Jon Silpayamanant โจน ศิลปยามานันท
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silpayamanant.bsky.social
Jon Silpayamanant โจน ศิลปยามานันท
@silpayamanant.bsky.social
2.7K followers 140 following 570 posts
Intercultural & Southeast Asian Music Researcher, Composer, Educator. Founder Saw Peep Intercultural Orchestra. Host of BBC "World of Classical." he/him 🖤 🩶🤍💜
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silpayamanant.bsky.social
"As I'm compiling a bibliography of primary sources about orchestras and ensembles of enslaved musicians I've decided to map their locations."

silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2025/10/25/m...
October 25, 2025 at 12:31 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
I keep forgetting to post on the micro-platforms. Here's the beginnings of a South Asian Music Theory & Treatises Bibliography I started last summer. Eventually I would like to include info and links to translations as well.

silpayamanant.wordpress.com/south-asian-...
October 24, 2025 at 10:40 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Always makes me chuckle when r/musictheory mods just refer folks to r/GlobalMusicTheory. 😅

www.reddit.com/r/musictheor...
September 9, 2025 at 5:14 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Some of my more scholarly work is contributing to the expansion of string pedagogy in surprising ways. Esteban Hernández Parra's recent dissertation "Resuena Abya Yala: Otherwise Practices in Bowed Strings Learning and Performance" cites 1 of my pieces abt slave orchestras!
hdl.handle.net/2022/33684
Image text: 'This is what cellist and researcher Jon Silpayamanant (2020) describes as “how Imperialism and the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific slave trade enriched European countries to the point that they could afford to create a music ecosystem with large scale and expensive orchestras, operas, and ballet companies which might not have emerged absent those conditions”'
September 5, 2025 at 2:35 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Open Access here: escholarship.org/uc/item/64k2...

"Historical evidence suggests that the fiddle may be one of the oldest uninterrupted instrumental traditions in African American culture, yet most people in the United States, including African Americans, do not identify it with Black music"
July 23, 2025 at 3:47 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
I guess we'll be hearing more from Timothy Jackson and the Journal of Schenkerian Studies going forward...
July 22, 2025 at 2:37 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
From Mark Slobin's 1993 "Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West" (page 30)

archive.org/details/subc...
www.weslpress.org/978081956261...
"Erasure is implicit in the unsung melodies of a hundred micromusics, missing from the classrooms of Euro-America. Like the lack of one's language, the absence of familiar music sends a clear supercultural signal to children. Stereotypes blossom everywhere, often as a part of officially sponsored cultural pluralism. American school music books, have tended to include songs from a variety of "homelands," each item brand-naming whatever subculture is depicted." Mark Slobin "Subcultural Sounds: Micromusics of the West" (1993; page 30) https://archive.org/details/subculturalsound00slob https://www.weslpress.org/9780819562616/subcultural-sounds/
June 29, 2025 at 1:38 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
"Pu‘uwai Haokila: The Story of How Hawai‘i Shaped Modern Music"

www.pbshawaii.org/puuwai-haokila

"Narrated by Raiatea Helm, this PBS Hawai‘i documentary uncovers Hawaiʻi’s deep, global impact on modern music despite the political struggles they faced at home."
May 24, 2025 at 12:45 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Ok, I watched the "Klingon Music Theory is Weird" video and it was "meh" but I did laugh when an image of me from a 2012 performance with Il Troubadore Klingon Music Project showed up in the vid (at the 25:27 mark)! 😂
Image of me as the Klingon Cellist/Xenomusicologist from an outdoor gig in 2012. A microphone is in front of my face and a cello neck and scroll can be seen in my left hand.
April 29, 2025 at 8:48 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Found a couple of my works cited in Maiko Kawabata's "Racism and Diversity in Orchestral Practice" which is the first chapter of the edited volume "East Asian Voices of Resistance Against Racism in Music" (edited by Ken Ueno and Maiko Kawabata)!

