Mysticism, Magic and Supernatural in Mediterranean Music

Study Group ‘Mediterranean Music Studies’
10th Symposium 

The symposium is open to all (there is no conference fee) 

10.00 Welcome addresses by Stefano Castelvecchi and Marcello Sorce Keller

10.30–11.30 Cassandre Balosso-Bardin (SOAS, London), ‘Demons, Saints and Xeremies: The Use of Bagpipes in Mallorcan Para-Liturgical Ceremonies’ Gail Holst-Warhaft (Cornell University), ‘The Dark Magic of Lament’

11.30 Coffee

12.00–1.00 Sonja Kieser (Ethnomusikologischer Kulturverein, Vienna), ‘The Influence of Tarantism on the Music Scene in the Italian Region of Salento’ Marcello Sorce Keller (Universität Bern), ‘How Musically Magic is the Mediterranean: Musings on the Surviving of Healing Rituals in Modern Times’ 1.00 Lunch

2.30–3.30 Teodora Konach (Jagiellonian University in Cracow), ‘Sodivi: Thracian Mythology in the Bulgarian Epics’ Loren Chuse (Berkeley, California), ‘El Duende Flamenco: Magic, Mysticism and Marketing’

3.30 Coffee

4.00–5.00 Francesco Del Bravo (Freie Universität, Berlin), ‘ “Il faut méditerraniser la musique”: Nietzsche and the Mediterranean Turn’ Jacomien Prins (University of Warwick), ‘Girolamo Cardano: The Passions and the Power of Music’

Saturday 28 June 

10.00–11.30 Linda Barwick (University of Sydney), ‘Magic and Mysticism in Contemporary Practice of the Maggio Garfagnino’ Claudio Rizzoni (University of Rome La Sapienza), ‘From Devotional Singing to Ritual Crisis: Music as Experience of the Sacred in Present-Day Naples’ Oliver Gerlach (Naples, Italy), ‘Magic Dance and Its Para-Liturgical Function in Southern-Italian Arbëreshë Communities’

11.30 Coffee

12.00–1.00 Keynote by Allan Marett (University of Sydney): ‘Mysticism, Magic and Supernatural in Music beyond the Mediterranean’

1.00 Lunch

2.30–3.30 Showing of the legendary documentary La taranta (1962, directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi, anthropological consultant Ernesto de Martino, music recorded by Diego Carpitella, text by Salvatore Quasimodo) Commentary by Sonja Kieser and Marcello Sorce Keller

3.30 Coffee

4.00–5.00 Business meeting

6.00 Drinks reception offered by the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, in the Old Music Room of St John’s College 

Sunday 29 June 

10.00 –11.00 Giovanni De Zorzi (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice), ‘Between Ecstasy and Choreography: the Ceremony of samâ’ in the Ottoman-Turkish mevlevî (‘Whirling Dervishes’) Tradition and Its Development’ Ruth F. Davis (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), ‘Jacob Bsiri and the Festival of Miracles: Homage to a Tunisian Jewish Musician’

11.00 Coffee

11.30 –1.00 Gary Tomlinson (Yale University), Concluding Remarks General Discussion