Musical Structure, Performance and Meaning: The Case of a Stick-Dance from Nepal

• Published in: Ethnomusicology forum Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 179 - 213
• Main Author: Widdess, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Group 01.11.2006; Taylor & Francis; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Analysis; Bhaktapur; Cosmology; Cultural Identity; Dance; Dance Music; Emotions; Eschatology; Ethnographic research; Ethnomusicology; Festivals; Funerary rites; Hinduism; Indigenous People; Meaning; Music; Musical forms; Musical meter; Musical motives; Musical Performance; Musical rhythm; Musical Structure; Nepal; Newar; Newar Music; Post-Funerary Rituals; Processions; Religious rituals; Ritual; Space; Space And Time; Structure; Time; Urban Environments; Nepal
• ISSN: 1741-1912; 1741-1920
• DOI: 10.1080/17411910600917964

Is musical structure relevant to the meanings of musical performance? Music for a stick-dance performed annually in Bhaktapur, Nepal, articulates a variety of meanings through its performance in the context of the Gāījātrā festival. The musical structure provides an enabling framework through which the eschatological and emotional meanings of the festival, various social identities and "anti-structural" themes of burlesque and satire can be expressed through dance. But this "structure" is subject to re-creation in performance, and has its own meanings. It articulates the social and religious configuration of urban space, and qualities of cyclicity, enclosure and intensification that permeate various domains of Newar cultural experience. These qualities are shared with certain visual and architectural forms, and with Hindu-Buddhist cosmological concepts that are relevant to the context of performance. In this case, therefore, musical structure is seen to be closely enmeshed with its context and with the creation of cultural meaning.