"Moments we strive for": creatively reimagining historical sound in contemporary roleplay, re-enactment and revival

“Moments We Strive For” presents a theoretical framework for reimagining historical sound and music in re- enactment, live action roleplay and indigenous cultural revival. Using three case studies of Viking re-enactment, festival LARP, and the contemporary movement of revived Sámi music, it is established that re-enactment and reimagining exist on a spectrum of activity, and that the sequence of historically informed musical creation can be mapped by a model of desire, process and result. Using a theoretical foundation of hauntology, simulacra, semiotics and somaesthetics, the concepts of authenticity and immersion are unpacked and analysed using case study examples and the above framework. The primary research aims of this thesis are to determine how the past is viewed through the present when considering musical works intended to immerse participants and observers in cultures involving historically informed or inspired roleplay and/or re-enactment. The thesis also aims to clarify the relationships between the desire to create, the process of creating and executing a historically informed musical work, and the result of the work’s exposure to observers and fellow participants. Alongside this, the thesis demonstrates how attitudes towards authenticity and immersion in recreation are both unfixed and evolving as these traditions gain popularity and develop new histories of their own.
Using participant-observer fieldwork methodologies, as well as semi-structured interviews with musicians from a variety of backgrounds, the qualitative data illustrates some key examples from across the discipline of historically informed recreation in many guises. The presentation of a sequential model of desire, process and result paired with a spectrum of activity representing re-enactment and reimagining in musical contexts. These theoretical models demonstrate scope for application to many other fields of aesthetic recreation, particularly regarding contemporary forms of historically influenced expression. Both authenticity and immersion in contemporary historical recreation relate to each other and isolate the practices from linear views of “past versus present” and bring new meaning and significance to revived traditions.