Journal articles on the topic 'Program in Ethnomusicology'

There is a great affinity between Bartók’s scholarly works and that of the members of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv — established in 1900 and considered as the cradle of the discipline of ethnomusicology — both in their methods and philosophical outlook. Several publications of the Berlin scholars are extant in Bartók’s library. They exerted significant influence on Bartók’s folkloristic output, from the methods of transcription and analysis, to the publication of folk material. Bartók also had personal connections with two of the members of the school. He contacted the director of the institution, Erich von Hornbostel, in 1912, wanting to take part in the galvanoplastic preservation and exchange program, introduced in Berlin a few years earlier. Only ten of Bartók’s cylinders could be processed before the war broke out, putting an end to this effort. A few years later Hornbostel took on the publishing of Bartók’s monograph, Volksmusik der Rumänen von Maramureş in the series Sammelbände der vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft . Bartók also met and corresponded with another outstanding member of the Berlin School of Ethnomusicology, Robert Lachmann, the chairman of the committee on sound recordings, in the work of which Bartók also participated in 1932 at the Congress of Arab Music in Cairo.

The general goal of this research was to verify which metadata elements of music information representation are relevant for its retrieval from the perspective of expert music users. Based on a bibliographical research, a comprehensive metadata set of music information representation was developed and transformed into a questionnaire for data collection, which was applied to students and professors of the Graduate Program in Music at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. The results show that the most relevant information for expert music users is related to identification and authorship responsibilities. The respondents from Composition and Interpretative Practice areas agree with these results, while the respondents from Musicology/Ethnomusicology and Music Education areas also consider the metadata related to the historical context of composition relevant.

This paper deals with the establishing of the organizing models, on one side, and with folk music and its aesthetic characteristics in the interwar period, on the other. This problem significantly contributed to the present meaning of the term ?folk music? (?narodna muzika?). The program of Radio Belgrade (founded in 1929) contained a number of folk music shows, often with live music. In order to develop folk music program, numerous vocal and instrumental soloists were hired, and different bands accompanied them. During that time, two official radio ensembles emerged - the Folk Radio Orchestra and the Tambura Radio Orchestra - displacing from the program the ensembles that were not concurrent to their technical and repertoire level. The decisive power in designing the program concept and content, but also in setting standards for the aesthetic values, was at the hands of music editorship of Radio Belgrade. The radio category of folk music was especially influenced by Petar Krstic (folk music editor in the period from 1930 to 1936) and his successor Mihajlo Vukdragovic (1937-1940), who formally defined all of the aforementioned characteristics, but in rather different ways. A general ambivalence in the treatment of the ensembles that performed at the radio reflects the implementation of their policies. In comparison to the official orchestras, the tavern singers and players received poor reviews in the editors? reports, despite their strong presence on the program. On the other side, the official orchestras were divided according to the regional folklore instrumentarium, but also according to the quality of playing. The Folk Radio Orchestra probably had double leadership, so it was possible to observe different approaches to the music folklore, which eventually resulted in a unique tendency towards cherishing folk music. This paper represents an attempt to show how the media term ?folk music? was constructed and where it currently stands in comparison to the usual study objects of ethnomusicology and popular music studies. My argument is that the discourse of authenticity was fundamental for the creation of official folk music.

In December 2002 the Swiss Society for Ethnomusicology (CH-EM), in cooperation with the Centre for African Studies of the University of Basel and with mission 21 (formerly Basel Mission), organized a symposium on the theme “Popular Music from Ghana: Historical Records as a Contribution to the Study of African History and Culture.” The conference concluded a week of lectures, workshops, and concerts with Ghanaian “palmwine” and Highlife music, a program which was realized in cooperation with the Basel Academy of Music and the two associations, Ghana Popular Music 1931-1957 and Scientific African e.V. The papers read at the symposium are, in our opinion, of interest to the readers of History in Africa, as they discuss a specific kind of source and the methodological issues pertaining to it, as well as offer insights into possible themes of research, giving some idea of the potential of the recordings as a source. We present the contributions here in a slightly revised form, and, in order to round off the discussion, we have invited the curators of two further sound collections of interest to scholars working on African history, to describe their archives.

