Ardian Ahmedaja (Ed.): Shaping Sounds and Values: Multipart Music as a Means of Social and Cultural Interaction. CD-ROM with 27 audiovisual examples included. A publication of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. Riga: Musica Baltica, 2021. 224 pp., 51 colour figures, list of audiovisual examples, notes on contributors, index. ISBN 978-9984-588-67-4 (hardcover).
A significant feature in the processes of shaping sounds and values in multipart music practices are the contradictions between individual and cultural perspectives. “[W]hat appear superficially as incompatibilities are seen on closer examination to be functions of different frames of reference” (Kluckhohn). In addition: “Because prevailing cultural value orientations represent ideals, aspects of culture that are incompatible with them are likely to generate tension and to elicit criticism and pressure to change” (Schwartz). In regard to music making, the “latent subversive potential” of music (Beaster-Jones) should also be considered in this context.
On the other hand, “value designates something different from being” (Dumont). Hence, the contributions in this volume employ epistemological approaches to elucidate particular ways of music making in an ontological context of multiple realities that are constantly interpreted and shaped anew during each performance act.