Chapter 8
MUSIC IN CULTURE – HISTORICAL
AND GEOGRAPHIC APPROACHES
Perhaps the most important task which ethnomusicology has set itself is
the study and discovery of the role which music plays in each of man's cultures
past and present, and the knowledge of what music means to man. Although an
interest in this task is professed by most participants in our field, there is
as yet little agreement and little standardized theory regarding the procedures
to be followed in pursuing this interest. Ethnomusicology can not, of course,
claim credit for alI scholarly interest in musical culture, for the historians
of Westem music, the psychologists and sociologists of music, the folklorists
and philosophers, and others, have also explored it. But ethnomusicology brings
to the study of music in culture the points of view and the methods of
anthropology, varied though these have been, and ethnomusicologists are the
only large group of scholars who claim an interest in all aspects of musicallife,
in alI cultures, individually and in groups.
Nevertheless, they are only at the beginning of their work, and what
they have accomplished so far cannot be summarized or outlined. This chapter
and the next, rather than attempting to give a thorough exposition of alI that
has been done, present a selection of the most influential and most promising
theories and studies. In these chapters we are interested in 1 ) the role which
music plays in human culture and the ways in which this can be studied, and 2)
the methods and theories by which music has been-and can be-approached in ways
similar to the ways in which other aspects of
culture are approached by anthropologists.
It seems to be most convenient to divide the study of music in culture
into two broad areas: the study of the individual group, or person, or nation
in one place and at one time; and the study of music in its spatial (i.e.,
geographic) and temporal (i.e., historical) environment. The first of these
areas would seem to be a prerequisite to the second, but as is so often the
case in a young discipline, the broader and more difficult questions have been broached
before the narrower and perhaps less obviously fascinating ones. Thus there is much
more theory and method available on the study of change in music, and on the geographic
distribution of music, than there is on the study of music's role in one
culture or in one person's life. Studying the geographical distribution of
musical phenomena and the ways in which music changes, and participates in
culture change, is important to an understanding of the role of music in
culture. It may seem that representing the distribution of musical style traits
on a map, for example, has nothing to do with other aspects of culture.
But doing so might, for example, perhaps enable us to show how this
distribution coincides with that of cultural or linguistic features, and how it
is associated with them. It could tell us something of the way in which music
was affected by the movement of peoples from country to country, and it might
show something about the past associations of neighboring or distant peoples.
By studying change in music we are approaching music as anthropologists would
approach other aspects of culture, and in this way we are also learning about
music as a phenomenon of culture. We shall devote ourselves, in this chapter,
to a consideration of the historical aspects of the study of traditional musics
(especially where no written records are available), and to the problems and
significance of studying the geographic distribution of musical styles. These
are two different matters with which we will deal separately, but which are in
some ways closely related and interdependent.
Origin and Change
In spite of the variety of materials and aims, the historical aspects
of ethnomusicology can be grouped into two principal classes – origin and
change. Explanation of the origin of various phenomena has been at the root of
many developments throughout our field, and until recently it predominated over
the study of change. But while the study of origins has in a sense been
exhausted or in many cases seems impossible to pursue further, the study of change
promises to be of even greater interest when some methodological problems have been
solved.
The problem of origin can be approached in a number of ways. For
example, one may be interested in the manner of origin of a given phenomenon,
or in its place of origin. The manner – of – origin approach has been one of
the more speculative sides of ethnomusicology, and has provided considerable
common ground between our field and historical musicology. The problem of the
origin of music itself falls into this class, although ethnomusicological data
can only corroborate or, more frequently, negate. Nevertheless, some theories
of the origin of music which indicate the special function of music in non literate
cultures and its close ties to religion are genuinely based on anthropological information
(for a summary see Nadel 1930).
The search for the manner of origin of various generalized musical
phenomena is also involved here. For example, the debate on the origin of
polyphony carried through the decades (e.g., Adler 1908, Lachmann 1927,
Schneider 1934), the arguments for single versus multiple origins of polyphony,
the discussion on the possibility of various types of polyphony developing
separately or together, would all be included in this category.
Slightly different is the treatment of specialized or localized musical
phenomena. The origin of certain types of scales and meters is relevant here,
insofar as the approach does not stress the development of one type from
another; the latter should probably be covered in our "change"
category. An example of this approach would be the investigation of the origin of
the anhemitonic pentatonic scale: whether it was derived acoustically through
the circle of fifths, through the repetition of a two-tone motif at different
pitch levels, or through filling gaps in or melodic sequence, which may be
interpreted as variety introduced in a repetitive musical structure, or (since
it is most frequently downward movement) as repetition modified by the
prevailingly descending melodic contour of music(Kolinski 1957 :3), or in still
other ways. It would be difficult to exhaust the examples of the manner – of –
origin quest in ethnomusicology for it may be justly said that it has provided
the impetus for a large proportion of the research in this field.
The search for the place of origin of musical phenomena, generalized
and specialized, has pinpointed a number of problems in ethnomusicological
method. The place of origin of medieval European polyphony (summarized by Reese
1940 : 249 – 58) of the styles of some Northwest Coast Indians (Barbeau 1934)
of certain musical instruments, and even of individual compositions such as the
folk songs in European traditions, to cite only a few examples, have produced a
variety of studies and theories.
