Dr.
Friedlind Riedel
Musicology ｜ Sound Studies ｜Media Philosophy
research agenda
My work is animated by the basic media-theoretical claim, that aesthetic operations and technical procedures in their historical and cultural specificity take priority over the concepts that are taken to be fundamental to a given culture. This justifies and necessitates a rigorous analysis of practices and techniques which make up aesthetic milieus thus avoiding a line of reasoning that starts from universal claims about music, sound, or listening.
My research connects music and sound scholarship with ideas from Theravāda Buddhist thought, German media philosophy, and phenomenology. It combines three significant strands of musicological inquiry: the development of Burmese musical drama (pyazat) from the royal patronage of the nineteenth century until the present, a new concern with the conceptual entity of “the human”, and an interest in cultural techniques (Kulturtechniken) of dramatic staging and religious ritual.
research interests
- Music in/as religious procedures
- Theories, histories and configurations of listening
- Burmese-Buddhist music history
- Theravadah Buddhist thought
- Kulturtechnikforschung & Medienanthropologie (a.k.a. German media philosophy)
- Burmese pyazat (opera) and natpwe (transformation ritual)
- Cultural techniques of transformation
- Procedures of appearing and revealing on stage
- Phenomenology & music as atmosphere
education
Dr. of Philosophy
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
MA, Cultural Musicology & Anthropology
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
BA, German studies, Music & Art
Universität Bielefeld
professional
appointments
SENIOR SCIENTIST
Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg
Lecturer in Ethnomusicology
Anton-Bruckner-Privatuniversität Linz
Doctoral Researcher
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Lecturer
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
publications
Books
Invited Lecture. Music & Culture Series at the
Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media and Place
at Memorial University of Newfoundland
Featuring & with thanks to
Ko Maung Gyi
U Shin Gyi*
Annalise Smith
Maung Thu Aung
Harris M. Berger
Spencer Crewe
peer-reviewed articles & chapters
2023 “Staging Karma: Cultural Techniques of Transformation in Burmese Musical Drama“ In Oxford Handbook of the Phenomenology of Music Cultures, ed. by Harris Berger, Friedlind Riedel, David VanderHamm. NY: Oxford University Press.
2023 with Berger, Harris M. and David VanderHamm “Phenomenological Approaches in the History of Ethnomusicology.” In Oxford Handbook of the Phenomenology of Music Cultures, ed. by Harris Berger, Friedlind Riedel, David VanderHamm. NY: Oxford University Press.
2021 “Environnement et émanation. Essai de sémantique historique de l’atmosphere.” In L‘usage des ambiances. Une épreuve sensible des situations, ed. by Didier Tallagrand, Jean-Paul Thibaud, and Nicolas Tixier, 239–250.
2020 “Atmospheric Relations: Theorising Music and Sound as Atmosphere.” In Music as Atmosphere: Collective Feelings and Affective Sounds, ed. by Friedlind Riedel and Juha Torvinen, 1–42. London: Routledge.
2020 “Affect and Atmosphere – Two Sides of the Same Coin?” In Music as Atmosphere: Collective Feelings and Affective Sounds, ed. by Friedlind Riedel and Juha Torvinen, 262–73. New York: Routledge.
2019 “Atmosphere.” In Affective Societies: Key Concepts, ed. by Jan Slaby and Christian v. Scheve, 85–95. New York: Routledge.
2019 “The Atmospheres of Tones: Notions of Atmosphere in Music Scholarship Between 1840 and 1930.” In Atmosphere and Aesthetics: A Plural Perspective, ed. by Tonino Griffero and Marco Tedeschini, 293–312. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
2018 “On the Dynamic and Duration of Atmosphere: Sounding Out New Phenomenology Through Music at China’s Margins.” In Exploring Atmospheres Ethnographically, ed. by Sara A. Schorer and Susanne B. Schmitt, 172–88. London: Routledge.
2016 “On Resonances of Music and Atmosphere.” In Ambiances, Tomorrow: Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Ambiances, ed. by Nicolas Rémy and Nicolas Tixier, 671–76. Volos.
2015 together with Simon Runkel. “Understanding Churchscapes: Theology, Geography and Music of the Closed Brethren in Germany.” In The Changing World Religion Map, ed. by Stanley D. Brunn, 2753–82. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
2015 “Music and Atmosphere: Lines of Becoming in Congregational Worship.” Lebenswelt 6: 80–111.
invited talks
06/2022 Cambridge University Mistaking the Medium. Theatrical arrangements and dramatic operations at the royal palace of Mandalay, Burma 1880–1885. Symposium
09/2019 Yale University, Music’s humans. Sound Studies Colloquium, Musicology Department.
09/2018 Centre Culturel International de Cerisy, France Moods and Modes. Thinking Atmosphere through Music. Conference.
11/2017 Humboldt-Universität Berlin Listening at the threshold of the human. A musical anthropology from Myanmar BEAM Berlin Ethnomusicology Research Group
09/2023 Memorial University of Newfoundland By Musical Means: Cultural Techniques of Disentangling in Littoral Myanmar Invited Residency, Lecture and Masterclass
10/2022 Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg Framing scenes, Folding images. Theatrical operations in Burma, 1880–1910. Lecture Series.
transformation rituals
A collage of footage gatherd during ethnographic research in Dawei and Myeik, Southern Myanmar (2014-2018). The semi-private performance of this natkana pwe catered to a host of deities, who were invited and entertained with dance, food, and music. The family hosting the musicians, dancers, deities, and speialists had hoped for fortune and healing in return.