For this years ESA arts research network conference in Venice I have written a paper together with Ian Sutherland (SocArts/Exeter) and Muhammad Jalal Hashim from Khartoum, Sudan. Our paper focuses on the changes to music in response to war at the micro level. Full abstract below.

Abstract

by Arild Bergh, Muhammad Jalal Hashim and Ian Sutherland

Music use related to wars has been researched in connection with protest movements, totalitarian regimes or torture. However, the “dialogue” between music and war has been largely ignored. Furthermore, the focus is often on music created at a distance (protest against the Vietnam war, fundraising concerts), rather than where the conflict takes place.

In this paper we will use data from Sudan and Germany to bring the focus closer to the scenes of conflict, and discuss how, during the different phases of warfare (rising tension, active use of violence and ceasefire), musicking as defined by Small can both reflect and refract the course of war and peace. As music is often an important part of most people's everyday life, it is worth paying special attention to this also in times of war, especially how it interacts with the fear or defiance of people faced with war. We will pick up on the theme of music in everyday life particularly in reference to Romanian/German composer Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and what his musical activity afforded him after conscription into the Wehrmacht in 1943. We will consider the holistic struggle of the artist in context of macro and micro conflict from the global war to individual socio-political incongruency with the Nazi regime. The music of civilians caught up in war will be explored further with regards to music from Sudan during and after the civil war that took place in the south until 2005. We focus on a settlement with 29 different ethnic groups that has used music to forge a new joint identity and overcome fear and suspicion of other groups. This pragmatic, grass roots use of music will be compared with the appropriation of music to build unity in armies in this conflict and under the Turco-Egyptian rule where slave-based regiments were allowed to use their own ethnic music adapted for military use. This will allow us to highlight the struggles of different actors over and through music during and after wars, and the interaction between music and war.

Recent years has seen a burgeoning of cross-disciplinary work that focuses on music. This paper draws upon this growing tradition using the expertise of a Sudanese linguist/folklorist, a Canadian musician/socio-musicologist and a Norwegian former music journalist/music sociologist, to examine the influence upon music by war, the influence of war on music and the practical use of music for purposes of waging war, building peace and creating personal space(s).

Rather than providing a single overarching theory we will encourage a further discussion centred around these questions:

• How is music used to augment actions in war or peace?
• How is musical output affected by the anomie that can emerge amongst practitioners and consumers both civilian and not?
• Does the liminal stages that a conflict introduces contribute to acceptance and/or development of new musical practices, or to a greater openness?
• What pragmatic approaches are used to create war music and responses from the civilians