PART 7: Video Intro

Do you remember the very first video introduction to this course? The one that dealt with the idea of music as a universal language? Now that you've had a whole term to think about it, it might be interesting to revisit that discussion. Perhaps you have a different perspective on it now.

Music as a universal language is an idea with wide appeal, but the concept has been questioned during the past 50 years or so, especially by ethnomusicologists.  However you may answer the question yourself, it's important to remember that a focus on purely western European art traditions neglects a great variety of other musics worldwide that are extremely important to our world culture-- and are very beautiful. No "Introduction to Music" would ever be complete without some attention to these other cultures and traditions.  This lecture will give you a small sampling of some of those musics.  It is certainly not meant to be comprehensive-- but hopefully it will pique your interest and awaken a curiosity about world musics.

WHAT IS ETHNOMUSICOLOGY?

The definition itself is a source of argument. One definition maintains that it is the study of music in and as culture; the study of how people use, perform, compose, and think about music; and of their general attitudes toward it. The emphasis here is in contrast to musicology, where the primary concern is in the structure of the music itself.

Another definition holds that ethnomusicology is the comparative study of musical systems and cultures. The reason this definition is controversial is that some scholars argue that we do not know enough about the musical cultures of the world to carry out meaningful comparisons. They argue that musics are intrinsically not comparable, that they can't be translated into a set of common denominators.

Still others say that ethnomusicology is not a field in itself. Rather, it is a field of interest that draws upon other recognized disciplines such as musicology, anthropology, folklore, linguistics, and psychology.

The beginnings of the "field" of ethnomusicology can be traced back to Rousseau's Dictionary of 1768, which had articles on Chinese, Canadian, Indian, and Finnish folk music. In the 1880s, the investigation of non-Western European musics was proposed as a field of study by the German musicologist Guido Adler. Some of the earliest "ethnomusicologists" (though they did not use that term) were missionaries, travelers, government and military officers, and traders, who were often highly educated and who, in the course of their regular work, began to keep diaries and journals about the cultures they were visiting and interacting with.

The term "ethnomusicology" became current in the 1950s and the Society for Ethnomusicology was founded in 1955. Early pioneers in the field include Charles Seeger, (the father of Pete Seeger and husband of the noted composer, Ruth Crawford Seeger); Bela Bartok, whose work with cataloging and studying Hungarian, Rumanian, and other eastern European and north African cultures was noted in a past lecture; and Bruno Nettl and Mantle Hood, who authored seminal articles and books.

Highly recommended and very enjoyable: Bruno Nettl's Music of Many Cultures,  An Introduction, University of California Press, 1980.  It is a fascinating book which will give you insight into cultures around the world, and the goals of an ethnomusicologist .

 

WHAT DOES AN ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST DO?

Most ethnomusicologists agree that in order to study a field one must work "in the field."  That entails actually travelling to the country of origin, and studying, recording and filming the musical activity.

As far as methodology is concerned, a researcher records a piece of music and then asks about its origin, function, means of transmission (i.e., is it handed down orally or notated?), the instruments involved, the attitudes towards the music, and finally, any taxonomies (i.e., terms used to classify various phenomena.)  Researchers must be careful about how they gather information; as in other fields of inquiry, for example, questions must not be leading and must not be phrased in a way as to set up a bias which does not exist.  An ethnomusicologist must be sensitive to a culture that he or she is studying-- for example, questions have arisen about the propriety of recording secret or sacred musics, and about the earnings from the commercial sale of recordings. Becoming a student of the culture rather than a collector of its artifacts is perceived as a more humble and respectful way of learning about the culture and usually yields a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of the subject. Commonly an ethnomusicologist will study the culture by becoming an apprentice to a master player. Often the job of learning a new instrument is complicated by the need to learn to read another system of notation.  Sometimes a culture has no system of notation at all, in which case the researcher will use a special system--a kind of Laba-notation-- which represents sounds and other related phenomena such as the stance of the performer, and the interrelationships between performers in an ensemble.

An ethnomusicologist does not study just the music, however, but studies the relationship of the music to the culture.  To that end they will investigate the role of music in human behavior and in rituals, and in early childhood training.  They will study the relationship between social and economic classes, and between sexes, the relative freedom or restriction of a society, and the history of the culture, all with an eye toward how the music reflects these conditions.