The general problem of place of origin has been approached from the
nonmusical side as well. Musical materials have been used to ascertain the
possibility of cultural contact among widely separated peoples, and it is in
this area that the historical orientation of ethnomusicology has made its
greatest contribution to cultural anthropology.
The problem of change, although often related to and combined with the
problem of origin, requires somewhat different approaches. We are interested in
the reasons for change
(or for lack of change), and in its nature. degree, and rate. This
applies to various levels of musical organization. We can study the change in
individual compositions or in larger bodies of music. We can try to trace the
changes indicated by differences among the variants of a single song, and we
can try to identify the reasons for them, whether these lie within the
structure of the music or in its cultural context. We can try to measure, for comparative
purposes, the amount of change that has taken place and try to determine how rapidly
it has occurred. Similar matters can be studied – but with greater difficulty –
in entire repertories, whether defined geographically or by their cultural
milieus. If more than one composition is involved, statistical methods are
usually drawn upon. Finally, investigations involving change are frequently
associated with those concerning the place of origin of a musical phenomenon,
for the obvious reason that if a musical item moves from one place to another,
it is also subject to change, and it would be impossible to assess the change
without considering the geographic movement.
It is useless to try within a short space to survey all of the studies
in ethnomusicology involving historical perspective. However, the approaches of
several of these studies are summarized in the following pages, and we will
attempt to give examples of the general conclusions to which they have led, and
to formulate some of the general tendencies which seem to prevail.
Problems of Origin
The origin of music, as well as of individual musical phenomena, has
usually been explained by reference to three possible processes. It may be a
coincidence based on the structure of a related phenomenon, it may be motivated
by a nonmusical need, or it may be inevitable through some process of evolution
– so say these theories, summarized by Kunst (1959:46-8). Thus, the origin of
music in emotional speech (a theory not widely accepted) or in vocal signaling
over a long distance (one more widely held) could be based on coincidence. A
human need for music, and its resulting invention, are postulated in theories
involving rhythmic work and religion as the cradles of this art. Music as a
human version of mating calls, or as a specialized form which developed from a
pre-language and pre-music generalized type of communication (Nettl 1956:136)
are examples of evolutionist views.
Most origin theories involving smaller – scale phenomena are also based
on one of these three approaches. For example, most forms of polyphony are
attributed to discovery by coincidence or by faulty rendition of monophonic
materials. This point of view does not explain why “faulty” rendition (e.g.,
singing of two variants of the same piece simultaneously, or overlap in
antiphonal singing, or singing the same melody at different pitch levels)
should in some cultures lead to the development of polyphonic music, while in
others it is simply written off as error. The origin of some instruments is
also attributed to coincidence – for example, the origin of the musical bow
from the hunting bow.
It is also possible to postulate the development of musical features in
some styles on the basis of aesthetic needs. The need for unifying factors in
orally transmitted music may bring unity in one element in order to balance the
elaboration or heterogeneity in another. It is possible, for example, that a
style in which tonal material is being expanded (over a period of years or
centuries) will also introduce the melodic sequence in order to offset the diversification.
Or a style based largely on repetition of short melodic formulae may introduce and
encourage improvisation and variation in order to offset the large degree of
unity. This view is supported by the complementary distribution of the unifying
elements in some styles of music.
The evolutionist view is represented by such hypotheses as that the
direction of musical change remains constant; so, pentatonic scales naturally
develop from tetratonic scales if the latter have in turn developed from
tritonic scales. The opinion that there are stages through which all musical
cultures inevitably pass is, of course, also pertinent here.
The problem of single versus multiple origin has occupied
ethnomusicologists on many occasions. On the whole, they have adhered to the
generally accepted anthropological viewpoint, using geographic distributions
and assuming that the likelihood of multiple origin decreases with the
complexity of the cultural feature whose origin is being sought. They have also
used data from acoustics (Hornbostel 1910) to explain the presence of the same phenomenon
in widely separated areas. The main problem faced here by ethnomusicologists is
the measurement of degree of complexity and similarity. The problem is shared
with cultural anthropologists, but it is somehow more specialized here because
of the peculiar structure of music. It is possible, after all, that musical
material, being in structure relatively independent of other cultural elements
and being easier than other features to describe and analyze, is better suited
to measuring than are some other cultural phenomena (Merriam 1956: 465).
Problems of Change
Why, how, and under what conditions does music change? Although these
questions have not been answered with scientifically predictable results for
any one type of music, they have considerable significance even for material
outside the scope of ethnomusicology, as have the converse questions regarding
the identification of stability and of stabilizing factors in music.
It is first necessary to define musical change. In traditional music,
change seems to be a phenomenon substantially different from change in a high
culture. While changes through substitution in a repertory occur in both kinds
of culture, it is only in those cultures which make use of oral tradition that
established compositions are altered. (Of course, changes in performance practice
of written music also must be considered in high cultures). Thus, change in a
fine art tradition tends to be cumulative, new material simply being added to
the old, while the old remains at least to a 'degree part of the heritage. In
an oral tradition it may be change in a more profound sense, old material being
eliminated as new material is introduced. Changes in a repertory, or beyond the
simple alteration of the individual compositions, occur in various ways.
Individual elements of music may undergo change, while others remain the same.
New songs may be introduced into a repertory, causing the older material to
change by assimilation; or the new material may gradually change to accommodate
the style of the old.
