Ethno Musicology
Ethno Musicology
Ethno Musicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnography + Musicology writing about people Social Anthropology Musicking: making, receiving, talking about, behaving with music.
How music means what meanings, in the broadest sense, do people draw from music, and what in the music makes that drawing possible.
Clichs of difference
Synchronic (occurring at one point in time) vs diachronic (evolving through time) The ethnographic present
the Jogi performer draws upon a range of sources . . .
Dum Alu
900gms Aloo (Potatoes) 3 & 3/4th cups water Salt To Taste Ghee or oil for deep-frying 1 cup ghee 1 large Onion (finely chopped) 4 tbsp tomato puree 140 ml curd 4 tbsp hot water 1 green pepper (seeds removed and sliced) 1tsp garam masala powder Spices 4 cloves 4 bay leaves 6 black peppercorns 4 green cardamoms 1 brown cardamom 1piece cinnamon stick Paste 1 large onion (chopped) 12 cloves garlic 2 tbsp ginger 6 black peppercorns 1 tsp poppy seeds 1 tbsp coriander seeds 1 tsp cumin seeds 2 dry red chillies 1 tsp turmeric powder A pinch of ground mace A pinch of ground nutmeg Peel and dice the potatoes into 2cm cubes. Soak in water for about 20 minutes. While the potatoes are soaking, prepare the dry paste in a mixi.
Ever heard something totally unfamiliar, or something you really didnt like?
Japanoise Incapacitants Pansori Korea Park Dong Jin
3 options
Compare with what you know Run screaming No-one deliberately creates bad music: get working
Two approaches
The hot topic
The ethnography
bhangra
Punjab (India and Pakistan) Developed in UK youth Migration Minority Mass media Identity: Assigned, Elective, Public, Private
Identity
Musician as Identity
Specialisation Professionalisation Selection (Peru) Relations to others
Identity
Articulated (bhangra examples above) Why cant I have my self-expression back? Killing me softly Roberta Flack Identity as things shared
Identity projected
What does it mean for 19 year olds of (insert qualifiers if you think necessary) Australian background to learn to play music written by a provincial German for a Russian aristocrat living in Vienna 200 years ago? People could think you rather odd?
Music as work
Creates identity
Election
Enculturates to sounds used to project identity Creates group bonds of varied durability
Anthems dangerous neo-tribal
Identity/difference
Gender Musics and roles within music
Negotiation 055 Alim Qasimov and Fergana Qasimova Azerbaijan muqam falsetto HawaiI Stan Kaina
Guaguanco (Cuba)
Gender relations Processes of music making Cultural survival Aberikula en la Habana
Sousa march
Music shaping social behaviour Music shaping values Music as outlet.
Country and Western, Roger Wallace
Where is ethnomusicology
Somewhere else (other) Speaking another language Usually poor Frequently hot
Music is NOT a universal language Variety of sounds and meanings What accounts for this? It is not race Culture (enculturation) Circumstance Habitus between circumstance and action
Getting it wrong
European music is corrupt, degenerate. And the most corrupt music of all is that of Bach. And why? Because he muddles the practice of music with those artificial and unacceptable elements of harmony and polyphony, disguising melody in a jumble of overlapping sounds. He enslaves melody to the confines of the most banal meters, and confuses all with that clamour known as orchestration. (A famous Indian musician, subsequently elaborated in his defence by several Indian friends). Right observations, wrong evaluations
Relativism
Sounds are only meaningful and assessable relative to their interpreter A primary interpreter is the group that makes the sound in the first place. There is no absolute standard of beauty, correctness, expressivity etc Emic and etic views
Time
Music ordering time Accelerating or Slowing the experience of time. dhrupad alap: Dagar Brothers
Foregrounded time
Periodicity (metre)
Pulse alone taqsim (from 355) Cycle Length Symmetry Ivo Papasov ratchenitsa Regularity Reich Tehillim How is it marked Polymetric Zimbabwe mbira (modernised): Thomas Mapfumo
culture
What you find in museums and concert halls. So called high culture That complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (E.B. Tylor).
culture
culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviours and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. These shared patterns identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group. [Centre for Advanced Research in Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota. www.carla.umn.edu/culture/definitions.html]
Culture
Most social scientists today view culture as consisting primarily of the symbolic, ideational, and intangible aspects of human societies. The essence of a culture is not its artifacts, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of the group interpret, use, and perceive them. It is the values, symbols, interpretations, and perspectives that distinguish one people from another in modernized societies; it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies. People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of symbols, artifacts, and behaviors in the same or in similar ways. [Banks, J.A., Banks, & McGee, C. A. (1989). Multicultural education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon].
music or non-music
a: the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity b: vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony (Webster)
Problems?
consisting of Isolates sound as part of complex Qualitative judgments
Cant music be irritating? Who is pleased?
Music is . . .
Sound Organised Sound Humanly Organised sound
Speech and song: sprechstimme, auctioneers, Life Without Buildings, Rex Harrison, closing, silbo Cultural limitations adan, ngathi, Inuit throat games
musiqi, khavandan
Birds and whales? Why not crows and dogs? Nils Valkeapaa John Cage