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Ethnomusicology

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This article is about the area of study. For the society and academic journal, see Society for Ethnomusicology.
Ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore recording Blackfoot chief Mountain Chief for the Bureau of American Ethnology (1916)
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Ethnomusicology is an academic field encompassing various approaches to the study of music (broadly defined) that emphasize its cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dimensions or contexts instead of or in addition to its isolated sound component or any particular repertoire.

Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos (nation) and μουσική mousike (music), it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music. Jeff Todd Titon has called it the study of "people making music."[1] Although it is often thought of as a study of non-Western musics, ethnomusicology also includes the study of Western music from an anthropological or sociological perspective. Bruno Nettl believes it is a product of Western thinking, proclaiming "ethnomusicology as western culture knows it is actually a western phenomenon."[2] Nettl believes that there are limits to the extraction of meaning from a culture's music because of a Western observer's perceptual distance from the culture; however, the growing prevalence of scholars who study their own musical traditions, and an increasing range of different theoretical frameworks and research methodologies has done much to address criticisms such as Nettl's.

Definition

Stated most broadly, ethnomusicology is the study of the music of the world. Combining aspects of folklore, psychology, cultural anthropology, and conventional musicology, ethnomusicology involves skills from a multitude of disciplines.[3] Due to the variety of disciplines which help form ethnomusicology, there have been, however, a number of definitions. Additionally, the attitudes and focus of ethnomusicologists have changed and evolved over the past century, further complicating the issue of defining ethnomusicology. When the field first came into existence, it was essentially limited to the study of non-Western music, in contrast to the study of Western art music which had been the area of focus for conventional musicology. Over time, the definition broadened to include study of all the musics of the world according to certain approaches.[4][5] Furthermore, the field was referred to early in its existence as “comparative musicology,” though this term fell out of use in the 1950s.[6]

While there is no single unifying definition for ethnomusicology, a number of constants appear in the definitions employed by top scholars in the field. It is agreed upon that ethnomusicologists look at music from beyond a purely artistic perspective, and look instead at music within culture, music as culture, and music as a reflection of culture.[7][8] Furthermore, it is generally agreed that one of the primary tasks of the ethnomusicologist is to conduct fieldwork, achieved by traveling to the area of interest and collecting recordings and information on the music of interest.[9]

History

While musicology's traditional subject has been the history and literature of Western art music, ethnomusicology was developed as the study of all music as a human social and cultural phenomenon. The primary precursor to ethnomusicology, comparative musicology, emerged in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Comparative musicology and early ethnomusicology tended to focus on non-Western music that was transmitted through oral traditions. But, in more recent years, the field has expanded to embrace all musical styles from all parts of the world.

The International Council for Traditional Music (founded 1947) and the Society for Ethnomusicology (founded 1955) are the primary international academic organizations for the discipline of ethnomusicology.

Antecedents

The antecedent to ethnomusicology was the field of comparative musicology. After the development of the cents system by Alexander John Ellis in 1885, music scholars were able to empirically compare pitches generated by musics of different cultures.[10] This provided the impetus for comparative musicologists to emphasize the differences between the music of different cultures, and to disprove cultural contact as the reason for convergent trends.[11] Comparative musicologists, such as Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Komitas,[12] Constantin Brăiloiu, Vinko Zganec, Franjo Kuhač, Carl Stumpf, Erich von Hornbostel, Curt Sachs, Hugh Tracey, and Alexander J. Ellis.[13] primarily studied the music of oral, folk traditions in comparison to the Western musical tradition.[14][15] Of the cultures studied, the most frequently studied were the Asian and African cultures, due to their perceived exoticism and relatively close proximity to Europe.[16]