ethicspress.com/products/eas...
April 8, 2025 at 11:56 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
What Islam Gave the Blues by Sylviane Diouf

www.youtube.com/watch?v=19jk...

renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/what...
April 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Been needing to overhaul this page, but had to update w/ Athita Kuankachorn's diss. "The Application of Thai Classical Fiddle Techniques for Cello" & Nichagarn Chiracharasporn's beautiful cello work "Homage to Mor-lam" which I've been enjoying working on!
silpayamanant.wordpress.com/sea-string-p...
April 3, 2025 at 5:49 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
I had a delightful time presenting as part of TU Dublin Conservatoire's "Contemporary Composition Perspectives" series yesterday!
March 28, 2025 at 10:35 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Just got my copy of Nancy Yunhwa Rao's "Inside Chinese Theater: Community and Artistry in Nineteenth-Century California and Beyond" in the mail today!

www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p0...
March 26, 2025 at 3:39 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Everyone seems to love the last ("Flamenco") movement of Rogelio Huguet y Tagell's (1882-1956) first Unaccompanied Spanish Cello Suite but I'm kinda partial to the prelude to the second!!

Love playing this and looking forward to performing on some upcoming Global Cello recitals!!
March 24, 2025 at 11:28 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
More anti-DEI nonsense

www.facebook.com/kevin.charoe...
I am honored to have had my piece “Rising Light”, my response to post-COVID Asian hate, programmed by “The President's Own” United States Marine Band, and I have been looking forward to their performance in collaboration with Equity Arc on May 4th, 2025. Additionally, I was honored to have worked with the underprivileged and underrepresented high school students participating in the Equity Arc Program, who would have played side-by-side with the Marine Band. It has come to my attention that the program, one based on equity and diversity of voices, is no longer supported at the federal level under this administration, and it was for this reason that the program and performance were canceled. I am saddened and frustrated that this is the case. As one of the living composers of color on the program, I stand on the shoulders of those before me, most recently the Kennedy Center’s artists and staff, and know I would not be who I am today without their influence in the music world. My heart further hurts for the high school students who would have participated in the Equity Arc program, who have all lost a substantial part of their music education. The arts are an essential part of an educated population. Thank you to Darren Lin, Ryan Nowlin, and the staff of “The President’s Own” and Equity Arc for fighting for our voices to be heard. I look forward to the day where my music, and the diverse voices of composers like myself, will once again be welcomed on the national stage. This statement is composed of my own personal views and are not endorsed or associated with Equity Arc, nor “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band. Sincerely, Kevin Charoensri
February 24, 2025 at 1:40 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Congrats @piargno84.bsky.social and Chelsea Komschlies--the next cohort of the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps!

www.facebook.com/LouisvilleOr...
Louisville Orchestra Facebook Status: Let's give a warm welcome to newest members of the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps for the 2025-2026 season: acclaimed composers Anthony Green and Chelsea Komschlies. Anthony Green, a composer, performer, and social justice artist, has had his work performed in over 25 countries across six continents. His compositions and interdisciplinary performances explore themes of equality and freedom, bringing a deeply human element to contemporary music. Chelsea Komschlies is known for her music’s “ingratiating allure” (San Diego Story), blending the familiar and the uncanny in imaginative ways. A Ph.D. candidate at McGill University, she explores how composers encode multisensory information into music, supported by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec. Now entering its fourth year, the Creators Corps continues to redefine the relationship between orchestras and composers, fostering deep artistic engagement with the city of Louisville!
February 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
This'll bring them out of the woodwork!

