Words of welcome, and what to expect!

Greetings all, welcome to Hepzie's Den of Reimagined Rackets. I'll tell you a bit about myself in this introduction post, and then I'll go on to elaborate on my current research and topics of interest, as well as give you some indicators of what to expect in future posts and articles. I'm excited to be able to provide lots of (hopefully) exciting and interesting reading material for whoever's here.

So, we'll start off with the formalities. My name is Helen, I sometimes go by the online handle Hepzie, and I am a PhD candidate at the University of York, in the (as of 24/06/16) "United" Kingdom. I graduated from Royal Holloway in 2014 with a Bachelor of Music, and have worked in museums and heritage since then, beginning my PhD in January 2016. I've been involved with some form of music since the age of 6, when I started learning the piano, kept studying the topic all through primary and secondary school, while getting involved in lots of orchestras, choirs and even a small amount of fieldwork in Northern Sweden during my undergrad degree.

                                          I did do some real work as well as cooing over this Swedish Lapphund...

I started developing a real interest in ethnomusicology during my first year of university, where in an introductory course a guest lecture about Sámi vocal traditions was featured. I'd never heard of the culture, but upon hearing my first joik I became utterly and delightedly obsessed with the musical aesthetics of that region, going on to title my final dissertation "To Be, To Tell, To Know: The Continuity of Matriarchy and Paganism in Contemporary Sámi Folk Music". (There will be a later post giving as thorough a summary of the Sámi musical culture as possible in the near future, fear not!) Initially I wanted to write about the process of how we reimagine the ancient sounds of that region, but was (very truthfully) informed that such a topic was too large for an undergraduate dissertation, and would suit a PhD thesis.

So, two years later, here I am, and that's what I'm focusing on, not just featuring the Sámi case study, but something else a little closer to home: the musical soundworlds of the Viking age in Northern England (approximately 866-1066).

Essentially, what I am resolutely seeking and striving towards is this: a newer and more comprehensive methodology for the application of soundscape, fieldwork and analysis when retracing creative processes of historically re-imagined ancient soundworlds. Otherwise known as "a tried and tested theory and method to help us understand why we as creators envision re-imagined historical sound in the way that we do".

We have indications of Viking sound aesthetics in many different forms of media, and through these a common narrative has been developed. However, many aspects of this popular aesthetic remain at odds with the wider archaeological evidence of Viking age music and sound. It is therefore the purpose of my new theory to discover the discrepancies between the physical evidence and the interjections of romanticised ideas from future centuries.

The methodologies I will be using in order to fully extend this new theory are a combination of fieldwork and artificial soundscape. Happily, there are many viable locations around Britain with either original or accurately reconstructed spatial contexts, giving plenty of scope for fieldwork and experimental atmospheric recording. Not only will this allow me to conduct some more traditional fieldwork by way of interviews and analysis of the modern interpretations, but it will also enable me to gain data for soundscape production. As for the production of the soundscape itself, you will have the chance to join me on that particular journey, as I navigate through soundscape theory and methodology and decide upon the best ways to accurately represent my theory, and who knows, you might even get to hear it in the end!

In the next couple of months, expect essays and articles on the deconstruction of popular "Viking" sound, relationships between archaeology and reenactment, spiritual, emotional and environmental Sámi concerns, and much more!

If anyone has questions or remarks, please feel free to leave them in the comments or email me. Thanks for reading!