Formative years

In the 1950s, the comparative method fell under attack. One prominent researcher, Mieczyslaw Kolinski, argued that nature of their work was more than simply comparing two different fields; much of the work, particularly fieldwork, is descriptive.[17] Scholars also believed that comparing musics of different cultures would inherently invoke biases and wrong conclusions due to differing cultural contexts.[18] To complicate matters further, scholars faced the dilemma of defining their field of study, for as Willard Rhodes mentions, the general perception held by the public was that their research was obscure and not easily accessible.[19] As a response, the entire field underwent a radical shift by the 1960s, transforming from a field of comparative musicology into what is now known as ethnomusicology. In this process, the research became more fieldwork driven, and began to incorporate various anthropological theory and techniques.[20] In 1960, leading pioneer of American ethnomusicology, Mantle Hood, established the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

1970s

In the 1970s, ethnomusicology became a known word in the general lexicon. The influence of ethnomusicology spread to composers, music therapists, music educators, anthropologists, and musicologists, and ethnomusicology substantiated world music projects with its name and label. Alan Merriam described the participators in ethnomusicology at the time in four groups: 1) Those who use ethnomusicology for broad interests such as education, making money, or pleasure of performance, among others. 2) Professionals who act as brokers to persuade other professionals to share their knowledge with popularizers of the first group. 3) The musicology contingent that study the music in terms of sound and also the cultural context. 4) The anthropology contingent that focused on human beings with the stance that “music is culture” and “what musicians do is society.” With the advent of the influence on anthropological researchers within ethnomusicology, the discipline became less data oriented and more of a theoretical discipline.[21] This led to the blossoming of employing other fields such as linguistics and psychology in helping anthropologists observe the cognitive processes and human behaviors in music making.

1980s

The 1980s saw a period of bias and representation awareness in ethnomusicology. Historically Western field workers quickly dubbed themselves experts on foreign music traditions, but ignored differences in worldview, priority systems, and cognitive patterns, and thought that their interpretation was truth.[22] This type of research had contributed to a larger phenomenon called Orientalism. Edward Said claims that in Orientalist literature, Western scholars claim expertise on other peoples lives and thus the right to represent them, which negatively impacts how these cultures are treated.[23] It also allows musical appropriation and fetishization, which essentializes and reduces a culture and its music.[24] Ghanaian ethnomusicologist Kofi Agawu details how the concept of “African rhythm” has been misrepresented this way as an example of this phenomenon – “African” music is not a homogenous body like it is often called, its differences from Western music are often considered deficiencies, and Western notations have ignored important nuances in rhythmic performance, among other complaints.[25]

Misrepresentation can also occur when a researcher does not pay attention to the validity of their sources. The very presence of an observer in the field can change what s/he is observing, like quantum uncertainty in physics. The meaning of a particular song is also distorted with every person it passes through, like a game of telephone. A performer may intend a certain meaning, but once that song is originally interpreted by the audience, recalled later in memory when recounting the performance to a researcher, interpreted by the researcher, and then interpreted by the researcher’s audience, the song can take on a completely different meaning.[26] The 1980s can be classified by the emergence of awareness of cultural bias, source unreliability, and a general mistrust of the concept of “true” meaning and representation.

1990s

By the late 80s, the field of ethnomusicology had begun examining popular music and impact of media. Several definitions of popular music exist but most agree that popular music is characterized by having widespread appeal, association with urbanization, and relationship with media. Peter Manuel adds to this definition by distinguishing popular music by its association with different groups of people, performances by musicians not necessarily trained or intellectual, and dispersion through broadcasting and recording.[27] Theodor Adorno defined popular music by contrasting it from serious music, which is purposeful and generally cooperates within strictly structured rules and conventions. Popular music can operate less deliberately and focuses on creating a general effect or impression, usually focusing on emotion.[28]

