Critical review #10: Meintjes 1990: "Paul Simon's Graceland"

In her 1990 article entitled "Paul Simon's Graceland, South Africa, and the Mediation of Musical Meaning," Louise Meintjes discusses and examines the political dynamics involved in the creation of Simon's album. She begins by examining the idea of collaboration, and trying to define it in her own terms while examining what it means to different groups of people. Collaboration, according to Meintjes, happened in "Graceland" at many levels, from composition of songs to the languages used in the album and the politics involved in the associated world tour. She separates these types of "musical collaboration" from her other category, which she calls "social collaboration." Social collaboration primarily involves the listener and the way that he/she experiences the music; Meintjes looks at the music from both a white and black South African perspective.

Meintjes does a great job of laying out some of the intrinsic issues in Paul Simon's album, but in my opinion doesn't further the research beyond articles we have already read. Personally, I would be interested in hearing first-hand accounts of people who were each of her categories to see how they felt about the album - will these accounts back up her assertions?

Discussion question: How can we look at "Graceland" as an ethnography in itself?

Challenge question cycle: answer to Hannah's question

Hannah's question: In Shelemay’s article “Ethnomusicologist, Ethnographic Method, and the Transmission of Tradition,” she discusses the ethnomusicologist's role in the transmission of tradition. How does an ethnomusicologist’s role in this differ depending on the situation and type of fieldwork they are doing? Does it make a difference if they are doing fieldwork “at home?”

We've looked at this question in a variety of contexts in this class so far, and the answers have sometimes been different depending on the specific case study. I'd like to synthesize these answers somewhat while trying to develop a more generalized theory of the ethics behind an ethnomusicologist's role in the transmission of tradition.

As we've discussed in depth, the word "tradition" itself is a difficult and hard-to-define term. At what point does a type of music become "traditional?" In some fields the word tradition seems to be applied as soon as something has happened more than once, such as in my own fieldwork. In other groups, such as the traditional Baroque music groups that exist, "traditional" means that they are playing works with the specific instrument types that existed at that time period, trying to reproduce the original sound as exactly as possible.

So how can tradition be "transmitted" in these different areas? What is the role of an ethnographer in this process? I see their role as differing when they're working "in the field" versus "at home." In a place foreign to them, an ethnographer has the freedom to work as an independent researcher, initially starting out without overt connections to the community. In this more old-school role, he/she has the ability to work with less fear of offending the musical community, and begins the process with fewer pre-conceived notions. Though these benefits to fieldwork exist, there are also downfalls; several of our readings have pointed out the difficulties that arise when a community is less accepting to outsiders and may hold information back or attempt to paint themselves in a different light. The ethnographer's role, here, is to transmit as much knowledge about the community to the rest of the world; they have fewer social and moral obligations to the community. However, I am a fan of Shelemay's interactions with the  community she was studying; eventually, she was able to impart knowledge to them about their own musical tradition.

At home, the ethnomusicologist may have a greater ability to tease out information about complex emotions and relationships, as he/she already has a basic knowledge of the group being studied. However, this basic knowledge can be a burden as well; in some cases this "knowledge" is more of a set of stereotypes than anything else. As a researcher who is also a part of the community he/she is studying, the ethnographer in this context has much more responsibility to give back to the community, be it through transmission of their tradition or another form of social service. 

So, how are these values of the ethnomusicologist "at home" versus "in the field" changing? As we have seen from Kiri's own work as well as other readings, it is becoming harder to distinguish the two areas, which seemed so juxtaposed in the 1950s and '60s. Is a researcher looking at YouTube videos made in Singapore from the comfort of her own home "at home" or "in the field?" Does fieldwork even require participation any more? Ethnomusicology seems to be at a liminal stage in development right now, and it will be interesting to see how the field develops as we move more and more into an "internet age."

Critical review #9: Miller - "Travelling Home" intro, chapter 1

In the introduction to her book on Sacred Harp singing, Miller begins by describing the background of this tradition, which seems to have begun in New England around the time of the Revolutionary War, but later found a home in the Appalachians and further south in the 19th century "singing school" movement. Sacred Harp has sometimes been known as a sort of "white spiritual," and this term persists as the genre is still very white-dominated; Miller explores some of the origins of this boundary as well as why it remains intact today, especially in areas that like to see themselves as post-racial. With the advent of recording technology and radio, as well as a "diaspora" of Sacred Harp singers out of the south, the tradition has continued with some changes. One current struggle exists around the idea of "authority" and who constitues a "traditional" singer - are only the singers who grow up in the southern Sacred Harp tradition the "authoritarians?"

