Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie, Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative UMR 7186-LESC/CNRS Université Paris Ouest Nanterre 21 allée de l'Université 92 023 Nanterre
A social anthropologist and an ethnomusicologist, she is a Research Fellow at the (French Government) National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and belongs to the Research Unit UMR 7186 ‘Research Centre for Ethnomusicology’ (CREM-LESC), located at the University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre. She is the author of the book ‘Le chant des serpents. Musiciens itinerants du Kerala/Song of snakes. Itinerant Musicians in Kerala’ (CNRS Editions, +1 Dvd-rom) - recently awarded by the Music Academy Charles Cros - and co-editor of the volume 'La musique n'a pas d'auteur/Who owns music? Ethnographies of copyright' (Gradhiva : Musée du Quai Branly). She currently coordinates the MILSON research program "For an anthropology of sound environnements" founded by the Fyssen Fondation.
Abstract: Nimbuda or the Bitter Lemonâs Trajectory. Regional Music and the Film Industry in India
The âborrowingâ of melodies is a particularly widespread means of musical creation in India. Musicians take pre-existing tunes and give them new lyrics, a new style, a new aesthetic, etc. This technique reaches its acme in the film industry. Filmi music draws on the gamut of styles âfrom rock to hip-hop, via symphonies, the classical Indian tradition and numerous regional genres. How are we to approach the question of âintellectual propertyâ when faced with these practices that make use of borrowing and draw on multiple sources? And how are we to consider the dynamics of copies, parodies and covers? One clear example of this is the song Nimbuda, Hindi for âBitter Lemonâ. Towards the end of the 1990s, the song was attributed to different âauthorsâ, first a lower caste Manganiyar bass singer and then a Bollywood film composer. As a result, the song followed a rather singular trajectory, whose precise chronology is mapped out in this article. It also looks at how the issue of copyright has cropped up, and finally shows how within a market where (illegal) copies flourish and recordings are widespread, it is the most socially marginalised musicians who have benefited most from these new forms of distribution.
Abstract: Mechanically produced music and hindu temple. The controversial history of a visual and sound device
This paper recounts the history of the marketing of a musical automaton in south India from its invention by a Madras engineer, its use in Hindu temples to its recent removal from most of the regional religious centres of the region. It reflects on the hybrid character of mechanically produced music and on its relation to other visual and sound devices such as hand operated bells, recordings on CDâs and other electronic devices. It shows how the controversy surrounding the automaton crystallised the debate concerning its intrinsic property, that is the ability to make music visible by non-human action. The ambivalent character of the machine becomes the source of controversies and negotiations involving the engineer, the temple priests, the gods, the devotees, religious authorities, the industrial producers and ultimately state ministers.
Abstract: Based on the case-study of the dance-group kaikkottukali, this article examines the different types of knowledges that are made manifest in a performance, for instance collective coordination or dissociation between what is expressed in singing or music and what is shown through dancing. It also focuses on the new media, such as books and video-recordings (VCD) that help make this particular dance better known among the private caste-organisations networks and art-schools festivals supported by the regional State of Kerala. Even if this dance has managed to reach a larger audience today, locally it bears statutory stakes that need constant redefinition. The analysis of the types of knowledges is viewed alongside that of forms of ascendancy (and of local personalities) that hold authority on aesthetic codes used by performers. And it shows a process of crystallisation between the conflicting values of a caste-based society that organises musical knowledge on hierarchical terms and the cultural policy of a Communist government which aims at diffusing egalitarian values to which the different groups of performers try to adjust or to resist.
Abstract: Sound Recording published with the Journal article :
"Mechanically produced music and hindu temple. The controversial history of a visual and sound device"
This paper recounts the history of the marketing of a musical automaton in south India from its invention by a Madras engineer, its use in Hindu temples to its recent removal from most of the regional religious centres of the region. It reflects on the hybrid character of mechanically produced music and on its relation to other visual and sound devices such as hand operated bells, recordings on CDâs and other electronic devices. It shows how the controversy surrounding the automaton crystallised the debate concerning its intrinsic property, that is the ability to make music visible by non-human action. The ambivalent character of the machine becomes the source of controversies and negotiations involving the engineer, the temple priests, the gods, the devotees, religious authorities, the industrial producers and ultimately state ministers.