Although the music industry developed over several decades, popular music drew ethnomusicologists’ attention by the 90s because a standardizing effect began to develop. The corporate nature surrounding popular music streamlined it into a framework that focused on slight deviations from the accepted norm, creating what Adorno calls “pseudo-individualism”; what the public would perceive as unique or organic would musically comply with standard, established musical conventions. Thus, a duality emerged from this standardization, an industry-driven manipulation of the public’s tastes to give people what they want while simultaneously guiding them to it. In the case of rock music, while the genre may have grown out of politicized forces and another form of meaningful motivation, the corporate influence over popular music became integral to its identity that directing public taste became increasingly easier.[29] Technological developments allowed for easy dispersion of western music, causing the dominance of western music into rural and urbanized areas across the globe. However, because popular music assumes such a corporatized role and therefore remains subject to a large degree of standardization, ambiguity exists whether the music reflects actual cultural values or those only of the corporate sector seeking economic profit.[30] Because popular music developed such a dependent relationship with media and the corporations surrounding it, where record sales and profit indirectly shaped musical decisions, the superstar person became an important element of popular music. From the fame and economic success surrounding such superstars, subcultures continued to arise, such as the rock and punk movements, only perpetuated by the corporate machine that also shaped the musical aspect of popular music.

Musical interaction through globalization played a huge role in ethnomusicology in the 1990s.[31] The talk of musical change was increasingly being talked about. Ethnomusicologists began looking into a 'global village', straying away from a specialized look at music within a specific culture. There are two sides to this globalization of music: on one hand it would bring more enrichment to cultures, but on the other hand it could homogenize music. Ethnomusicologists have approached this new combination of different styles of music within one music by looking at the musical complexity and the degree of compatibility. This Westernization and modernization of music created a new focus of study; ethnomusicologists began to look at how different musics interact in the 1990s.

2000s

By the 2000s, musicology, too, was looking into the notion that connections exist between social groups and characteristics.[32]

Ethnomusicologists continued to deal with and consider the effects of globalization on their work. Bruno Nettl identifies Westernization and modernization as two concurrent and similar cultural trends that served to help streamline musical expression the world over. While creeping globalization had an undeniable effect on cultural homogeneity, it also helped broaden musical horizons the world over. Rather than simply lamenting the continuing assimilation of folk music of non-western cultures, many ethnomusicologists chose to examine exactly how non-western cultures dealt with the process of incorporating western music into their own practices to facilitate the survival of their previous traditions.[33]

With the ongoing globalization of music, many genres influenced each other and elements from foreign music became more prevalent in mainstream popular music. Diaspora populations such as the Punjab population in England were studied due to the characteristics of their music showing signs of the effects of global media. Their music, like many other music of displaced cultures, was made up of elements from the folk music of their culture along with the popular music of their location. Through this process the idea of transnationalism in music occurred.[34]

Ethnomusicology in Popular Culture

Ethnomusicology is not limited to the study of music from “exotic” cultures; Western music and its influences is also a topic of interest. The influence of the media on consumerism in America is a bi-directional effect, according to Thomas Turino.[35] A large part of self-discovery and feeling accepted in a group is related to common musical taste, which leads to music producers catering to these certain groups. The statement Turino makes that “the sounds and imagery piped in over the radio and Internet and in videos shape adolescent sense of gendered selves as well as generational and more specific cohort identities“ is only half the story; the influence works in both directions to shape modern American popular music culture. The culmination of identity groups, and teenagers in particular, across the country represent a significant force that can shape the music industry based on what is being consumed.

Theories and methods

Ethnomusicologists often apply theories and methods from cultural anthropology, cultural studies and sociology as well as other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Though some ethnomusicologists primarily conduct historical studies, the majority are involved in long-term participant observation. Therefore, ethnomusicological work can be characterized as featuring a substantial, intensive ethnographic component.

Some ethnomusicological works are created not necessarily by 'ethnomusicologists' proper, but instead by anthropologists examining music as an aspect of a culture. A well-known example of such work is Colin Turnbull's study of the Mbuti pygmies. Another is Jaime de Angulo, a linguist who intensively studied the music of the natives of Northern California.[36] Additionally, Anthony Seeger, Distinguished Professor of Ethnomusicology and the Director of the Ethnomusicology Archive at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied the music and society of the Suyá people in Mato Grosso, Brazil.[37]

