New approaches to working with recordings in practice-led research and teaching of ‘world’ musics

The history of Cuban music, and related transnational Latin music forms, has been shaped by the recording industry and its role in the worldwide diffusion of vernacular musics. Despite the global influence of Cuban music, over the last century, very little scholarly research into its recorded production exists. This chapter reflects on a practice-led research project which examined the recording process of Cuban dance music in the mid-twentieth century. Using a combination of ethnomusicological fieldwork, recording experiments, and music analysis, new insights were gained into how performance aesthetics can be defined in relation to live and recorded performance, and into the ways in which performance practice is affected by both technological constraints and innovations. The recorded past, moreover, can also reveal aspects of contemporary music practice and musicianship which differ from those of the past, prompting critical re-evaluations of current practice in performance, research, and music education. This chapter concludes with recommendations for widening the music curriculum not in a tokenistic way but through integrated and playful experimental approaches that allow for the simultaneous acquisition of core musicianship skills, creative improvisational abilities, and contextual knowledge of vernacular non-Anglophone popular musics.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003190004