The interest for traditional dance research in Serbia is noted since the second part of the 19th century in various ethnographical sources. However, organized and scientifically grounded study was begun by the sisters Danica and Ljubica Janković marked by publishing of the first of totally eight volumes of the "Folk Dances" [Narodne igre] in 1934. All eight books of this edition published periodically until 1964 were highly acknowledged by the broader scientific communities in Europe and the USA. Dance research was continued by the following generation of researchers: Milica Ilijin, Olivera Mladenović, Slobodan Zečević, and Olivera Vasić. The next significant step toward developing dance research began in 1990 when the subject of ethnochoreology was added to the program of basic ethnomusicological studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and shortly afterward in 1996 in the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. Academic ethnochoreological education in both institutions was established by Olivera Vasić. The epistemological background of all traditional dance research in Serbia was anchored mostly in ethnography focused on the description of rural traditions and partly in traditional dance history. Its broader folkloristic framework has, more or less, strong national orientation. However, it could be said that, thanks to the lifelong professional commitment of the researchers, and a relatively unified methodology of their research, ethnochoreology maintained continuity as a scientific discipline since its early beginnings. The next significant milestone in the development of the discipline happened when traditional dance research was included in the PhD doctoral research projects within ethnomusicological studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Those projects, some of which are still in the ongoing process, are interdisciplinary and interlink ethnochoreology with ethnomusicology and related disciplines. This paper reexamines and reevaluates the eighty years long tradition of dance research in Serbia and positions its ontological, epistemological and methodological trajectories in the broader context of its relation to other social sciences/humanities in the contemporary era of interdisciplinarity and postdiciplinarity.

В статье рассматриваются проблемы использования компьютерных методов анализа звука в этномузыко-логических исследованиях. Применение технических средств в этой области началось в XIX веке. Сначала это были аппараты для записи звука, затем аппараты для звуковысотной расшифровки. В настоящее время они вытеснены цифровыми звукозаписывающими устройствами и компьютерными программами, которые вычисляют точную линию мелодии исследуемого исполнения, могут представить результаты анализа графически, позволяют оценивать акустические характеристики голоса и инструмента, ритм и темп исполнения. Для анализа стиля можно применять статистические методы, реализуемые средствами компьютерной техники. Компьютерные методы анализа музыкального звука разрабатываются и используются в научном сообществе ISMIR, однако оно ориентировано почти полностью на 12-полутоновый равномерно-темперированный строй музыки. Традиционная музыка использует другие строи и требует для анализа иных методов - которые входят в понятие «вычислительная (компьютерная) этномузыкология». Это направление развивается во всем мире, в том числе и в России. The paper deals with the problems of computer sound analysis methods used in ethnomusicology investigations. The ethnomusicologist's began to apply technical devices since XIX Century. Firstly, it were phonographic equipment and melody description devices; now they will be substituted through digital audio-recorders and computer programs which calculate exact melody profile of performance, represent the results graphically, provide analysis of acoustical characteristics of voices and instruments and measurement of rhythm and temp of performance. For performance style analysis, statistical methods will be realized with help of computer. Computer-aid analysis of musical sound will be elaborated and used in scientific society ISMIR, but it is mostly focused on “European” kind of music with 12-halftone pitch row. Traditional music uses other pitch rows and must be analyzed with specific methods- which forms the “computational ethnomusicology.” This branch of science makes good progress all over the world and also in Russia.

- Martin Baier, Sri Kuhnt-Saptodewo, Zum Seelengeliet bei den Ngaju am Kahayan; Auswertung eines Sakraltextes zur Manarung-Zeremonie beim totenfest. München: Akademischer Verlag,1993 (PhD thesis, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universitiy München). - H.J.M. Claessen, Annette B. Weiner, Inalienable Possessions; The paradox of keeping-while-giving. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 232 pp. Bibl. Index - Charles A. Coppel, Wang Gungwu, Community and Nation; China, Southeast Asia and Australia. Sydney: Asian studies of Australia in association with Allen & Unwin, 1992 (2nd revised edition), viii + 359 pp - Heleen Gall, W. J. Mommsen, European expansion and Law; the encounter of European and Indigenous Law in 19th- and 20th- century Africa and Asia. Oxford; Berg publishers, 1992, vi + 339 pp, J.A. de Moor (eds.) - Beatriz van der Goes, C. W. Watson, Kinship, Property and inheritance in Kerinci, Central Sumatra. Canterbury:University of Kent, Centre for Social Anthropology and computing Monographs no: 4. South-East Asian Series, 1992, ix + 255 pp - Kees Groeneboer, Tom van der Berge, Van Kenis tot kunst; Soendanese poezie in de koloniale tijd. Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Lieden, November 1993, 220 pp - Kees Groeneboer, J.E.A.M. Lelyveld, ‘... waarlijk geen overdaad, doch een dringende eisch..’’; Koloniaal onderwijs en onderwijsbeleid in Nederlands-Indië 1893-1942. Proefschrift Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, 1992. - Marleen Heins, R. Anderson Sutton, Variation in Central Javanese gamelan music; Dynamics of a steady state. Northern Illinois University: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Monograph series on Southeast Asia, (Special Report 28 ),1993. - Marleen Heins, E. Heins, Jaap Kunst, Indonesian music and dance; Traditional music and its interaction with the West. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute/Tropenmuseum, University of Amsterdam, Ethnomusicology Centre `Jaap Junst’, 1994, E. den Otter, F. van Lamsweerde (eds.) - David Henley, Harold Brookfield, South-East Asia’s environmental future; The search for sustainability. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1993, xxxii + 422 pp., maps, tables, figures, index., Yvonne Byron (eds.) - Antje van der Hoek, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, De emancipatie van Molukse vrouwen in Nederland. Utrecht: Van Arkel,1992, Francy Leatemia-Toma-tala (eds.) - Michael Hitchcock, Brita L. Miklouho-Maklai, Exposing Society’s Wounds; Some aspects of Indonesian Art since 1966. Adelaide: Flinders University Asian studies Monograph No.5, illustrations, 1991, iii + 125 pp - Nico Kaptein, Fred R. von der Mehden, Two Worlds of Islam; Interaction between Southeast Asia and the Middle East.Gainesville etc: University Press of Florida 1993, xiii + 128 pp - Nico Kaptein, Karel Steenbrink, Dutch Colonialism and Indonesian Islam; Contacts and Conflicts 1596-1950. Amsterdam-Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1993. - Harry A. Poeze, Rudolf Mrázek, Sjahrir; Politics and exile in Indonesia. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program, 1994. - W.G.J. Remmelink, Takao Fusayama, A Japanese memoir of Sumatra 1945-1946; Love and hatred in the liberation war. Ithaca: Cornell University (Cornell Modern Indonesia Project Monograph series 71), 1993, 151 pp., maps, illustrations. - Ratna Saptari, Diana Wolf, Factory Daughters; Gender, Household Dynamics, and Rural Industrialization in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. - Ignatius Supriyanto, Ward Keeler, Javanese Shadow Puppets. Singapore (etc.): Oxford University Press, 1992, vii + 72 pp.,bibl., ills. (Images of Asia). - Brian Z. Tamanaha,S.J.D., Juliana Flinn, Review of diplomas and thatch houses; Asserting tradition in a changing Micronesia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992. - Gerard Termorshuizen, Dorothée Buur, Indische jeugdliteratuur; Geannoteerde bibliografie van jeugdboeken over Nederlands-Indië en Indonesië, 1825-1991. Leiden, KITLV Uitgeverij, 1992, 470 pp., - Barbara Watson Andaya, Reinout Vos, Gentle Janus, merchant prince; The VOC and the tightrope of diplomacy in the Malay world, 1740-1800. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1994, xii + 252 pp.

Research on cultural diversity as the identity of Tualang people in playing kompang music, is the development of previous kompang music research. In finding the identity of tualang people must start things for themselves, certainly not easy in the discovery of that identity, as a characteristic of heterogeneous areas. The purpose of maintaining the existence of kompang music for the Tualang community as a binding solidarity of the community area. Data is collected through observation, field research, interviews, and documentation. Analyzed with qualitative descriptive techniques, interpretative analysis. Interviews were conducted by purposive sampling. The result of the study : the context of kompang music in Tualang community, namely at wedding celebrations, aqiqah, welcoming party for important guest, festival events and religious celebrations. Its exixtence is seen inthe development of kompang music area in Tualang area. The concept of kompang music is inseperable from the philosopihical background of various cultures, religions, and creativity of the community over the development of market taste. Creativity is not only the birth of music as an expression but is the result of the interaction of the players in it which gives bitrh to a variety of creativity in performance.Keywords: music, kompang, identity, multiculture.AbstrakPenelitian keanekaragaman budaya sebagai jati diri orang-orang Tualang dalam memainkan musik kompang, adalah pengembangan penelitian musik kompang sebelumnya. Dalam menemukan jati diri masyarakat Tualang harus memulai hal-hal untuk diri sendiri, tentu tidak mudah dalam penemuan jati diri itu, sebagai penciri khas daerah yang heterogen. Tujuan tetap mempertahankan keberadaan musik kompang bagi masyarakat Tualang sebagai pengikat solidaritas kedaerahan komunitas. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi, penelitian lapangan, wawancara, dan dokumentasi. Dianalisis dengan teknik deskriptif kualitatif, analisis interpretatif. Wawancara dilakukan dengan cara purposive sampling. Hasil penelitian: konteks musik Kompang dalam masyarakat Tualang, yakni pada perayaan pernikahan, khitanan, aqikahan, penyambutan tamu penting, acara festival, perayaan agama. Eksistensinya terlihat pada perkembangan wilayah musik kompang di daerah Tualang. Konsep musik kompang tidak terlepas dari latar belakang filosofi bermacam budaya, agama, dan kreativitas masyarakat atas perkembangan selera pasar. Kreativitas tidak hanya pada pelahiran musik sebagai ekspresi akan tetapi merupakan hasil dari adanya interaksi pemain di dalamnya yang melahirkan variasi kreativitas dalam sebuah pertunjukan.Kata Kunci: musik, kompang, jati diri, multiculture.Authors:Nursyirwan : Institut Seni Indonesia PadangpanjangDelfi Enida : Institut Seni Indonesia PadangpanjangAlfalah : Institut Seni Indonesia PadangpanjangReferences:­Armes, Hengki. (2015). Interaksi Sosial Dalam Kesenian Kompang Di Masyarakat Dusun Delik Kecamatan Bantan Kabupaten Bengkalis. Tesis tidak diterbitkan. Padangpanjang: Program Pascasarjana ISI Padangpanjang.Brannen, Julia. (2005). Memandu Metode Penelitian Kualitatif dan Kuantitatif. Samarinda: Pustaka Pelajar.Depdiknas. (2008). Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.Enida, Delfi. (2019). “Notasi Pukulan Kompang”. Hasil Dokumentasi Pribadi: 7 Maret 2019, Kecamatan Tualang.Hadi, Y. Sumandiyo. (2012). Seni Pertunjukan dan Masyarakat Penonton. Yogyakarta: BP ISI Yogyakarta.Hatley, Barbara. (2014). Seni Pertunjukan Kontemporer di Jawa Tengah: Memanggungkan Identitas, Membangun Komunitas dalam Seni Pertunjukan Indonesia Pasca Orde Baru. Yogyakarta: Univ. Sanata Dharma.Hauser, Arnold. (1982). The Sosiology of Art. Terj. Kenneth J. Northcoot. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.McHale, John. (1969). The Future of the Future. New York: George Braziller.Nettl, Bruno. (1964). Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology. London: The Free Press of Glencoe.Nursyirwan. (2019). “Bunyi Pukulan Kompang”. Hasil Dokumentasi Pribadi: 7 Maret 2019, Kecamatan Tualang.Nursyirwan. (2000). Paradima Musikologis Musik Kompang Di Kelakap Tujuh Dumai Barat. Laporan penelitian tidak diterbitkan. Padangpanjang: STSI Padangpanjang.Sari, Fani Dila, Haria Nanda Pratama, Indra Setiawan. (2020). Identifikasi Umah Adat Pitu Ruang sebagai Produk Kebudayaan Gayo. Studi Kasus: Umah Reje Baluntara Di Aceh Tengah. Gorga: Jurnal Seni Rupa, 09(2), 451-454. https://doi.org/10.24114/gr.v9i2.22116.Simatupang, Lono. (2013). Pergelaran sebuah Mozaik Penelitian Seni-Budaya. Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.Steijlen, Fridus. (2014). Pasar Malam Indo-Eropa: Identitas dan Pertunjukan Kebudayaan Di Belanda”, dalam Seni Pertunjukan Indonesia Pasca Orde Baru. Yogyakarta: Univ. Sanata Dharma. Suwardi MS. (2014). Dari Melayu ke Indonenesia. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.Whitehead, Alfred North. (1929). Process and Reality. New York: Free Press.Wolf. R, Eric. (1983). Petani suatu Tinjauan Antropologis. Terjemahan TIM Yayasan Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial. Bandung: Rajawali.

The article considers versatile ethnomusicographic activities of the Research Scientific Laboratory of Music Ethnology (RSLME) in initial period of its activity (1990–2004) under the direction of Bohdan Lukaniuk. A brief historical outline of the ethnomusicological studies of the Lviv Conservatory has been submitted, the chronology of educational reform in pedagogy and scientific ethnomusicological studies of higher education has been presented, which resulted in the establishment of a new scientific institution, the Scientific-Researching Laboratory of Music Ethnography, on the basis of the Office of Folk Music as early as 1990’s. The main innovations introduced by B. Lukaniuk in the etnomusicology and education were outlined. PSRLME in cooperation with Music Folklore Department of the Mykola Lysenko Lviv High Music School has rapidly developed into a trusted ethnomusicological institution well established in Ukraine and abroad. The main innovations were: carefull planning of all activities of the Laboratory as an integral part of the project “Folk music of Galicia and Volodymyria”; the methodological and practical reform of musical education; establishment of an careful field research and archiving strategy as integral part of historical and ethnomusicological research programmes of the Western Ukraine ethnomusicological areals; a reform of Ethnomusicographic data archive: careful planning of field research programmes, establishments of new funds and collections, systematic archiving of current & historical records, etc. The results of the initial period of the activities of PSRLME in the field of musical and ethnographic data archives are summarized, including the historical timeline of the implementation of as much as two dozen research programs and sub-programs which were then initially established, and a series of indicators has been created to provide historical timeline reference. The article is prepared on the basis of the data archives of documentation and printed sources. Tags: music folklore, ethnomusicology historical records, etnomusicological data archives, archiving data strategies, Bohdan Lukaniuk, PSRLME.