Scholarly Relevance

In 1971, Hood suggested that an ethnomusicologist must be familiar with a wide array of general musical knowledge as well as specific knowledge in at least one specific area of the world.[38] Hood recommended that students of ethnomusicology undertake substantial musical training in the field, a competency that he described as "bimusicality."[39] Fieldwork is an essential part of experience for an ethnomusicologist and by participating in music performance and cultural lifestyle, the ethnomusicologist will be better able to analyze similarities and differences between musical styles.[citation needed] Although during the development of ethnomusicology it was common to focus on “other” music in terms of world region, but today it is common for an ethnomusicologist’s in depth knowledge be of music from his or her own country or region, broadening the range of research across the globe.[citation needed]

Analysis

During the early stages of ethnomusicology Marcia Herndon believed that because of ethnomusicologist’s rocky beginning, the society might benefit by creating concrete models to analyze music and share data. These models included the organic model, the mechanical model, the process model, and the mathematical model.[40] However Mieczyslaw Kolinski, in 1976, found it dangerous to restrict music to fit into certain models of analysis. Music is such a large and ever-changing phenomenon of human kind and by putting music into certain categories and styles, it may limit the full potential of individuality within music. Furthermore, it is difficult to analyze music as its structure can change during performance and according to the performer.[41] Today, there is no strict way to share and analyze data amongst ethnomusicologists. It is up to the individual to comprehend data.

Fieldwork

In the early years, ethnomusicological fieldwork favored the “armchair” approach, where ethnologists collected data, usually through transcription or on wax cylinders, and scholars would carry out the actual analysis at their home institutions.[42] Scholars in the Berlin school of comparative musicology, such as Carl Sumpf and Erich M. von Hornbostel, studied hundreds of recordings, many collected from colonial territories, eager to catalogue and archive musics from other cultures.[43]

The transition to the type of fieldwork that characterizes ethnomusicology arose in the American school. Focus shifted to scholars conducting their own fieldwork, living within the culture being studied, and improving data collection as technological advances arose. Ethnomusicologists stressed the importance of face-to-face interaction in order to gather the most accurate impression and meaning of music within a culture as possible.[44] David McAllester was paramount in helping the discipline transition from the “armchair” approach to contextual fieldwork with his work with the Navaho, with whom he lived and aimed to understand the Enemy Way music from their perspective.

As technology advanced, researchers graduated from depending on wax cylinders and the phonograph, to digital recordings and video cameras. Video recordings are now considered cultural texts, so ethnomusicologists can conduct fieldwork by recording music performances and creating documentaries of the people behind music.[45] However, these technological advances have allowed fieldwork to begin to shift back to the way fieldwork was for comparative musicologists.

The ethical concerns of ethnomusicology are primarily related to fieldwork. Mark Slobin writes about the application of ethics to fieldwork[46] A heightened awareness of the need to approach fieldwork in an ethical manner arose in the 1970s in response to a similar movement within the field of anthropology.

Anthony Seeger uses a personal anecdote to illustrate the complexities involved with recording music in the field and bringing it back to his native Western culture.[47] Several potential problems with that may arise when doing fieldwork include attaining complete permission from the group or individual who is performing the music, as well as being sensitive to the rights and obligations related to the music in the context of the host society. The example Seeger uses to describe the complexities involved with fieldwork was his interaction with the Suya Indians of Brazil. The process he describes, from the creation and teaching of the music to the actual recording process to the publication and archival of the music, is complex and intricate even without taking ethics into consideration. Even with keeping to ethical practices, there is not always a process that will be fair for every party involved. Additionally, the ethical way is usually more lengthy and difficult than a non-ethical method. Seeger’s anecdote is a prime example of the complexity of ethical practices in ethnomusicological fieldwork.