Discussion question: We see here how a tradition can become more flexible over time. How can a tradition become less flexible in certain ways?

Challenge questions

1. In some of the ethnographies we have read, the researcher plays a part in the transmission of tradition within the community, as Kay Shelemay did. In others, the ethnomusicologist does no such thing and feels very little connection to the community after conducting research. What is the role of an ethnomusicologist, and what does she/he owe to the community being studied? What does the community owe to him/her? Do these roles differ if the ethnographer is "at home" or "away?"

2. We have looked at various examples of use of the internet in ethnographic research, including Miller's idea of A2A transmission via YouTube and Eric Whitacre's "virtual choir." How has the advent of the internet changed the practice of ethnomusicology? How has it made some parts of research more difficult?

Critical Review #8: Kaminsky, "Gender and Sexuality in the Polska"

David Kaminsky's article on gender and sexuality within the Swedish polska dance tradition was extremely interesting, especially as we have not yet looked at dance from an ethnomusicological perspective. Kaminsky begins the article by describing an interaction he had with another male dancer; this ethnography is clearly "from within," as Kaminsky has extensive experience within this tradition himself. Kaminsky provides a quick introduction to polska itself, then describes the intricacies of the "narrative" within the dance; it seems that polska takes an interesting role where it isn't a narrative dance, but yet represents a narrative.

Clearly, as in most types of folk dance, the partner dancing traditionally has male and female (leader and follower) roles. Kaminsky describes these typical roles as "Guinevere and Lancelot" – chivalry (kavaljer) is encouraged from the male. However, new styles of teaching polska teach masculine and feminine roles to both genders; Kaminsky notes that there has been a movement in the past 10 years towards many more male-male pairings in dance, where there had only previously been female-female pairings.

So how do these male-male pairings relate to the use of polska as a flirtation and "coupling" dance? It seems that the instance that Kaminsky describes in the opening of the paper was an anomaly; most flirtation routines involve the use of extreme gender roles. Kaminsky closes the paper by talking about when mixed-gender couples decide to "flip" gender roles, and the difficulties involved in this switch. His interview with Cissi Strombeck was interesting, as she seemed not to agree with his assertions, yet he did not directly address this point.

Discussion question: Is it important to have people within a musical tradition proofread papers such as these? What happens if they don't agree with the author's assertions?

Critical review 7: Back 2002, White power music and the internet

In his 2002 article entitled "Wagner and power chords: skinheadism, white power music, and the Internet," Les Back begins by providing the reader with a very detailed description of the origins and history of the White Power movement. Before reading this article, I knew very little about the movement, as it's not extremely prevalent in the area I live in (or so I thought...two men mentioned from the "Aryan Singles" dating site in this article live very close to my hometown). I do remember reading this article a few months ago, and being shocked at the life that this man had previously led.

After this introduction to the racial supremacy movement, Back begins to discuss how the internet functions as a means of recruitment and communication for people within this movement, and especially how their music has been disseminated through the web. Most simply, the internet has allowed different "pockets" of white supremacists to contact each other and unify their goals. Interestingly, the types of music associated with these White Power groups have diversified in recent years; the movement is still associated most closely with punk/metal bands, but some in the group have discussed the need for music that can appeal to a wider audience.

Discussion question: In what ways have these White Power groups used the internet to further their goals? Are there ways in which the internet has held them back?

Sir Whiskey Richards: interview clips

Here are a few sounds clips from later portions of the interview from my previous post.

The first one comes from a question I asked about how people stay involved in Arrr after they graduate from Brown:

In the second clip, Whiskey discusses how Arrr started and early impressions people had of the group:

Interview with Sir Whiskey Richards

Here's an excerpt from my interview with Sir Whiskey Richards, a current senior and member of Arrr. Names in brackets have been changed.

