Music at the Threshold from the Sacred to the Dangerous

In Music at the Threshold from the Sacred to the Dangerous, author Sean Williams explores the connection of liminality to musical culture by focusing on how performance practices tend to occur at liminal places and times, and often by potentially marginalized people who are, in fact, central to the expression of cultural identity. Williams highlights issues of access and interdisciplinarity and shows how people use music to facilitate transformation in culturally bound ways. Featuring themes of access to the unknown, dual faith, erotic power, longing for home, transgression, and resistance, each chapter draws from an array of musical settings and cultural traditions that, considered on their own, might not be as remarkable without seeing the greater picture. Rather than focus on a single genre in a single place, this meta-ethnography casts a wide thematic net across genres, regions, and people. The erotic allure of the female-coded being who sings men to a watery death differs from the nostalgic allure evoked in the hearts and minds of immigrants by the music and foods of home, but an internal ache exists regardless. From sounds and rituals used to connect to the ancestors with music used by those who practice more than one religion, the sacred looms large in both vernacular and mainstream practices. The twin dangers of transgression and resistance-whether by musically thriving while being both queer and Black or performing hip hop in an endangered language-bring to light acts that celebrate strength and honor cultural practices. Liminal moments, or lifetimes, that are sacred, alluring, or dangerous appear again and again to remind us of the centrality of music in our lives.

Sean Williams is Professor of Ethnomusicology at The Evergreen State College. She has taught ethnomusicology and cultural studies since 1990, focusing on the musics of Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil, and elsewhere. Her research interests include language, identity, food, and spirituality. She has written and/or edited nine books and over fifty articles.