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Concept note
Concept note
Across world cultures, music acts not merely as performance but as a form of embodied knowledge — a living philosophy expressed through vibration, gesture, and social exchange. This thematic section, grounded in the broader concept of “Resonant Knowledges,” explores how musical traditions remember, transform, and re-create themselves through embodied practice. Learning in such systems is not only cognitive but vibrational, transmitted through resonance within teacher–disciple, performer–listener, and body–instrument relationships.
From the guru–shishya parampara of India to African drumming circles, from Sufi samāʿ gatherings to jazz improvisation, these traditions reveal a universal principle: knowledge in music endures only when performed. The conference invites exploration of how musical embodiment functions as a repository of epistemic frameworks - shaping ethics, emotions, and aesthetic sensibilities that define cultural identity.
Participants are encouraged to engage with questions of how sound and movement encode cognition and community memory. Topics may include embodied cognition in pedagogy, the transmission of performance grammar, improvisation as a form of renewal, and intergenerational continuity. Extending to questions of aurality and archive, this theme considers how communities curate and reinterpret their sonic pasts through oral narratives, memory, and digital technologies — reimagining archival practice without fossilising heritage.
This exploration resonates closely with global cultural policies and frameworks. In alignment with UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the section foregrounds living heritage — emphasising the agency of musicians and cultural bearers as custodians of transmission. It supports the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001) by situating musical learning as a vital process of intercultural dialogue and creativity. Moreover, it contributes to the UN 2030 Agenda, specifically SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), by foregrounding inclusive, lifelong, and community-based musical education as essential to sustainable cultural ecosystems.
Subthemes:
1. Embodied Archives: Aurality, Technology, and Living Heritage
Oral transmission as a living archive.
Performer as bearer and curator of knowledge.
Aurality and memory beyond written notation.
Paramparā as an embodied archival system
Digital documentation and its impact on living traditions
Virtual lineages and online guru–śiṣya transmission.
Ethics of recording, ownership, and representation.
Technology and embodied learning.
2. Improvisation, Interaction, and Renewal
Improvisation as disciplined creativity
Rāga elaboration as epistemic practice
Performer–listener interaction and shared meaning
Dialogic exchange between accompanists and lead performers
Improvisation in devotional and ritual contexts
Renewal of tradition through improvisational impacts
Balance between śāstra and prayoga.
3. Sound, Emotion, and Cultural Memory
Nāda as carriers of knowledge and emotion.
Rasa theory as an affective knowledge system.
Bhāva (expression) and performer–listener resonance
Music as repository of collective and sacred memory.
Ritual sound, temple music, and devotional singing
Music in remembrance, mourning, and healing
Emotional training through listening
Festivals, seasons, and cyclical musical memory
Intergenerational transmission of emotional culture
4. Embodied Pedagogies and the Transmission of Musical Knowledge
Guru–śiṣya paramparā as embodied pedagogy
Learning through imitation and observation
Voice, breath, posture, and bodily discipline in embodied pedagogies.
Sādhana (practice) as knowledge cultivation
Authority, devotion, and ethical responsibility in pedagogy
Gendered, caste-based, and social access to learning
Community-based training traditions
Institutionalisation of music education and its tensions
Continuity of paramparā in contemporary contexts
5. Music, Identity, and Intercultural Dialogue
Music and cultural identity.
Regional styles and lineage identities
Music in diaspora and migratory communities
Intercultural exchange as dialogue.
Hybridity and adaptation within tradition
Power, patronage, and representation in music history
Global circulation of Indian musical knowledge
Music as a bridge between cultures and philosophies
6. Performing Knowledge: Music as Epistemology and Cultural Sustainability
Performance as a mode of knowing
Responsibility of the performers for faithful disseminations.
Sustainability of musical livelihoods and ecosystems
Music as service and community well-being
Music education as lifelong learning.
Social inclusion through traditional music practices
Cultural sustainability through living performance
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