WR: Well, it was my freshman year and I sang in high school and wanted to sing in college. I tried out for some other groups and didn't get in. I still wanted to sing, and didn't really know what to do with myself. One of my friends who went to my high school told me "you know, there's this weird group on campus that sings dressed up like pirates. It's weird, they know all this stuff about pirates, and to get in you need to know all about pirate lore and you have to be a pirate, and do kinda crazy stuff and drink a lot." I'm like, "that sounds a little strange...unusual. So i found out their email and I emailed the captain…the person before Violet…it must've been, maybe, Cutlass at that point? Anyway, so I went to audition. I still remember my audition - it was really fun. I didn't have any pirate outfit at all, so last minute I went "oh god what am i going to do" and i messed up the buttons on my shirt, and I went over to CVS and I went and was like, "I'm going to get an eyepatch." Unfortunately at CVS they don't just sell pirate eyepatches, they sell eyepatches for people who have, like, eye problems. They're like little cloth things. I was like "well, this isn't piratical at all." They actually like this story a lot, the pirates. I ended up - I wasn't going to buy a box of 20, so I just…I took one out of the box. You know, I was like "if I'm going to be a pirate about this…" So I put that on my face and used permanent marker to make it black and I drew, you know, eyepatch lines with permanent marker. Halfway through the audition I realized it's really hard to see with just one eye, so I took that off. I had a rousing good time. I had taped a cardboard sword with duct tape. It was completely, like, no rigidity. It would just flop. That's why they called me Whisky Dick…I have a floppy sword.

AVM: So, do you get most nicknames when you get initiated?

WR: There are different reasons for names. Leviathan Jack because he's huge. Um…some names are more fitting than others. Some names are closer than people's real names. Meister Jager, his real name is [William] Jager. And Frenchy the Wenchy, her real name is Francesca. But then there are names like mine, that are derived from something that happen. And like Grob, who's kind of a mystical pirate. Grob came into auditions - we always ask "what does grog mean to you?" It became clear over the course of his audition that he didn't know what grog was, nor did he know what word we were asking about. So, he proceeded to call it "grrrb" and "grooob," and it became his name. He's kind of a mystical pirate, since he doesn't come often to many things. He just shows up when we need him. 

AVM: Current student?

WR: Yes [laughs]. 

AVM: I thought he might be an alum, since I know many of your alums come back at some point.

WR: Yeah, there are certainly alums that come frequently.

AVM: So…that's how you got started. Is that a typical story? Do most people sing before? I know [Name] sings in chorus as well.

WR: Yeah, yeah.

AVM: But it did seem to me that at least one of your babies doesn't sing at all.

WR: Yeah, well we have a few who literally have no musical training. They're essentially tone deaf. We don't accept on the basis of musical talent - what really matters is the pirate spirit. They need to be a pirate. For example, one of our members, [James], has a peg leg. We knew we wanted him when he hung out with us. And not just because of his clearly applicable physical attributes. But also because, when we asked him on the main green, "Hey, do you want to audition for pirates?" We were frantically trying to recruit before auditions. We handed him a flyer, and he went "What? Because I have a peg leg?" We went "No, no!" He said, "That's really offensive. What is wrong with you? Are you out of your mind? What kind of group are you??" We're like "God no, we're really sorry. We're handing these out to everyone!" He's like "I'm outraged!"

AVM: And then he showed up?

WR: And then he proceeded to tell us he was just kidding. During our shows, during "Grog," he's taken to doing the following verse, where we sing "where is my leg, my groggy groggy leg…" He'll come out when he thinks it's an appropriate time. He'll say "I'm going to do the leg verse," and we'll go "ok, sure." It's funny, because he'll come out and go, [sings] "Oh, where is my leg…" he just looks down, and everyone goes "oh, shit…" And he just stops. And then we start the chorus. Completely his choosing - he's the one that first thought of this. [...] It's an awkward good hit.

AVM: Do other people have signature verses that they do? I know there's the one in "Grog" that's in harmony, that goes into "Loch Lomond."

WR: That's certainly people who are more into the musical side of things. But, uh…everyone has their different personalities. It's a very crazy group, in the sense that I don't think that I'd be friends naturally with many of these people, and I don't think they'd naturally be friends with me, but together, we're the best of friends, which is really wonderful.

