Ethnomusicology
Encyclopedia
Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst
Jaap Kunst
Jaap Kunst was a Dutch ethnomusicologist, particularly associated with the study of gamelan music of Indonesia...
from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
words ἔθνος ethnos (nation) and μουσική mousike (music), it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music. Jeff Todd Titon
Jeff Todd Titon
Jeff Todd Titon is a professor of music at Brown University. His published books include Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis and Powerhouse for God...
has called it the study of "people making music." Although it is often thought of as a study of non-Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
musics, ethnomusicology also includes the study of Western music from an anthropological or sociological perspective. Bruno Nettl
Bruno Nettl
Bruno Nettl is an active ethnomusicologist and musicologist.Bruno Nettl was born in Czechoslovakia in 1930, moved to United States in 1939, studied at Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and has taught since 1964 at the University of Illinois, where he is Professor Emeritus of...
(1983) believes it is a product of Western thinking, proclaiming "ethnomusicology as western culture knows it is actually a western phenomenon." Nettl believes that there are limits to the extraction of meaning from a culture's music because of a Western observer's perceptual distance from the culture; however, the growing prevalence of scholars who study their own musical traditions, and an increasing range of different theoretical frameworks and research methodologies has done much to address criticisms such as Nettl's.
History
While musicology's traditional subject has been the history and literature of Western art music, ethnomusicologists study all music as a human social and cultural phenomenon. The primary precursor to ethnomusicology, comparative musicology, emerged in the late 19th century and early 20th century through the practice of people such as Béla BartókBéla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
, Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
, Constantin Brǎiloiu
Constantin Brăiloiu
Constantin Brăiloiu was a Romanian composer and internationally known ethnomusicologist.He was born in Bucharest. He studied in Bucharest , Vienna , Vevey and Lausanne as well as Paris...
, Vinko Zganec
Vinko Žganec
Vinko Žganec is a well-known Croatian ethnomusicologist.Žganec was born in Vratišinec in Međimurje. He started to be interested in music early in his childhood and jotted down his first folk song in 1908. In 1916, he published his first book of Croatian folk songs from Međimurje...
, Franjo Ksaver, Carl Stumpf
Carl Stumpf
Carl Stumpf was a German philosopher and psychologist.Born in Wiesentheid, he studied with Franz Brentano and Hermann Lotze...
, Erich von Hornbostel
Erich von Hornbostel
Erich Moritz von Hornbostel was an Austrian ethnomusicologist and scholar of music. He is remembered for his pioneering work in the field of ethnomusicology, and for the Sachs–Hornbostel system of musical instrument classification which he co-authored with Curt Sachs.-Life:Hornbostel was born in...
, Curt Sachs
Curt Sachs
Curt Sachs was a German-born but American-domiciled musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology , and is probably best remembered today for co-authoring the Sachs-Hornbostel scheme of musical instrument classification with his fellow scholar Erich von Hornbostel.Born in Berlin,...
, Hugh Tracey
Hugh Tracey
Hugh Tracey was an important twentieth century ethnomusicologist. He and his wife collected and archived music from Southern and Central Africa. He began making field recordings of music in the early 20's, through the 70's....
, and Alexander J. Ellis. Comparative musicology and early ethnomusicology tended to focus on non-Western music that was transmitted through oral traditions. But, in more recent years, the field has expanded to embrace all musical styles from all parts of the world.
The International Council for Traditional Music
International Council for Traditional Music
The International Council for Traditional Music is a UNESCO-recognized NGO, an academic organization focused on musicology and dance research. Founded in London on September 22, 1947, it publishes the Yearbook for Traditional Music once a year, and a twice-yearly bulletin. Since 2005, its...
(founded 1947) and the Society for Ethnomusicology
Society for Ethnomusicology
The Society for Ethnomusicology is, with the International Council for Traditional Music and the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, one of three major international associations ethnomusicology...
(founded 1958) are the primary international academic organizations for the discipline of ethnomusicology.
Theories and methods
Ethnomusicologists often apply theories and methods from cultural anthropologyCultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
, cultural studies
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
as well as other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Though some ethnomusicologists primarily conduct historical studies, the majority are involved in long-term participant observation. Therefore, ethnomusicological work can be characterized as featuring a substantial, intensive ethnographic component.
Some ethnomusicological works are created not necessarily by 'ethnomusicologists' proper, but instead by anthropologists examining music as an aspect of a culture. A well-known example of such work is Colin Turnbull's
Colin Turnbull
Colin Macmillan Turnbull was a British-American anthropologist who came to public attention with the popular books The Forest People and The Mountain People , and one of the first anthropologists to work in the field of ethnomusicology.-Early life:Turnbull was born in London and...
study of the Mbuti
Mbuti
Mbuti or Bambuti are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages belong to the Central Sudanic and also to Bantu languages.-Overview:...
pygmies
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
. Another is Jaime de Angulo
Jaime de Angulo
Jaime de Angulo was a linguist, novelist, and ethnomusicologist in the western United States. He was born in Paris of Spanish parents. He came to America in 1905 to become a cowboy, and eventually arrived in San Francisco on the eve of the great 1906 earthquake. He lived a picaresque life...
, a linguist who intensively studied the music of the natives of Northern California. Additionally, Anthony Seeger, Distinguished Professor of Ethnomusicology and the Director of the Ethnomusicology Archive at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
, studied the music and society of the Suya people in Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Academic programs
Many universities in North America and Europe offer ethnomusicology classes and act as centers for ethnomusicological research. The linked list includes graduate and undergraduate degree-granting programs.See also
- World musicWorld musicWorld music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
- MusicologyMusicologyMusicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
- SociomusicologySociomusicologySociomusicology refers to both an academic subfield of sociology that is concerned with music , as well as a subfield of musicology that focuses on social aspects of musical behavior and the role of...
- EthnochoreologyEthnochoreologyEthnochoreology is the study of dance through the application of a number of disciplines such as anthropology, musicology , ethnography, etc. The word, itself, is relatively recent and means, literally, “the study of folk dance”, as opposed to, say, the formalized entertainment of classical...
- Bruno NettlBruno NettlBruno Nettl is an active ethnomusicologist and musicologist.Bruno Nettl was born in Czechoslovakia in 1930, moved to United States in 1939, studied at Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and has taught since 1964 at the University of Illinois, where he is Professor Emeritus of...
- Smithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian FolkwaysSmithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
- Fumio Koizumi Prize for ethnomusicologyFumio Koizumi Prize for ethnomusicologyThe Fumio Koizumi Prize is an international award for achievements in ethnomusicology, presented annually in Tokyo, Japan. The prize is awarded by Fumio Koizumi Trust. This prize is to be awarded each April 4, the date of Koizumi Fumio's birthday . The recipient is to receive an award certificate...
External links
- Ethnomusicology Review (EMR) Academic ethnomusicology journal.
- International Council for Traditional Music
- International Library of African Music (ILAM)
- Links: Ethnomusicology, Folk Music, and World Music (University of Washington)
- Outreach Ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology Fieldwork Research Resource
- SIL publications on Ethnomusicology listed by country
- Society for Ethnomusicology
- University of Washington Digital Collections – Ethnomusicology Musical Instrument Collection Images of musical instruments from around the world.
- The World and Traditional Music Section at the British Library Sound Archive
- Yale Music Library Research Guide for Ethnomusicology
- http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/music/departments/MUCT/ethno/