Critical Review #3: Barz and Cooley Ch. 2

In this chapter, among other things, Titon explores the areas of gathering information as it pertains to ethnomusicology. He notes that fieldwork has replaced transcription as the main constituent of the discipline, that it is no longer enough to merely observe and collect information, that we must also experience and understand. Along those lines, we must understand, not just explain. To me, the distinction between the question "what?" and the question "why?" is huge. Exploring why things happen centers around two activities: Phenomenology, which refers to the immediate, concrete sensory "lifeworld," a lived experience, and Hermeneutics, which states that any meaningful action can be read as a text. However, Titon does wonder if a text is the best analogy, proposing instead a musical performance, which leads into my discussion question.

Discussion Question: In your opinion, which is the better analogy for interpretive acts--is the world a text to be read or a musical performance to be experienced?

SEM History Post

The first few issues of Ethno-musicology are called newsletters, not journals as they are today. Numbers 1-5 (December 1953 to September 1955), the first five issues, are unsurprisingly very different in both layout and content from their 2006 counterparts. A representative issue of the early “newsletter” style issues is Newsletter No. 5, from September 1955. Most notably, some sections are primarily concerned with the identity and definition of ethnomusicology—several ideas are included in this issue—and its relationship with anthropology and musicology.

The introduction announces a meeting in Boston where the goal will be to form an ethno-musicological society at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. From this, it can be inferred that an “official” separation from anthropology has not yet occurred, but enough people have realized how significant the differences are that they are clamoring for a separate society.

The Notes and News section mostly contains paragraphs describing the work of various ethnomusicologists. Notably, some paragraphs are in foreign languages: two are in French and one is in German. Also, Mr. John Blacking, “an internationally known British anthropologist and musicologist” (2) admits in his paragraph that his work is more musicological than ethnomusicological, though this did not prevent the editor from printing the letter despite the fact that far more letters were received than were reprinted, as seen from the “Letters also received from” section at the end of the Notes and News.

A letter from Henrietta Yurchenco, who wrote from Rome, shows exactly how “new” of a field that ethnomusicology is. She is happy to read that people are trying to “remove ethnomusicological research from its isolation and take its place in the study of culture as a whole” (6), and that people are trying to make it more comprehensive and inclusive. She writes that investigating “music as an emotional expression” must go beyond musicology, beyond just collecting, classifying, and analyzing music from a technical point of view. She states, in accordance with modern ethnomusicological theory, that though field recordings are indispensible, the ethnomusicologist needs to fill in the blanks and also be an excellent observer of human beings.

The Recordings section lists a set of records about theories of different types of music, such as “Indian Music Theory and Acoustics.” Notably, all are musicological: none address the relationship between music and culture. Also, a reprinting, in French, of the Musée de l’Homme ethnic music catalog is included.

The Exchange section makes its final appearance in Vol. 1 No. 11 (Sept. 1957). It is basically a forum for the community: some offer recordings for exchange or purchase, such as Toshi and Peter Seeger, who are making videos of various American folk instrumental techniques. They believe that a sort of “central depository” of film similar to theirs should be made, though they write that it is for comparative studies. I found Seeger’s “second communication” amusing: “I and several others…have planned a campaign to introduce [the steel drum] and the methods of making it to U.S. teenagers with with whom, we feel, it should be very popular since it is a percussion instrument perfectly suited to many popular folk tunes[…]cheap to make, and loud!” (17) Clearly, stereotypes of American teenagers have not changed much.

Writings which today would be considered anthropology and musicology are included alongside letters that could find its way into current issues of this journal. The content of this early issue of Ethnomusicology shows just how recently the field was defined.

Fieldwork Topic

I am planning to do my fieldwork on The Smokin' Reed Saxtet, a group of Brown saxophonists. Though two of my friends are members of this group, I currently do not know as much about it as I should. I believe that they are simply a student group, unaffiliated with the Brown Music Department. They play a variety of music, ranging from transcriptions/arrangements of Bach to music recently written specifically for saxtets.

