Research Seminar - Anna McDonald

Outsider or Insider?  Playing Iranian kamancheh from a psychological perspective

Ethnomusicologists have long been perplexed by the issue of being an “Outsider’.  This issue, often causing, and resulting from tendencies of unconscious postcolonial bias, ethnocentrism and cultural appropriation, is one which can lead us to confront our very identity.   Bruno Nettl’s chapter on the subject of “insider and Outsider” begins with his music teacher’s statement in Tehran during fieldwork: “You will never understand this music.  There are things that every Persian on the street understands instinctively which you will never understand, no matter how hard you try.”  This presentation shows how I used a new psychological approach to better understand Iranian music; one which pivots on the self-reflexive journey I have had while learning kamancheh.  

Researching the world view of early Persians was juxtaposed with a psychological journey which meant re-appraising and releasing some of my own judgements of my musical identity.  The frameworks of Freud’s ego-superego relationship and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and field, both of which deal with social and cultural identity, were used in comparison with psychological concepts of identity which we find in ancient Iranian culture.  In the resulting methodology, I show how it was possible to move beyond aspects of my western cultural roots to playing Iranian kamancheh with more insight, using principles which may be used to deepen intercultural understanding in general.  

1. Bruno Nettl: The Study of Ethnomusicology. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago,1983 & 2005, p. 167

 

Anna McDonald is a graduate of the ANU School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.  She went on to have a significant career in Europe leading major orchestras and playing as a soloist and chamber musician for 10 years, principally in early music.   She then returned to Australia where she has been the founding violinist for Pinchgut Opera, lead the ABC’s recording orchestra many times as a modern violinist, and played at many festivals. Anna is also an expert in inner critic work, a way to encourage musicians and performers to overcome their internal blockages. She is completing a PhD at the School of Music, specialising in playing the Iranian kamancheh.  As a composer, she now collaborates with her Iranian husband Malek Mohammadi in their "Ensemble of the Eternal Land."

 

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