http://mus110-eunahcho.blogspot.com/ <--comment please!

AHHH there are no comments on my blog....

let me know if you can't access it! :)

E

Ashley's Blog URL

I've posted my URL in one of the URL comments, but just in case you can't find it or didn't see it here it is.

http://ashleydguthrie.blogspot.com/

Good luck with the rest of your Finals & have a good Summer!

-Ash

Google + Setting

Hello classmates,

I was wondering if those of you who have your account linked up to Google+ may be willing to set it to the Blogger setting. I can't seem to access any of the individuals blogs who are linked to Google+ to comment on anything. Anyone else have this problem or is it a problem on my side?

-Ash

Not a universal language... ask the Maori... and the Dutch

http://bibliolore.org/2010/08/18/not-a-universal-language/



Hakas—what is the meaning here? How do you respond to it as the opposition?

Traditional version (ie the one they started with in 1915, was it? not with the mics and such obviously):

with translation:

Kapa o Pango (the new one, made especially for the all blacks):

Commoditisation of...:

And responses to (though only a few and I've seen some more interesting ones):

oh, here was a good one:

6/6/2013 Presenters

Post your blog URL if you presented today!

http://apnguyenmus110.blogspot.com/

My Blog URL

http://brentpalmermus110.blogspot.com/?zx=aa8817cf3e42b6c7

Hope y'all enjoy!

comment on my blog please!

http://mus110-clarence.blogspot.com/

my final recap post is up ...
sayasaurus = clarence
thaaanks!!

Megan Mui's blog URL

Hey guys,

Here's my blog URL:
http://meganmui110.blogspot.com/

Please let me know if there are any issues viewing it and I look forward to your comments!

Thanks,
MEGAN

BLOG URLs!

didn't see a blog post up yet for our blog urls ...
mine is: http://mus110-clarence.blogspot.com/
comment yours below? thanks.

DeNora Reading

DeNora begins by explaining Adorno's viewpoint that the organization of a certain musical piece has the ability to "foster critical consciousness" due to the fact that the piece does not adhere to musical cliche's, but instead engages the listener and demands active listening and participation. The organization of the music, by the nature of being progressive, reflects the society or social group that makes the music itself. DeNora then present a couple criticisms to Adorno's approach. The one that stands out is the question of how the music actually reflects the society and the process that is necessary for the music to do so. While reading this, I asked myself, is this just an inherent characteristic of making music? Does the artist unconsciously reflect his or her personal views of society and societal structures when making music? I would not go so far as to assume that every musical piece ever created has a structural affinity with a social formation, but I do believe that there are homologies present between the structures of musical pieces and society.

DeNora then addresses the art worlds perspective and presents a few key issues with that approach. Following that, she presents an interesting situation that displays "music's power to 'compose' situations." DeNora compares how long it seemed to him to wait for the modem to connect initially, tapping the 'enter' key impatiently until the dial-up connected. When she started tapping the enter key to Habanera's opening rhythm in Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, she experienced two ways in which "music can get into action." First, her bodily movement was affected by the music: the physical tapping of the finger was changed. Second, her temporal sense of the situation was affected. What initially seemed like an infinitely long wait was now too short. My question to you: can you think of any examples in which music has produced a similar effect on you? Have you experienced any instances in which music affected a situation you were in? Personally speaking, I find myself driving an average of 10mph faster than I normally do when I listen to metal. This may be due to the fast rhythm and tempo, or my engagement with the lyrics and melody. One way or another, I do not consciously notice the fact that I am driving faster until I realize a few minutes later that everyone around me is going very slow. The music has produced a physical effect on me.

DeNora then presents several more examples, all of which present situations in which "music is in dynamic relation with social life."

Wong Reading

The Wong reading was pretty dense and hard to get through, but it has a lot of interesting views and information.  For Deborah Wong the idea of activism in the ethnomusicological study of Asian Americans making music is essential.  The fact that there is a lot history and misunderstanding behind the identity of Asian Americans in addition to the already difficult to describe field of ethnomusicology and the problems that naturally arise in gathering an ethnography, necessitates the article's complexity.

