ABSTRACT

Derrida’s work on ‘archive fever’ has prompted a great deal of academic reflection about the archive and what a critical ‘archiving’ of the past can imply for our understanding of the present. And yet, if the object of historical study is musical sound, what can a ‘fevered’ approach to the archive tell us through the silence of its dusty materials? When adding in the further complexity of a colonial context, the archiving of what Stoler has termed the ‘imperial debris’ of empire brings up a further conundrum: that of what I call here the ‘audible debris’ of empire: i.e. the sonic traces of power and resistance through musical sound that are otherwise absent from traditional historical narratives. In this article, I examine nineteenth-century British attitudes about music at the South African mission station of Lovedale in order to interrogate what a ‘destabilised’ archival awareness can bring to postcolonial musical scholarship. I ask how the structures of colonial archiving that created the imperial historiography of Lovedale (the ‘archival imaginary’) have influenced and reinforced the ‘disciplining strains’ of Lovedale’s musical activities. In turn, I also consider how these ‘disciplining strains’ have created audible legacies that are themselves musical archives of imperial processes.

摘要

德里达关于“档案热”的研究引发了对档案的大量学术反思，以及对过去的批判性“档案”对我们理解现在意味着什么。然而，如果历史研究的对象是音乐声音，那么对档案的“狂热”研究可以通过其尘土飞扬的材料的沉默告诉我们什么？当进一步增加殖民背景的复杂性时，斯托勒所说的帝国“帝国碎片”的归档带来了一个进一步的难题：我在这里所说的帝国“可听碎片”：即帝国的声音痕迹通过音乐的力量和抵抗力，这是传统历史叙事中所不存在的。在本文中，我在南非洛夫代尔传教站考察了 19 世纪英国人对音乐的态度，以探究“不稳定”的档案意识会给后殖民音乐学术带来什么。我问，创建洛夫代尔帝国史学（“档案想象”）的殖民档案结构如何影响和强化了洛夫代尔音乐活动的“纪律压力”。反过来，我也考虑这些“纪律压力”如何创造了可听的遗产，这些遗产本身就是帝国进程的音乐档案。我问，创建洛夫代尔帝国史学（“档案想象”）的殖民档案结构如何影响和强化了洛夫代尔音乐活动的“纪律压力”。反过来，我也考虑这些“纪律压力”如何创造了可听的遗产，这些遗产本身就是帝国进程的音乐档案。我问，创建洛夫代尔帝国史学（“档案想象”）的殖民档案结构如何影响和强化了洛夫代尔音乐活动的“纪律压力”。反过来，我也考虑这些“纪律压力”如何创造了可听的遗产，这些遗产本身就是帝国进程的音乐档案。