www.facebook.com/groups/87619...
February 16, 2025 at 9:36 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
"Towards a Global Music Theory: Practical Concepts and Methods for the Analysis of Music Across Human Cultures"
by Mark Hijleh
Routledge

www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/1...
"Towards a Global Music Theory: Practical Concepts and Methods for the Analysis of Music Across Human Cultures" by Mark Hijleh Routledge Abstract: "Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the cross-pollenization of world musical materials and practices has accelerated precipitously, due in large part to advances in higher-speed communications and travel. We live now in a world of global musical practice that will only continue to blossom and develop through the twenty-first century and beyond. Yet music theory as an academic discipline is only just beginning to respond to such a milieu. Conferences, workshops and curricula are for the first time beginning to develop around the theme of 'world music theory', as students, teachers and researchers recognize the need for analytical concepts and methods applicable to a wider range of human musics, not least the hybrid musics that influence (and increasingly define) more and more of the world's musical practices. Towards a Global Music Theory proposes a number of such concepts and methods stemming from durational and acoustic relationships between 'twos' and 'threes' as manifested in various interrelated aspects of music, including rhythm, melody, harmony, process, texture, timbre and tuning, and offers suggestions for how such concepts and methods might be applied effectively to the understanding of music in a variety of contexts. While some of the bases for this foray into possible methods for a twenty-first century music theory lie along well established acoustical and psycho-acoustical lines, Dr Mark Hijleh presents a broad attempt to apply them conceptually and comprehensively to a variety of musics in a relevant way that can be readily apprehended and applied by students, scholars and teachers."
February 16, 2025 at 1:37 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Classical Music ≠ Notated Music or Composed Music

At some point I should probably turn this unrolled thread into a blog post or more fleshed out piece.

threadreaderapp.com/thread/14726...
Tweet Image Text: "Jon Silpayamanant โจนาทาน ศิลปยามานันท์ | Mae Mai @Silpayamanant Dec 19, 2021 Classical Music ≠ Notated Music or Composed Music This follows up on the "Classical Music ≠ Concert Music" thread since we now have mature concert music traditions globally that use notation regularly in their Indigenous or hybridized composition traditions." Embedded QuoteTweet Image Text: "Jon Silpayamanant โจนาทาน ศิลปยามานันท์ | Mae Mai @Silpayamanant Probably should also be said that this problematizes “Notated music” and “Composer-centric music” as a substitute since these orchestral traditions also have both in abundance. Which really says a lot about everyone’s knowledge of these other music ecosystems. 6:25 AM · Dec 19, 2021"
February 15, 2025 at 7:02 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
"Special Issue: Music Theory in the Plural" is live!

"Despite the diversity of musical thought across historical and cultural spaces, much of what is nominally titled “music theory” concerns only a small sliver of this intellectual tradition..."

mtosmt.org/issues/mto.2...
Table of Contents Introduction: Music Theory in the Plural 30.4.7 Edwin K. C. Li (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Chris Stover (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University) Anna Yu Wang (Princeton University) On the Ubọ-Aka of the Igbo: An Interview with Gerald Eze 30.4.8 -Quintina Carter-Ényì (University of Georgia) Commentary 30.4.9 -Sheryl Man-Ying Chow (The University of Hong Kong) Translation of Dobri Hristov’s “Metric and Rhythmic Fundamentals of Bulgarian Folk Music” 30.4.10 -Daniel Goldberg (University of Connecticut) Commentary: Music Theory, Nationalism, and the “Invention” of Bulgarian Rhythm 30.4.11 -Clifton Boyd (New York University) Koizumi Fumio on Nuclear Tones 30.4.12 -Liam Hynes-Tawa (Harvard University) Commentary 30.4.13 -Sami Abu Shumays (Queens, New York) Translation of Shin Eun-Joo’s “Two Theories of Ujo and Pyeongjo in Pansori: Comparing Baek Daewoong’s and Lee Bohyeong’s Theories of Pansori Modes” (2018) 30.4.14 -Seokyoung Kim (The University of Texas at Austin) Commentary 30.4.15 -Ji Yeon Lee (University of Houston) Music as Language of the Upper Realm: A Translation of Li Tsing-chu’s A General Treatise on Music (1930/1933) 30.4.16 -Edwin K. C. Li (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Commentary 30.4.17 -Nathan John Martin (University of Michigan) “At One End of the Endless Universe”: Akira Nishimura’s Interview with Isang Yun 30.4.18 -Joon Park (University of Illinois Chicago) Commentary 30.4.19 -Chris Stover (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University) Embedded Music Theory: Oral Poetry, Rhythmic Language, and Drumming in Sri Lanka 30.4.20 -Eshantha Peiris (University of British Columbia) Commentary 30.4.21 -Amanda Villepastour (Cardiff University) Report: My Footsteps and Related Thoughts on the Systematic Construction of Linguistics of Music in the 21st Century 30.4.22 -Qian Rong (Central Conservatory of Music) Commentary 30.4.23 -Aaron Carter-Ényì (Morehouse College)
February 14, 2025 at 2:47 AM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Heard the LO String Quartet perform works by Asian Am composers Wu Man, Dylan Trần, Grace Ann Lee, & Texu Kim at the Lunar New Year event.