Critical Review #6: Nettl, "Heartland Excursions"

In this reading by Bruno Nettl, the author describes the culture of music departments at "Heartland" (his term for Midwestern) universities in the United States. In the introduction to his book, he describes his experiences at Heartland universities, especially their music schools, and delineates the similarities between many of these departments. There appears to be an overwhelming focus on Western art music (conventionally known as classical music), especially in the areas of performance and theory/composition. Comparing his experiences to mine at Brown, I can clearly see the same is true in our own music department; the majority of concentrators are in the theory/history/composition track rather than MEME or Ethno, and most courses focus on Western art music. However, I do have to challenge his self-acknowledged generalization when speaking of these universities; though he clearly does have experience, the lack of anecdotes beyond the extremely vague is difficult to tolerate in a study of this sort.

In the chapter itself, "In the Service of the Masters," Netll describes the role that the most famous composers, such as Mozart and Beethoven, play as "deities" to the people of a music department. He asks, from the perspective of a Martian ethnomusicologist, just becoming aware of this phenomenon, "why is it true?" Why do we accept these composers as the paradigm of Western art music? Why do we immortalize their names on our concert halls and classroom buildings? The answer is clearly a complex one, but Nettl also brings up the idea of why we see a piece of music as more important when it is from the works of one of these great composers. Why would it lower the importance of Beethoven's 9th symphony if we learned that it wasn't composed by Beethoven, but instead by his neighbor?

Discussion question: How helpful were Nettl's comparisons of "Heartland" music departments to the Blackfoot musical culture?

Fieldnotes: Arrr rehearsal 10/5

On Friday 10/5, I met the members of Arrr for their weekly rehearsal at 3 pm. Due to the gorgeous weather, they decided to hold it outside on the Main Green instead of at a member's house. Here are my (unedited) notes from the rehearsal:

• Chaplain begins with reading
• "Permission to board" from members
• Informal beginning - food, drinks
• Binders (bindarrs) with lyrics - do members just learn tunes through memorization?
• Collection of funds
• People look much more like normal Brown students here than they do at shows
• People randomly begin songs after suggestion made
• Harmonization seems mostly to come from the same group of people
• Really feels like a group of friends, little organized leadership
• Argument about different versions of songs
• About 17 people present
• Some people using "pirate speak" much more than others
• New members are easy to pinpoint - seem scared to speak still
• Music - often a discant over chorus
• Hand symbol for who's going to do the next solo verse (acknowledged by Captain)
• Some reference current events/last night, inside jokes
• Change of emotions quickly between songs (example: "Fields of Athenry")
• Much more harmony here - sung often (I recognize it), so it's more set than other ones

Critical Review #5: Miller, Ch 6 in "Playing Along"

In the "Amateur-to-Amateur" chapter of Miller's 2012 book "Playing Along: Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance," she uses three examples – conga tutorials on YouTube, pianojohn113's piano lessons on YouTube, and the growing community of people practicing ashtanga yoga via the internet – to illustrate different ways in which people are teaching via the internet. All three of these examples show perfectly how the internet is not just being used by professionals to interact with people trying to learn; instead, these are cases in which amateurs are teaching other amateurs.

The internet is not a place filled with people with credentials – in many cases, this "A2A" form of teaching became necessary because those with actual degrees were busy teaching for money. This is not to say that this is a bad method of learning; I myself have sought out the internet for help when purchasing new viola strings, for example. The benefits of the internet are clear: it's a place where you can "crowdsource" your help. Instead of being taught by one person on the conga drums and never seeing another opinion or style, you have them right at your fingertips.

I similarly agree with Miller's assertion that A2A participants do not entirely "reject structure, hierarchy, and hegemony." This structure and hierarchy is honestly inherent to many artistic practices; the reason we have certain methods of teaching is because they have been found to be the most effective.

Discussion question: how can someone be "qualified" to teach a practice on the internet? Are there certain artistic practices in which this idea of "A2A" teaching is less useful?

