"Songs for the Spirits" examines the Vietnamese practice of
communing with spirits through music and performance. During
rituals dedicated to a pantheon of indigenous spirits, musicians
perform an elaborate sequence of songs--a "songscape"--for
possessed mediums who carry out ritual actions, distribute blessed
gifts to disciples, and dance to the music's infectious rhythms.
Condemned by French authorities in the colonial period and
prohibited by the Vietnamese Communist Party in the late 1950s,
mediumship practices have undergone a strong resurgence since the
early 1990s, and they are now being drawn upon to promote national
identity and cultural heritage through folklorized performances of
rituals on the national and international stage.
By tracing the historical trajectory of traditional music and
religion since the early twentieth century, this groundbreaking
study offers an intriguing account of the political transformation
and modernization of cultural practices over a period of dramatic
and often turbulent transition. An accompanying DVD contains
numerous video and music extracts that illustrate the fascinating
ways in which music evokes the embodied presence of spirits and
their gender and ethnic identities.
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