I think that there is a lot that can be taken from this reading, one of the things that really struck me, though, was in the difficulty that Wong said that there was in defining Asian American music, because of the misconceptions and lack of understanding as to what the Asian American identity is.  The problem that presents itself here is something that I think can be taken account into much of the writing we do in the context of each of the musical cultures we study.  Deborah Wong says that she wants to steer away from asking if there is Asian American music because it raises the question of if there is an Asian American identity and diverts attention away from actually showing what it is and how it functions (pg 13).  I think that this is important to note, because in some sense we all have to define the culture and the identities of the people within the culture we are studying.  While it might not be so difficult for us, as I don't think any of us are taking on such a big issue as Deborah Wong is, I think it is good to realize that we can't use the assumption that others know what we mean when we say something, like in my case, the average bluegrass musician.  I realize I might have been rather lax in actually defining what a bluegrass musician is, assuming that others had a similar picture to the one in my head, without thinking about the possible stereotypes that may or may not be accurate to the bluegrass culture.  I believe we also have discussed in class that implying and making assumptions are very dangerous when we are dealing with subjects and material that can be heavily loaded with stereotypes and misconceptions.

Frith: Performing Rights On the Value of Popular Music

This article can be broken up into two points: The problem of how to attribute value to pop culture music, and technology of music.

 In the first half of the article Frith talks about how pop culture music has a value to it. That not only is it objective but subjective, and the subjective part is where cultural conversation and argumentation takes place. He explains that these arguments between people are not only prevalent in music but in: sports, movies, TV shows, etc.. Saying that people have a need to assign value to these things and argue their point. Thus, he asserts that these value arguments have three main aspects to be based upon: reason, evidence and persuasion. There was a process that was referred too on how we judge something within pop culture music; we try to point out what are the right things to listen to for other people, and then try to get others to like that particular piece of music. He points out that this was not only relevant for regular fans but created controversy when music critics tried to speak for the fans (example of how a critic said that rock was about sex, hate and smarmy p.10) yet when rock was talked about by an artist he had a completely different opinion on the matter, who was to say that the non-rocker critic had the correct assertion of what rock was? This was also a problem in academics, who was to say what should or should not be taught in a class? What should be considered ‘good’ literature to be taught?

The second part of this article talks about technology and the problems that arise when talking about how to listen to music. Frith explains that there are three stages to how music is stored: The body, notation and discs/tapes or anything in which it could be retrieved electronically. The act of recording turned music into an object. Is music then still viewed as an event or a work instead? Which brings up the next problem, concert vs. recording? Some talk about how music should not be recorded, that once it is, it takes away from the originality of it. Others say that recording it not only preserves it but also brings in new elements for music to expand upon.

I found a few things in this article interest. First, I never thought of the common occurrence that goes on in my everyday conversation that can be considered a pop culture value argument. It is very common and I also noticed that it reinforces my connections to people; I can relate more to people that have a common value about a certain thing, than someone that does not. I also found the section about how recordings not only changed jazz from its origins, but has made it largely to what it is today, something I should research more into for my project.

My questions is:
1) Do you feel that the value that people attribute to music, the process of argumentation that arises from it is something that is common place in your life? Do these subjective values play a part in how you are analyzing your music for your project?

SEM and AAA statements

Both the American Anthropological Associations (AAA) and Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) statements serve as ethical standards guidelines for researchers in those fields. The AAA's statement details seven principles:
1) Do no harm,
2) Be open and honest regarding your work,
3) Obtain informed consent and necessary permissions,
4) Weigh competing ethical obligations due collaborators and affected parties,
5) Make your results accessible,
6) Protect and preserve your records,
7) Maintain respectful and ethical professional relationships.

I won't get into the SEM's statement since it's so brief. However, it may be worth noting that the majority of the this statement is centered on field research ethics.

Here's Ben's questions for these two readings: What do you think about the two statements? Why? In light of the SEM and AAA positions on ethics, discuss the actions of the two key Taiwanese ethnomusicologist (i.e. Hsu and Wu) discussed in Guy’s article “Trafficking in Taiwan Aboriginal Voices.”

Though a sort of restatement of Ben's first question, I want to also ask if there is anything you disagree with in either statement or thought deserved more attention, and do you think anything should be added?

Here's my response:

I did not find anything I disagreed with in either statement. They center around themes of acting within the interlocutors and their cultures' best interests and continually maintaining high standards of honesty, respect, communication, and awareness for what can go wrong, which all sound fine to me for ensuring proper ethical conduct. However, I feel like the AAA statement should have had more direct discussion on the importance of being knowledgable of copyright and ownership laws, especially when considering the complex issues that arise with the distribution of often sensitive research material.

From my first read of Guy's article, I got the impression that Wu let his greed get in the way of acting ethically. Him selling the rights to use his samples to various popular artists certainly didn't help his case. This violates all sorts of ethical standards, such as those regarding honesty and establishing common ground with interlocutors on how collected data will/may be distributed. Even if we are to give Wu the benefit of the doubt and say making and selling a CD of Amis music was intended to be an effort to teach others about the Amis, and making money was an unavoidable consequence of that, Wu is still guilty of not meeting certain standards from both statements. He failed to be sensitive to the Kuos' culture and values as they indicated by the Kuos feeling cheated by Wu and noting his failure to adhere to the local custom of treating them to a meal. Wu also failed to clearly disclose to the Kuos how he was going to redistribute his collected data.