Changes in a repertory, if not caused by the substitution of new
compositions for older ones, are of course determined by the changes wrought in
individual compositions. But when change in a repertory is evident, it is often
impossible to determine what has happened to individual compositions. Thus the
two levels of change must usually be approached in contrastive ways.
There are many reasons for musical change, and the following discussion
is limited to those involving music in oral tradition. However, the same
reasons, and perhaps others, may be relevant to cultivated music. We are not in
a position to assert under what conditions, how fast, and how much music
changes, and which aspects are most subject to change. It is possible to divide
the approaches of scholars to change into two main classes: those which make
use of strictly musical (or aesthetic) criteria and concern themselves with the
characteristics of the musical material itself; and those which make use of
nonmusical criteria, including cultural and racial ones. Of course, these
approaches are not mutually exclusive; both must be used, and which one is
finally preferred depends on the individual case.
The first to be generally accepted were racial criteria. These were
partially subscribed to by such men as Carl Stumpf, E. M. von Hornbostel, and
Marius Schneider (1946).Today they are not generally accepted; but they have
been the subject of technical investigation by Metfessel (1928) and Bose
(1952).
On the whole, racial approaches tend to concentrate more on musical
stability than on change. The musical relationships among members of different
racial groups are of course intertwined with cultural relationships, and to
separate the racial factors is a difficult and sometimes impossible task.
Nevertheless, statements have been made (e.g. Schneider 1938:290; Schneider
1957) that the style of music is determined by the culture, but the manner of
performance, vocal techniques, and so forth, are determined by the racial background,
and there have been attempts to associate specific musical traits with certain racially
defined groups – cascading melodic contours with American Indians, for example.
Since members of a race have normally lived in close cultural contact,
the existence of common musical traits hardly proves racial or physically
inherited traits. Even when the characteristics of a racial group, such as the
African Negroes, are brought from one place to another, such as from Africa to
the New World, we have no convincing case for racially inherited musical
characteristics.
The notion that members of a racial group tend to accept materials from
physically similar groups more readily than from different ones seems too
speculative. Moreover, it is negated by such cases as the distribution of
individual songs through the various physical types of Europe, the influence of
Arabic music on East African Negro music, and the relatively similar musical
styles of Africa and Europe (viewed on a broad scale) as compared to the musical
contrast between African Negroes and the physically similar Melanesians. The accompaniment
of cultural influences by racial ones in many cases obscures the problem, and we
must conclude that the racial approaches to musical change have not contributed
much to ethnomusicology.
Among the many things which cause musical styles to change is the
contact among peoples and cultures, and the movement of populations which is one
cause of such contact. It is probable that most documented cases of changing
repertories are due to culture contacts. Peoples living side – by – side
influence each other, and where there is movement of populations the greater
number of contacts increases the possibility of musical change. One might
conclude from this that a tribe which moves about experiences greater or more
rapid musical change than does one which remains among the same set of neighbors.
The former tribe might also have a high rate of elimination of musical
material; or, holding on to old styles as new ones are introduced, it might
increase the total number of styles in its repertory. Thus we conclude that a
tribe with many outside contacts may have more variety in its music than one with
a stable and limited set of contacts. This approach is illustrated by a study
of Shawnee music, in which we see that Shawnee contacts with other Indian
tribes resulted in the introduction of new styles. The Shawnee around 1950 had
music which could be traced back to their contacts with the northern
Algonguins, the southeastern United States, and the Plains Indians. On the
other hand, we find that the Pueblos have a rich and complex but rather unified
musical style, perhaps because (at least in recent centuries) their contacts
with other tribes have been limited. The generally conservative nature of
Pueblo culture may also be involved here.
Another problem involving musical change through cultural contact is
the direction of influence. This can generally be answered with some degree of
certainty: the more complex style tends to influence the simpler one. This does
not necessarily mean that the music of the more complex culture is introduced
into the simpler one, for occasionally the (generally) simpler culture may have
the more complex music. A variety of stylistic combinations may also occur, as
indicated below in our discussion of acculturation. In these combinations, however,
it seems likely that each culture contributes the elements which it has developed
best or to the greatest degree of specialization. For example, the mixture of
African and European styles found in Haitian music consists essentially of
African rhythm, antiphonal singing, and drum accompaniment but European melodic
structure, perhaps because the melodic aspects of music are more highly
developed in European folk music than in African Negro music.
A musical style may move from one tribe to another without the
accompanying movement of a tribe or people itself. This – can happen when songs
are taught by one culture to a neighboring one, or when individuals move from
one tribe to another, or from one country to another. The musical style which
is thus moving is likely to change the repertories of the tribes or nations
through which it passes, but it may itself also undergo change, influenced by
the tribal styles with which it has made contact. For example, the Peyote
style, as defined by McAllester (1949), presumably moved from the Apache and Navaho
to the Plains Indians. It retained a feature of Apache music, the use of a
restricted number of note values (only quarter and eighth notes are usually
found), but in the Plains it evidently acquired the cascadingly descending,
terrace – shaped melodic contour. Possibly the forces described above operated
here: the melodic contour of the Plains, a specialized and well developed type,
was strong enough to encroach on the Peyote style, but the more generalized
rhythmic structure of the Plains was not strong enough to alter the specialized
rhythmic organization derived from the Apache. Thus it may be justified to
assume (although there are few documented examples) that specialized features
in music are less easily changed than generalized ones, and from this to
proceed to the hypothesis that generalized features are constantly undergoing
change in the direction of becoming specialized. A specialized feature may be
defined as one having a striking, overriding characteristic which allows little
flexibility for the composer's imagination to provide original effects.
