Excursions Instructor s Manual Chapter 1: Introduction (Timothy Rommen)

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1 Excursions Intro 1 Excursions Instructor s Manual Chapter 1: Introduction (Timothy Rommen) Note to Instructors Any textbook (or academic discipline) that aims to engage with a wide variety of musical traditions from around the world very quickly finds itself confronting fundamental problems regarding how to define concepts such as sameness and difference, world music, and even how to conceptualize music writ large. While each individual might have his or her own seemingly common sense understanding of what these concepts mean, they vary radically from culture to culture, and the more musical traditions we take into consideration, the less workable these seemingly straightforward definitions become. Many world music texts thus begin by contemplating how we might create working definitions for these terms that are specific enough to be meaningfully useful but broad and flexible enough to function the world over, or at least to set us up for understanding rather than misunderstanding. This introduction brings students into these definitional problems, laying out some of the contradictions and oversights of some seemingly common sense ideas about music and cultural difference, summarizing some of the ways in which recent scholarship has dealt with these problems, and ultimately, staking out both a working definition for music and a basic method for musical inquiry. Vignette: Concert at the Mann Center Basic description Outdoor venue in a public park in Philadelphia He went with his daughter, Natalia Ladysmith Black Mambazo o Isicathamiya from South Africa Blind Boys of Alabama o Gospel (group founded in 1939) Rommen uses this event as a point of entry onto a discussion on how sameness and difference enter into the study of ethnomusicology, and of world music. Both groups Extremely famous around the world for what they do Grammy winners Tour internationally Two notions of World Music 1. Music industry tends to classify anything that falls outside the North Atlantic popular, classical, or traditional realms, or anything not sung in English, using this catch-all term o In this sense, the term is ethnocentric

2 Excursions Intro 2 As this concert shows, there is no quality of world-ness that certain styles possess but others lack, rather this is a definition based primarily on the position of the person or group doing the defining While everyone might have such a perspective, and while this culturally specific might be useful each individual s daily encounters with music, it becomes problematic when such a situated perspective is taken as universal, objective, or standard/mainstream o Delimiting effect: creates a single category for all of the world s music that does not fit into a very small set of criteria (sung in English, from a North Atlantic nation-state, performed using conventions from this area) o In addition, this definition inscribes difference, otherness, sometimes exoticism in the musical traditions it describes: it marks styles by what they are not (Western), in relation to a set of styles implicitly counted as normative o This definition of the term, world music, reflects a way of thinking about the world that the authors of the text do not share. Thus, Rommen develops an alternative definition over the next several paragraphs 2. Rommen indicates that this alternative notion of world music opens the world to new sounds, new encounters, new possibilities o He develops this notion by way of contrast to the first Difference is at the center of the first definition (and many traditional studies of non- Western music): Difference is a quantifiable reality of performance practice and sound o It becomes easy to over-determine and essentialize Ladysmith Black Mambazo o Sing softly Isicathamiya: name of the style, derived from Zulu, means something like walk softly Original performers were migrant mine workers in S. Africa in the early 20 th century Lived in mine barracks After-hours singing and dancing needed to be soft because camp security prohibited it o Songs use cellular construction This is common throughout Sub-Saharan Africa o A cappella Instruments would have been impractical in original context o Sing primarily in African languages (Zulu, Sotho)

3 Excursions Intro 3 Blind Boys of Alabama o Sing loudly Gospel is rooted in the notion of proclamation: meant to be disseminated broadly o Verse-chorus form In line with norms of North American religious and popular traditions o Gospel band Derived from church context o Sing primarily in English Explanation of World Music Definition #2 Our first definition of world music (non-western music) might hold the Blind Boys of Alabama as normative and Ladysmith Black Mambazo as other o Notions of difference, in this sense, have been mobilized to tragic end (see examples) A more productive way of looking at difference acknowledges that both perceptions of what is the same and different and perceptions of the relevance of these differences are matters of perspective o Key Phrase: If we approach these musical encounters open to the possibility that our own perspective is subject to reinterpretation and to change in the face of new experiences (5) Combined with a de-centering of your own experiences, an examination of difference can lead to mutual exchange and open encounter Exploration of difference (from this perspective) can illuminate commonalities, solidarity, shared horizons o Allow us to see (and hear) ourselves in the other and the other in ourselves Both musical groups: o Overcame inequality related to race and class Ladysmith: formed during worst years of Apartheid regime Blind Boys: performed through Jim Crow and Civil Rights Movement o Affected by legacy of colonialism Colonial subjugation and Apartheid in S. Africa West African slave trade and southern plantation economy o Mobilize music as a source of power to confront local struggles o Have benefitted from the long-term exchange of musical practices back and forth across the Atlantic o Have remained committed to traditions while collaborating with artists outside of these traditions In this sense, analysis of differences leads back to an appreciation of shared human concerns, commonalities, and parallel histories

