What Are the Connections Between Music and Martial Arts?
My talk on martial sound is now up on YouTube! As previously posted, I gave this presentation as part of the FUAIM Research Lectures at University College Cork, Ireland. The whole video is about 50 minutes, but topics are linked individually below for easy navigation.
Implications of Hearing the Gong & Drum Percussion of Diasporic Chinese Kung Fu and Lion Dance as Martial Sound, Rather Than as Music.
Use the headings below to navigate to any part of the talk. Please note that clicking the links will redirect to YouTube.
Martial sound: short definition
Roadmap for rest of the presentation
Do music and martial arts have anything in common?
Video clip of music and martial arts from the movie Hero
Historical and cultural connections between music and martial arts: Brazilian capoeira, Indonesian-Malay pencak silat, muay Thai, Senegalese laamb, Trinidadian kalinda, Persian zurkhâneh, Sihk gatka, and Chinese kung fu.
The problem and definition of violence
The paradox of martial arts: stopping violence by practising fighting
The heroic display ethos as a way of addressing violence through martial performance
Fieldwork at the Hong Luck Kung Fu Club
Theoretical orientation: phenomenology and habitus
Martial sound: long definition
History of Chinese experiences in Canada
Founding of the Hong Luck kung fu club (1961)
Hong Luck’s mandate: self-defence, mutual understanding, and community
Lion dancing in Toronto’s Chinatown
Hong Luck lion dance video clip
Kung fu demonstration with martial sound (asynchonicity)
The Wong Fei-hung song as a transnational anthem (martial arts film music)
Music of 19th-century Irish faction fighting
Colin P. McGuire, PhD 
Thankyou colin for sharing your research with all of us. It is an amazing and inspiring research on the relationship between martial arts and music. Please keep posting such informative articles.
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Thanks very much for your kind words! I’ve got some more research to share soon, so stay tuned…
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