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SUMMARY:Songs of Life and Death: Musical Communications Between the Dead a
 nd the Living in Early China - Dr Avital Rom (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260303T170000Z
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260303T183000Z
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1c4e0977-88a3-4d6b-a9ad-5398f1943924/
DESCRIPTION:This talk focuses on music-making – usually perceived as a 
 ‘lively’ activity – as an act bridging between the realms of the liv
 ing and the dead in early Chinese thought. We will focus on the musicality
  of ku 哭 (wailing) as a public\, ritualistic act that is often contraste
 d with ge 歌 (singing)\; and see how musical sounds were not only made by
  the living for the dead and in their honour\, but also thought to have em
 erged from within the realm of the dead\, played by the dead themselves an
 d heard by the living as ominous signs of impending loss.\n\nWe tend to th
 ink of music-making at the time of death in early China as taboo. Yet Warr
 ing States and Han period texts are in fact replete with allusions linking
  music with different aspects of death and the netherworld. From destructi
 ve tunes sung by ghosts of drowned Music Masters to critiques on performan
 ces of laments\; from the prediction of a ruler’s impending death that r
 elied on the sounds of the bells cast in his court\, to untuned zithers bu
 ried alongside the deceased – we will discuss the ways in which musical 
 actions\, and in particular wails and laments\, served to highlight the cu
 ltural\, conceptual and emotional links drawn between death and life.\nSpe
 akers:\nDr Avital Rom (University of Cambridge)
LOCATION:Dickson Poon Building (Lucina Ho Seminar Room\, Oxford China Cent
 re)\, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/1c4e0977-88a3-4d6b-a9ad-5398f1943924/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Songs of Life and Death: Musical Communications Between t
 he Dead and the Living in Early China - Dr Avital Rom (University of Cambr
 idge)
TRIGGER:-PT1H
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