. Drawing on fieldwork in the Philippines and in the Philippine diaspora, Grace Nono's deep engagement with the song and speech of a number of living ritual specialists demonstrates Native historical agency in the 500th year anniversary of the contact between the people of the Philippine Islands and the European colonizers.

First published in 2011. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

When artist Francis Herradura takes an immersive cultural journey to Lake Sebu on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, it not only inspires her to create art, it motivates her to share her experience with the world. Weaving Our Dreams: The Tboli People of the Philippines celebrates the Tboli culture and traditions that have been passed down through the generations: making the sacred tnalak cloth, chanting the legend of Tudbulul, and performing music, songs and dances. It introduces dreamweaver Barbara Ofong and musician/performer Maria Todi, and provides a glimpse of the Tboli way of life through their eyes. These women are passionate about preserving their culture, traditions, lands and connection with nature. They are not alone; many people are working hard to raise awareness, fund initiatives and pass on the ancestral knowledge. As if knotting strands in an intricate tnalak design, Weaving Our Dreams ties the Tboli past to the present—like a song of inspiration, it offers a vision and hope for future generations.

During the 1960s and 70s some ethnomusicologists formed relationships with music-makers and ritual specialists in an attempt to interpret how they understood their musical actions. Subsequently ethnomusicologists have studied the respects in which explicit and implicit theory is involved in communication of musical knowledge. They have observed the production of music theory in institutions of modern nation-states and have sought out groups and individuals whose theorizing is not constrained by existing institutions. They are assessing the extent to which musical terminologies of diverse languages can be interpreted in relation to general concepts without imposing the assumptions and biases of one body of existing theory. That exercise is increasingly recognized as a necessary effort of decolonization. A thorough yet concise introduction to this field, Music Theory in Ethnomusicology outlines a conception of music theory suited to cross-cultural research on musical practices.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Music and Culture presents key concepts in the study of music in its cultural context and provides an introduction to the discipline of ethnomusicology, its methods, concerns, and its contributions to knowledge and understanding of the world′s musical cultures, styles, and practices. The diverse voices of contributors to this encyclopedia confirm ethnomusicology′s fundamental ethos of inclusion and respect for diversity. Combined, the multiplicity of topics and approaches are presented in an easy-to-search A-Z format and offer a fresh perspective on the field and the subject of music in culture. Key features include: Approximately 730 signed articles, authored by prominent scholars, are arranged A-to-Z and published in a choice of print or electronic editions Pedagogical elements include Further Readings and Cross References to conclude each article and a Reader’s Guide in the front matter organizing entries by broad topical or thematic areas Back matter includes an annotated Resource Guide to further research (journals, books, and associations), an appendix listing notable archives, libraries, and museums, and a detailed Index The Index, Reader’s Guide themes, and Cross References combine for thorough search-and-browse capabilities in the electronic edition

Twenty-three years of joint endeavors and extensive field collecting of the narratives referred to in the present volume have resulted in the availability of a multimedia archive of Philippine epics, ballads and rituals both at the Pardo de Tavera collection of the Rizal Library, Ateneo de Manila University, and online. The linguists, anthropologists, and ethno-musicologists who have contributed to this book have long been conscious of the close links between ‘Intangible Heritage’ and ‘Tangible Heritage’. In the Philippines, sung narratives have been recorded in situ (through both audio and audio-video media), transcribed, translated, digitized, and analyzed by scholars and knowledgeable persons from fifteen cultural communities in the islands of Luzon, Panay, Palawan, Mindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. Meanwhile, other scholars have dedicated their lifelong research to the Mergui Archipelago, central Sulawesi, southwest Maluku, and East Timor. Emerging from international collaboration, the scholarship provided here seeks not only to safeguard and comprehend the uniqueness and evolving beauty of ancient sung narratives that are currently performed in the islands of Southeast Asia, but also to defend their vitality in today’s changing world. This collection of twelve essays is the most recent achievement of ongoing studies of performances by singers of tales and ritualists in contemporary socio-cultural contexts by means of pioneering initiatives in the Digital Humanities, multiple analytical approaches and expert use of our growing technical capacity to safeguard and explore Intangible Heritage.