An Investigation of Mid-Twentieth-Century Recording Techniques and Aesthetics in Latin Music Performance and Production
- Submitting institution
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Leeds Beckett University
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 48
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
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- Year
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Sue Miller was the lead investigator of this two-year interdisciplinary collaborative research project funded by the British Academy. Miller’s research output is a substantial multi-component output comprising: nine audio recordings made in the studio and live venues, several documentary and music videos, a project website, photography, and online texts, with two further publications planned for 2022 and 2023. The investigation uncovered a holistic narrative on Latin music performance through in-depth research drawing on ethnography, music history and analysis, experimental archaeology methodologies, and practice-as-research findings.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Sue Miller was the lead investigator of this two-year interdisciplinary collaborative research project funded by the British Academy. Building on Miller’s previous historical, ethnographic and performance work on Cuban and Latin music, the project aimed to find out more about Latin music’s production history to provide a holistic narrative on Latin performance aesthetics and music production history. The project uncovered Latin music record production’s hidden histories, bringing an important transnational genre (Cuban/Latin) into the historical narrative which has, to date, favoured Western Art Music.
Miller wrote all the musical arrangements and the music was recorded by her band, Charanga del Norte (Miller is the lead soloist on flute and also the musical director). Miller performed and recorded nine audio tracks (five studio and four live takes in a live space), coordinated and co-produced five filmed documentaries of the recording process, and created a website for the project materials.
Combining traditional academic research (ethnography, music history and analysis) with experimental archaeology methodologies, historically informed recording experiments were implemented to inform a better understanding of Latin sound aesthetics and musical change. The project involved devising experiments using a variety of methodologies including an ‘experimental archaeology’ approach to re-create the sounds of commercial mid-century studio recordings made in Havana and New York.
The project was selected by the British Academy (through competition) for their Summer Showcase event in London 18-20 June 2020. Research outputs include nine audio recordings made in the studio and live spaces, documentation of the project (several documentary and music videos, a project website, photographs and text hosted on two websites), and two publications planned for 2022 and 2023. The project work was presented at conferences at the University of Surrey (2019) and at the University of Manchester/Royal Northern College of Music (2019).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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