Movement of musical material occurs not only in large bodies of music
but also at the level of the individual composition, where the same forces seem
to operate. In European folk music it is possible to identify tunes which have
moved through large areas. They seem rarely to have influenced the music of
these areas to any great extent, but they themselves have changed for reasons
discussed below ("The Role of the Individual Composition").It might
be possible to infer that the larger a moving body of music, the greater is its
influence on the repertories through which it passes, and the less it is itself
subject to change.
Another force toward change may be called assimilation, the tendency of
neighboring styles to become similar. While musical material which moves from
one place to another influences the styles in its environment, there is also a
force of attraction among the styles which are in constant contact. Thus, an
area in which there is little contact among groups is likely to have diverse styles,
but one in which the mutual contact is great is likely to have a more unified
style. An obstacle to testing this hypothesis is the lack of measuring devices
for degree of musical similarity. Yet it is possible to compare an area with
much internal communication, such as Europe, with one in which communication is
inhibited, such as Oceania, and find the hypothesis substantially borne out. Of
course, the presence of other factors must also be considered here.
It is not possible to make decisions about musical change, its causes
and directions, on the basis of strictly musical information. It is likely that
certain directions of change do predominate and that one can in some cases, and
with the corroboration of other kinds of information, decide such matters as
the relative age of musical styles on the basis of structural features in the
music. In most cases, music seems to move from simplicity to greater complexity
(but not always!), so it is assumed by most scholars that the simplest styles
are also the oldest. As indicated above, there may be movement from generalized
to specialized elements – if it is possible to classify music in this way. Once
a specific direction has been established, there may be a tendency to continue
it for centuries. For example, if the tones in the scale of a song have been
increased from three to four, further increases will follow, or at least a
decrease will not ensue. These tendencies are speculative, and beyond the
obvious simple – to – complex movement, they have not been used in specific investigations.
Other changes for which there are musical causes are related to oral
tradition. Because there are mnemonic problems present in the oral transmission
of music, the material must adhere to certain specifications in order to be
retained. The music must be simple, and there must be unifying devices such as
repetition, a drone or parallelism in polyphony, isorhythmic structure,
repetition of a metric unit, a definitely established tonality, melodic
sequence, the predominance of a single tone, etc. The necessity for the
presence of such features tends to inhibit change, or to channel it. in
specific directions. Thus, perhaps a melody with a rigidly isometric structure
is free to become heterometric after having become isorhythmic. A melody with a
hierarchical arrangement of tones, in which important and secondary ones are easily
distinguished, may lose this arrangement after the introduction of sequences,
since there is less need for the unifying function of the tonal structure. Again,
these forces have not been studied in many examples; they are presented here as
a possibility for future research. They can be observed in some European folk
songs which have undergone change while passing from one ethnic group to
another, but whether these changes are due strictly
to assimilation is an open question.
Measurement of the rate of change in music, and the amount of change in
a given instance, awaits the discovery of proper methods. On the basis of
impressionistic observation, particularly in the field of cultivated music, we
may assume that change takes place irregularly; sometimes it is rapid or
sudden, sometimes almost absent. In European music history there seem to be
intervals during which musical style changes rapidly, while between them it
changes only slightly over long periods of time.
Sachs (1947) believes that this is connected with the length of a
person's productive life, and in effect blames it on the reaction of each human
generation against its predecessor.
It Is often stated that the music of non-literate cultures must be somewhat-closer
to the beginnings of music than is Western cultivated music, and that "primitive"
music must therefore have changed more slowly. It is also possible that the
rate of change is proportional to the complexity of the music. This may be due
to the fact that where there are more features, more are subject to change. Or
it may be caused by the more generally dynamic nature of complex cultures. Of
course, the fundamental value system of a culture is also involved.
There is evidence that at least in some cases, music changes less
rapidly than do other aspects of culture. Thus, most non-literate cultures
which have had close contact with the West have taken on more European material
culture, economic organization, and religion than music. Although
reconstruction is difficult, there may be similar examples among the non-literate
cultures which lack Western influence. The Apache and Navaho have possibly retained
more of the northern Athabascan musical heritage than of certain other aspects
of that culture. The Hungarians have retained some of the musical features
shared by other Finno – Ugric peoples such as the Cheremis (Kodaly 1956: 23 –
59), but otherwise their culture has become Westernized.
The reasons for this slow rate of change probably vary with the
example, and comparison of music with other cultural features is
methodologically difficult.
There are two ways of studying individual cases of historical change in
folk and nonliterate cultures and their music. One can try to reconstruct
events of the past, or one can observe the changes occurring at the time at
hand. The latter approach has been used in a number of cases involving
acculturation (for example, Merriam 1955).The former has been used less often
in cases involving individual repertories or styles (Nettl 1953, 1955b), but more
often in general questions such as those involving the relative age of musical
features.
For example, it has been used to reconstruct the history of European
folk songs by comparison of variants. There are definite limitations to both
approaches. The reconstruction method is limited by inadequate material and by
too great reliance on speculation. The study of change in the present limits
the amount of time during which change may take place, and involves specialized
situations in which the cultures being studied are usually feeling the influence
of Western civilization (Wachsmann 1961).