As for Hsu, I feel like one of his main problems was a lack of communication. We can look to his failure to keep an open discussion with the Kuo's on the redistribution of their recorded voice as an example. Hsu could have prevented a lot of his problems if he kept an ongoing discussion or had an earlier laid out discussion with the Kuos on how their voice recordings were to be used and distributed and how they may be used in the future. One of the Kuos' bigger issues with their voices in Enigma's song was that they received no credit. I'm not sure if the Kuos assumed they would receive credit, since it can seem like it's a sort of given, but matters concerning how they would/should be credited should have been settled between Hsu and the Kuos before or during Enigma's deal with Maison des Cultures du Monde. That sort of agreement on giving credit could have been passed on to the Maison des Cultures and then to Enigma. However, whether or not Enigma would have acted differently and given the Kuos and Amis people credit with all of this is speculative, but at least Hsu would have taken more measures in regards to trying to ensure giving credit where it is due. Another problem of Hsu's could be an ignorance of copyright and ownership laws. Such knowledge could have helped Hsu with his dealings with the Maison des Cultures du Monde.

McAllester Response

This article primarily talked about ethics in relation to trespassing on the knowledge and heritage of the studied culture for the sake of further knowledge and archiving of certain elements of the culture. In the case of the article, the sacred ritual known as Blessingway via the Mitchell Family were the subject of recording and archiving. An important milestone for the anthropoligical study of the Navajo culture, as none of their rituals had ever been documented before, especially Blessingway.

The obvious concerns with this were the family's reluctance to record the ritual because it is sacred and they believe that there should be no trespassers during the ceremony as well as the thought that no one should profit from the viewings of the recording unless it was the Mitchell family themselves. Their sentiments that the film would be misused and thus the meanings of the ritual misinterpreted resounded within much of the Navajo community.

McAllester touched on several points of ethical questions in his article:

1. Trespassing
2. Misrepresentation

elaborating on them through the narratives of his experiences with the Navajo community.

What I found the most interesting was when McAllester stated that he was shocked when he had received negative comments on his anthropological study from within the Navajo community. "One wants to be loved by everybody, and the fact that I was not seemed like a failure in social relations" is a very interesting point and I feel is a very important thing to keep in mind when we conduct our own research within the field. We do want to be loved by everyone, achieving high marks, good reviews, accolades for our work, but it hurts when we are met with much contempt and disapproval. This however, would be slightly expected within the community of Anthropologists/Ethnomusicologists, but often times the community we studied and researched is taken out of the question, probably from statements similar to these - They probably won't read our research; or they already know these aspects of their culture. It's my job to share them with the world.

....Or perhaps not. My point is though, is that we should be more considerate and take into account the culture that we study, as we can do some serious harm when we just go freely publish everything that we want. This brings up thoughts of collaborative ethnomusicology, as well as feelings from the Songcatcher film. What does everyone else feel? Do you think that these problems will arise within any culture that we study, or is it just the 'aboriginal' and more "primitive" cultures? Is there a way to solve these issues proposed by McAllester (Trespassing/Misrepresentation)?

Guy Article - Ethics & Copyright

Nancy Guy Paper

The paper by Nancy Guy, an Ethnomusicologist and Professor currently affiliated with the University of California San Diego, addresses the ethics and problems with the use of copyright laws of ethnographic materials, specifically field recordings. Guy uses the example of one specific case of a lawsuit involving the ownership of Taiwanese Amis Song recordings of Kuo Ying-nan and his wife Kuo Shin-chu. The paper addresses the fact that although there are international copyright treaties there is no such as thing as an international copyright. Guy mentions three primary criteria described by Shreylle Mills, a lawyer, in order for a piece to be able to claim copyright: a specific “author” which is defined as the “originator”, a tangible form/physical rendering, and it must be “original”. Without any one of them, the work to falls into public domain making it free to be used by anyone. These existing copyright laws and criteria make it impossible for pieces that stem from those that are passed down through an oral tradition and other means of transmission that have been passed down from generation to generation to be copyrighted.

