Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr Barley Norton BSc (Mus), MMus, PhD

Dr Barley Norton studied music at City University and completed MMus and PhD degrees in ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies.  Prior to joining Goldsmiths in 2008, he was Principal Lecturer in music at Roehampton University, where he was director of the Centre for Interdisiplinary Music Research (CIMR). He served as a committee member and treasurer for the British Forum for Ethnomusicology from 2003 to 2008.

Academic qualifications

BSc (Mus), MMus, PhD

Grants & awards

Research has been funded by grants and scholarships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, ASEASUK (Association for Southeast Asian Studies in the UK), the Vietnam Musicology Institute, Roehampton University and the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is currently undertaking a major interdisciplinary research project, funded by the Getty Foundation, which examines contemporary experimental performance culture in Vietnam. In recent years he has acted as a consultant for Ford Foundation and UNESCO-funded projects concerning the teaching and revival of Vietnamese traditional music.

Research interests

Dr Barley Norton is an ethnomusicologist with research interests in the music and culture of Southeast Asia. Since the mid 1990s, he has engaged in extensive field research in Vietnam. He has published a book on Vietnamese ritual music and spirit possession, titled Songs for the Spirits: Music and Mediums in Modern Vietnam (University of Illinois Press), and has conducted detailed research on the Vietnamese chamber music genre, ca tru (www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/music/catru/)  Research interests include music and trance, musical learning and creativity, improvisation and modal theory, cultural politics and memory, music and gender, ethnographic film, music and emotion, applied ethnomusicology and music revival. Current projects include research on music and urban change, and a project funded by the Getty Foundation on contemporary and experimental performance culture in Vietnam.

He performs Vietnamese ca tru music on the three-stringed dan day lute and plays gamelan degung and the kacapi zither from West Java. For many years he performed gamelan degung and kacapi with the gamelan group, Sekar Enggal. His research into Vietnamese music was featured in a 35-minute documentary called “A Westerner Loves Our Music”, which was made by and broadcast on Vietnamese Television (VTV).

Selected publications

Book

2009. Songs for the Spirits: Music and Mediums in Modern Vietnam. Urbana and Chicago: Illinois University Press. [DVD included]
 
Film

2010. Hanoi Eclipse: The Music of Dai Lam Linh. (Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources). [56-minute film with film guide]

Selected Book Chapters and Journal Articles

2011 (forthcoming). “Engendering Emotion and the Environment in Vietnamese Music and Ritual.” In Magowan, Fiona and Louise Wrazen, eds. Performing Gender, Place and Emotion. Rochester, NY: Rochester University Press.
2010. "Nhân học âm nhạc Việt?" ("The Anthropology of Vietnamese Music?"). In Hy Van Luong et al. (eds) Hiện Dậi Và Động Thái Của Truyền Thống Ở Việt Nam: Những Cách Tiếp Cận Nhân Học; Quyển 2.  (Modernity and Change in Vietnam, Vol. 2), 623-36. Ho Chi Minh City: Nhà Xuất Bản Đại Học Quốc Gia Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh.
2009. “Vietnam: Music on the Move'” in Simon Broughton et al. (eds), The Rough Guide to World Music, Volume 2 (3rd Edition), 778-97. London: Rough Guides. [Co-authored with Philip Blackburn]
2008 "Ca Tru Restoration: Issues and Challenges", in The Ca Tru Singing of the Vietnamese People, 187-192. Hanoi: Vietnamese Institute for Musicology.
2006. "‘Effeminate’ Men and ‘Hot-Tempered’ Women: The Performance of Music and Gender in Vietnamese Mediumship", in Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien (eds.), Possessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities, 55-75. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program.
2005. "Singing the Past: Vietnamese Ca Tru, Memory and Mode", Asian Music, 36(2): 27-56.
2004. "Len Dong Viet Nam: Cau Tao Am Nhac Cua Than Thanh (Vietnamese Mediumship Rituals: The Musical Construction of the Spirits)", in Ngo Duc Thinh (ed.), Dao Mau Va Cac Hinh Thuc Shaman Trong Cac Toc Nguoi O Viet Nam Va Chau A (The Mother Religion and Forms of Shamanism among Ethnic Groups in Vietnam and Asia), 310-41. Ha Noi: Nha Xuat Ban Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi.
2002. "The Moon Remembers Uncle Ho: The Politics of Music and Mediumship in Northern Vietnam", British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 11(1): 71-100.
2002. "Introduction: Ritual Music and Communism", British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 11(1): 1-8. [Co-authored with Rachel Harris]
2000. "Vietnamese Mediumship Rituals: The Musical Construction of the Spirits", The World of Music, 42(2): 75-97.

Reviews and CD Sleeve Notes  

2010. Review of Music, National Identity and the Politics of Location: Between the Global and the Local, edited by Ian Biddle and Vanessa Knights, Ethnomusicology Forum, 19 (2): 268-69.
2008. Review of "Pungmu'l: South Korean Drumming and Dance" by Nathan Hesselink (University of Chicago Press). World of Music 50 (1):120-121.
2007. “A review essay of recordings of music from Vietnam”. World of Music 49.1:199-206.
2005. Review of 6 CD Box-Set, “Vietnam – Mother Mountain and Father Sea, an Introduction to the Traditional Music of Vietnam”. White Cliffs Media WCM 9991 (2003)." Ethnomusicology Forum, 14(1): 121-3.
2001. Sleeve Notes for the CD “Ca Tru: The Music of North Vietnam”, Nimbus Records NI 5626.

Journalism

2009. Review of “Saiyuki” by Nguyen Le. ACT 9483-2. Songlines: The World Music Magazine, 64: 97.2008 Review "Cai Luong Music" by Huong Thanh. Ocora C560222, Songlines: The World Music Magazine, 53:77.
2008. Review of “Fragile Beauty” by Huong Thanh and Nguyen Le. ACT 94512. Songlines: The World Music Magazine. March, Issue 50:101.
2007. Review of “The Rough Guide to the Music of Vietnam”. RGNET1183CD. Songlines: The World Music Magazine. Sept/Oct Issue 46:67.
2007. “Postcard from Hanoi, Vietnam” Songlines: The World Music Magazine. July/August Issue 45:51.
2007. Review of “Que Huong (Homeland)” Dunya Records FY8107. Songlines: The World Music Magazine. June, Issue 44:75.
2007. Review of “Vietnam: Vocal Music from the Northern Plains” VDE Gallo CD1207. Songlines: The World Music Magazine. January/February, Issue 41:75.