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RESOUND a Quarterly of the Archives of Traditional Music RESOUND A Quarterly of the Archives of Traditional Music Volume 24; Number 3/4 July/October 2005 Sound Recordings and Ethnomusicology: From the Director Theoretical Barriers to the Use of Archival Collections Daniel B. Reed Ronda L. Sewald Part two, continued from Resound Vol. 24, No 1/2 We Keep Getting Busier Defining Disciplinary Boundaries: The Struggle For many decades, the Archives ofTraditional between Anthropologists and Musicologists Music has prided itself as being an open and accessible Since the founding of the Society archives. We have a Listening Library which is staffed for Ethnomusicology in the 1950's, many and open to the public thirty-five hours a week. The vast ethnomusicologists have declared the use of others' majority of our collections is cataloged and searchable sound recordings as a research methodology on-line via Indiana University's electronic catalog used by comparative musicologists as opposed to IUCAT. We receive a constant flow of orders from ethnomusicologists. This methodology has been researchers, educators, members of the communities transformed into a token representing the mistakes where recordings were made, and others· from around of the past and its rejection has become a means of the world. As archives go, we have always been quite symbolically distancing ourselves from the imperialistic heavily used. and ethnocentric theories generated by earlier In the past several years, however, we have seen a researchers. the scapegoating and stigmatization of dramatic growth in orders for our collections. Simply others' sound recordings, however, has not only served comparing statistics from 2004 and 2005 clearly as a device for demarcating the past from the present demonstrates the rate of increase in use of the ATM. but also for defining the scope and boundaries of the No single statistic tells the story better than this one: discipline in general. the number of reoJrdings ATM staff digitized increased In addition to being used as a device to 230/0 from 2004 to 2005. This is a remarkable increase, distance themselves from comparative musicology, especially considering that, excepting temporary staff ethnomusicologists have stigmatized the use of others' hired for grant-funded projects, our staff size has sound recordings as a means of defining the scope and remained constant during this period. We have always boundaries of the discipline. A dichotomy has often been busy, but we keep getting busier! The pace of been presented in which anthropologists study human orders just continues to quicken. behavior, culture, and music of the present day through How do we account for this increase in use, the use of ethnographic fieldwork while musicologists particularly in light of Ronda Sewald's article about study "sound products" and the music of the past the theoretical barriers to the research use of sound through the use of archival materials and armchair recordings in the field ofethnomusicology? First, analysis. As mentioned above, ethnomusicology may because we have a presence on the World Wide Web, have named itself as the successor of comparative and in particular because people around the world can {continued on page two} {continued on page two} (From the Director continued) (Sewald continued) search our catalog records on the web, it is surely musicology, but members of the American no accident that our use is increasing along with Anthropological Association created the Society for the increase in use and popularity of the Web. Ethnomusicology and its related publications as pan Secondly, if ethnomusicologists do not take full of a new field of anthropological study. I would advantage of the ATM for purposes of research, speculate, however, that researchers of traditional they do continue to make extensive use of our and non-Western music among musicologists saw collections for pedagogical purposes. Thirdly, this new field as filling the vacuum left behind while our primary connection as an institution by the defunct American Society of Comparative is cenainly to the discipline of ethnomusicology, Musicology and the older Gesellschaft zur our holdings include materials recorded by Erforschung der Musik des Orients. scholars of a wide range of disciplinary affiliations. Since many musicologists continued to rely Ethnomusicologists make up just a ponion of the on musicological theories and methodologies, the people who order copies of our collections. Who, anthropologists sought to redress what they saw for example, ordered copies of ATM materials in as an imbalance between the study of music as the past couple of years? The Cowichan Tribe of sound and the study of music as behavior. This British Columbia. A repatriation project pairing action not only served to separate the field from historians at the University of Connecticut with the past practices of comparative musicology, but the Mrican National Congress in South Mrica. also weakened the position of the more traditional The Yager Museum of Hatwick College, New musicologists, panicularly systematic musicologists, York. An independent filmmaker in Georgia. A who had joined SEM. Those researchers who specialist in Brazilian capoeira in France. A graduate employed traditional musicological methodologies student at the University of Chicago. Descendants were encouraged to shift their approach to more of Gullah people recorded in the 1930s. To be . anthropological models or risked relegation to sure, ethnomusicologists placed many orders the discipline of musicology if they failed to in the past two years as well, but orders from do so. Looking back on this period, Joseph ethnomusicologists represent a small ponion of our overall number of requests. We preserve recorded heritage for a broad range of constituencies. And they are using our RESOUND collections more than ever. Nothing makes me A Quarterly of the Archives of Traditional Music happier as director than to repon that people are recognizing the value of and using the materials in Marilyn Graf, Editor We are pleased to accept comments, letters, and our care. We keep getting busier, and we are glad of submissions. Please address your correspondence it! to RESOUND at: Archives of Traditional Music Morrison Hall 117 Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 [email protected] www.indiana. eduJ~libarchm Daniel B. Reed, Director Marilyn B. Graf, Archivist Suzanne Mudge, Librarian Mike Casey, Associate Director for Recording SeIVices Megan Glass, Office Services Assistant ISSN 0749-2472 2 Kerman referred to comments by anthropologists and diffusionism to music and named several as the "rattling of social-scientific sabers" that researchers who made use of these theories, was "calculated to make musicologists nervous" including Erich von Hornbostel, Curt Sachs, (1985: 170). A sizable number of musicologists Helen Roberts, Rose Brandel, George Herzog, Alan remained within the society, but those who Lomax, and Bruno Nett!' McLeod complained were unable to meet the new anthropological that both of these theoretical approaches served requirements may have felt pressured to leave the to lift music from its context and failed to take discipline. Researchers such as Kolinski and Rose into account the impact of this context upon the Brandel, who both drew primarily upon methods content (1974:101-02). Later, McLeod also raised from systematic musicology and audile analysis, Marshall's complaint regarding the study of music undoubtedly felt the effect of this paradigm shift. as art and clearly labeled the approach to music Although Kolinski continued to publish essays in as an isolatable and aesthetic art form as an act of Ethnomusicology well into the 1980s, Brandel's last ethnocentrism (1974:107). She praised Merriam's article in the journal appeared in 1962. The Anthropology ofMusic, stating, "it offers the student of music a series of choices for study which The Anthropology ofMusic as a Turning Point do not depend upon a knowledge of music, and Writers from the 1970s through as late thus it allows scholars without musical background as 1993 have often praised Merriam's The to envisage investigation into the nature of music Anthropology ofMusic as the turning point in the as culture rather than as form or style" (McLeod struggle between musicology and anthropology or, 1974:103). occasionally, in the struggle between musicology Carole Pegg also credited Merriam's book and ethnomusicology. For our present purposes, as a "significant landmark for ethnomusicology" the most interesting aspect of these tributes is their (1980:61) and his scholarship as one of the key treatment of "armchair analysis" as a thing of the facto-rs in establishing ethnomusicology as a past that Merriam's innovative work had at last "relatively new branch of anthropology" (1980:60). done away with. In addition to arguing that the Pegg goes so far as to claim: work of the Berlin school, and of all musicologists who studied music as an isolatable art form, was Before Merriam, both musicologists and directly related to evolutionism and diffusionism, etlmomusicologists had considered only the technical aspects of musical analysis, concentrating on the Christopher Marshall credited Merriam with structure of the sounds produced and taxographical challenging the idea of music as art. Marshall details of the instruments producing those sounds. The argued that such a concept was both detrimental human factor had been totally ignored. Merriam pointed to the discipline and responsible for the high out the importance of considering
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