Experiencing Music and Intangible Cultural Heritage: Some Thoughts on Safeguarding Music’s Intangible Dimension

Abstract

This article presents some thoughts toward a conceptualization of musical traditions as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Afro-Brazilian samba de roda and candomblé serve as paradigms to discuss the dichotomy of intangibility/tangibility of cultural expressions, i.e. between the ephemerality of their experience and the endurance of their material objects and documentation. The special importance of the human body in both traditions points to the centrality of human experience in practicing, transmitting and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Such a perspective puts into question safeguarding measures such as inventory-making and documentation of musical practices and may open the way for more appropriate methods for fostering them.