The Musical Gift: Sonic Generosity in Post-War Sri Lanka

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Jim Sykes (Assistant Professor of Music, Assistant Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania)

The Musical Gift

Sonic Generosity in Post-War Sri Lanka

Jim Sykes (Assistant Professor of Music, Assistant Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
15 January 2020

Theory of music & musicology; Non-Western music: traditional & "classical"

Series: Critical Conjunctures in Music and Sound

"The Musical Gift tells Sri Lanka's music history as a story of giving between humans and nonhumans, and between populations defined by difference. Author Jim Sykes argues that in the recent past, the genres we recognize today as Sri Lanka's esteemed traditional musics were not originally about ethnic or religious identity, but were gifts to gods and people intended to foster protection and/or healing. Noting that the currently assumed link between music and identity helped produce the narratives of ethnic difference that drove Sri Lanka's civil war (1983-2009), Sykes argues that the promotion of connected music histories has a role to play in post-war reconciliation. The Musical Gift includes a study of how NGOs used music to promote reconciliation in Sri Lanka, and it contains a theorization of the relations between musical gifts and commodities. Eschewing a binary between the gift and identity, Sykes claims the world's music history is largely a story of entanglement between both paradigms. Drawing on fieldwork conducted widely across Sri Lanka over a span of eleven years--including the first study of Sinhala Buddhist drumming in English and the first ethnography of music-making in the former warzones of the north and east--this book brings anthropology's canonic literature on ""the gift"" into music studies, while drawing on anthropology's recent ""ontological turn"" and ""the new materialism"" in religious studies."

By: Jim Sykes (Assistant Professor of Music Assistant Professor of Music University of Pennsylvania)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 160mm, Width: 231mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9780190077143
ISBN 10: 019007714X
Series: Critical Conjunctures in Music and Sound
Pages: 290
Publication Date: 15 January 2020
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jim Sykes is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. His research is in sound and music studies, religious studies, labor history/capitalism, and conflict studies, focusing to date on Sri Lanka and Singapore. He is the co-editor of Remapping Sound Studies (Duke University Press, 2019). He is also a drummer who has recorded and toured widely with numerous experimental and indie rock groups.

Reviews for The Musical Gift: Sonic Generosity in Post-War Sri Lanka

In his multicultural analysis of Sri Lanka's soundscape, Sykes emphasizes the public exchange of melodies and rhythms, rituals and dances, between the island's diverse religions and ethnicities. This is an anthropologically rich book presenting a strong case against musical ethno-nationalism. -- Dennis B. McGilvray, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Past President of the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies As assertions about music and the state become increasingly cliche, The Musical Gift provides a timely critique of the music and identity episteme. Focusing on acts of musical giving, the author provides a wide-ranging study of interpenetrating musical histories in Sri Lanka - shared histories that have implications for post-war reconciliation. Music scholars, anthropologists, and South Asianists may all find something useful and surprising in this exciting new work. -- Richard K. Wolf, Professor of Music and South Asian Studies, Harvard University