62 2.5.5 Estructura BPN que Resuelve el Problema de Predicciones en Series de

This chapter has examined the literature surrounding traditional music, electronic mass media and the construction of place. Certainly mass media can present options which lead people to forgo experiencing locally performed live musics. At the same time, electronic media can also help reinforce a musical sense or senses of place, by allowing listeners and musicians to hear their local music regularly, even when live performances are not available. Recordings can help musicians feel part of a larger “imagined community” which have both local and international components. Recordings can also give young musicians an avenue to learn from older local musicians whom they were unable to meet through the community.

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As can be gleaned from the above literature review there is no definitive definition of musical senses of place. Scholars now seek to understand place beyond simply geographical location by examining the imagined experiences that make it meaningful by considering how place is contested through cultural expression, and by recognizing the multilocal interpretations of place. My work proposes that the mass media interacts with, and adds to musical senses of place.

What exactly are “musical senses of place”? Are they the same or different from “senses of musical place”? Are these terms experiential or imagined? If they are

experiential which physical senses do they encompass? Do these terms focus on the location or the people’s actions in these places? On the surface they may seem interchangeable. Delineating and defining these turns of phrase is a challenge. As discussed above in the literature, senses of place, is a complex weave of many factors. I offer the following definitions.

“Musical senses of place” encompass the socio-cultural impressions of place as evoked through music. It recognizes the power of music to bring to mind a flood of associations. This term is evocative and imaginative.

“Senses of musical place” is a more limited concept. It is experiential and refers to the music itself and its performance in particular locations. It does not deal with wider senses of place, but with musical activities.

Senses of musical place, or places, could be seen as part of a musical sense of place; but musical senses of place is too broad to be encompassed within a sense of musical place.

My definition of “musical senses of place” allows for many of the ideas about place and music discussed in this chapter. As an “imagined” concept musical senses of place incorporates a multitude of fluid and changeable experiences, history and heritage,

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emotions and memories evoked by hearing or playing music. It includes Leyshon’s “rich aesthetics” (1998a, 4) and Stewart’s “densely textured poetics” (1996, 136) which reflect the entire experience of a place and Rodman’s “multilocality” (1992) as brought forth through music. Similarly, Lippman recognizes that musical styles are endowed with meaning connected to a wider range of definitions of self and culture (2006, 41). Bohlman has suggested that musical style is based on or produced by “social cohesion” (1988, 4-5).

At the same time, differences of opinion between members of the same musical imagined community about which musics should, or should not, be included in the collective musical sense of place is an important element. As Anderson discusses, a nation is circumscribed not only by what or who is within the country; but also by the regulation of its borders and who is excluded from its social-cultural fabric. Similarly, a musical sense of place could include styles which are accepted by some members of the imagined community and rejected by others. This allows for change and fluidity. Musical senses of place allow for the building of an imagined community through mediated music conveyed through electronic mass media sources. This concept allows for mediated music to travel, yet still refer to, and convey meaning about, a particular location. In this definition, music can evoke place rather than be tied to it. Much like the idea of “belonging” to a place, a person might “belong to” Heart’s Delight, TB but travel the world while still feeling akin to other residents of Heart’s Delight. This is particularly significant to Newfoundlanders who live and work outside of the province. This

imagined community of Newfoundlanders may access their sense of belonging through mediated music no matter where they are in the world. In this way, mediated music

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becomes a part of musical sense of place rather than being simply “schizophonic” as coined by Shafer and discussed by Feld (Feld, 1994, 258-259; Schafer 1969, 43-47). On the other hand, a sense, or senses, of musical place can be read as fixing a particular music to a location. This is an experiential concept, linked more specifically to the physical senses and experience of music itself. To sense a musical place is to be where music happens, to know how it sounds, what it feels like to listen, play or dance to that music with other people in the same space. When musicians speak about the specific experiences of music they often talk about particular people and locations to which that music is tied. However, I would argue it is rare, if a musician or listener is emotionally invested in the music, that he or she only speaks to the actual musical place and not a broader musical sense of place. Therefore “senses of musical place” is nested within “musical senses of place.” That said, the distinction between the imagined concept of “musical senses of place,” and the experiential “senses of musical place” can be useful. As will be shown in Chapter Seven, in particular, some musicians amended their musical senses of place regarding Newfoundland once they had experiential knowledge of Irish music in Ireland.

The case studies in this dissertation show how music broadcast through electronic mass media (radio, television and recordings) has played a major role in making and imagining place. This work acknowledges Irish music and musicians as one significant component of Newfoundland music. It also nuances Irish music as a naturalized and inherited part of Newfoundland musical senses of place by showing that much of the repertoire has been brought to the province since the 1940s through mediated electronic mass media.

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