Guy mentions that the field work like that in ethnomusicology of making recordings places the music in a very vulnerable state. Because these works don’t meet the copyright criteria, they can be used by anyone for profit without crediting the source. The case she describes in thorough depicts the lawsuit between Kuo’s, and Michael Cretu (“Enigma”) who profited from the song “Return to Innocence” in his production and CD, in which about two minutes of his song consists of the Kuo’s singing the Amis song. Kuo's also sued the other parties over the use of this recording. Due to the fact that the song is a traditional song that was passed down across time and the Kuo’s cannot be titled as the author, or originator, and a physical form of the piece cannot be found the case could not be claimed easily and many more hoops had to be jumped through before any kind of a settlement could even be thought of. Their voices and recordings were taken by part of a project for the Folk Song Collection Movement launched by an ethnomusicologist (Hsu Tsang-houei). The songs were released in a series of albums by the Taipei-based Number One Record Company, as well as recording of a performance in France by the Maison des Cultures du Monde, a Festival which later released  a CD of these recordings. Cretu (“Enigma”), then discovered these recordings from these releases. From here Cretu paid the Maison des Cultures du Monde for use of samples.

Due to these non-existent international copyrights, or copyrights that do not cater to some traditional musics, the aboriginal song (and the non-credited Kuo’s) were portrayed as someone else’s and profited from without proper credit and acknowledgement. One point of this paper isn't just the absence of these copyright needs, but is the use of teachings about copyright within the field of ethnomusicology. The ethnomusicologist, as described at one point in this paper is “obligated” to preserve the music and it’s cultural significance/rights. Upon reading paper it raised questions, especially one I keep asking myself, and that is if its possible to properly copyright fieldwork recordings? What laws could be made/adjusted to assure the royalties go the correct place (persons/group/community…what kind of royalties…all monetary??)? How could both parties be equally represented? The profits at one point like mentioned in the paper could go to the ethnomusicologist who could claim ownership as the one with the most concrete evidence of the work (the recording), but how do you assure that a means of wanted profit goes towards those who supplied the recording? And what if any profit would benefit most? How about the use of contracts? Contracts are an interesting concept in which someone could be held to their word but then again it could prove very challenging due to barriers such as language and understanding between cultures (the collector’s and the contributor’s). I hope I haven’t summarized the paper to much, however these are important points that raised the most ideas and thoughts for me while reading. 

-Ashley D. Guthrie

Songcatcher

The opening scene of Songcatcher depicts a musicologist, Dr. Penleric, singing an old English ballad “Barbara Allen” in her university music class. This is important because later in the film the Dr. finds this song has been transmitted to Appalachia and evolved into a very different sound derived by the local culture. When Dr. Penleric meets the young Deladis and hears her sing “Barbara Allen” she is shocked by the rendition which as Deladis explains was taught to her by her grandmother “from the mountains whose mother taught her the song.” Dr. Penleric realizes these ballads must have been brought to the mountains over 200 years earlier. The mountain version is most like the Scotts-Irish versions, but mixed with unusual twist, turns, dips and slides. 

After our group discussion on how the researcher inadvertently influences the culture they are studying I began to notice this occurring between Dr. Penleric and the Appalachian folk. First when Deladis’ boyfriend broke her fan out of anger that I suppose stemmed from not only a fear of change, but  a jealousy of the intrigue Dr. Penleric possessed over Deladis. The obvious influence the Dr. had on the cultures music was its transmission which was no longer just word of mouth, but an actual recording. Dr. Penleric also helps to create an income for the painter, Mrs. Kincaid, whose husband she also berates for his lack of husbandry. Her influence on the culture is felt far and wide.

Something I found interesting was when Dr. Penleric tells Mrs. Kincaid, the painter, that she cannot use her notes on the music because they were not taken “scientifically.” I wonder why these notes could not be at least scientifically analyzed to further Dr. Penlerics research and understanding of the music?

One last interesting thing I noticed was the obvious difference between what Dr. Penleric’s idea of music was and what she discovered music meant to the Appalachian culture, particularly when she said “music is like the air you all breathe.” Dr. Penleric’s relationship with music is geared more towards preservation and being so is analyzed and heavily picked apart; as where the Appalachian community embraces music as simply a way of life. Culturally their people use music to express emotion, to celebrate, to mourn to communicate and even just to pass the time. 

...to be continued.

Wong

Based on the reading, Wong spends the first half discussing her position in the ethnomusicology field. I thought it was really interesting because of our whole "insider" vs. "outsider" discussion last week. It seems to me that Wong is truly an insider as an Asian American ethnomusicologist studying Asian American music. But she furthers her position by describing what her background is and what her identity is. She talks about how living in Philadelphia shaped her "political sensibilities and need for civic and cultural spaces defined by Asian Americans" (3). My question to you is how does your background affect your views as an ethnomusicologist?

