Introduction

Studying the relations between food and music

Both food and have material and social aspects. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines food as a "material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy." Even if all organisms need to eat, only human beings socialize their food with various conventions. In this way, food is both a material input and a field of accepted or rejected values.

On the other hand, music is an art that combines sound and silence "to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion" (Oxford Concise Dictionary). In this case, the material aspect is sound. Not every sound is music (is the opposite true?), but some noises arranged in a socially-accepted way shape music.  

 

Apart from the several analogies between both, food and music sometimes relate directly and are intrinsically connected. A musical composition about a dish and the rythmical sound of the pilão (African pestle) while cooking, are examples of that connection.
 

Background

While teaching at University of Cape Verde in 2011-2012, I coordinated a group of scholars to research the relations between food and music. The focus was put on the interconnectedness of music and food and their meaningful relations. Calls were launched for a conference and a book. Many interesting proposals were received and, as a result, some scholars in Africa, Europe and the Americas are studying various aspects of this subject.

While the study of music and food is open to any field, most people interested are in disciplines of humanities and social sciences. There may be an interest in fields such as environmental sciences and technology.

Contents

During a backpacking journey with my family, I gathered a collection of food songs, which will be the most frequent content of these pages. Additionally, I would like to analyze the food-music relations that emerge from food songs in Latin America.

I am open to include other authors' materials as long as they are relevant to this blog.

 

Edmundo Murray

Geneva, 5 June 2013