In this paper, I discuss performance as a research instrument in Western European classical music. I describe considerations and process leading to my performance of Corelli Op. 5 no. 12 "Follia" in the Indonesian Chamber Music Festival 2011 at ISI Yogyakarta Concert Hall. Corelli's Follia (La Folia), as it is commonly known, is a canonized work which opens many professional violinist's recital programs. Its real identity has become marginalized and transformed through rather blind reliance on 19th-century editions by violinists who wished to adopt it to "mainline" romantic concepts of style and performance. This process of adaption has been characteristic of European classical music for centuries. Works of earlier times were reshaped both in performance and in print editions to fit prevailing musical tastes. I chose to approximate an appropriate ensemble with modern instruments. Using a constructivist approach, I employed aspects of Baroque performance practice, especially in ornamentation and embellishment, along with manipulation of rhythmic elements and in a more spontaneous, and consciously contemporary manner. I take the opportunity to contribute to productive dialogue regarding the role of performance at Music Department, the Faculty of Performing Arts, Yogyakarta Indonesian Institute of the Arts, and qualitative research. I seek to open up our discourse to a wider understanding beyond the persistent positivist continues to approach the academic world in Indonesia as the only platform for research theory and method. I suggest that this performance, like any other, is an informed adventure across time and space and that ethnomusicology and music are no longer separate worlds.

Suku Minangkabau memiliki berbagai kesenian, di antaranya adalah Randai. Randai hidup dan berkembang dalam kehidupan masyarakat, dan hampir di setiap daerah di Minangkabau mempunyai Randai. Salah satu grup yang mengembangkan Randai yaitu Grup Parewa Limo Suku yang berada di Kuranji Kota Padang Sumatera Barat. Randai ini dilaksanakan dengan berbagai unsur seni yaitu Silek, Tari, Musik dan Teater. Randai termasuk kedalam Drama Musikal kedaerahan dengan memliki unsur seni yang kompleks. penyajian Randai diawali oleh permainan musik untuk menarik perhatian masyarakat. Berikutnya pidato dari Tukang Gore yang kemudian masuk ke dalam Legaran dengan diiringi musik untuk memberikan kesempatan kepada pelaku cerita memasuki lingkaran. Naskah cerita yang digunakan berjudul Untuang Sudah yang memiliiki permasalahan dan perselisihan dengan Rajo Angek Garang. Cerita ini dilaksanakan dalam lima legaran, cerita dalam Randai pada umumnya merupakan perumpamaan dalam masyarakat yang didalamnya mengandung nasehat-nasehat yang berisikan pesan moral. Cerita Untuang Sudah dalam Randai sering dibawakan dalam acara hiburan Baralek oleh Parewa Limo Suku. Musik iringan dalam Randai berperan sangat penting dimana musik membuat karakter suasana yang berbeda-beda yakni sebagai ilustrasi cerita dan sebagai penguat suasana dalam penyampaian pesan di setiap adegan Randai. Tujuan Grup Parewa Limo Suku, yaitu untuk melestarikan kebudayaan Minangkabau, serta turut aktif membantu pemerintah dalam membina dan mengembangkan seni budaya khususnya seni budaya Minangkabau. Randai saat ini masih digunakan dalam pertunjukan rakyat Minangkabau dan bentuk penyajiannya disesuaikan dengan drama musikal yang menggunakan berbagai unsur-unsur kesenian yang ada dalam masyarakat Minangkabau. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisis deskriptif dan pendekatan Etnomusikologi. Minangkabau tribe has a variety of arts, including Randai. Randai lives and develops in community life, and almost every area in Minangkabau has Randai. One of the groups that developed Randai is the Parewa Limo Tribe Group located in Kuranji, Padang, West Sumatra. This randai is carried out with various elements of art namely Silek, Dance, Music and Theater. Randai included in the Regional Musical Drama with a complex element of art. Randai's presentation was preceded by a musical game to attract the attention of the public. Next was the speech from Tukang Gore which then entered Legaran accompanied by music to give the story actors a chance to enter the circle. The text of the story used is titled Untuang Sudah which has problems and disputes with Rajo Angek Garang. This story is carried out in five stories, the story in Randai is generally a parable in a society which contains advice which contains a moral message. Untuang Stories Already in Randai is often sung in Baralek entertainment programs by the Parewa Limo Tribe. Accompanied music in Randai plays a very important role where the music makes the character of a different atmosphere that is as an illustration of the story and as a reinforcement of the atmosphere in delivering messages in each Randai scene. The aim of the Parewa Limo Suku Group is to preserve the Minangkabau culture, and to actively assist the government in fostering and developing cultural arts, especially Minangkabau cultural arts. Randai is currently still used in Minangkabau folk performances and the form of presentation is adapted to musical dramas that use various artistic elements in the Minangkabau community. This research uses descriptive analysis method and ethnomusicology approach