Shelemay- The Ethnomusicologist, Ethnographic Method, and the Transmission of Tradition

Shelemay examines the role of the ethnomusicologist in his or her field. He explains that the ethnomusicologist does not merely study the traditions of a music, but also participates in the music as well.

An ethnomusicologist's studies contributes to the preservation and transmission of traditions of a music simply because it is what the job entails, but it does not do this passively. Shelemay uses his own experiences and those of colleagues to to show how ethnomusicologists are active participants in the music they study. They not only observe how the traditions of the music they study is transmitted, but change the way it is as well. For instance, conferences or concerts dedicated to a music provide an outlet for a music to be performed that is atypical of its tradition. This can lead to permanent changes in the transmission of the music as these preservation methods are continued. I think this is an important point to consider in ethnomusicology. In order to document and preserve the traditions of a music, the ethnomusicologist partakes in transforming the traditions. At the same time, without an ethnomusicologist's intervention in a music, it is possible that more obscure musics would be lost forever. In order to keep a music alive, it seems to be inevitable that those studying it become important figures in the method through which it is preserved. This leads to the idea that how a music is preserved can vary widely depending on who studies it and what they value as important and representative of the music.

Shelemay then describes three ways in which an ethnomusicologist participates in the traditions of a music- preserving tradition, memorializing tradition, and mediating traditions. He explains that these are all part of an ethnomusicologist's responsibilities and become inevitable as the ethnomusicologist becomes more involved with a music and forms personal relationships with it and the people who play it.

Do you think that you are making an impact on your research topic through your efforts in this class? Although what we are to do is not nearly as thorough as Shelemay and his colleagues, we touch on an ethnomusicologist's profession peripherally to do our research. And at the same time, does the research you do make an impact on your own life?

In studying my topic, African music, I am not so sure if I am making any sort of impact on the community and its music. I took a drum class and learned from a djembe drummer, but what I have done is something anyone could do. I feel that what I am doing for this class is too superficial to be impactful but I can see the potential for it if I were thoroughly involved. However, I feel like I have been personally affected by my research, even though I've done so little of it. The djembe class was really interesting, and learning and hearing from the teacher firsthand about how to play the djembe and some of its roles was definitely left more of a lasting impression than if I had just read it on Wikipedia.

Lassister - Collaborative Ethnography

Lassister's article on collaborative ethnography is about a, not so much used, method to approach doing an ethnography. Collaborative ethnography is taking the ethnographer's research and perspectives about a certain culture and constantly letting the interlocutor read and give feedback or their own perspectives about how the ethnographer perceived their culture. Lassister talks about how more commonly used methodologies of how anthropologists approached their ethnography, was adding wrong assertions and perceptions to a certain culture. Such as in the case of  Lawless's research, her feminism perceptions were causing the interlocutor, Sister Anna, to be uncomfortable about how she was portrayed, thus, making the research that Lawless found, invalid.

Lassister found that using collaborative ethnography, not only beneficial for his academic research but also, for the culture that he is studying. Such in the case of Kotay and his community, the Kiowa. from Kotay's view point, as said by Lassister “it is not about presenting their own interpretations on equal footing with those of the ethnographer. It is about the irrelevance of many academically positioned interpretations (such as sacred/secular dichotomies) to him and his community, and, perhaps most importantly, it is about the power these interpretations have in defining Kotay and the community to the outside" p11                     . Which I find interesting because using the collaborative method seems much better for both parties. As the same case for the case with Mike.

I find this article very interesting as someone that studies anthropology myself. I do see that how the "normal" way to do an ethnography, would be to immerse yourself in a culture and try to analyze what you are experiencing, and then write about it without consulting the community that you analyzed about what you perceived. What really hit me was the text - The discipline of anthropology can be defined as a "deeply colonial academic discipline." I know the history and start of anthropology, but it really hit me when reading this, that even in present day we approach (though changing) our ethnography from the "above and over our consultants' shoulders" p5.

There are a few questions that spawned from this article:
1) Have you shown your perceptions about your subject of study to your interlocutors?
2) Do you feel that collaborative ethnography is the best way to gather research about a culture? Does it arise any issues in your opinion?

Nettl Chapter 17

Chapter 17—The Meat-and-Potatoes Book: Musical Ethnography

This chapter is mostly about the act of actually communicating what we learn studying in thefield work to our target (usually native) society. Nettl starts with a working definition of ethnography; it originally meant a description but has come to sort of absorb the old term, ethnology, which included and allowed for interpretation and extrapolation.