4 Excursions Intro 4 The book thus approaches the concept of world music, seeing difference and commonality as matters of perspective and emphasis o It highlights both the sheer diversity of the world s musical tradition as well as the overlaps, shared horizons, and common concerns that undergird this diversity Presenting the World of Music In this section, Rommen contemplates how we might define music for the purpose of a course with a global purview. He uses the definition from Webster s New World Dictionary, a source that one might think would take a straightforward, objective, and authoritative approach, in order to show how situated, incomplete, and arbitrary even such common sense definitions can be. What is music? Deceptively complex question Rommen offers two definitions 1. Webster s NWD: The art of combining tones to form expressive compositions Such compositions Any rhythmic sequence of pleasing sounds 2. Bruno Nettl A group of sounds (def. from a previous edition of this text) Elaborates: to be properly understood, music should be studied as a group of sounds, as behavior that leads to these sounds, and as a group of ideas or concepts that govern the sound and the behavior (2011). Webster s NWD s definition evokes concepts of composition, time, and aesthetics in ways that: Are particular to a specific context are predicated on a set of (supposedly) shared assumptions, and are quickly revealed as problematic when extended to the world beyond that context Rommen touches on some of the multitude of ways in which these concepts can be defined differently in different cultural contexts, and thereby shows the limitations of this definition The point of this exercise is not to criticize Webster s, but rather to expand students thinking beyond common, handed-down categories for thinking about music This is an important prerequisite for approaching the material laid out in subsequent chapters

5 Excursions Intro 5 Composition Shows up in Webster s definition: o The art of combining tones to form expressive compositions o Such compositions Rommen defines: combination of musical elements that somehow forms a logical whole a unit of some sort (Rommen quoted here on p. 9) This is one of the most ubiquitous ideas in music o However, there are many ways to define composition Western classical music: autograph score Trinidadian calypso: compositions can be well known and standardized, but are almost never written down Oral traditions are much more prevalent than written ones in music Scalar possibilities and concepts, as well as performance practices within a given culture shape the concept of what constitutes a musical composition o The maqam system, gamelan tuning systems (slendro and pelog), and throat/overtone singing serve as examples Music s function in society also shapes concepts of composition and of music itself o Sounds that we interpret as musical can mean radically different things and can be put to intensely divergent purposes Approaching musics of other cultures only from our own perspective can only serve to limit understanding of this diversity Qur anic recitation serves as a case in point o We come to a clearer understanding of what a particular example of music is by approaching it via the study of the people who produce it, and the culturally specific values and practices that lead to its production The merits of Nettl s definition (over those of Webster s NWD) come to light as we engage with more and more of this diversity These musical specifics are best explored through encounter rather than delineated at the outset (Rommen p. 12) Ethnography fieldwork, knowledge gained through in-person experience within a context where music is produced is at the center of this kind of study and forms the basis for the knowledge and perspectives that appear in this book Time Shows up in Webster s definition: o Any rhythmic sequence Relativistic approach to this concept as many others Basic proposition: cultural relativism o There are no universal, scientific, or objective ways of conceptualizing music, musical quality, or other core concepts, such as time Everyone holds certain concepts (about the passage of time, musical value, etc.) to be true

