New Book Chapter Just Published!

Ch. 8, “Arcadian Tones: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the Austrian Maultrommel”

Deirdre Morgan

I’m happy to announce that I have a chapter in the new book Shaping Sound and Society: The Cultural Study of Musical Instruments, edited by Stephen Cottrell and published by Routledge. Steve approached me back in 2016 with an invitation to contribute to a collection championing interdisciplinary approaches to the study of musical instruments. I’m honoured to have my work on the jew’s harp appear here alongside colleagues and friends whose work I have long admired.

My chapter “Arcadian Tones: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the Austrian Maultrommel” draws on my fieldwork in Vienna and Upper Austria, combining historical research with ethnographic interviews to examine how and why the instrument has been revived after a period of obscurity following its “golden age” in the 18th century. I also detail the evolution of Maultrommel playing techniques, adding my own insight as a practitioner of the instrument.

“An essential read for students and academics in the fields of music and ethnomusicology, this volume will also interest anyone looking to understand how the cultural interaction of musical instruments is deeply informed and influenced by social, technological, and cultural change.”

— Dr. Stephen Cottrell

New Book Under Contract with Routledge! Jew's Harps & Metal Music: Folk Traditions in Global Modernity

I'm delighted to announce that Owen Coggins and I are writing a book about jew’s harps and metal music! We've been incubating this project for several years, and it's a true pleasure to finally bring it to light. The book will appear in the Ashgate Folk and Popular Music series published by Routledge in 2023/2024. Stay tuned for more updates!

Jew’s Harps and Metal: Folk Traditions in Global Modernity is an ethnomusicological and cultural analysis of jew’s harps and metal music around the world. The jew’s harp is an ancient and globally-distributed acoustic musical instrument which, like metal, is associated with mysticism, magic, the supernatural, marginality and outsider status. The jew’s harp appears on hundreds of metal tracks by bands from dozens of countries, spanning Nordic and Baltic regions, Patagonia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Indonesia and elsewhere. The book explores how local and traditional resonances of the instrument are deployed in metal’s contemporary responses to disenchantment and depictions of mythical pasts.

Just published: "Cracking the Code: Recordings, Transmission, Players, and Smiths in the Norwegian Munnharpe Revival"

This article examines the dynamics at play in the revival of the Norwegian munnharpe (jew's harp), using the voices of musicians and instrument makers to examine the central role of audio-visual recordings in reconstructing playing techniques and instrument designs.

After receiving over 100 downloads and views during its first 24 hours online, it has been selected for one month of extended free access and featured by Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

ABSTRACT

Though it operates on the margins of the Norwegian folk music scene, the munnharpe (jew’s harp) revival has been active since the 1960s and today boasts an active network of festivals, musicians, and blacksmiths. After contextualising the instrument’s position within Norwegian folk music and outlining the history of the munnharpe community, I explore the transmission and revitalisation of the munnharpe tradition, suggesting that a large part of the revival’s success lies in the availability and accessibility of archival recordings. I examine the transmission of playing technique and repertoire amongst musicians, then compare it with instrument building transmission amongst blacksmiths, analysing how the dynamic between munnharpeplayers and makers has shaped the instrument’s musical and material spheres. Tracing the symbiotic relationship between archives, recordings, players, and makers, I argue that this interplay has been central to the revival in both its past and present iterations.

KEYWORDS: Jew’s harp, Norway, munnharpe, folk music, revival, blacksmiths, recordings, archives, community, musical instruments, reconstruction, techniques, playing, instrument making

Free access through September 2018 at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17411912.2018.1506942