(Ethno)musicology Forum: “Music Can Save us”
Rebecca Darlene Sager (Florida A&M)
Rebecca Sager is exploring how the power of sound vibration, music, and transcendence can potentially alter the course of climate action in a project she provocatively titled “Music Can Save Us.” The seminar opens with an overview of the project and an open discussion. Then we move outside to try a short walking-sound meditation. I’ll invite you to reflect on your experience and share your thoughts on attuning to sound via shorts or YouTube live. I will then dive into some details I am excited about concerning transcendence, entrainment, timbre, and the neuroendocrine system, followed by an open discussion led by your questions.
I invite you to email rsager@music.org before our seminar to describe what you are most curious to learn about music and/or ethnomusicology. Your advance questions will enhance this seminar’s relevance to you.
Rebecca Sager is ethnomusicologist and Associate Professor at Florida A&M. She is currently on sabbatical in California pursuing creative recovery and a passion project that melds many years of research and teaching about the power of music into more action on climate change. A UOP and UT Austin graduate, Rebecca did fieldwork on Haitian vodou singing in Cap Haïtien, then lived in Rome and Istanbul. As an independent scholar residing in Tallahassee, she pursued research entrainment, trained in kinetography Laban, and conducted comparative music/dance research using motion capture technology during a Rockefeller Fellowship through the Center for Black Music Research.
Sager brings a unique perspective to ethnomusicology in the U.S. thanks to participating in international collaborations and meetings, especially the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology and ICTM.