The paragraph that I found most interesting in this chapter was the one about McAllester. Nettl summarizes what he thinks McAllester is talking about as follows, “it is concept and behavior that reflect culture, and if one is to study music as culture, one does so primarily through these components of music and much less through sound.” (p. 236). This made me stop and think. Now, at first reading, I thought it was more of a revelation than I do after considering it longer. I think that we first hope to understand music through listening to it because that is how we have been trained to rationalize music, but it makes sense that that is not entirely practical or possible.

When an ethnomusicologist goes into the field, he or she is trying to grapple with questions such as why the music sounds the way it does, what role music plays within the society, how music is viewed and created etc. By studying the music of a society, in order to really understand it, these questions have to be considered, and I think that these directly relate to the point McAllester made. By studying the music, especially from a musician, the fieldworker is learning at least something about how at least that individual conceptualizes music and their practices toward music.

This related again to communicating what we are learning. A lot of what we are observing may be hard to articulate because we are learning it in the form of byproducts of other information we are seeking. We learned before in the chapter about transcription how a lot of the skill is in deciding what is necessary to be recorded and what can be omitted without harming the overall comprehensiveness (or attempt at) and this is no different.

So, I have this question to pose: I know they are all very interrelated, and we run into dangerous chicken v. egg territory, but, to what degree does the music itself affect societies’ attitude toward it, or how does societies’ view influence the music? Can we learn anything about these questions through listening to the music?

A few bits and bobs from today's sem

Readings:

      Foucault, a French philosopher and social theorist who wrote on the nature

      of power and the manner in which it functions: 

            Foucault: Power is everywhere

Foucault, Michel. 1991. Discipline and Punish: the Birth of a Prison. London: Penguin

Foucault, Michel. 1998. The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge. London: Penguin

      Aubert, Laurent. 2007. The Music of the Other. Burlington: Ashgate
      in the library      on amazon



      And a study on normal musicians (for example):

Finnegan, Ruth. 2007. The Hidden Musicians: Music Making in an English Town. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press

Logos: Words and Ideas:

Emic and Etic (inside and outside perspectives)

interlocutor


David Graeber on Piaget's (the developmental psychologist I was on about) idea of Egocentrism:

Egocentrism and Partial Consciousness    

One of Piaget’s more remarkable achievements was to take a fact that almost

anyone knows—that children tend to see themselves as the center of the universe—and make it the basis for a systematic theory of intellectual and moral development. Egocentrism, according to Piaget, is a matter of assuming

one’s own, subjective perspective on the world is identical with the nature of

the world itself. Development, in turn, becomes a matter of internalizing the

fact that other ones are possible; or, to put it a bit more technically, creating

structures which are really the coordination of different possible perspectives.

Very young children, for example, do not understand that objects continue

to exist when they are no longer looking at them. If a ball rolls out of

sight, it is simply gone. To understand that it is still there is to understand

first of all that there are other angles from which one might be looking at it,

from which one would still be able to see it. In older children, egocentrism

might mean anything from a child’s inability to imagine that others might not understand what she’s telling them, to the difficulty (which often endures

surprisingly late in life) in realizing that if I have a brother named

Robert, then Robert also has a brother, who is me.

Egocentrism, then, involves first and foremost an inability to see things

from other points of view. Even if it’s a matter of understanding the continual

existence of objects, one is aware of them through potential perspectives:

when one looks at a car, or a duck, or a mountain, the fact that there are

other sides to it (other perspectives from which one could be looking at it)

becomes internalized into the very nature of what one is perceiving. It would

simply not look the same otherwise. Hence, for Piaget, achieving maturity

is a matter of “decentering” oneself: of being able to see one’s own interests

or perspective as simply one part of a much larger totality not intrinsically

more important than any other.

In matters social, however, one clearly cannot do this all the time. It is

one thing bearing in mind, when one looks at a house, that it has more than

one side to it; quite another to be continually aware of how a family must

seem to every member of it, or how each member of a group of people working on some common project would see what was going on. In fact, human beings are notoriously incapable of doing so on a consistent basis. Here again, there appears to be a very concrete limit to the human imagination.

from: 

Graeber, David. 2001. Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p63-4.

available at: 

library

PDF

Music:

Moby: Play (1999)
on itunes
amazon

Nettle Chapter 10

After reading Nettle's chapter on fieldwork I feel a bit more prepared for doing more fieldwork on my own subject.  Nettle writes about the developments of fieldwork in the history of ethnomusicology and how overtime the focus shifted from observer to participant and from taking select samples and assuming homoegeneity of the culture, that larger samples should be collected and learned from within the culture.  I feel that this suits the study of musics from other cultures as it places the ethnomusicologist in a very unique place of being both outsider and insider, becoming a part of the culture but also being able to see and hear it from the outside.