Theoretical issues and debates

Universals

Universals of music have been studied by seeking the commonalities between different types of musics and discovering a conceptual framework that subsume imaginary differences between them.[48] Ethnomusicologists initially started to question the possibility of universals because they were searching for a new approach to explain musicology that differed from Guido Adler’s.[49] Charles Seeger, for instance, categorized his interpretation of musical universals by using inclusion-exclusion styled Venn-diagrams to create five types universals, or absolute truths, of music.[50] Some ethnomusicologists such as David P. McAllester argue that there are no absolute universals in music due to human variability and complexity but believe that there are “near-enough” universals, particularly music’s seeming ability to revolve around some tonal center and heighten human experience .[51] Others, such as George List, fundamentally believe that there can be no universals whatsoever in music but maintain that scholars can learn much by still exploring the possibility of universals.[52]

Dane Harwood suggests that while there can be no cultural universals in music there exist universal modes of cognitively understanding that we all undergo when we listen to music.[53]

Many musical traditions' tuning's notes align with their dominant instrument's timbre's partials[54] and fall on the tuning continuum of the syntonic temperament, suggesting that tunings of the syntonic temperament (and closely related temperaments) may be a potential universal.[55]

Language models and linguistics

In the 1970s, a number of scholars, including musicologist Charles Seeger and semiotician Jean-Jacques Nattiez, proposed using methodology commonly employed in linguistics as a new way for ethnomusicologists to study music.[56][57] This new approach, widely influenced by the works of linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, was focused into finding the underlying symbolic structure behind the cultures and their music.[58]

In this vein, Judith Becker and Alton L. Becker theorized the existence of musical "grammars" in their studies of the theory of Javanese gamelan music. They proposed that music could be studied as a symbol, but also bore many resemblances to language, and therefore semiotic study could take place.[59]

Citing the non-scientific nature of music, Jean-Jacques Nattiez suggested that linguistic models and methods might prove to be more effective than the scientific method. The improvements of ethnomusicology, based on the linguistic methods, include the capability to rely in itself as a discipline, rather than continuously borrow resources from other sciences. The analysis complexity refined with the inclusion of structural dimensions, like diachronic and synchronic perspectives for music, and differentiations between the individual and the shared experiences.[60] While the idea of musical semiotics was common in the 1970s, it never gained great popularity, and only a few modern ethnomusicologists employ linguistic methods, with critics claiming that music only bears significant similarity to language in a limited number of cultures.[61]

Comparison

Since ethnomusicology evolved from comparative musicology, ethnomusicologists have been using comparisons in their research. The problems that arose from using these comparisons stem from the fact that there are different kinds of comparative studies with a varying degree of understanding between them.[62] Ethnomusicologists who desired to find comparisons between music and culture have used Alan Lomax’s idea of cantometrics.[63] Some cantometric measurements in ethnomusicology studies have been shown be relatively reliable, such as the wordiness parameter, while other methods are not as reliable, such as precision of enunciation.[64] Another approach introduced by Steven Feld is for ethnomusicologist who are interested with creating ethnographically detailed analysis of people’s lives; this comparative study deals with making pairwise comparisons about competence, form, performance, environment, theory, and value/equality.[65]

Insider/outsider epistemologies

In The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-One Issues and Concepts, Nettl presents the discussion of personal and global issues pertaining to field researchers in communities that are studied, particularly issues faced by Western researchers by citing Mantle Hood, “The American of French or British ethnomusicologists because of who he is—that is to say, what he has succeeded in becoming through years of training—is capable of insights and evaluations…”[66] Since ethnomusicology is a field that includes and participates in a vast array of other fields, it focuses on studying people, and it is appropriate to encounter the issue of “making the unfamiliar, familiar” a phrase well known in social psychology coined by William McDougall.[67] Like in social psychology, the “unfamiliar” is encountered in three different ways: (1) two different cultures come into contact and elements of both will not be immediately explicable to the other; (2) experts within a society produce new knowledge, which is then communicated to the public; and (3) active minorities communicate their perspective to the majority.[68] Nettl also talks about the differences in perspective of each individual and how that affects the final understanding of the research. There is a thin like between making the unfamiliar, familiar, and as an outsider, a researcher might try immersing into the culture that is being studied to gain full understanding. This however, can, depending on level of immersion, begin to blind sight the researcher and take away the ability to be objective in what is being studied. The background knowledge of each individual influences the focus of the study because of the comfort level with the material. Nettl points out the flaws in Western thinking in analyzing different societies and presents the idea of collaborating with a greater focus on acknowledging the contribution of the native experts. He believes that every concept is studied through a personal perspective, but “a comparison of viewpoints may give the broadest possible insight.”[69]