The Role of the Individual
Composition
The individual composition must be especially considered in historical
research in ethnomusicology. Its is a problematic role, for there is no clear –
cut definition of what constitutes "a composition" in folk and
primitive music, and this very lack accentuates the importance of historical
orientation. Should one consider a group of variants with proved genetic
relationship a single unit of musical creation? Most scholars would prefer this
to a working definition of the single variant or rendition as "the
composition," but they are then faced with the problem of proving the
relationship. At the other extreme, one could devise melodic types which may or
may not have internal genetic relationship, as has been done by Wiora (1953),
and call these individual compositions without even considering the question of
actual common origin. This would have the advantage of grouping similar
materials and thus simplifying the picture. There are other possibilities, all
of which show that isolation of the unit of musical creation is much more
difficult in traditional than in Western cultivated music.
The problem of measuring degrees of similarity among different musical
items has already been mentioned. It would appear that in some styles, all or
most of the pieces are so similar as to be comparable to related variants of single
compositions in other styles. For example, most songs of the Plains Indians
appear, by virtue of their specialized melodic contour (terrace -shaped) and
form (Al A2, with A2 an abbreviated form of Al) and by use of similar scales,
as closely related to each other as the variants of a single English folk song found
in several English-speaking countries. Thus the criteria used for one culture
do not hold for others.
Informants' statements may be of help in some cases, and they have on
occasion differed considerably from my own calculations.
Another problem is the identification or classification of musical
items which, although composed at separate times, are based on each other or on
a common model. In many cultures, the emphasis on originality (however one
defines this term) is probably not as great as in Western civilization since
about 1750, and there may be cases in which new songs are created simply by
copying an already existing song with only slight changes. For descriptive purposes
in all of these situations it is probably advisable to accept the informant's classification,
but in comparative work this is usually not feasible.
The very existence of the problem of identifying individual units of
composition points up some of the essential differences in historical change
between cultivated and traditional material. In some non – literate cultures it
seems that entire complexes of musical material are built up from a single
composition. This process, described by Roberts (1933) and called by her the
"pattern phenomenon," may occur, for example, when a ceremony unites
a body of music which tends to become homogeneous by the process of
intensifying the specialized elements of its style. In some cultures (Nettl
1954a:89), new material is consciously created from the old, either by
elaborating songs already in existence or by combining material from several
songs to form new units. The extent to which these products are individual compositions
may also be questioned. To be sure, a similar problem occasionally appears in cultivated
music, as when the ultimate source of a composition is investigated. Thus music
historians may try to trace a musical theme through the various
"borrowings" by composer from earlier composer until the real
originator of the theme is found. In traditional music the problem becomes
substantially greater in cultures which encourage improvisation and where music
may be performed with considerable change in each rendition. One must also consider
the problems of defining the compositional unit if each rendition or stanza is different,
and of dealing with entirely improvised material. These examples show why the history
of individual pieces has rarely been studied, especially in non-literate
cultures.
Some Methods of Investigating
Change
Among the various approaches to historical problems in ethnomusicology
and the interpretation of descriptive data in a diachronic manner, two are
selected for brief discussion here: evolutionary and geographic. We label an
approach evolutionary if it recognizes a generally valid series of stages of
musical style, into which the data are then fitted. The schemes arranging
musical material into a time sequence may apply to generalized concepts or to
more specific local ones. For example, it is believed by some that each culture
goes through a stage of monophonic music, after which polyphony is developed.
Cultures which have a great deal of polyphony, such as many in Negro Africa,
are thus assumed to be higher in the musico-evolutionary process than those
which have very little polyphony, such as 'the North American Indian. The
difficulty with this view is that the results might be reversed if some other
element of music were the criterion. It could be postulated, for example, that there
is an evolutionary process from short, repetitious forms to longer, strophic
ones; in this case the Indians would be ahead of the African Negroes, assuming
that typical rather than exceptional examples are used. In a classification of
the music of the Finno-Ugric tribes in Russia, Lach (1929:11) states that the
simple forms of the Mordvin, which are usually repetitious, place that tribe in
a lower evolutionary category than the Chuvash, who have many strophic songs
with four different phrases per song. The Cheremis, who have many forms which
begin in a typically strophic manner and then go on to repeat one phrase
several times, are placed in an intermediate category. The same data could be
interpreted differently, and without the use of evolutionist schemes. One of
the problems faced by the classifier of tribes according to evolutionary
principles is the selection of representative material. There would be
different results if one used the average and most common, or the simplest, or
again the most complex material within a repertory as a basis for comparison.
Furthermore, the assumption that all cultures ultimately pass through the same
set of musical stages is even superficially only valid if one makes the
grossest sort of distinctions. Evolutionary schemes must thus be limited, if
they are to serve any useful purpose at all, to restricted areas and phenomena,
and the existence of other factors must always be admitted.
Universally applicable stages for elements of music other than form
have also been postulated. They are usually quite logical and would be accepted
as valid for most cases even by opponents of evolutionist approaches. For
example, the development of scales from two or three to finally four tones
probably took place in many cultures, although a development of tetratonic from
ditonic without the intermediate tritonic is also possible. Similarly, most strophic
styles probably developed from simple repetitive forms, but this does not
necessarily indicate the future development of strophic forms in all styles
which now have only simple repetition of single phrases.