Critical Review #4: "Shadows in the Field" chapter 2, Jeff Titon

In this second chapter of "Shadows in the Field," Titon discusses fieldwork and its ability to answer the epistemological questions inherent in the field of ethnomusicology: "What can we know about music, and how can we know it?" (Barz and Cooley 25). Titon seems to be a strong proponent of fieldwork as a method of answering this question, but is also knowledgable enough to discuss the transition from structured fieldwork (a series of interviews) to the participatory ethnomusicology practiced today. He also discusses the role of music as a type of language, as well as a "socially constructed cultural phenomenon." While his paragraph on page 35 about hypertext and multimedia was interesting, I question the fact that he included it in the 2006 version of this chapter, especially as my further research in the area turned up very little being done in the music world. I was, however, interested in his ideas on the future of fieldwork and representing music as a communal experience.

Discussion question: Is the "friendship model" of fieldwork viable even when we discuss, as we did earlier, the idea of virtual fieldwork? Is it possible to build these relationships with a community without face-to-face interaction?

"Society for Ethnomusicology" journal

Browsing through some of the back issues of the "Society for Ethnomusicology" journal (in Orwig library, where I could see the original copies, as well as on the web via JSTOR) was a much more interesting experience than I initially expected it to be. It seems that the journal originated as a hand-typed newsletter that was distributed to known scholars. Interested members were able to send in their addresses to be added to the mailing list - just thinking about the effort involved to get out a simple newsletter makes me tired, especially in comparison to sending out a quick email to a listerv today.

Volume 1, No. 2 seems to be where the action begins after the initial mailing; scholars start writing in to share their work. I was baffled to see some of the letters printed in French, German, and other languages! Another piece of technology to be glad for: Google Translate. I was also amused to see many of the same topics we debate in class being discussed in the newsletter: F.A. Kuttner writes, following a description of his work in "Far Eastern archeo-musicology," "I have come to believe that the whole system of comparative methods is obsolete and inadequate, and that something else and much better will have to replace it if we are going to expect any significant progress in the future."

We can also note in these "notes and news" sections throughout the 1950s that the majority of work reported involves researchers making recordings of music; there is very little mention of talking to the musicians or audiences at all. However, these researchers clearly were interested in talking to each other, as evidenced by the account of their first meeting, held in 1956. Besides elections of officers, it seems that the most important resolution made at this half-hour long meeting (it's clearly stated that it began at 2:15 and ended at 2:45 pm) was to remove the hyphen to create the current term "ethnomusicology" as one word, as opposed to the previous term "ethno-musicology."

Despite Kuttner's early enthusiasm for moving away from comparative musicology, it seems that in 1957 many researchers were still spending the majority of their time on recording and transcribing melodies. Mantle Hood's article in Vol. 1, No. 11 does begin with a discussion of the definition of "ethnomusicology," but ends disappointingly in my opinion. The entire last page (pg. 7) involves a description of all the materials necessary for a researcher's transcription, but little about what the transcription can help with.

Overall, it was quite interesting to delve through these momentos from an earlier time in this study. For me, it was perhaps most interesting to imagine how at the forefront these men and women must have felt, beginning a new journal to go with a growing field of study.

Ethnography project: Arrr

For my ethnography project, I have decided to examine the pirate "arrrcapella" group Arrr. I've loved going to their shows since freshman year when I discovered them, and now that I have a few friends in the group (and alumni as well), I'd love to learn more about their history.

I plan to attend their Friday afternoon rehearsals, as well as any arrrch sings and other performances that come up during the semester, and hope to meet their new members and see their progression into part of the group. I will conduct interviews with at least one alum, current member, and new member, and compare their experiences as part of Arrr at Brown and beyond the Brown community.

Some questions I would like to answer:

• How did Arrr originate? Who founded it and what were the early years like?
• How has the culture and makeup of the group changed over time?
• What is the typical makeup of the group?
• What percentage of participants have formal musical training?
• Do Arrr members also perform in other groups at Brown?
• How is the group perceived by members of other a cappella groups?
• How does the selection of officers occur?
• Where do Arrr nicknames originate and who selects them?
• How is music selected and arranged? Who does this?
• Do many Arrr members stay involved with the group post-graduation?