A specific issue faced by ethnomusicologists has been discussed extensively in Edward Said’s well known book, Orientalism. The central idea that Said discusses is that Western knowledge or beliefs about the East, or the Orient are not based on fact or reality but a distinctly European/Western imaginative. Said says, “the Orient was almost a European invention” it was a place created off of the beliefs that the Orient contained “romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.”[70] Said also discusses that the Orient is the source of “Europe’s greatest and richest oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other[71] In fact, the Spanish and Portuguese hoped to find new trade routes to get to the East quicker and establish a marketable source for trade, this of course led to a different discovery. He discusses that Orientalism clearly shows the “European-Atlantic power over the Orient”,[72] it is rather a “geopolitical awareness”[73] that the world is split into two unequal halves. Another form of power is seen through the intellectual authority over the Orient within Western culture.[74] He uses his own experiences as an Arab Palestinian in the West and the assumptions caused by his origins. There are very distinct classifications that he must fit in, either, “politically he does not exist, and when it is allowed that he does, it is either as a nuisance or as an Oriental.”[75] These issues are directly linked to the studies of ethnomusicology and attempts to overcome the effects of colonialism and the West's perception of The Other.

Timothy Rice argues that despite the impossibility of being objective one’s work ethnomusicologists may still learn much from self-reflection. In his book May it Fill Your Soul: Experiencing Bulgarian Music,[76] he questions about whether or not one can be objective in understanding and discussing art and, in accordance with the philosophies of phenomenology, argues that there can be no such objectivity since the world is constructed with preexisting symbols that distort any “true” understanding of the world we are born into. He then suggests that no ethnomusicologist can ever come to an objective understanding of a music nor can an ethnomusicologist understand foreign music in the same way that a native would understand it. However, an ethnomusicologist can still come to a subjective understanding of that music, which then shapes that scholar’s understanding of the outside world.

Not only is there the question of being on the outside while studying another culture, but also the question of how to go about studying one's own society. Nettl's approach would be to determine how the culture classifies their own music.[77] He is interested in the categories they would create to classify their own music. In this way, one would be able to distinguish themselves from the outsider while still having slight insider insight. Kingsbury believes it is impossible to study a music outside of one's culture, but what if that culture is your own?[78] One must be aware of the personal bias they may impose on the study of their own culture.

Ethics

Because of the nature of fieldwork in ethnomusicology, which requires researchers to develop personal relationships with informants, researchers must be aware of their own ethical responsibilities toward the informant and themselves. These concerns can include questions of privacy, consent, and safety. Because it is such a universal issue for ethnomusicologists, the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) has a Committee on Ethics that publishes a Position Statement on Ethics.[79]

Ethical issues in the field of ethnomusicology parallel those found in anthropology. The American Anthropology Association has made statements on the ethics of anthropological research, some of which concerns ethnomusicological study as well.

Mark Slobin observes that discussion on ethics has been founded on several assumptions, namely that: 1) “Ethics is largely an issue for ‘Western’ scholars working in ‘non-Western’ societies”; 2) “Most ethical concerns arise from interpersonal relations between scholar and ‘informant’ as a consequence of fieldwork”; 3) “Ethics is situated within…the declared purpose of the researcher: the increase of knowledge in the ultimate service of human welfare.”; and 4) “Discussion of ethical issues proceeds from values of Western culture.” Slobin remarks that a more accurate statement might acknowledge that ethics vary across nations and cultures, and that the ethics from the cultures of both researcher and informant are in play in fieldwork settings.[80]

Some case scenarios for ethically ambiguous situations that Slobin discusses include the following:

1. The discovery of a rare musical instrument leads to the debate of whether it should be preserved in a museum or left in its native culture to be played, but not necessarily preserved. 2. The filming of a documentary video brings up the issues of consent from those who are being filmed. Additionally, the film should not necessarily be shown if the producer is not present to answer questions or clarify the video’s content if there are questions from the audience. 3. Deciding how the monetary gains of a musical production should be distributed is a more prominent case of ethical concern. 4. Attaining partial permission in the field is usually not enough to justify filming or recording; every person in the group should consent to the presence of a recording device. 5. Whether or not truthful but possibly condemning information about a group is a situation that should be treated with extreme caution. Any information that could cause trouble for the musicians may need to be censored.