There has been special confusion in the case of rhythm. Some students
believe that metric chaos, or the absence of metric organization, precedes
unification into metric patterns.
On the other hand, it might be assumed that metric simplicity,
repetition of a simple metric unit such as 4/4 or 3/4, precedes heterometric
structure which, to the listener, may appear confusing and unorganized. A given
piece may be analyzed as metrically unorganized or metrically complex, and many
evolutionist statements in ethnomusicology have been made on the basis of such
subjective distinctions.
Evolutionary stages have also been hypothesized for the development of
repertories. Bartók (1931: 12) postulates three stages in the development of folk
music. First the repertory is homogeneous; all songs are in the same style.
Then special substyles are developed for certain categories of songs, such as
Christmas songs, weddings songs, and music for other ceremonies. In the third
stage these ceremonies disappear, and with them the correlation between song
functions and musical styles. This scheme seems applicable in some cases, if we
take the music of some non – literate cultures as examples of the first stage.
It is not known whether Bartók also allows for the appearance of intermediate stages
caused by the impoverishment of repertories, whether he believes the third
stage to be attainable in all cultures, and whether the disappearing ceremonies
and the submerging of their peculiar styles are not replaced by other, similar
categories.
Other such schemes have been advanced; some have been mentioned in
Chapter 1. Characteristically, they divide music history into three stages (is
this a commentary on Western cultural values?). Evolutionary schemes perhaps
have their greatest value in their contribution to arrangement and
classification of musical material. And while they frequently help to explain
individual cases of development, they have never become generally acceptable.
We can say categorically that there is no evidence to support the notion that music
passes through pre-determined and predictable stages.
The geographical approaches to historical questions have been more
valuable. They are used because anthropological theory has developed hypotheses
to the effect that certain kinds of geographic distribution indicate the
likelihood of certain past conditions or events.
For example, the distribution of a cultural trait (an instrument, for
example) in noncontiguous, scattered areas may mean that this trait was once
widespread and has remained only in isolated pockets. The fact that certain
musical features have the same geographic distribution as those of another
facet of culture may mean, possibly, that they have been associated for some
time. Again, the fact that a trait is found in a highly developed state in one
spot on the map, and less well developed in the surrounding area, may mean that
it originated in the center. At times too much has been made of the importance
of geographic data in ethnomusicology, especially so far as their interpretation
along the lines of historical perspective is concerned. But while their importance
is probably greater for simply classifying and presenting information, their
value to the study of musical prehistory must not be underestimated. We must,
then, turn for several pages to a discussion of some of the problems of
studying the distribution of music.
Our historical and geographic considerations are then combined in our
discussion of musical areas, below.
Studying the Distribution of
Music
There are two main uses which ethnomusicologists make of geographic
concepts: 1) They plot the distributions of musical phenomena, entire styles,
individual compositions, but most frequently of individual traits abstracted
from their styles which can be present in various stylistic environments. An
example of the latter is a scale type found with various kinds of meter or
form, so that its distribution is not affected by the other elements in the same
composition. 2) They classify the world in terms of musical areas which exhibit
some degree of internal unity and contrast with neighboring areas.
During the late 1950's, several publications have mentioned the
desirability of mapping the distribution of music in the world. Paul Collaer
(1958) indicates that mapping the distribution of individual traits or features
of music would yield historical insight in various ways. Later, Collaer (1960)
began publishing such maps in earnest. Fritz Bose (1959) goes so far as to
postulate specific steps in making distributional studies and setting their
results down on maps. He suggests 1) making individual maps of single elements
of music and musical instruments; 2) mapping the use and function of each of
these: 3) preparing comparative maps; 4) making maps comparing musical features
with other aspects of culture and language. Bose's scheme is obviously
predicated on work primarily based on instruments and does not go far toward
solving the problems inherent in the preparation of maps for music per se. He
is desirous, evidently, of using those aspects of music which correspond most
closely in their nature to those elements of culture already treated
cartographically, that is, instruments. The problems we will investigate in
this section are primarily those, however, which do not have analogous features
in other fields of culture frequently described with the help of maps.
Certainly statements of the distribution of music, that is, statements
which indicate the geographic location of musical phenomena, have been made in
hundreds of publications. In the field of musical instruments, maps have been
made by many, especially Sachs (1929), Roberts (1936), and Izikowitz (1935).
Maps of musical styles have been less common, but do appear in some
publications – for example those of Collaer (1960) and Jones (1959). However,
th over – all problem of the distribution of musical phenomena in the world has
not been laid out in theoretical terms.
The purpose of this section is to outline the kinds of things in music
which can be studied in terms of their distribution, and to indicate some of
the kinds of musical distribution which can be found in the world's cultures.
Studying the geographic distribution of musical phenomena is,
generally, a more complex matter than the typical distributional study in
anthropology. Anthropological statements of distribution have usually (but not
always) restricted themselves to saying that a given trait is present – or
absent – in the culture discussed. To ask whether music is present or not in
each of the world's cultures would not yield a variety of answers, since cultures
without music of some sort (using the broadest definition possible) are
unknown.
What we want to know is what kind of music is found in the various
parts of the world, and how the world's peoples are related musically.
