the folk music pilgrimage might also link some of the diverse traces questions to organology. i'll have to do several interviews to work these ideas
questions about folk music pilgrimage
in many respects, the event did employ the iconography and even the material underpinnings of pilgrimages, such as tour buses, hiuN tiao, a temple mouth, and large aluminum vessels of food. the performance practices at the event did not resemble a pilgrimage. although all of the participants (both audience and performers) were conversant in performance practices more typical of music festivals or other concerts, the concert form marks the pilgrimage as symbolic rather than actual. it is unlikely that the performances would be possible otherwise. at least their pragmatic and ultimately pedagogical role would not have been achieved. thus the folk music pilgrimage instanciates a very different ethics than that of pilgrimages proper
that ethics is not only one of a “modern” concert attendee interpolated with the culture power of the local state (in coordination with record labels). it is also one connected to diverse traces through the embodiment of these traces in a singular musical instrument, the yueh chin, which the organizer of the pilgrimage, chen ming-jhang, hopes to promote as taiwan’s national instrument. in this sense pilgrimage is perhaps the right metaphor, for pilgrims should in turn realize these traces in their own practices as students of the yueh chin
what are chen’s motivations for promotion of the instrument? related to repertoire, qualities of the instrument, or something else? it is easy enough to trace the employment of su siang khi across musical performers and genres and the necessary homage the pilgrims pay to chen da’s home. the instrument might be a more difficult, but rewarding object of study
