Voicing Belonging: Traditional Singing in a Globalized World. A Diphonic Editorial

Abstract

Konstantinos Thomaidis (KT): Why conduct scholarly and artistic research on traditional singing in the global age? Given the dominance of new communication technologies and the unprecedented commodification of world cultures, investigating vocal practices rooted in oral cultures and traditional ways of knowing may seem futile and irrelevant. Yet, traditional singing is a powerful mode of human creativity, and traditional songs comprise a significant part of what UNESCO has designated as ‘our’ shared intangible cultural heritage. Current debates on cultural diversity demonstrate that rethinking regional, national, transnational and global notions of cultural identity is becoming increasingly urgent if we are to acknowledge and value the world’s biocultural diversity beyond borders that separate and delineate nation states, whose sovereignty continues to hinge upon legitimizing constructions of national identity. If, as Caroline Bithell reminds us in Transported by Song, ‘the act of singing with others is clearly about far more than simply producing sound’ (2007: xxx–xxxi), how does engaging in singing practices relate to emergent, unstable and conflicting versions of belonging in times of precarity? Virginie Magnat (VM): This special issue asks what is at stake today in cultural revitalization initiatives, academic research projects and artistic endeavours that seek to reawaken, restore, preserve, transmit and at times transform specific vocal traditions [...]