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You are invited to attend the second

Biennial

London Fiddle Conference

“Bowed String Instruments in Traditional Cultures”

Thursday 23th to Saturday 25th February 2006

School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS],

University of London, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG

[nearest tube Russell Square] [Map]

DESCRIPTION OF EVENT: The LONDON FIDDLE CONFERENCE AT SOAS is a biennial event in a rolling programme of research seminars and performance workshops. We cover all aspects of bowed string instruments in popular culture worldwide.

DEFINITION: The violin has its origins in Central Asian bowed string instruments that have moved around the world, developing in many different ways. Because of the importance of the violin in European culture, it has been re-exported and absorbed by other cultural traditions, often alongside indigenous string instruments. We are interested in exploring fiddlesof all types, and relationships and contrasts between instruments of the violin type and indigenous bowed string instruments.

This year’s conference include contributions on fiddle and violin culture in India, Kazakhstan, Palestine, Scotland, and the Shetland Islands. There will be sessions on Klezmer music, the English Hornpipe, the Jig, the Indian Sarangi, the Calabrian Lyra, the Turkish Lyra, the ethnomusicology of Bela Bartok, the Post-colonial Violin, and the violin in Sufi music. We have a special section on The Fiddle in the Mediterranean, with performers and researchers from Greece, Turkey, Italy and North Africa.

This is an open conference, open to the general public.

There will be a CONCERT in the Brunei Gallery Theatre on the night of Saturday 25 February, featuring our invited musicians, and a DANCE PARTY, played by the HARIR BROTHERS BAND [Morocco], on Friday night 24 February. The conference will begin on Thursday morning 23 February with a guided tour visit to the wonderful INSTRUMENT GALLERY at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.

Our research interests address the following broad themes:

The violin beyond the Western orchestra: Papers have been invited that explore the use of fiddles in European and American folk traditions, in Middle Eastern and Indian music ensembles, and in contemporary practice.

Fiddles through the world: Papers have been invited that explore the role of bowed string instruments, their diversity, and their history. We include discussion of two-string and three-string fiddles in the Middle East, East and Southeast Asia, Islamic Africa and elsewhere.

Diffusion and development: Papers have been invited that explore the organology of violins and fiddles, particularly in a cross-cultural context. We also welcome presentations that look at historical diffusion and the socio-cultural reasons why particular instrument versions have become favoured in specific cultural traditions.

Making instruments: Papers have been invited that explore instrument construction.

Makers are invited to discuss their own construction methods and developments, and we also welcome presentations that demonstrate the acoustic properties of instruments.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

Full Rate £30 – Day Rate £12

Concessions £10 – Day Rate £5

If you cannot afford to pay, let us know

and we shall see what can be done.

PROPOSALS OF PAPERS

If you wish to register to attend the conference, please send contact details to the organiser at the address below.

Ed Emery

[Fiddle Conference]

Peterhouse,

Cambridge CB2 1RD

E-mail: ed.emery [@] thefreeuniversity.net

PLEASE NOTE: Sunday 26 February (the day after our conference) will feature the not-to-be-missed LONDON FIDDLE CONVENTION, to be held at Cecil Sharpe House [Details]

PLEASE ALSO NOTE: Thursday 23 February (the first evening of our conference), the "WORLD VIOLIN " concert at the Barbican played by Mark O'Connor, Roby Lakatos, Sophie Solomon and Nikolaj Znaider, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conductor Francois-Xavier Roth. [Details]

This conference is an independent initiative organised with the collaboration of the SOAS Department of Music and the AHRC Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance.

We acknowledge the generous support of the Italian Cultural Institute, Olympic Airlines and the Kosmos Trio

Conference organiser:

ed.emery [@] thefreeuniversity.net

Website: Universitas adversitatis

Last updated 19.ii.06