Nettle also writes about the relationship between the researcher and the consultant of the musical style being researched.  This part in particular I found interesting, because I'll be having an interview with a bluegrass musician soon and forming, even a short term relationship, with this person is important, however I do know that some of his ideas glorify bluegrass beyond its actual historical relevance.  I heard him state that he believed bluegrass was an origin for several types of music that I know were born out of earlier styles, mainly the blues.  I was hesitant on how to proceed and decided to make no mention of this to him as I want his unfettered opinion and to start off without a hostile interaction.  As Nettle writes on page 146, "Purposely, or from ignorance, they may give what their compatriots might think is misinformation, but even the selection of this misinformation on their part may tell us something about the culture."

The most important part of this chapter that I strongly agree with is in the last two paragraphs on page 147.  It is too extensive to quote here, but the general gist is that there are many different approaches to studying a music and the culture it is a part of.  There is no one right way that leads to a definitive study that encompasses all parts of a culture, obviously so, as cultures are far too complex to be able to be understood in their entirety by any single individual, even if that individual collects information from a large number of people.  In particular his point that one cannot consider a culture to be researched from a single study is one that drives home the enormity of the field of not just ethnomusicology, but also other social sciences and how important each study can be to contribute to the understanding of culture as a whole.

Nettl Chapter 13--I Am the Greatest: Ordinary and Exceptional Musicians

Nettl starts off with the statement that the field of ethnomusicology has, in the past, neglected the individual in non-Western music due to the misconception that said music is largely homogenous until influenced by Western cultures. He then examines three different approaches to studying the individual in music: biography, personal repertory, and personal performance practice. Nettl also mentions that it is important to examine the great, the mediocre, and the ordinary musician in each society and/or culture to fully understand the musical thinking within that society/culture.

I found this chapter particularly interesting because Nettl's point that the ordinary musician is important to understanding a particular musical thinking is one that I have never considered. We often study influential musicians in our music courses here at UCSD, but rarely is the normal, everyday musician examined. Influential musicians play a role in shaping a society's music, but that music is exemplified best in what the mass recognizes as the society's music. The mass consolidates the music of the greats and forms an identity for the music. 

Nettl - Chapter 14: You Call That Fieldwork? Redefining the "Field"

In this chapter, Nettl discusses the evolution of the view and role of the ethnomusicologist. Ethnomusicology has a "field" requirement and traditionally, this is filled by the ethnomusicologist immersing him/herself in an "outside" culture stereotypically entailing "working in an isolated village, living in conditions of considerable privation, having to make do with a monotonous diet shared with the villagers, [and] living without running water" (184). However, the shifts of society has changed this view as Nettl says that urban culture is growing and is thus a culture worth looking into in itself. Alongside this is the shift in the idea that ethnomusicology does not necessarily need to involve looking at the "other" but can now be done "at home."

The original "inside," Nettl states, is within Western classical music and everything else was seen as the "other." However, Western popular music was mostly not looked at as it was seen to be inferior, but this viewpoint changed. Nettl comes to the possible conclusion that acceptance of studying popular music has allowed its "otherness" to recede to the point where studying our own culture became normal and eventually leading to "our acceptance of the ultimate 'inside,' the culture of Western classical music, as appropriate subject matter.

An issue arises when the "field" is redefined as including our own culture. How should one go about studying the music and culture of which they are a part of? I found this question to be relevant to my own research as I am mainly focusing on not only the music that I participate in, but the environment of which I am a part: UCSD's music department. Henry Kingsbury tackled this issue as he would in any other situation by becoming an "outsider." Nettl took a more creative approach by effectively splitting his persona into three: "the traditional ethnomusicologist, the native informant, and an imaginary figure whom [he] named the 'ethnomusicologist from Mars'." I was struggling over the idea of how I could best accomplish the field requirement in my research and I do think that it could be most insightful if I do something similar to what Nettl did. I don't think I'll be going the 'ethnomusicologist from Mars' route, however, as it seems too abstract for me, but I may consider reworking this into something else.

Nettl Ch.12 - Archives & Preservation

Nettl discusses the the role of archives in the work of ethnomusicologists and the associated concept of preservation within the field.  While preservation is essential for research and studies following a scientific method there remains a confusing disparity between methods of collecting and archiving these pieces selected for preservation.  With the variation in methods of data & song collection (i.e. transcription & recordings) there is no easy or established means of compiling a mass archive of everything.  This makes overarching comprehensive comparative research difficult which may be why there has been an increase in specialized in terms of genres or categories rather than an attempt to make a single archive.  This movement towards practicality coincides (or is rather directly related to) a 1950s movement labeled "urgent anthropology" which seeks to preserve cultures and traditions deemed to be in danger of extinction.