6 Excursions Intro 6 There s nothing inherently wrong with these concepts, but ALL of them are, to a certain extent, arbitrary rather than neutral or objective All of them come out of a particular, culturally specific way of encountering the world All of them orient you toward one particular interpretation of the world around you over another Each society evaluates music by its own set of criteria You will put yourself in a position to understand the music and the musicians better if you attempt to interpret particular performances based on these criteria rather than your own preconceived notions of musical quality Dogmatic adherence to rigid external criteria can prohibit sensitive, meaningful analysis and understanding o Corollary: There is no objective basis from which to claim that a certain culture, perspective, or musical tradition is better or worse than another o Don t get confused: This is not an attempt to invalidate your opinion, make you like something you don t, or to insist that you feel a certain way about certain music Rather, it s notice that your own perspective extends only as far as your own subjectivity Western music (classical and popular) tends to be organized in a linear fashion o Rommen develops examples through description of the form of a rock song In South and Southeast Asia, the linear progression of pieces is overlaid on a cyclical structure and treatment of time o Develops example through description of Hindustani tala and cosmological associations for ragas Aboriginal Australians have a completely different sense of cosmological time, and it relates directly to musical performance Based on these considerations, Nettl s broad definition has less potential to mislead the student on the concept of time in music than Webster s NWD Aesthetics/Culture Shows up in Webster s definition: o expressive compositions o pleasing sounds o Quote from p. 15: Unlike the first two concepts [composition and time], which are concerned with the sound and structure of music, aesthetics is ultimately bound up in the tastes and values of a particular community or society

7 Excursions Intro 7 To deal with the idea of aesthetics is to raise the question of how to define culture The Concept of Culture o When taken as innate, or together with uncritical notions of difference: Used to justify inaction in the face of human rights abuses Used to advocate (neo-)colonialism and war Used to naturalize power hierarchies Civilized vs. savage 1st world vs. 3rd world Authors of this text challenge the oversimplified notion that there are homogeneous, geographically circumscribed, and monolithic social groups around the world (as implied by an uncritical adoption of the term, culture ) But they don t reject the notion out of hand o Example Within an artistic community, there can be broad disagreement about what is beautiful, meaningful, or authentic in music These concepts are always negotiated in practice, often fiercely contested Imagine multiplying this internal, subcultural diversity to the scope of the entire world, and it becomes clear why the concept of unified cultures and culture areas does not hold up to scrutiny Rather than treating culture as static, unified, authors believe dynamics of cultural motion, change, fluidity to be the norm and focus on these instead o A range of forces and prior concepts cause global, multidirectional change Ethnicity Technology Finance Media Ideas/Ideology o This approach better explains the forms of expression we see around us Uses examples of popular music from around the world to illustrate Return to definition of music Nettl s def allows us to arrive at understanding through encounter rather than creating an inflexible set of principles at the outset Rommen combines Nettl s def with one from Martin Stokes: Music {being a group of sounds} is what any social group considers it to be (1997). A Model for Studying Music Cultures The chapters of this book draw on Merriam s three-part model for musical analysis. Alan Merriam, one of the major figures in ethnomusicology, argued that musical analysis should have three dimensions: Sound

8 Excursions Intro 8 Sound Behavior Conception Can encompass any of the following o Instruments o Tuning systems (cent system, suggested by Alexander Ellis) o Rhythmic ideas o Ensembles o Genres o Styles o Vocal timbre o Language use o Etc. Sachs and Hornbostel s system for classifying musical instruments o Aerophones Flutelike Trumpetlike Reeds o Chordophones Zithers Lutes o Idiophones Rattles/shakers Gongs Xylophones o Membranophones (Drums) o Electrophones (added later) Synthesizers Computers Etc. More categories and sub-categories likely to be added as people create, consume, and receive music via digital platforms in new ways Behaviors How people interact with sound and each other during musical performance Performance contexts, locations, etc. Conventions governing interactions Conceptions Abstract ideas about what music is and what it does Concepts about: o Time o Composition o Aesthetics

9 Excursions Intro 9 o Philosophy o Ideology o Theology o Nationalism o Ethnic identity o Ownership General notes and observations These three realms of musical experience are always interrelated o New interactions generate new sounds that in turn push musical performance into new ideological spaces The study of any one of these three dimensions of music is always interdisciplinary o Studies of sound may enter into dialogue with research from new media studies, sound studies, etc o Studies of behaviors might converse with research from religious studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, etc. o Studies of conceptions can interface with a wide range of disciplines Final Note to Instructors The approach laid out by Merriam and advocated here leads to a very different kind of analysis and course format from the ones that are often at the center of music history courses. While canonically oriented texts trace the history of works and end up focusing primarily on composers ideas and innovations, classes that adopt Merriam s approach often end up interrogating what musical works and traditions mean for specific groups of listeners at specific times and places.