The curtain rose. The howling of desert wind filled the performance hall in the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Into the center stage, where a scenic construction of a mountain cliff and a desert landscape was dimly lit, entered the character of the Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu (1849–1931), performed by Chen Yizong. Dressed in a worn and dusty outfit of dark blue cotton, characteristic of Daoist priests, Wang began to sweep the floor. After a few moments, he discovered a hidden chambre sealed inside one of the rock sanctuaries carved into the cliff.Signaled by the quick, crystalline, stirring wave of sound from the chimes, a melodious Chinese ocarina solo joined in slowly from the background. Astonished by thousands of Buddhist sūtra scrolls, wall paintings, and sculptures he had just accidentally discovered in the caves, Priest Wang set his broom aside and began to examine these treasures. Dawn had not yet arrived, and the desert sky was pitch-black. Priest Wang held his oil lamp high, strode rhythmically in excitement, sat crossed-legged in a meditative pose, and unfolded a scroll. The sound of the ocarina became fuller and richer and the texture of the music more complex, as several other instruments joined in.Below is the opening scene of the award-winning, theatrical dance-drama Dunhuang, My Dreamland, created by China’s state-sponsored Lanzhou Song and Dance Theatre in 2000. Figure 1a: Poster Side A of Dunhuang, My Dreamland Figure 1b: Poster Side B of Dunhuang, My DreamlandThe scene locates the dance-drama in the rock sanctuaries that today are known as the Dunhuang Mogao Caves, housing Buddhist art accumulated over a period of a thousand years, one of the best well-known UNESCO heritages on the Silk Road. Historically a frontier metropolis, Dunhuang was a strategic site along the Silk Road in northwestern China, a crossroads of trade, and a locus for religious, cultural, and intellectual influences since the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). Travellers, especially Buddhist monks from India and central Asia, passing through Dunhuang on their way to Chang’an (present day Xi’an), China’s ancient capital, would stop to meditate in the Mogao Caves and consult manuscripts in the monastery's library. At the same time, Chinese pilgrims would travel by foot from China through central Asia to Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, playing a key role in the exchanges between ancient China and the outside world. Travellers from China would stop to acquire provisions at Dunhuang before crossing the Gobi Desert to continue on their long journey abroad. Figure 2: Dunhuang Mogao CavesThis article approaches the idea of “abroad” by examining the present-day imagination of journeys along the Silk Road—specifically, staged performances of the various Silk Road journey-themed dance-dramas sponsored by the Chinese state for enhancing its cultural and foreign policies since the 1970s (Kuang).As ethnomusicologists have demonstrated, musicians, choreographers, and playwrights often utilise historical materials in their performances to construct connections between the past and the present (Bohlman; Herzfeld; Lam; Rees; Shelemay; Tuohy; Wade; Yung: Rawski; Watson). The ancient Silk Road, which linked the Mediterranean coast with central China and beyond, via oasis towns such as Samarkand, has long been associated with the concept of “journeying abroad.” Journeys to distant, foreign lands and encounters of unknown, mysterious cultures along the Silk Road have been documented in historical records, such as A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (Faxian) and The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (Xuanzang), and illustrated in classical literature, such as The Travels of Marco Polo (Polo) and the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West (Wu). These journeys—coming and going from multiple directions and to different destinations—have inspired contemporary staged performance for audiences around the globe.Home and Abroad: Dunhuang and the Silk RoadDunhuang, My Dreamland (2000), the contemporary dance-drama, staged the journey of a young pilgrim painter travelling from Chang’an to a land of the unfamiliar and beyond borders, in search for the arts that have inspired him. Figure 3: A scene from Dunhuang, My Dreamland showing the young pilgrim painter in the Gobi Desert on the ancient Silk RoadFar from his home, he ended his journey in Dunhuang, historically considered the northwestern periphery of China, well beyond Yangguan and Yumenguan, the bordering passes that separate China and foreign lands. Later scenes in Dunhuang, My Dreamland, portrayed through multiethnic music and dances, the dynamic interactions among merchants, cultural and religious envoys, warriors, and politicians that were making their own journey from abroad to China. The theatrical dance-drama presents a historically inspired, re-imagined vision of both “home” and “abroad” to its audiences as they watch the young painter travel along the Silk Road, across the Gobi Desert, arriving at his own ideal, artistic “homeland”, the Dunhuang Mogao Caves. Since his journey is ultimately a spiritual one, the conceptualisation of travelling “abroad” could also be perceived as “a journey home.”Staged more than four hundred times since it premiered in Beijing in April 2000, Dunhuang, My Dreamland is one of the top ten titles in China’s National Stage Project and one of the most successful theatrical dance-dramas ever produced in China. With revenue of more than thirty million renminbi (RMB), it ranks as the most profitable theatrical dance-drama ever produced in China, with a preproduction cost of six million RMB. The production team receives financial