At a Dec 17 "Diversity and Equity in Classical Music" event they played works by TJ Cole, Caroline Shaw, Rhiannon Giddens, & Amy Beach at Logan Street Market.
February 12, 2025 at 1:53 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
In this, the Year of the Snake 😑
Image Text: "Roderick Williams - A Touch of Exotic Performers: Roderick Williams, baritone Andrew West, piano Event Summary: With his velvet baritone voice and charming smile, Roderick Williams OBE is one of the UK’s most highly respected singers. He has sung major roles at the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, and in opera houses in Europe and America. The Orient has held a fascination for artists and musicians; its culture, stories, colours, even its cuisine has created strange dreams in the imaginations of those who have never been, and mesmerised those travellers who have ventured out, to the point where some have shed their disciplined, buttoned-up selves and have given in to the exotic – ‘gone native’ as they used to say. One such was Violet Nicholson, who followed her army officer husband to the mountain passes of India, disguised as a herdsman, and whose poetry is bewitched and infused with a longing for the oriental. This recital programme looks Eastwards and embraces both myth and experience, replicating fabulous colours and overt sensuality in musical terms Image credit: Theo Williams" *** Image Description: Screenshot of the Barnes Music Festival with featured image of Roderick Williams, baritone. Under the screenshot is a cartoon meme with two panels of a person dialing "Edward Said" on a cell phone (first panel) and holding up the cell phone to their ear (second panel).
February 11, 2025 at 3:34 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
"I'm so happy we're all here celebrating especially during a time when I feel like we're under assault just for celebrating the diverse communities we have here!" - Joel Buno, director of Crane House
February 9, 2025 at 11:15 PM
silpayamanant.bsky.social
Happy Lunar New Year!!

From all of us at Saw Peep Pan-Asian Ensemble, thanks to Oswald Huỳnh, Jacob Gotlib, Joel Buno, the Crane House, the Louisville Orchestra, the Americana Community Center, Inc., and the Louisville Vietnamese community for hosting a wonderful Lunar New Year event last night!
Happy Lunar New Year!! From all of us at Saw Peep Pan-Asian Ensemble, thanks to Oswald Huỳnh, Jacob Gotlib, Joel Buno, the Crane House, the Louisville Orchestra, the Americana Community Center, Inc., and the Louisville Vietnamese community for creating and hosting a wonderful Lunar New Year event last night! We enjoyed, and were honored to share the stage with River Lotus Lion Dance, Japan/America Society of Kentucky Yosakoi Dance, and members of the Louisville Orchestra all coming together to perform the music and dance of Asians/Asian Americans! Special thanks to Chris Kincaid for running sound and making everything sound so fabulous! We hope to see you at the Shadow Puppet Opera & The Global Cello show celebrating Sonkran, the Thai New Year, at The Chapel of St. Philip Neri in April!! https://www.facebook.com/silpayamanant/posts/pfbid02ACtcMR9vJcvJRg4oM1ezQHsALgfWbffXxk1B229zesBSUCsvQ23Xqa64PJL8phzNl
February 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM