An introduction to the special issue “Reimagining Audiovisual Ethnomusicology”

Abstract

This special issue compiles contributions that were initially presented at the 2nd Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Audiovisual Ethnomusicology, held in Lisbon from June 27th to 30th 2018. It has been a long time since then, and we can safely say that “the world has changed”: a pandemic, too many wars, and a general feeling of disorientation and uncertainty now permeate our societies. However, we believe that the second meeting of the study group marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of the interdisciplinary field of Audiovisual Ethnomusicology. This is particularly noticeable in the launch of at least two new journals: the Italian-based Sound Ethnographies, edited by NeoClassica with the collaboration of the Museo Antonio Pasqualino in 2018, and the USA-based Journal of Audiovisual Ethnomusicology, sponsored by SEM. We are confident that these journals will soon become indispensable references in the discipline. Furthermore, since 2018 several significant books have been published by our members, including American Music Documentary: Five Case Studies of Cine-Ethnomusicology (Harbert 2018), Audiovisual Ethnomusicology: Filming Musical Cultures (D’Amico 2020), and CineWorlding: Scenes of Cinematic Research-Creation (MacDonald 2023). The third symposium, held at the University of Cork in September 2023, confirmed the importance of making available to the community of scholars a large selection of theoretical reflections and case studies that can help the development of this young (sub)discipline. Hence, we decided to bring you this publication despite delays.