support from China’s Ministry of Culture for its “distinctive ethnic features,” and its “aim to promote traditional Chinese culture,” according to Xu Rong, an official in the Cultural Industry Department of the Ministry. Labeled an outstanding dance-drama of the Chinese nation, it aims to present domestic and international audiences with a vision of China as a historically multifaceted and cosmopolitan nation that has been in close contact with the outside world through the ancient Silk Road. Its production company has been on tour in selected cities throughout China and in countries abroad, including Austria, Spain, and France, literarily making the young pilgrim painter’s “journey along the Silk Road” a new journey abroad, off stage and in reality.Dunhuang, My Dreamland was not the first, nor is it the last, staged performances that portrays the Chinese re-imagination of “journeying abroad” along the ancient Silk Road. It was created as one of many versions of Dunhuang bihua yuewu, a genre of music, dance, and dramatic performances created in the early twentieth century and based primarily on artifacts excavated from the Mogao Caves (Kuang). “The Mogao Caves are the greatest repository of early Chinese art,” states Mimi Gates, who works to increase public awareness of the UNESCO site and raise funds toward its conservation. “Located on the Chinese end of the Silk Road, it also is the place where many cultures of the world intersected with one another, so you have Greek and Roman, Persian and Middle Eastern, Indian and Chinese cultures, all interacting. Given the nature of our world today, it is all very relevant” (Pollack). As an expressive art form, this genre has been thriving since the late 1970s contributing to the global imagination of China’s “Silk Road journeys abroad” long before Dunhuang, My Dreamland achieved its domestic and international fame. For instance, in 2004, The Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteśvara—one of the most representative (and well-known) Dunhuang bihua yuewu programs—was staged as a part of the cultural program during the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. This performance, as well as other Dunhuang bihua yuewu dance programs was the perfect embodiment of a foreign religion that arrived in China from abroad and became Sinicized (Kuang). Figure 4: Mural from Dunhuang Mogao Cave No. 45A Brief History of Staging the Silk Road JourneysThe staging of the Silk Road journeys abroad began in the late 1970s. Historically, the Silk Road signifies a multiethnic, cosmopolitan frontier, which underwent incessant conflicts between Chinese sovereigns and nomadic peoples (as well as between other groups), but was strongly imbued with the customs and institutions of central China (Duan, Mair, Shi, Sima). In the twentieth century, when China was no longer an empire, but had become what the early 20th-century reformer Liang Qichao (1873–1929) called “a nation among nations,” the long history of the Silk Road and the colourful, legendary journeys abroad became instrumental in the formation of a modern Chinese nation of unified diversity rooted in an ancient cosmopolitan past. The staged Silk Road theme dance-dramas thus participate in this formation of the Chinese imagination of “nation” and “abroad,” as they aestheticise Chinese history and geography. History and geography—aspects commonly considered constituents of a nation as well as our conceptualisations of “abroad”—are “invariably aestheticized to a certain degree” (Bakhtin 208). Diverse historical and cultural elements from along the Silk Road come together in this performance genre, which can be considered the most representative of various possible stagings of the history and culture of the Silk Road journeys.In 1979, the Chinese state officials in Gansu Province commissioned the benchmark dance-drama Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road, a spectacular theatrical dance-drama praising the pure and noble friendship which existed between the peoples of China and other countries in the Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.). While its plot also revolves around the Dunhuang Caves and the life of a painter, staged at one of the most critical turning points in modern Chinese history, the work as a whole aims to present the state’s intention of re-establishing diplomatic ties with the outside world after the Cultural Revolution. Unlike Dunhuang, My Dreamland, it presents a nation’s journey abroad and home. To accomplish this goal, Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road introduces the fictional character Yunus, a wealthy Persian merchant who provides the audiences a vision of the historical figure of Peroz III, the last Sassanian prince, who after the Arab conquest of Iran in 651 C.E., found refuge in China. By incorporating scenes of ethnic and folk dances, the drama then stages the journey of painter Zhang’s daughter Yingniang to Persia (present-day Iran) and later, Yunus’s journey abroad to the Tang dynasty imperial court as the Persian Empire’s envoy.Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road, since its debut at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the first of October 1979 and shortly after at the Theatre La Scala in Milan, has been staged in more than twenty countries and districts, including France, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Latvia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and recently, in 2013, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.