We are in the process of an exciting collaboration with music students at the University of Andrews and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. We look forward to sharing our research and their outputs soon!
- What kinds of music help you to feel ‘at peace’?
- How might you represent peace in music?
- What would a musical representation of peacebuilding (as opposed to peace itself) sound like?
- (How) can music promote peace and contribute meaningfully to peacebuilding?
Music is a deeply affective art form. It can paint pictures with soundscapes and tell stories without words. Music and text can combine to support or subvert each other, adding new layers of meaning to already rich storytelling. Silences and musical dynamics can be powerful in themselves; and musical echoes and repeating rhythms can focus attention on the act of listening, crucial in all kinds of dialogue but especially peacebuilding. Music works on parts of our brain not activated by other art forms. Music-making and listening can be embodied experiences. In short, music – in all its forms – is a profoundly powerful form of communication, which lots to teach us about how we think and feel.
Since humans first started making music, it has been used in the service of war: to incite, accompany, glorify, memorialise and mourn. But many musical traditions have also explored and evoked peace in many different ways, and music-making has been influential in shaping ideas about (and in promoting and doing) peacebuilding.
As part of our wider research into storytelling, the creative arts, artivism and peacebuilding, we wanted to explore music’s potential to tell impactful stories about peace, which can enhance our ‘peace literacy’ as individuals and societies. We also wanted to see what different genres of music could teach us about peace-keeping and peace-making, from inner peace to cross-cultural and international endeavours. So we set about collaborating with practicing musicians and composers on some music-making connected to our research questions. We recruited a mix of professionals and students who specialise in different genres and styles of music, curious to see how they responded to the challenge and eager to discover what they could teach us about peace itself and music’s power to represent and promote peace in the wider world.
We will share the results of our collaborations shortly!