Welcoming voices : memory, migration and music

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Didžioji Britanija (Great Britain); Lenkija (Lenkijos karalystė. Kingdom of Poland. Poland); Migracija; Migrantai; Migrantų muzikinės praktikos; Muzika; Tapatumas; Great Britain; Identity; Lithuania; Migrants; Migration; Music; Musical practices of migrants.

ENThis article considers the relationship between the experience of migration and the musical practices of migrants.1 It stems from a research project called 'Welcoming Voices', which explores Eastern European migration to Lincolnshire. This particular component of the research, funded by the UK's Heritage Lottery Fund, is called 'Memory, Migration and Music'. We interviewed Polish and Lithuanian migrants who have settled in Lincolnshire, asking them about their migratory experiences, their perceptions of the UK before and after migrating, and the ways in which they have engaged with music throughout that experience. My analysis of the interviews suggests a complex relationship between migrants and their notion of national identity, played out in part through listening practices, and in part through the perspectives individuals express about the songs to which they listen. Trends relating to cultural preference and national affiliation are revealed despite a typical distancing of migrants from national identity. This allows me to build on Simon Frith's assertion about the self-in-process (Frith 1996). I conclude that musical preferences and listening practices indeed relate to the experience of the self-in-process, but that complexities for the transitioning migrant make the articulation of their self through the way they engage with song something that is a poignant performance of what I call their notion-identity. [From the publication]