Abstract
Creating new musical repertoire and expressions can serve as a journey of critically reflecting, discovering and pushing boundaries of who we are as musical, social and cultural beings. This chapter focuses on the artistic directions that some Singaporean contemporary musicians and music groups (Riduan Zalani, Raghavendran Rajasekaran (Ragha), The TENG Ensemble and SA(仨)) have taken and the rationale behind these choices. It will then zoom in on particular musical repertoire of these contemporary musicians and music groups to illustrate in concrete terms how their verbalised artistic directions and creative processes translate into their sound worlds. The chapter will also touch on how the artistic directions and choices of these musicians and music groups are enacted in the education of their own group members and in their collaboration with other musicians, in the programmes they design for school engagements and public arts education and in the portrayal of these artistic directions in social media platforms. Nostalgia, which emerged as a possible theoretical musing from the narratives and musical content of the musicians and music groups, will then be laced through as a common thread for discussion to end the chapter.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsChange history
29 May 2019
The original version of the book was inadvertently published with certain errors and there are some corrections. The chapter has now been corrected and approved by the author.
Notes
- 1.
Raga and tala are essential elements in Indian classical music with raga defining the melodic and tala the rhythmic aspects of the music.
References
Primary Sources (Interviews)
Chia, A. (2015, October 16). Personal Interview.
Chia, A. (2017, February 28). Personal Interview.
Ong, C. (2015, October 16). Personal Interview.
Rajasekaran, R. (2016, June 28). Personal Interview.
Tse, N. (2015, October 16). Personal Interview.
Tse, N. (2017, February 28). Personal Interview.
Wong, S. (2016, September 26). Personal Interview.
Zalani, R. (2016, June 17). Personal Interview.
Secondary Sources
Connell, J., & Gibson, C. (2003). Soundtracks: Popular music, identity and place. London: Routledge.
Cross, G. (2015). Consumed nostalgia. New York: Columbia University Press.
Gammon, S. (2002). Fantasy, nostalgia and the pursuit of what never was. In S. Gammon & J. Kurtzman (Eds.), Sport tourism: Principle and practice (pp. 61–71). Eastbourne: LSA Publications.
Halpin, D. (2016). Dancing with eyes wide open: On the role of nostalgia in education. London Review of Education, 14(3), 31–40.
Hepper, et al. (2014). Pancultural nostalgia: Prototypical conceptions across cultures. Emotion, 14(4), 733–747.
Hobsbawm, E. (1983). Inventing traditions. In E. Hobsbawm & T. Ranger (Eds.), The invention of tradition (pp. 1–5). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hofer, J. (1934). Medical dissertation on nostalgia. (C. K. Anspach, Trans.). Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 2, 376–391 (Original work published 1688).
Hutcheon, L. (1998). Irony, nostalgia and the postmodern. Toronto: University of Toronto.
Hutcheon, L., & Valdés, M. J. (1998). Irony, nostalgia, and the postmodern: A dialogue. Poligrafias, 3(1998-2000), 18–41.
Ketbungkan, K. (2017). It’s innovate or die for Thailand’s ‘demon’ dance master. Retrieved March 14, 2017, from http://www.khaosodenglish.com/life/arts/2017/03/12/innovate-die-thailands-demon-dance-master/
Lems, A. (2016). Ambiguous longings: Nostalgia as the interplay among self, time and world. Critique of Anthropology, 36(4), 419–438.
Niemeyer, K. (2016). Digital nostalgia. Media Development, 4, 27–30.
Oxford Dictionaries. (2017). Nostalgia. Retrieved July 20, 2017, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/nostalgia
Pickering, M., & Keightley, E. (2006). The modalities of nostalgia. Current Sociology, 54(6), 919–941.
Pourtova, E. (2013). Nostalgia and lost identity. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 58, 34–51.
Price, S. (1989). Primitive art in civilized places. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Robinson, E. (1987). The language of mystery. London: SCM Press.
Rosaldo, R. (1989). Imperialist nostalgia. Representations, 26, 107–122.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141–166.
Sant Cassia, P. (2000). Exoticizing discoveries and extraordinary experiences: “Traditional” music, modernity, and nostalgia in Malta and other Mediterranean societies. Ethnomusicology, 44(2), 281–230.
Sedikides, C., et al. (2016). Nostalgia fosters self-continuity: Uncovering the mechanism (social connectedness) and consequence (eudaimonic well-being). Emotion, 16(4), 524–539.
Stewart, S. (1984). On longing: Narrative of the miniature, the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP.
Stewart, S. (1988). The forest. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
The TENG Ensemble. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thetengcompany.com/about
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
7.1 Electronic supplementary material
TZECHAR Presents_ A Thuggin’ Journey (mp4 310kb)
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lum, CH. (2018). Playing with Nostalgia: Translation of Artistic Directions of Contemporary Musicians in Singapore. In: Semionauts of Tradition. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1011-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1011-9_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1010-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1011-9
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)