Ethnological studies of distribution, with their breakdown of traits into units
which simply are or are not present in a given place, are most easily
approximated by musical instrument studies. Thus, we could state that the banjo
is found in a certain group of cultures, nations, tribes, or other kinds of
units, and not found in the rest of the world.
Taking the places in which the banjo exists, one could map the
distribution of the number of strings, the material from which the instrument
is made, and so on. Such a study would tell us a good deal about the qualities
of the banjo around the world. But a similar sort of study for musical style
would be less productive, mainly because music itse1f cannot be broken down
into easily circumscribed components. The problem of mapping musical
distribution is primarily one of identifying relationships among forms which
are not identical or similar, and of rejecting as unrelated others which may
seem, on the surface, to be related. For example, one might wish to decide
which of various similar tunes are actually variants of one basic type. Or, one
could try to find out whether two slightly different pentatonic scales are
really sub – types of one form.
There is, moreover, the problem of deciding on geographic units to be
used as a basis for stating distributions. Should we use units determined by
political affiliation, by language, or by physical geography? (Fortunately,
these would often coincide.) Should smaller units, such as villages, be taken
into consideration? Or perhaps families, which are often the units of musical
distribution which can most conveniently and accurately be studied? And let us
not forget that, as in speech, each individual has his own musical peculiarities
and should perhaps be considered as the basic unit of musical style. But at
that point, the problem becomes academic: world – wide distribution of musical
phenomena could only be plotted by reference to a combination of linguistic and
political units, if we limit ourselves to the present state of musicological
information. On the basis of these units, let us proceed to a presentation, in
outline form, of the alternative approaches to distributional studies in music:
1) Approach by
element of music, such as type of scale, kind of rhythm, polyphony, etc.
a) General. This
would include, for example, a statement on the distribution of pentatonic
scales in general, or of general (nonspecific) types of pentatonic scales such
as the scales without half-tones, or of rhythmic aspects of music such as
heterometric structure, or the isorhythmic stanza, or of broad types of
polyphony such as imitation.
b) Especial. Here
would come statements of the distribution of specific patterns, or of melodic
types such as the well – known terra type of cascading melody used by the
Plains Indians. There’s, of course, a large area of overlap among these
"general" and "special' elements of music. The special elements
would seem to be much harder to handle, being harder to define and to identify.
A set of maps giving the distribution of these elements of music would
yield, by itse1f, a sort of picture of the world of music at a given point in
time. But it would be, in some ways, misleading because it would ignore
relationships which exist at other levels of distribution discussed below.
A refinement of the technique of plotting musical elements by
themselves is the quantification of material. This is an approach which has
hardly been used as yet – and which, in the present state of knowledge of the
world's music, cannot be considered all too reliable. Nevertheless, it deserves
mention because of its potential importance.
In saying that the mere presence or absence of music would make no good
basis for study because music exists in every culture, we neglected to point
out the quantitative aspects of musical culture. Immediately, we would find
differences in the amount of music existing in each culture. The number of
compositions in a repertory, the amount of time spent in musical activity, the
amount of music known to an individual (including the songs or pieces he
recognizes, and the number he can perform) could be studied and mapped for comparative
purposes. The counting of compositions would itse1f be problematic because of the
difficulty, in some cultures, of identifying a compositional unit and
distinguishing it from its own variants and unrelated but similar units.
Finally, the number of styles or distinguishable bodies of music in a repertory
could be counted. In some cultures – especially the simplest ones – there may
be only one such style, while other repertories (such as that of the Shawnee)
have several distinct styles. High cultures of Europe and the Far East may have
many more, depending on the time of origin of each composition, the instruments
in their variety, the function of music (a church music style, a dance music
style, etc.) and the segment of the population using it (popular vs. "classical"
music). A comparative study of the numbers of styles in cultural units would
indeed yield interesting results; but first we would have to define
"style" in this sense of the word.
Besides counting compositions or styles, quantification of musical data
in a technical sense could play a major role in distributional studies of
individual elements of music, beyond indicating simple presence or absence.
There are few elements of music (such as pentatonic scale, strophic form, etc.)
which are not found practically everywhere. When Collaer (1958: 67) indicates
the desirability of mapping the distribution of the anhemitonic scale, he must mean
some sort of quantitative approach, for some compositions using such a scale
are found in practically every culture. Most useful for various sorts of
studies utilizing distribution would be an indication of the strength of this
scale in each repertory: is it found in every song, or, in the vast majority
(as in Cheremis songs), in half of the songs (as in some Plains tribes), or only
occasionally (as, perhaps, in nineteenth-century Western cultivated music) ? Of
course, such statements would have to be based on large samples of material
from each repertory, samples which are really representative, for many cultures
are represented in the ethnomusicological literature by large, exhaustive
collections from single ceremonies which might still not give accurate pictures
of the entire musical cultures.
Since studies of the percentage of compositions in a repertory which
contain a given trait are not common, an example of such a study is briefly
presented here. It is, unfortunately, based on small samples of varying
reliability, and should be viewed as figura a sample of method rather than as a
statement of musicological fact. It concerns the phenomenon of North American
Indian music known as the "rise» identified and so designated by George
Herzog (1928) : In a song with a non-strophic structure, a short section is
repeated at least twice, then followed by another bit of music at a slightly
higher average pitch, which in turn, is followed by the lower part. This
alternation can continue for an unspecified period of time, but the lower
section tends to appear more than once at a time, while the higher or
"rise" section is sung only once each time it appears.