Ethnomusicologists also tend towards the discussion of ethics in sociological contexts. Timothy Taylor writes on the byproducts of cultural appropriation through music, arguing that the 20th century commodification of non-western musics serves to marginalize certain groups of musicians who are not traditionally integrated into the western music production and distribution industries.[81] Steven Feld argues that Ethnomusicologists also have their place in analyzing the ethics of popular music collaboration, such as Paul Simon's work with traditional zydeco, Chicano, and South African beats on Graceland. Feld notes that inherently imbalanced power dynamics within musical collaboration can contribute to cultural exploitation.[82]

Gender Bias

The first ethnomusicologists had a tendency to research with a recurring gender bias. The cultures were approached through mostly male musicians, assuming their perspective as the whole panorama of the culture. If gender builds a dual social organization, it can also be expected that music carries similar dynamics on the relationship among members. For Ellen Koskoff, the role of women is, at least, half of the overall system. The presence of a difference in gender roles can indicate the expectations of a certain culture, the power struggles reinforcing the current social order or the subversive nature of women performances.[83]

Mass Media

In the first chapter of his book Popular Music of the Non-Western World,[84] Peter Manual examines the impact technology has had on non-western music by discussing its ability to disseminate, change, and influence music around the world. He begins with a discussion about definitions of genres, highlighting the difficulties in distinguishing between folk, classical, and popular music, within any one society. By tracing the historical development of the phonograph, radio, cassette recordings, and television, Manuel shows that, following the practice set in the western world, music has become a commodity in many societies, that it no longer has the same capacity to unite a community, to offer a kind of “mass catharsis” as one scholar put it. He stresses that any modern theoretical lens from which to view music must account for the advent of technology.

Copyright

Copyright poses an issue to ethnomusicologists in particular because of the differing degrees of protection from country to country. Rights surrounding music ownership are thus often left to ethics.

Anthony Seeger explains that “not all rights and obligations [with regards to music] are laws.”[85] He cites his personal experience working with the Suyá people of Brazil, for whom he released a recording of their songs. Their practices and beliefs regarding inspiration, authorship, and ownership of songs, which often trace back to animals and spirits and can be “owned” by entire communities, do not allow for a single original author as defined by United States copyright law. In cases where copyright is even granted, Seeger identifies a number of concerns with respect to who—the informant-performer, the researcher, the producer, and the organization funding the research—earns what for their contribution to the copyrighted item.

Martin Scherzinger offers a differing opinion on copyright, and argues that the law is not inherently ethnocentric.[86] He cites the early ideology behind copyright in the 19th century, stating that spiritual inspiration did not prohibit composers from being granted authorship of their works. Furthermore, he suggests that group ownership of a song is not significantly different from the collective influence in Western classical music of several composers on any individual work.

Identity

Finding the true identity and origin of music has been an area of conflict amongst many disciplines. Within ethnomusicology, there is focus on the cultural differences of music as a way to separate regions and styles, although classifying music into specific categories has created issues for ethnomusicologists. Globalization is discussed among ethnomusicologists as the spread of particular music across the world. Thomas Turino does not like the term global within globalization of music. Cosmopolitanism, instead, focuses on the culmination of multiple sites and their contributions to largely popular music. Cosmopolitanism reiterates how musical styles do not have specific origins but rather take aspects from many different cultures. Turino emphasizes that colonialist countries have a higher impact on globalization than cosmopolitanism, therefore making cosmopolitanism a more equitable for the sharing of music across the globe.[87]

