Songwriting as History

History on Wednesday | April 1

Songwriting as History 

A History on Wednesday/Powerful Stories Network co-sponsored event.

Associate Professor Toby Martin (Sydney) 

12.10pm - 1.30pm | VGCC Boardroom (and Zoom)

Through techniques such as imagery, rhyme, repetition (ie choruses) and a narrative strategy that often blurs memory and fiction, songs tell history differently. Embodiment (through singing) and the ‘emotional pull’ of songs can also engage listeners in particular ways (Langenbruch 2022). Songwriting can also open space for ethical research, allowing a songwriter to be a co-author of knowledge and in control of the narrative. This paper will consider how songwriting tells history – especially First Nations’ histories and refugee histories – through the presenter’s own collaborative projects with Uncle Roger Knox and Đăng Lan.

(*Anna Langenbruch, ‘Performing the Past: music and public history’ in Public History Weekly, 9/9/2022)

About the speaker:

Toby Martin is a songwriter, musician, and cultural historian. In his music practice and practice-led research, he explores how songwriting can respond to place, narrate the past, and foster musical collaboration—particularly collaborations between musicians of different cultural backgrounds—as well as how music can generate resistance and social inclusivity. He has been a popular music practitioner for twenty-five years, including as a singer-songwriter with the rock band Youth Group. His recent publications in this field include the albums Song Khúc Lượn Bay (Two Sounds Gliding) (with Dang Lan), Buluunarbi and the Old North Star (with Roger Knox), and the book Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Popular Music (Cambridge University Press).

Venue & Zoom information

• Zoom link here. Password: 802458

• Venue: VGCC Boardroom, level 4, Madsen Building.

  
  

Contact:

Please contact Niro Kandasamy or James Findlay for more information:

niro.kandasamy@sydney.edu.au or james.findlay@sydney.edu.au

Seminar image: Unsplash