“The Road”: Staging the Journey TodayWithin the contemporary context of global interdependencies, performing arts have been used as strategic devices for social mobilisation and as a means to represent and perform modern national histories and foreign policies (Davis, Rees, Tian, Tuohy, Wong, David Y. H. Wu). The Silk Road has been chosen as the basis for these state-sponsored, extravagantly produced, and internationally staged contemporary dance programs. In 2008, the welcoming ceremony and artistic presentation at the Olympic Games in Beijing featured twenty apsara dancers and a Dunhuang bihua yuewu dancer with long ribbons, whose body was suspended in mid-air on a rectangular LED extension held by hundreds of performers; on the giant LED screen was a depiction of the ancient Silk Road.In March 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping introduced the initiatives “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” during his journeys abroad in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. These initiatives are now referred to as “One Belt, One Road.” The State Council lists in details the policies and implementation plans for this initiative on its official web page, www.gov.cn. In April 2013, the China Institute in New York launched a yearlong celebration, starting with "Dunhuang: Buddhist Art and the Gateway of the Silk Road" with a re-creation of one of the caves and a selection of artifacts from the site. In March 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency, released a new action plan outlining key details of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Xi Jinping has made the program a centrepiece of both his foreign and domestic economic policies. One of the central economic strategies is to promote cultural industry that could enhance trades along the Silk Road.Encouraged by the “One Belt, One Road” policies, in March 2016, The Silk Princess premiered in Xi’an and was staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing the following July. While Dunhuang, My Dreamland and Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road were inspired by the Buddhist art found in Dunhuang, The Silk Princess, based on a story about a princess bringing silk and silkworm-breeding skills to the western regions of China in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) has a different historical origin. The princess's story was portrayed in a woodblock from the Tang Dynasty discovered by Sir Marc Aurel Stein, a British archaeologist during his expedition to Xinjiang (now Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region) in the early 19th century, and in a temple mural discovered during a 2002 Chinese-Japanese expedition in the Dandanwulike region. Figure 5: Poster of The Silk PrincessIn January 2016, the Shannxi Provincial Song and Dance Troupe staged The Silk Road, a new theatrical dance-drama. Unlike Dunhuang, My Dreamland, the newly staged dance-drama “centers around the ‘road’ and the deepening relationship merchants and travellers developed with it as they traveled along its course,” said Director Yang Wei during an interview with the author. According to her, the show uses seven archetypes—a traveler, a guard, a messenger, and so on—to present the stories that took place along this historic route. Unbounded by specific space or time, each of these archetypes embodies the foreign-travel experience of a different group of individuals, in a manner that may well be related to the social actors of globalised culture and of transnationalism today. Figure 6: Poster of The Silk RoadConclusionAs seen in Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road and Dunhuang, My Dreamland, staging the processes of Silk Road journeys has become a way of connecting the Chinese imagination of “home” with the Chinese imagination of “abroad.” Staging a nation’s heritage abroad on contemporary stages invites a new imagination of homeland, borders, and transnationalism. Once aestheticised through staged performances, such as that of the Dunhuang bihua yuewu, the historical and topological landscape of Dunhuang becomes a performed narrative, embodying the national heritage.The staging of Silk Road journeys continues, and is being developed into various forms, from theatrical dance-drama to digital exhibitions such as the Smithsonian’s Pure Land: Inside the Mogao Grottes at Dunhuang (Stromberg) and the Getty’s Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road (Sivak and Hood). They are sociocultural phenomena that emerge through interactions and negotiations among multiple actors and institutions to envision and enact a Chinese imagination of “journeying abroad” from and to the country.ReferencesBakhtin, M.M. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1982.Bohlman, Philip V. “World Music at the ‘End of History’.” Ethnomusicology 46 (2002): 1–32.Davis, Sara L.M. Song and Silence: Ethnic Revival on China’s Southwest Borders. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.Duan, Wenjie. “The History of Conservation of Mogao Grottoes.” International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property: The Conservation of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and the Related Studies. Eds. Kuchitsu and Nobuaki. Tokyo: Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, 1997. 1–8.Faxian. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. Translated by James Legge. New York: Dover Publications, 1991.Herzfeld, Michael. 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