Constructing, Deconstructing and Reconstructing Interventions: An Applied Ethnomusicology Project in Sicalpa, Ecuador

Applied ethnomusicology interventions are built on complex institutional, political, ideological, cultural and historical dynamics, which both enable and constrain their development in significant ways. This PhD research seeks to interrogate the dynamics that surrounded the emergence and development of an applied ethnomusicology project in Sicalpa, Ecuador, entitled Ñukanchikka kikin tunukunata takikunatapishmi charinchik (“We have our tones [tunings, modes, genres] and our songs”). Based on participatory action research strategies, the initiative aimed to challenge social and cultural inequalities and to stimulate social transformation through participatory processes and dynamics focused on music documentation and performance. I assumed the role of project facilitator. The experience had some valuable outcomes as regards identity empowerment through music and festive performance as well as the music documentation process itself. Nonetheless, it also faced several challenges and conflicts, some of which emerged from the very foundations on which it was built, and of which – as its facilitator – I had little awareness at the time.
The PhD examines the Sicalpa project in hindsight, revisiting the initiative after its formal completion. It considers the broader structures and relationships that made it possible and shaped its processes, alongside offering critical reflections on the project itself and my own role within it. This entails an analysis of the histories of intellectual and institutional currents underpinning the intervention, together with a consideration of the (conflicting) viewpoints of its participants. A key contribution of the study, thus, is its diachronic perspective, an approach which is rarely featured in applied ethnomusicology. In addition to critical analysis of the work already undertaken in Sicalpa and new fieldwork, this study takes an activist stance, highlighting the importance of long-term engagement.
The experience in Sicalpa emerges as a rich case study for critical reflection on an ethnomusicology that seeks to engage with social reality. It also highlights the unpredictable nature of the outcomes and reveals the complexities – ethical, epistemological, methodological, personal, etc. – surrounding these kinds of interventions. It is argued that an awareness of historical situatedness is fundamental to understanding how such projects are constrained, unfold and fit into broader contexts.