Music and media in local life : Music practice in a Newar neighbourhood in Nepal

Abstract: The study concerns the medialization of local music practice, where music practice is taken to mean in what ways music resources- repertoires, instruments, ensembles, and so on-are used in performance and listening, and medialization the permeation by media and their contentsof life at large.The study is based upon 16 months' ethnomusicological fieldwork in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, in 1985-86, 1987 and 1988. The material includes notes from observations and conversations, tape recordings of interviews and music, photographs and videotapes. The fieldwork comprised a study of a local community, a neighbourhood in the town ofKirtipur, and interviews with about 40 artist and policymakers in the capital.In a prelude, the key terms are clarified and an introduction to the setting is given.In chapter 1, the music practice of the area under study is presented as it is encountered in music situations.In chapter 2, the Newar music heritage is outlined briefly. Those particular Newar music subtraditions that are prominent in the music life of the neighbourhood are presented in greater detail. They include percussion ensembles, hymn-singing ensembles, folk and seasonal songs, and wedding ensembles performing on Western band instruments. These subtraditions are traced historically, and their present standing in the neighbourhood is described.In chapter 3, the developments of media and of media-related music genres in Nepal aredescribed, and then stage programs as an increasingly important way of conducting musicactivity are focused upon. The performance of media-related music genres in the local settingis described.Chapter 4 presents the inhabitants of the neighbourhood in terms of occupations, outcomes, education, music abilities and musical preferences.Summing up the four descriptive chapters, Chapter 5 gives analyses of continuity and change and of medialization.In attempting at an explanation, Chapter 6 argues, first, that musical compatibility had prepared the ground for the assimilation of certain media-transmitted music genres: related music forms had been incorporated long before. Second, the use of music resources is considered from the perspective of actors' concerns. These concerns are discussed under two conceptual hats: ethnic awareness and social awareness. It is concluded that the ways in which neighbourhood people use music resources - traditional and modern, in performance and listening - belong to systems of action which articulate ultimately an intricate and changing matrix of group boundaries. It is argued that the changing shape of this matrix is connected to profound social change that has occurred since 1951.