16th Cultural Diversity in Music Education Conference: Ecologies and diversities

Jaime Belmonte will present his research at the 16th Cultural Diversity in Music Education conference in Cape Town, South Africa on 9th-11th October 2023.

Title: “Creating a yoik of your own”: an Indigenous ontological turn as a tool for decolonisation and musical creativity.

Abstract

This presentation will introduce a collaborative project between Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman (Sámi musician and yoik artist) and Jaime Belmonte (Western contemporary classical composer). The artistic outcome of this collaboration is a work for yoiker and chamber ensemble that creates a musical environment where yoik and Western classical music coexist freely, preserving their identities and engaging in a fruitful dialogue.

A deep study of the yoik’s musical, cultural and spiritual nature has led to strategies to preserve these unique characteristics by challenging many of the usual conventions of Western contemporary classical music. The solution for a notation-based performance is a non-linear score where the members of the ensemble play modular musical cells according to the general dynamic level. Each musician can freely choose and combine these cells guided by the awareness of their contribution to the common soundscape and supported by the description of the yoik’s phenomenon. A pitch-detection algorithm generates a harmonic structure based on the yoik’s fluctuating pitch. The formal structure is fluid and can be adapted to embrace different narratives that might emerge during the rehearsal process.

This reconsideration of the assumptions of the Western musical language indicates an ontological turn towards Indigenous ways of understanding music creation and sonic creativity, making them valid and visible as legitimate knowledge practices. By undertaking this ontological turn, the participants of the collaborative project have redefined the relationship between Sámi yoik and Western music and between their respective cultures. On the other hand, questioning the constraints of both musical languages has resulted in innovative and divergent ways of creating music. 

This Indigenous ontological turn has thus become a powerful tool for decolonisation and musical creativity, and it also has the potential to become a powerful resource in an educational context. This educational implementation will be experienced with a group of students from the Global Music department of the Sibelius Academy, where the Indigenous ontological turn will be used as a tool for developing musical creativity and the decolonisation of music creation.