Abstract
This paper presents findings from my PhD studies on esoteric musicianship. In methodological terms, my research draws from the ethnographic, sociological, and cognitive turns within contemporary esoteric studies, to develop an inter-disciplinary approach to analytic autoethnography.
The focus of this autoethnographic study was my own work between 2001-2013 as Xenis Emputae Travelling Band: a project which sought to evoke the genii locorum (“spirits of place”) of the Yorkshire landscape through musical practices deemed esoteric or mediumistic: particularly the employment of imaginative listening during the devising and production processes, and the discursive situation of improvisation as a form of “channelling.”
One consequence of this study is a proposed model for esoteric creativity which describes the relationship between the appraisal of experiential and affective states, and their subsequent development into musical “paths of practice.”
An analysis of the creative processes involved in elaborating experiential knowledge into paths of practice also suggests a number of domains in which the boundaries for the study of musical esotericism may be expanded. While the musical structure of a work should be considered alongside historic, cultural, biographical, and discursive contexts, it is also useful to examine whatever subjective domains we may be able to access. Partridge has emphasised the importance of developing an awareness of affective space in the study of religious/esoteric music, which my work complements through an application of Weinel’s representational-affective framework. This approach is particularly suited to describing the phenomenological process of creating music in a contemporary production setting – that is, one dependent on the use of recording technology and audio workstations, rather than through notated composition. The findings from this research suggest further approaches to studying the significance of representational-affective domains within the creative processes and reception of other musical forms associated with esotericism, such as ritual ambient and black metal.
More Information
Divisions: | Leeds School of the Arts |
---|---|
Status: | Unpublished |
Refereed: | Yes |
SWORD Depositor: | Symplectic |
Depositing User (symplectic) | Deposited by Legard, Philip |
Date Deposited: | 26 Nov 2024 10:22 |
Last Modified: | 26 Nov 2024 17:39 |
Event Title: | ESSWE9: The 9th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism |
Event Dates: | 26-28 Jun 2023 |
Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
Download
Note: this is the author's final manuscript and may differ from the published version which should be used for citation purposes.
| Preview