2015, Volume 4, No. 1

AAWM JOURNAL Volume 4, No. 1 (2015)

Volume 4, No. 1 (2015)

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A Short Cross-Analysis of Brazilian Capoeira and Thai Sarama Music and Shared Ritual Practices

Duncan Williams

This paper examines the somewhat surprising common ground that exists in the music and musical rituals found within the cultures of two geographically and stylistically disparate martial arts: Thai boxing (Muay Thai), and Brazilian capoeira. Though there are differences in instrumentation, meter, and mode, both capoeira and Muay Thai utilize music as part of formalized rituals before and during physical competition as part of their ‘martial’ practices. In Thailand, competitive matches are traditionally accompanied by their own form, Sarama, as part of the Ram or Phleng Muay (a pre-fight ritual), which includes a musical soundtrack in direct response to the fight. The ritualistic nature of the Sarama performance shares some striking musical features with capoeira, despite having no obvious shared ancestry (the first commercial gym to offer Muay Thai outside Thailand was opened in Brazil in the late 1970s). The connection suggests that a number of holistic conclusions can be drawn regarding the role of music and ritual as an accompaniment to otherwise dissimilar combative sports.

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Impossible Melodies: Octave Cycles and Illusory Pitch Shifts in a North Chinese Wind Repertoire

Beth Szczepanski

Buddhist monks at Wutaishan in Shanxi Province, China perform melodies on shengguan wind instruments that seem to move to lower and lower pitches while actually remaining in the same narrow range. Pitch paradoxes such as octave cycling have been documented in music of Africa and Europe, but this is the first such example from East Asia to receive scholarly attention. This article examines how the pitch and timbre of the flute, double reed pipe, and mouth organ work together to create the auditory illusions in shengguanyue. It also argues that the discovery of pitch paradoxes in this repertoire should inspire scholars to undertake more rigorous analysis and more detailed transcription in order to discover the complexities that might be hidden inside what seem to be simple Chinese traditional tunes.

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Meaningful Adjustments: Musical Performance and Ritual Action in a South Indian Temple

William Tallotte

In this article, I analyze music and context as two interconnected parts. I examine musical performance and ritual action in a South Indian temple, focusing on the spatial, temporal and structural relationship between the music of an outdoor ensemble of shawm and drum players, the periya mēḷam, and the activities carried out by priests during the last daily worship performed in the Śaiva temple complex of Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. The analysis, based on interviews, observations, and recorded performances of the same piece during the same ritual sequence, raises questions about the coordination of musical and ritual times, the performance process and the nature of musicians’ knowledge, and the significance of music to cultural knowledge in the context of Hindu ritual. Overall, I show that musical analysis, when carefully situated, may help us to understand music as a meaningful manifestation of human experience.

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