Filippo Bonini Baraldi
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- July 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190096786
- eISBN:
- 9780190096823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190096786.003.0014
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter starts with a review of the definitions, meanings, and uses of the concept of empathy in the domains of ethnomusicology, interpersonal relationships, aesthetics, and embodied musical ...
More
This chapter starts with a review of the definitions, meanings, and uses of the concept of empathy in the domains of ethnomusicology, interpersonal relationships, aesthetics, and embodied musical cognition. The following five issues are then addressed: (1) How does the notion of empathy impact the classic theories of musical emotion? (2) It is possible to define different types of musical empathy, depending on the nature of its referent? (3) Do different performance contexts foster different types of musical empathy? (4) What light do theories of empathy shed on the process of association between persons and tunes? (5) Is there any connection between an empathic disposition and the musical form of de jale (“sorrowful”) tunes?Less
This chapter starts with a review of the definitions, meanings, and uses of the concept of empathy in the domains of ethnomusicology, interpersonal relationships, aesthetics, and embodied musical cognition. The following five issues are then addressed: (1) How does the notion of empathy impact the classic theories of musical emotion? (2) It is possible to define different types of musical empathy, depending on the nature of its referent? (3) Do different performance contexts foster different types of musical empathy? (4) What light do theories of empathy shed on the process of association between persons and tunes? (5) Is there any connection between an empathic disposition and the musical form of de jale (“sorrowful”) tunes?
Filippo Bonini Baraldi
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- July 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190096786
- eISBN:
- 9780190096823
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190096786.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
By combining long-term field research with hypotheses from the cognitive sciences, this book proposes a groundbreaking anthropological theory on the emotional power of music. It hig hlights a human ...
More
By combining long-term field research with hypotheses from the cognitive sciences, this book proposes a groundbreaking anthropological theory on the emotional power of music. It hig hlights a human tendency to engage in empathic relations through and with the musical artifacts, veritable “sonic agents” for which we can feel pity, compassion, or sympathy. The theory originates from a detailed ethnography of the musical life of a small Roma community of Transylvania (Romania), where Filippo Bonini Baraldi lived several years, seeking an answer to intriguing questions such as: Why do the Roma cry while playing music? What lies behind their ability to move their customers? What happens when instrumental music and wailing voices come together at funerals? Through the analysis of numerous weddings, funeral wakes, community celebrations, and intimate family gatherings, the author shows that music and weeping go hand in hand, revealing fundamental tensions between unity and division, life and death, the self and others—tensions that the Roma enhance, overemphasize, and perceive as central to their identity. In addition to improving our understanding of a community still shrouded in stereotypes, this book is an important contribution for research on musical emotion, which thus far has focused almost exclusively on western classical music.Less
By combining long-term field research with hypotheses from the cognitive sciences, this book proposes a groundbreaking anthropological theory on the emotional power of music. It hig hlights a human tendency to engage in empathic relations through and with the musical artifacts, veritable “sonic agents” for which we can feel pity, compassion, or sympathy. The theory originates from a detailed ethnography of the musical life of a small Roma community of Transylvania (Romania), where Filippo Bonini Baraldi lived several years, seeking an answer to intriguing questions such as: Why do the Roma cry while playing music? What lies behind their ability to move their customers? What happens when instrumental music and wailing voices come together at funerals? Through the analysis of numerous weddings, funeral wakes, community celebrations, and intimate family gatherings, the author shows that music and weeping go hand in hand, revealing fundamental tensions between unity and division, life and death, the self and others—tensions that the Roma enhance, overemphasize, and perceive as central to their identity. In addition to improving our understanding of a community still shrouded in stereotypes, this book is an important contribution for research on musical emotion, which thus far has focused almost exclusively on western classical music.