Nettl describes two roles of ethnomusicologists: "to study what actually happens" rather than try and interfere or to accept that "preservation [...] is a surpreme good and must be encouraged at the expense of others."  He suggests finding a means of preserving the concept used in process of preservation rather than preservation itself.  With a concept established, preservation itself is assumed to follow as an inevitable byproduct, systematized and standardized by a preserved concept, which may make the "systematic sampling of the infinite musical universe" slightly easier.  I believe this is a valid stance because music has been proven to be a very difficult concept/entity to categorize (based largely on our debates and discussions in the readings) - rather than try to standardize music itself, we may standardize a process by which we choose to preserve and go from there in a more general (and less exclusive) direction. 

Nettl 11 - Ethnomusicologist's Dilemmas

Chapter 11 of Nettl's book - "You Will Never Understand This Music: Insiders and Outsiders" discusses the problems ethnomusicologists face as they are studying the music of a culture because of who they are - they are usually outsiders.

The overarching theme of this chapter boils down to whether or not you are originally part of the culture you want to study - are you an outsider, or are you an insider? Often times, outsiders are initially measured with three criteria (in a negative light):

1. Comparative Ethnomusicology is often looked at negatively where the culture of music being studied is compared to the original culture of the ethnomusicologist and was once thought to show the superiority of the original culture - this was often if not always (at the time) a Western music culture.
2. Ethnomusicologists want to do ethnography their own way, often overlooking and disregarding practices that will help elucidate elements of that culture for they are criticized by native scholars as their research and methodologies as being improper or wrong.
3. Generalization and the disregard of boundaries between a culture and the subcultures within in, grouping them together on a global scale a la "World Music."

These criteria have led to feelings that insiders should be the only ones to study a particular culture in order to prevent these travesties (and to not have to deal with these close-minded foreigners) and insults to their culture; there is probably a large element of race that plays into these factors as well..

In contrast to this though, Elschek described that though he was studying the music of his culture, he felt as though he was an outsider and was treated as such by the people in the culture of which he was studying. I want to explore this concept in relation to our own projects as the concept of 'insider' and 'outsider' is very relevant to our own situations for this class.

Most of us are looking at our music cultures from the outsider's perspective, for it is one thing to play or listen to this type of music and be an avid listener and supporter of the music, but we are not completely involved and integrated into the culture to be able to look at it as an insider. I believe that unless we regularly attend sessions of a certain culture's music, but also interact (have connections extending deep within the community) with not only the performers of the music, but also those who are like us, fans or those who are interested in this type of music, will be able to call ourselves insiders. And even then, if we do fit these criteria, and are really considered insiders in our own field of music, we are outsiders to an extent - perhaps not as greatly as Elschek describes, but nevertheless we are (unknowingly) looking at the music from a comparative perspective probably due to the limitations of our own knowledge in respect ethnomusicology and anthropology.

I know for myself, I do not know enough about the culture of Japanese and Japanese Americans in relation to taiko drumming to be able to call myself an insider even though I am Japanese American myself and I have been a taiko drummer for 3 years and have become somewhat involved in the community. How do the rest of you feel on this subject? Are we all outsiders? Can we ever be insiders of the music culture that we appreciate?

Journal #5

I went to Adams Avenue Unplugged this weekend. It was pretty awesome. Most of the bands were folk and had serious old time influences throughout their sets. I actually happened to catch John C. Riley by accident and his band was actually really impressive. The demographic of the concerts surprised me because I thought it would be a younger, hipster-like crowd when in fact it was an older crowd, mostly white and a lot of young families. I'm sure this was greatly influenced by the fact that the event was free. Unfortunately, I did not get to see Curt perform because they switched his performance to today instead of yesterday and I already had other obligations. I am still going to email him and hopefully get the chance to pick his brain a bit. The concert was definitely not a waste of time because all of the bands I saw had enough to do with my genre that I plan to write some of the younger bands to see if they will answer a few questions such as "what do you know about the history of the music you perform?" I am anticipating a lot of silence:) One of my favorite bands was the Spirit Family Reunion. The fiddler is amazing. He not only plays the fiddle, but he sings beautifully.

John C Riley:
For some reason blogger wont let me upload this youtube video so:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owyuoJDFAKY