Black Music Research Fisk Unnersity

BLACK MUSIC RESEARCH NEWSLETTER FISK UNNERSITY Volume 4 Number 2 Fall, 1980 The Ethnomusicolog ist and Black Music by Bruno Netti, its scope because there were other less emphasis to the exceptional, even The LJ,iiversity of Illinois, things not being done in large quan Urbana, Illinois if it is the creation of superb talent. tity by traditional (or as we sometimes What they need to do now is to stretch call them, "straight") musicologists. these capabilities to extend from the I have not encountered an academic But ethnomusicologists haven't kept small and reasonably homogeneous field or discipline whose members pace with the goals implied in their societies with which they have mostly spend as much time worrying definitions. They have not dealt com dealt to encompass larger, more com about defining themselves as ethno paratively with all of the musics of the plex population groups. musicology. Definitions abound and world, have not looked at the oral In all of this, they seem to me to they can be discussed historicaUy, component in Western art music, have exhibited a creed: that all musics something done by the late Alan P. have not dealt with the written tradi are equally the product of a culture Merriam in one of his last articles tions of the modern third world, and and reflective of its values and struc (Ethnomusicology 21:189-204, 1977). have given little attention to the con ture, notwithstanding the obvious The general public tends to think of cept of music as culture in modern fact that some are harder to learn and ethnomusicology as the study of society. There are exceptions, and technically more complex than others; non-Western and folk music, of perhaps ethnomusicologists are tool that all peoples, and therefore all "ethnic" music, and even (heaven ing up to do more. The issue is not, musics ,are equally worth y of study forbid) of "ethnom1,1sic." Actually, all though, whether it is to be general and respect. of the definitions cited by Merriam musicologists or ethnomusicologists So much for a description of take this view, but the most respected who will do a particular job, but rather ethnomusicologists. They have done of those state or imply that that the job be done. much for the understanding of the ethnomusicology includes the study Why haven't ethnomusicologists music of black Americans, but tliey of all music, including what we con done more in such areas as concert have rarely looked at the total picture; ventionally call art and popular music of black composers? It may I suggest that they could do precisely genres, or that it at any rate can con have to do with their training. What that if they followed their definitions tribute to their understanding. Thus are they typically equipped to do? and stretched their capacities. Here Merriam himself asserts that it is the Here are a few examples. They can are some more specific contributions st udy of music in (or as) culture; deal with musical sound as repro which could result: Hood, that it is an approach to the duced on recordings, but typically it is 1) They could try to define black study of all music; List and Gillis, that sound in which not too much goes on music in the way they have tried to it deals with music in oral tradition at a time-monophonic singing yes, define other music, such as that of (but then, all music has a substantial orchestral music perhaps not. They American Indian peoples. The musi oral component); Chenoweth, that it are trained to comp rehend and or cal culture of an Indian society often is the music (one assumes all music) of ganize information about the total consists of music with a long tradi a people or cultural group. We also musical culture of a people, but this is tion, with which it identifies most find that it is viewed as the compara always an incredibly complex matter, closely; other traditions shared with tive study of all musics (Kilinski), the and so they are most at home in neighboring peoples, defined as such study of all the world's musical sys societies in which there is at least not by the tribe; and "white" music tems (Blacking), and the music of too much quantity, few people, and a (which would perhaps be called cultures outside one's own clearly defined set of functions; some "white" and "black" except for the (Wachsmann). thing one may find in a small tribal vagaries of American demography), None of these rules out Western art society. They are equipped to deal which they consider theirs as well, music, popular music, or jazz. with the total musical product of a but in a different sense. I have heard Ethnomusicology began as the rather people, but only if the product is not arguments about the identity of black explicit study of what was not being too large. They can, without feeling music ranging from "anyth ing a black treated by historians of European guilty, deal with the mainstream mu American performs" to "only what is music, and then went on to broaden sical experience o~ a society, giving specifically not shared with whites and others." The picture is of course ethnomusicological study is the iden approaches of music historians more complex, and the experience tification of the unit of musical should continue to be followed, as with Indian music may make it easier thought, the "piece," in each of the well as the older approaches of to recognize the fact that a society has world's musics. We think of "the" ethnomusicologists in their concern or "owns" a number of musics which song, symphony, opera as the basic with folk and non-Western music, the it identifies with itself to varying de musical unit in Western culture, but ultimate problems of ethnomusicol grees. what this unit is differs by culture. ogy as implied in the more recent 2) Ethnomusicologists could try, as The criteria are sometimes strictly definitions should also be broached. they have in the case of non-Western musical, or sometimes they have to do These would, in various ways, show societies, to describe the total musical with the association of music with us the complete picture of the musical culture. The music of black Americans individuals, supernatural figures, culture of a people. They should work is stratified in the general Western clans, or societies. Songs almost iden from the inside; the categories de manner; there is something like folk, tical, dreamed by two members of a rived from traditional Western musi popular, and art music. I say "some Plains Indian tribe, are to them differ cal studies should not be used. They thing like" because this tripartite ent songs; of cours-e the Indians have may tum out to be outmoded for all structure has often been applied to no trouble hearing the identity, but musics anyway. Ethnomusicological non-Western societies with only this is not the main criterion. A folk approaches should not be expected to moderate success. In India, it works song in England may exist in many show that this or that music is particu fairly well; in the Middle East, there variants, borrow from other songs, larly worthy of study or good-all are strata, but they are differently re become thoroughly diffused. At what musics are-but they could provide a lated. The Indian singer of classical point does it become another song? rational, broad perspective based on music avoids folk and popular genres, Tne implications for jazz and some our knowledge of the fact that the but his Arabic counterpart may par concert music are obvious. world has many musics, each to be ticipate in all. Some African cultures, These are a few examples of the understood on its own terms, as a unit as John Blacking has shown, have a way an ethnomusicological approach defined by the people whom it serves, complex network of musical strata could be used to understand the mus but also in relation to other musics; closely related to the strata of political ical culture of Black Americans. The and that each music, difficult or easy, power. American Indian tribal reper great gap is in the understanding of each repertory, large or small, is a tories are not totally homogeneous. art or concert music as a part of a highly complex and unique product Each culture has its own taxonomy of whole culture. W!hile the traditional of human culture. musical genres, and we should find out what this taxonomy is in black Black concert and recital music: A glimpse of American culture. ls it like that of Afro-Caribbean music in the early 17th century urban Western society? I doubt it, but I hope to be enlightened. by D0mi11ique-Re11e de Lenna, and African music before the Carib 3) This leads us of course to the Morgan State University bean was settled by these newcomers. relationship of the art or concert music Baltimore, Maryland At the least, we can identify these of black composers and its relation sisters as two significant musicians ship to other black music. Somehow, I In our concern for seeking a defini active in the West Indies well within a think the old art-folk dichotomy and tion of the latitudes of Black music, century after Columbus set foot on the way it has been studied in Euro too often we neglect the very signifi their native Hispaniola. pean music history will not apply. cant accomplishments of the Afro It was enough of a surprise when (Black composers possess a more ex American "concert" composer, not to the music of Saint-Georges (1739- tensive knowledge of folk music than mention those not native to this coun 1799) came to be fairly well known their white counterparts.

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