In the memory of ESEM’s founder John Blacking, every year during the anual seminar, an eminent ethnomusicologist is invited to give a presentation addressing central issues in Ethnomusicology. In this section, you can find an overview of former speakers, their topics and in some cases a transcript of the speach.
List of John Blacking Memorial Lectures
2025. Miguel Ángel GARCÍA. Presented at the XLth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Aveiro, Portugal 2025.
2024. Ankica PETROVIĆ: Listening to and Theorizing the Un-wanted. Presented at the XXXIXth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Zagreb, Croatia 2024.
2023. Salwa EL-SHAWAN CASTELO-BRANCO: Performing pasts. The politics of Arab music heritage in postcolonial Cairo.
2022. Tan SOOI BENG: Democratizing Collaborative Research: Socially Inclusive, Equitable and Critical Approaches. Presented at the XXXVIIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Graz, Austria 2022.
2020/2021. Naila CERIBAŠIĆ: Music as heritage: On do-it-yourself curators, culture bearers and ethnomusicologists in the context of experience economy, liquid governance, and other facets of late modernity.
2019. Rolf Inge GODØY: Constraint-Based Musical Expression. Presented at the XXXVth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Durham, UK 2019.
2018. Philip V. BOHLMAN: Riga Reprise – Resounding song in the ethnomusicological entrepôt. Presented at the XXXIVth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Riga, Latvia 2018.
2016. Sardinian Masters’ Talks: Dialogical Ethnomusicology in John Blacking’s Memory. Chair: Martin Clayton. Video and live conversations with Giuseppe Brozzu (Castelsardo), Franco Davoli (Orgosolo), Daniele Giallara (Cuglieri), Tonino Leoni (Samatzai), Bachisio Masia (Bonnanaro), and Giovanni Ardu, Mario Corona, Roberto Iriu, Antonio Migheli (Santu Lussurgiu); curated by Marco Lutzu and Ignazio Macchiarella. Presented at the XXXIInd European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Cagliari / Santu Lussurgiu, Sardinia, Italy 2016.
2015. Mícheál Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN: Blacking, Baily and Belfast: An Autoethnographic Journey. Presented at the XXXIst European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Limerick, Ireland 2015.
2014. Bruno NETTL: On Bridges and Islands in Ethnomusicology: Remarks on History and Personal Experience.
2013. Laurent AUBERT: New Objects, New Challenges: Rethinking. Ethnomusicology.
2012. Naila CERIBAŠIĆ: Tenacious and malleable pasts in post-Yugoslav, post-war, post-socialist music cultures.
2011: Anthony SEEGER „Taking a Part: Song Sequences and Sound Sentiments‟.
2010: László FELFÖLDI (HUNGARY).
2009. Richard WIDDESS. Performances of Humanly Organized Sound in South Asia.
2008. Giovanni GIURIATI. Presented at the XXIVth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Warsaw, Poland 2008. 19. September 2008.
2007. Philip V. BOHLMAN (University of Chicago): Herder’s Cid and the Epic of Modern Europe. Presented at the XXIIIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Lisbon, Portugal. 12. October 2007.
2006. Beverley DIAMOND (Memorial University of New Foundland, Canada): The Music of Modern Indigeneity: From Identity to Alliance Studies.Presented at the XXIIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Jokkmokk, Sweden, 7. September 2006.
2005. Robert GÜNTHER (University of Cologne, Germany): The Anthropology of Hearing and Listening: Prolegomena to a Theory of Music Perception and Understanding. Presented at the XXIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Cologne, Germany, 24.August 2005.
2004. Jean Jacques NATTIEZ: La recherche des universaux est-elle incompatibile avec l’étude des spécificités culturelles? Presented at the XXth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology in Venice, Italy, 2.October 2004.
2003. Franz FÖDERMAYR (Austria): Music as a problem posed to the humanities/social sciences and the natural sciences. Presented at the IXXth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology seminar in Vienna/Gablitz, Austria, 20. September 2003.
2002. Roderyk LANGE: Dance and Scholarship. Presented at the XVIIIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology 28. September, Druskininkai, Lithuania.
2001. Jan LING, Is world music the Viennese classicism of our time? Presented at the XVIIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, 8. September, Rauland, Norway
2000. Paul BERLINER (Northwestern). Presented at the XVIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology. 9. September 2000, Belfast, UK.
1999. Gerhard KUBIK (Austria): Age-sets, initiation and masked performances in the eastern Angolan culture area. Analysis of audio-visual field-documents 1965-1987. Presented at the XVth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, London, UK. 12. November 1999.
1998. Simha AROM. Presented at the XIVth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology 1998.
1997. Jeremy MONTAGU (Oxford, UK): The Magpie in Ethnomusicology. Presented at the XIIIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology at Jyväskylä, Finland 15-19 October 1997.
1996. Amnon SHILOAH (Hebrew University, Jerusalem): Musicians and Musicianship in Muslim and Jewish Musical Traditions. Presented at the XIIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology. 1996. The lecture provided an overview of the musicians in the Mediterranean Muslim and Jewish worlds, with emphasis on their distinctive characteristics and crucial role in the development and survival of artistic, religious, and folk musical traditions. It dealt with common traits and even concepts that may justify the mingling of the three aforementioned categories, as well as other particularities, namely, the antagonistic attitude toward music held by the strictest theologians and jurists.
1995. Mantle HOOD: The Musical River of Change and Innovation. Presented at the XIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology at Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
1994. Anna CZEKANOWSKA. John Blacking. the ideal musical man. Presented at the XIth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology at Leiden, The Netherlands. 9. August – 2. September 1994.