The role of music in the shaping of collective identity has been addressed through different means. For instance, Thomas Torino focused in the functions of the overall identity to reach individual goals. In his scheme, music is perceived as a possession that reinforces the cohorts responsible for shared habits.[88] For Martin Stokes, the collective identity represents an exercise of power, where the function of music is to create barriers among groups. Such barriers importance is located in the classification over the content, leading to terms whose only meaning indicates opposition, like the case of ethnicity or nationality. The identity differences also work as elements of recognition of the own identity in the others and in places.[89]

For Katherine Hagerdon, the identity of the ethnomusicologist is as relevant for the research as the identities of the studied culture. Being conscious about the own’s identity in the interaction with the other should be an integral part of the final product. The access and expectations of the ethnomusicologist are seriously connected to the culture’s understanding of structures like gender or class.[90] John Shepherd addresses the ethnomusicologist identity in terms of an academic community, based on Thomas Kuhn's explanation of scientific revolutions. The disjuncture between the goals of the discipline and the current themes grew apart in several moments of ethnomusicology´s history, causing the rising of a new set of paradigms disputing the new concerns.[91]

Not only is music used as a way of creating a group identity, but it can create personal identity as well. Frith describes music as having the ability to manipulate moods and organize the daily life.[92] Through an independent study project done by Susan Craft, the role of music in one's life was examined by focusing on a range of different aged people and their personal stories.[93] She interviews a wide variety of people, from a young adult that found music in every aspect of her life, to a veteran who used music as a way to escape war and share joy in the accompaniment of others.

Cognition

Main article: Culture in music cognition
See also: Music psychology

Cognitive psychology, neuroscience, anatomy, and similar fields have endeavored to understand how music relates to an individual’s perception, cognition, and behavior. Research topics include pitch perception, representation and expectation, timbre perception, rhythmic processing, event hierarchies and reductions, musical performance and ability, musical universals, musical origins, music development, cross-cultural cognition, evolution, and more.

The perception of music has a quickly growing body of literature. Structurally, the auditory system is able to distinguish different pitches (sound waves of varying frequency) via the complementary vibrating of the eardrum. It can also parse incoming sound signals via pattern recognition mechanisms.[94] Cognitively, the brain is often constructionist when it comes to pitch. If one removes the fundamental pitch from a harmonic spectrum, the brain can still “hear” that missing fundamental and identify it through an attempt to reconstruct a coherent harmonic spectrum.[95]

Research suggests that much more is learned perception, however. Contrary to popular belief, absolute pitch is learned at a critical age, or for a familiar timbre only.[96][97] Debate still occurs over whether Western chords are naturally consonant or dissonant, or whether that ascription is learned.[98][99] Relation of pitch to frequency is a universal phenomenon, but scale construction is culturally specific.[100] Training in a cultural scale results in melodic and harmonic expectations.[101] Expectations of timbre are also learned based on past correlations.[102]

Researchers have also attempted to use psychological and biological principles to understand more complex musical phenomena such as performance behavior or the evolution of music, but have reached few consensuses in these areas. It is generally accepted that errors in performance give insight into perception of a music’s structure, but these studies are restricted to Western score-reading tradition thus far.[103] Currently there are several theories to explain the evolution of music – that it piggy-backed on the ability to produce language, evolved to enable and promote social interaction,[104] evolved to increase efficiency of vocal communication over long distances, or enabled communication with the supernatural.[105]

Academic programs

Main article: List of universities with ethnomusicology programmes

Many universities around the world offer ethnomusicology classes and act as centers for ethnomusicological research. The linked list includes graduate and undergraduate degree-granting programs.[106]

See also

References

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  36. ^ Jaime de Angulo
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  106. ^ SEM: Guide to Programs

Further reading

  • Merriam, Alan (1964). The Anthropology of Music. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ Press.
  • Blacking, John (1973). How Musical Is Man?. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295952180.
  • Myers, Helen, ed. (1992). Ethnomusicology: An Introduction. New Grove Handbooks in Music. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0333576314.
  • Nettl, Bruno (2005). The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-One Issues and Concepts (rev. ed.). Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
  • Stone, Ruth (2008). Theory for Ethnomusicology. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780132408400.

External links

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