COHEN, SARA 
ORCID: 0000-0001-5841-0721, SHAW, LISA ORCID: 0000-0002-9483-3489, SMITH, RICHARD G ORCID: 0000-0001-5894-4600 and WALDOCK, JACQUELINE ORCID: 0000-0002-6923-0408
(2025)
Music Heritage, Music-evoked Reminiscence and Cultural Identity: Exploring Musical Connectedness to Family, Community and Place with the Chilean Diaspora of Northern England
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 102 (6).
pp. 553-570.
ISSN 1475-3839, 1478-3398
Abstract
This article explores the findings of our recent work with the Chilean community in Liverpool, investigating the importance of music as an individual and collective inheritance and how music is valued and attached to a sense of self, place and belonging. Using a novel methodology based on BBC Radio Four’s programme ‘Inheritance Tracks’, participants took part in workshops where they discussed two pieces of music, one passed on to them and one they wish to pass on, explaining why the pieces were important and what they evoked. To reinforce reminiscence we introduced personal objects and artefacts into workshops and one-to-one interviews. The article illustrates how using music to stimulate discussion about the past results in emotional and affectionate responses to recalling times and places, with a lesser focus on actions, activities and structures. It explores how music in individual and group activities helps migrant communities maintain their cultural heritage and identity while building new lives, providing a means for forming bonds with the host culture and – in this case – a link with Chile. It investigates how music-inspired reminiscence activities can bring out emotional wellbeing benefits in the present, unlocking memories and related positive emotions and facilitating inter-generational communication and understanding.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | 47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4702 Cultural Studies |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of the Arts Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jun 2025 15:05 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2026 00:43 |
| DOI: | 10.3828/bhs.2025.32 |
| Open Access URL: | https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2025.32 |
| Related Websites: | |
| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3193408 |
| Disclaimer: | The University of Liverpool is not responsible for content contained on other websites from links within repository metadata. Please contact us if you notice anything that appears incorrect or inappropriate. |
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