Listening to Music of the Spirits: Sacred Sounds of Black gospel music, Hawaiian hula kahiko and auana, and Tewa Pueblo Cerem

FAIN: FW-50461-11

Tseng-Hao H. Huang
Scripps College (Claremont, CA 91711-3948)

The musics covered by my course, MUS 121SC, Music of the Spirit -- African American gospel music, Hawaiian hula kahiko and auana, and Tewa Pueblo Ceremonial Dances -- are national and even international commodities as well as being musical traditions. The relationship between sacred music and its originating culture is not a fixed state, and once that relationship changes the music takes on new meanings and becomes accessible to new audiences. This course addresses how these musics have reinforced, interrogated and navigated social and cultural divides produced by race, class, colonial exploitation and modernity. I propose to integrate my years of fieldwork in hula and Tewa Pueblo dances with a deeper knowledge of cultural theories about tradition that will enrich my teaching. I also intend to pursue intensive fieldwork on black gospel music in the local LA community, which I have never had the time to follow-up on, given my past scholarly obligations to different published topics.