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The Sound of Empire in 20th-c. Colonial Cultures: Rethinking History through Music

Project description

Rethinking the modern French empire through musical practices

Focusing on how music was practised, heard, and understood in French colonial cities from Rabat and Dakar to Saigon, the ERC-funded MUSICOL project will produce a robust new conceptual and historical model for understanding colonial cultures,1900 to 1962. In doing so, MUSICOL aims to musicalize history; historicize oral media, especially radio; globalize music history, through comparisons across an empire; and creolize research, examining the tastes, practices, and interactions of Europeans and natives, usually studied in isolation. This will involve the collaboration of Europeans and scholars from the former French empire and transcend the boundaries of several disciplines. Investigation of musical fields of production also seeks to contribute to current debates on the nature of empire and colonial identities.

Objective

To better understand cultural relations in today’s multi-ethnic, multicultural societies, we need to revisit the legacy of modern empires. This project delves into the musical dimension of the French empire and what differences were negotiated through aurality, long-neglected by historians. Focusing on musical life and media from Dakar and Rabat to Saigon, 1900-1962, it studies how music was practiced, heard, and understood in a variety of colonial contexts. Crucially important is the need to investigate the tastes, practices, and interactions of Europeans and natives, usually studied in isolation. Such scope requires an entirely new methodological paradigm: relational, comparative, and integrative-synthetic. Traversing disciplinary boundaries separating musicology from history, media studies, and ethnomusicology, the project has four objectives: (1) To musicalize history, it probes what musical fields of production contribute to current debates on the nature of empire and colonial identities. (2) To historicize aural media, it examines live and recorded music on radio as windows on the dynamic nature of colonial coexistence. (3) To globalize music history, it brings new coherence with its focus on a single empire and without imposing postcolonial models of domination/resistance. (4) To creolize research, it integrates indigenous research and promotes dialogue with collaborators from the former empire. Foundations laid by the PI’s prior research in colonial archives, availability of sources, each team member’s expertise and focus on one field, their shared method, and common purpose insure its feasibility. This pioneering study of the modern French empire through music will generate new insights into its mechanisms and constituencies, taking colonial, media, and music history in unprecedented directions. Only in understanding the aurality of colonialism--what helped their imperialism take hold and last--can Europeans grasp its full nature, meaning, and legacy.

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Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2018-ADG

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Host institution

FONDATION UNIVERSITE COTE D'AZUR
Net EU contribution
€ 1 602 823,68
Address
28 AVENUE VALROSE
06103 Nice
France
Region
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Alpes-Maritimes
Activity type
Other
Links
Total cost
€ 1 602 823,68

Beneficiaries (6)