close this window
Complete the following form to e-mail a copy of this event to a friend.
Hello, The following event may be of interest to you: Instruments of Lament: Communication without Words in the New Orleans Jazz Funeral Wednesday, November 12, 2014 In New Orleans, the instruments of the brass band are sound technologies utilized to communicate particular messages to a community of listeners. In the local tradition of the jazz funeral, musicians determine the emotional register of the procession: mournful hymns regulate the slow march to the gravesite and upbeat popular songs signal the transition to celebratory dancing after burial. The musicians not only organize the memorial by changing tempo and repertoire, they communicate to the living and the dead through the material sound of their instruments. Black New Orleanians occupying public spaces where lynchings, race riots, segregation, and gentrification have taken place “give voice” to these submerged histories by marching and dancing to the beat of the brass band. And the most recent generation of musicians has drawn upon hip-hop, integrating the direct language of rap into a polyphony of voices that includes horns, drums, and group singing. In this case study of the brass bands of New Orleans, a holistic approach to sonic materiality integrates the spoken, the sung, and instrumental sound in a densely layered soundscape that creates meaning and value for racialized subjects of power. *Childcare available* Contact Laura Kunreuther for more [email protected] Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102 Sponsor: American and Indigenous Studies Program; Anthropology Program; Ethnomusicology Contact: Maria Sonevytsky. E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 845-758-7667 If you would like to see more events please visit the following URL: http://anthropology.bard.edu/events/