To learn more about the field of ethnomusicology, visit the site of the Society for Ethnomusicology.  The Library of Congress also has a site, Ethnographic Studies Resources, The American Folklife Center,  which is a collection of resources in anthropology, ethnomusicology, folklore and folklife.

Now that you have a basic idea of some of the issues in the field of ethnomusicology and some of the tenets of ethnomusicologists working in the field, it's time to look at a few samples from around the world.

THAILAND

The music of Thailand is somewhat of an amalgam since it contains elements of neighboring cultures which, at one point or another, it came into contact with.  The Thai people trace their homeland to southern China. The Chinese had a flourishing capital to the north, in Beijing, and they sent their exiles to this southern area, a semi-tropical jungle. Probably during the Han dynasty (c. 200 B.C. to A.D.200) the indigenous peoples of the region and the exiles began to develop their own culture.  One group of them became known as the Thai, meaning "free."  Out of this grew the Thai city Nanchao (meaning "southern people"), and for the next 600 years there was alot of Thai/Chinese exchange of culture.  As Mongols invaded the region people began to move southward toward Laos, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia. From this exposure the Thais learned from the Khmers of Cambodia and the Javanese of Burma.

In the past, Thai musicians were attached to royal households, and though they were servants they were nonetheless respected. Classic Thai music is no longer a profession, however, because there is so little opportunity to perform the music now. Since 1932 there has been a concerted effort by the government and private schools to maintain traditional Thai music, which would otherwise be lost.

The Thai musical system is based on a technique that the ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood has called "polyphonic stratification," meaning that one main melody is played simultaneously with a number of versions and variants of itself. Thai scales are 5 note patterns and have no half steps; typically their melodies have few leaps, following the pattern of the scale closely. Traditional music is always in duple meter and the pulse is outlined by alternating open sounds with damped sounds on the ching. (The open strokes (which ring) are unaccented and the closed are accented.) Rhythmic emphasis is strikingly different from the western model: in a four-beat measure, the most important beat would be the last and the next more important beat would be the second beat.

Here's a sample of  some Thai music.  It is a piece called Phram Dit Namtao.

INDONESIA

It's believed that skilled bronze workers came to Western Sumatra a few centuries before Christ.  During the Bronze-Iron age the Javanese were renowned for their skills in metalworking and fashioned a "bronze orchestra" ensemble called a gamelan in Java and Bali, and talempong in Sumatra.  A complete gamelan consists of two identical sets of instruments, each set with a different tuning. The most revered instrument of the gamelan ensemble is the great gong which is supposed to hold the spirit of the orchestra. It was even customary to sell the water the gong was washed in as holy water.  It was more than 3 feet in diameter, suspended from a frame, and struck with a padded mallet.  These large gongs are used to mark off meter in the music, or to mark off sections of a work.

Here's a sample of a Talempong ensemble from Sumatra.

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES

The Aborigines are believed to have inhabited Australia for thousands of years in complete isolation before Western European settlers first stumbled upon them in the 18th century. The Aborigines belong to the ethnic group known as Australoids and they have literally hundreds of Aboriginal languages.  Gender roles were strictly observed-- and art and religion were the sole province of males.  They believed that nature could be influenced through rituals of dance and art.  Music accompanied rites of initiation, fertility and death, and death could even be brought on by music, if a person sang a poison song against another.

Aborigines use percussion instruments such as round hardwood sticks and boomerangs hit together, bark or bundles of sticks struck on the palm of the hand, and hollowed log drums and wooden gongs struck with sticks. Their music is primarily vocal and they also use ululating, grunting, wailing, lap slapping, hand clapping and foot stomping.

Perhaps you have seen or heard the most distinctive of Aboriginal instruments, the didjeridu. Modern didjeridus are made of plastic or metal but the old ones were made of branches that were hollowed out by termites, or bamboo sticks with the inner membranes burned out. A mouthpiece made of gum or beeswax was often added and they were sometimes decorated with paintings or carvings.

