RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR
SEMINAR SERIES AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
Music in the West Country: History or Anthropology?
Prof Stephen Banfield, University of Bristol
Wednesday 21 February at 5.30 pm
How much music does a community need, and does the equation vary across time and place? To what extent has the musician’s role in English society been hereditary? How have musicians actually earnt their living? How much mobility have they shown? Why and to what extent have traditions been invented? How might one measure musical value? To coincide with the publication of his book Music in the West Country: social and cultural history across an English region, Stephen Banfield, a historical musicologist, stands back from his work. In doing so, he considers how anthropology might cast more light, or a different light, on various questions he has asked and tried to answer: questions about the presence and role of music and musicians of all types across a 700-year period within a region far from the metropolitan dynamo yet perennially beholden to it. This seminar will therefore be of particular interest to musicians, social historians, ethnomusicologists and anthropologists, as well as those more generally interested in the development of English history.
This event is free, but tickets must be booked. To book tickets please go to https://stephenbanfield.eventbrite.co.uk
Location : Royal Anthropological Institute
50 Fitzroy Street
London
W1T 5BT
United Kingdom
http://www.therai.org.uk