Some possible research questions, at least to start, are:
1. What motivates the members of the saxtet to rehearse and perform? All (or, at least, the majority) are also members of other Brown music groups; what does the saxtet bring that the others do not?
2. As a relatively "unknown" group (as opposed to the Brown Orchestra, Wind Symphony, A Capella groups, etc.), how do you publicize your concerts? Do you hope to expand and become a "large" attraction, or are you content with your current audience?
3. Who is your current audience? Is it different from the audience of other Brown music groups?

Critical Review #2: Clifford 1988

The second half of this reading deals primarily about the difficulties in translating ethnographic fieldwork into writing. Experiences in the field, especially dialogue with representatives of the culture being studied, have to be "translated" into "narratives, meaningful occurrences, or examples" (39), which alters the material from being said by one to being said by the culture. Additionally, this tends to hide the fact that these conversations with individuals are as important, if not more, as observations in understanding a culture. Furthermore, it is tedious to separate different people's opinions and contributions to the ethnographer's view--as Clifford writes, an "ethnography composed entirely of quotations...[is] seldom attempted" (47), and even works with multiple authors, such as Birds of My Kalam Country still cannot completely capture this concept. Finally, the diverse audience for modern ethnography compounds this issue: now there will be multiple interpretations of each ethnographic writing.

Discussion questions: Should the ethnographer seek to interpret a culture, or simply present his/her observations and leave the interpretation to the reader? Also, because different audiences will interpret the ethnographer's writings differently because of different cultural backgrounds, who should the ethnographer write for: the culture being studied, the ethnographer's "home" culture, or a third "outside" observer? Does this depend on the ethnographer's goals?

Critical Review #1: Barz and Cooley Ch. 9

In my opinion, the main idea of this chapter was that ethnographers directly affect the people that they study. In other words, it is impossible to be a completely neutral observer with no effect on those observed. Shelemay offers examples from her work with Jews of Syrian descent who live in Brooklyn, New York, such as writing to the US Immigration Service to help a visiting cantor from Israel remain in the United States on a permanent basis. Shelemay knew that the cantor's influence carried a "different stream of Sephardic tradition" (146) and would thus alter the "distinctive Aleppo musical tradition sustained in Brooklyn" (146), but helped him immigrate anyways. Presumably, this action (by an ethnomusicologist) has affected the music of the Brooklyn Jews (the culture being studied). Through their work, ethnomusicologists also preserve the musics (and associated cultural traditions) of the groups they study, help memorialize those who perform the music, and mediate the transmission of the music, to both outsiders relative to that culture and also those within the culture.

Discussion question: Should ethnomusicologists be concerned that they may be preserving a tradition that, without them, may have "died off"? In other words, should they be worried about the possibility of altering the very traditions that they are studying?

24-hour log

From 9:30 pm, 9/14 to 9:30 pm, 9/15

9/14
9:30 pm: Walking by Antonio's: "Vehicle" by The Ides of March
10:30 pm: Headphones (on my laptop) (until 11):
"Rhapsody in Blue" by Gershwin (unknown performer)
Random songs on Pandora while doing homework (I didn't pay attention to specific songs)

9/15
12:55 pm: Taste of the World line at the Ratty: some generic Asian music
2:05 pm: Rock music from car driving by on Thayer St.
2:25 pm: Music in a friend's room (computer speakers, via iTunes Genius)
"Ocean Breathes Salty" by Modest Mouse
"Somebody to Love" by Queen
"Don't Panic" by Coldplay
"Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night
"How's it Going to Be" byThird Eye Blind
5:50 pm: Wind Symphony warming up
6:00 pm: Wind Symphony rehearsal (until 7:20):
"October" by Eric Whitacre
"Bartok Folk Rhapsody" by Anne McGinty
"Four Pieces for Band" by Bela Bartok, arr. Benjamin Suchoff
"First Suite in Eb for Military Band" by Holst
7:30 pm: Practicing piano in Morrison-Gerard (until 8:30): Piano Concerto No. 1 by Tchaikovsky
8:50 pm: Acapella group practicing across the Barbour courtyard. I wasn't really paying attention, but I did notice that the songs consisted of only syllables, not words. One of my suitemates said it might be the Madrigal Singers.

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