Critical Review #3: Shelemay Ch 9

On Chapter 9, "The Ethnomusicologist, Ethnographic Method, and the Transmission of Tradition"

In her chapter in "Shadows in the Field," Shelemay starts out by discussing the intrinsic differences between a "historical musicologist" and an anthropologist or ethnomusicologist. In her words, while a historical musicologist is "implicated in the continuation" of the musical tradition he/she studies, an anthropologist (or ethnomusicologist, though she does not use the term here) has a participatory position in this tradition or culture. It becomes clear that Shelemay considers herself much the latter, as she discusses her work with the Syrian Jewish community in New York and the creation of an archive of 200 pizmonim. It becomes clear that she played a huge role not only in the preservation of these hymns, but also in the transmission of them to a new generation.

Shelemay clearly shows that it is easy, in some circumstances, for a researcher to become intimately tied with the community he/she researches. She clearly states the benefits of this exalted position, but what may be some of the negatives? And what should an ethnomusicologist do if he/she is not accepted by the community he/she studies?

Soundscape: Monday 9/17/12

About 8:00 am: someone's radio alarm is going off on the floor above me and it wakes me up. I'm too sleepy to even try to make a guess of the song. All I know is it's loud.

9:00 am: my alarm goes off. "Middle Distance Runner" by Sea Wolf, a band I heard live in San Francisco about 3 years ago. Source is my iPhone on the bedside table next to me.

9:08 am: I'm in the shower, and someone else in the bathroom is whistling tunelessly.

9:42 am: Lefty (a worker in the Blue Room) is playing some kind of reggae off his iPod with a small set of speakers as I get my morning tea.

10:23 am, in class: someone's "marimba" iPhone ringtone goes off.

11:57 am, Wriston Quad: someone in Phi Psi is playing "Soul Sister" by Train out of their window.

12:03 pm, the Ratty: I'm swiping into work, which requires walking through the Ratty kitchen. The workers have a radio going - I don't recognize the song, but it sounds Top 40.

3:31 pm, the Ratty: as I swipe out, the radio is playing "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.  It's stuck in my head for the next hour.

4:23 pm: I'm watching an episode of "How I Met Your Mother." No background music to the episodes, but according to Wikipedia the theme song is part of "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids, a band that two of the show creators/writers are a part of. Hey, learn something new every day.

5:10 pm, my room: while doing some reading, I listen to Holst's "The Planets" in preparation for playing it in orchestra this semester. Method: Spotify on my iPhone connected to a pretty good set of speakers.

8:34 pm: I'm finally watching "The Hunger Games," which has a pretty good soundtrack, in my opinion. I love the contributions that Arcade Fire made to the film,  including writing the Panem national anthem.

Critical Review #2: Handler/Linnekin on Tradition

The main argument of Handler and Linnekin's article on the idea of "tradition" is that tradition is a "model of the past" that also takes in pieces of the present as it is continued. In the article, we see this assertion backed up by two main pieces of evidence; Quebecois and Hawaiian culture. In Quebec, Handler and Linnekin assert, tradition developed not out of habit but out of a need for nationalism; here, we see even what may be described as an "invented culture." In Hawaii, traditional ways were lost for a time, and resurfaced with different aspects added to them; though these practices are not in fact entirely authentic, they are still seen as "traditional." Handler and Linnekin see tradition as a process, not a single object, and push the reader to challenge vague terms such as this.

Discussion question: How do we decide what can be called "traditional?" What is the process by which ideas transverse the path from habit to tradition?

Critical Review #1: Myers "Ethnomusicology: an Introduction"

In this selection from Ethnomusicology: an Introduction, Myers offers both a history of and a commentary on the practice of ethnomusicology, beginning with Rousseau in the 1760s and continuing through to the modern day. It seems that though ethnomusicology was conceived of much earlier, it did not truly come into practice until Edison devised the means by which people were able to listen to the music of other people, the gramophone. Myers next takes us on a whirlwind tour of this area of study in the 1900s, discussing the origin of the term "ethnomusicology" in the 1950s (rather than "comparative musicology," the previous term) and the various definitions of ethnomusicology that came up in the 1960s-70s. Finally, she looks at recent work, which has been much more in the field than before, and the recent "mixing and matching" of formerly disparate forms of music.

Question: How does the "internet age" change the way that we as modern-day ethnomusicologists can look at music?