The interesting thing about the didjeridu is the way it is played.  It is both blown and sung into. Since the large didjeridus are used as a drone the player must use a kind of circular breathing technique whereby they snatch quick breaths from the nose and store air in the mouth to keep the column of air continuously circulating.  Players can sing harmonies into the tube, imitate bird calls, or scream into the instrument in falsetto.  Researchers also think that some players speak a "secret language" into the instrument.

CLASSICAL IRANIAN MUSIC

In Persia music was traditionally improvised in an intimate setting-- not in a concert hall, but in a private room among friends. Most traditional music is unmeasured and played with a very free rhythmic sense akin to rubato; since this music is vocal, the text is the primary determinant of rhythm. The player will ornament a phrase or will string a set of small motivs together and improvise upon them.  In this sample you can hear the Persian dulcimer, called the santur. The singer sings in a way that verges on ululating.

AFRICA

 

African music is among my great favorites-- and there is a tremendous variety of instruments and musical styles all across the African continent.  One African instrument you might have seen -- it is occasionally sold in music stores or at art fairs-- is the Mbira, or thumb piano.

This is a charming instrument which you can make yourself by attaching flexible but strong metal prongs to a resonator (like a coconut or a gourd).  You hold it in your hands and play it with your thumbs by plucking upward on the metal prongs. There are different varieties of Mbira-- one of them is the Mbira of the Ancestors, which is played at religious ceremonies where it is supposed to project its sound heavenward to attract the attention of the ancestral spirits. This Mbira is supposed to be able to draw spirits down to earth to possess mediums, and it often puts participants into a trance. The Mbira is used in small ensembles with other mbiras and with rattles and singers.  By the way, when you listen to the example I've posted, please don't check your sound equipment for problems-- that extra fuzzy sound is the sound of the hosho, a soft rattle.

Drumming is very important in Africa and there are different types of drums and different styles of drumming.  In this sample, Hutu "Warriors-of-the-Drum" attack their instruments with ferocity. What is astounding is that the sample you're hearing is part of a 45 minute long work which contains excruciatingly complicated rhythmic patterns that are committed to memory by the performers.

One of the most amusing drums is the dun-dun, or "talking drum."  This drum can "talk" because the heads are laced on. The performer holds the drum under their arm and squeezes it to tighten the heads and change the pitch. In this way the drum can actually mimic the sound of the language so closely that people have been able to communicate messages with just drumming! Businessmen often hire a drummer to stand outside of their stall at the bazaar and "drum up business" by drumming a ditty with an advertising message. Drums have been used in courts of law to settle disputes: instead of speaking, both sides will press their case solely with drumming. The jury, usually made up of local people, will decide who was the more persuasive in their drumming and will pass judgment accordingly.  Time Magazine carried a story some years ago about a United States military plan that was actually foiled in Angola by warrior drummers who drummed a warning message to surrounding villages.

This sample of drumming is from an actual litigation.

This next sample demonstrates an incredible vocal technique where the singer can actually sing two pitches at once!  This is the voice of a little girl singing a song called, "Marilli."  If you listen carefully you will hear her singing octaves and other harmonics.  Remember that these are field recordings, so if you hear people coughing or speaking in the background it is indicative of the informality with which these recordings are made-- part of the whole job of capturing this music in its most natural environment.

One of my favorite instruments is the sweet-sounding Kora, an instrument which is played by "griots," the itinerant oral historians of Africa.  A griot will sit on the floor, strum the strings of this huge gourd instrument with its little seashells added on for an extra "swooshing" sound effect, and tell the story of a village, or sing a song of honor to his host. The griots cultivate a different vocal quality than do operatic and popular singers in the west-- it is deliberately strident and grainy in sound.

As a musician, I find it very moving to see how important music is to the everyday functioning of societies in such areas as Africa, the Caribbean and Asia-- to see people count on music to make rain, to please an ancestor, to heal a sick person, or to celebrate a harvest.  That, in contrast to the way western Europeans and Americans perceive music-- as a frivolity or a leisure pastime. But maybe, with all the recent scientific research suggesting that music helps the brain develop, it will begin to earn higher esteem in our society.

Not exactly like counting on music to make rain-- but important to us in our own way.

© Copyright 1998, 1999  by Omnidisc inc.  All rights reserved.  Reproduction of this page and all pages contained in this site is strictly prohibited by law.