The rise occurs in the music of a fairly large number of tribes along
both coasts of the United States and Canada. Figure 12 gives the distribution
among those tribes which have been studied, and the approximate percentage of
songs of each tribe in which the rise is found. It is strongest (occurring in
over 50 per cent of the songs) among the Yuman tribes of the Southwest, and
among the Miwok, Pomo, Maidu, and Patwin of central California. In the repertories
of the Northwest Coast Tsimshian and the southeastern Choctaw it occurs in 20 –
30 per cent of the songs; among the northeastern Penobscot and the northwestern
Nootka, it occurs in 10 – 20 per cent of the songs; and in the songs of the
Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast and Vancouver Island as well as the
southeastern Creek, Yuchi, and Tutelo, in less than 10 per cent. Considering
that most of the other tribes of the coasts are musically not well known, it is
probable (provided the samples used are reliable) that the rise has a center of
distribution in the southwestern United States, and a thinning – out strength
across the southern part of the United States and up both coasts. This
information can be interpreted in several ways, but at any rate it is more
valuable than a simple statement that these tribes have the rise in their
repertories.
Some work along similar lines in North American Indian music has been
done by Frances Densmore (1929).Her comparative tables usually include the
tribe or tribes which the study at hand contains (Pawnee in the case of our
reference) and compares them only with figures representing the entire group of
tribes whose music she had previously studied. Nevertheless, if her analyses
were reliable, it would be possible to make cartographic representations of her
figures which would, then, indicate the distribution, in quantitative terms, of
certain special and general elements of music in North America.
A. M. Jones (1959, vol. 1) has made a map of types of harmony in Negro
Africa, using as a basis the main interval between the voices (unison, thirds,
fourths – fifths).No indication is given on the map of the amount of such
harmonic music in each repertory, and of overlapping distributions (if any).
Marius Schneider (1957:13 – 14) would evidently be opposed to the
approaches outlined in the last three paragraphs, for he believes that certain
types of music are inevitably linked to certain types of economy, such as
hunting, sheep herding, and farming. If a hunting culture has in its repertory
music which is of a style different from the main body of its music, Schneider
would presumably consider it non-authentic. It is evident that if we were to
make a musical map of the world – based on elements of music or even on the distribution
of individual compositions – according to Schneider's view, we would have to distinguish
between the music which could be said to belong properly to a culture, and that
which has infiltrated it from the outside, and we would have to base our
distribution somehow on this distinction, rather than on quantitative
considerations. This would throw us again into the knotty question of what is
"the real" music of a culture, a question discussed in Chapter 6.
2) Distribution
of compositions. While we could follow certain kinds of scales and rhythms
throughout the world and get one kind of picture or map, we might approach the entire
problem of musical cartography from the point of view of the individual
compositions – pieces or songs. Our first problem would be to find out what the
unit of musical creativity actually is; for although in Western cultivated
music we might have no difficulty identifying a piece, this is more difficult
even in Western folk music. In non-literate cultures we are sometimes bathed by
the way in which informants will insist that two musical items which seem
identical to use are really independent pieces, and how, in other cases, two seemingly
very dissimilar songs will be called alike by the informant.
Assuming that we can come to a decision on what constitutes a
composition, we must then identify a) similar forms which are genetically related,
and b) similar forms which are similar only because the style (the scale,
rhythm, form, etc.) in their repertory makes the independent creation of
similar forms likely. We are concerned (as we were in Chapter 6) with
distinguishing musical content from musical style. Plotting the distribution of
songs and their variants has hardly been attempted. An approach (in which
genetic relationship is not necessarily assumed) has been made by Wiora, who
gives similar tunes from many parts of Europe in order to show the stylistic
homogeneity of European folk music (Wiora 1957:50 – 53). Here it becomes
evident that distribution of elements of music may be quite contrary to distribution
of compositions, at least within certain limits. The variants of a tune as sung
in Hungary, Spain, and Ireland are very different, perhaps because the styles
of these three cultures, as determined by the elements of music, are so
different. On the other hand, the three styles are relatively alike when
compared to African or Chinese music, and perhaps as a result, the composition
in question is limited to Europe and does not appear in Africa or China.
Again, Marius Schneider (1957: 24) offers an interesting sidelight,
saying that a melodic type (i.e., a group of melodies similar enough so that
genetic relationship could be inferred, or a type of music the various forms of
which have some inner relationship which cannot always be identified by
analysis) is revealed above all in performance and in the peculiar way in which
metre and melodic line coalesce in the rhythm. On paper it can be grasped only incompletely,
but the ear detects it immediately. The same melodic idea, appearing simultaneously
in the music of two different peoples, can be used by each of them in a different
type. On the other hand, the same type may appear in two different melodies although
the actual notes may have little in common.
Recent work by Alan Lomax also emphasizes the importance of the manner
of performance rather than the melodic, rhythmic, and formal aspects of music when
it comes to deciding upon the world map of music.
We must, then, distinguish among three kinds of phenomena when
considering the distribution of compositions: the variants – definitely
established as such – of a piece; similar melodies without definite genetic
relationship, such as the «wandering melodies" which are of long standing
as musicological curiosities; and melodic types, which are somehow intermediate
between pieces and specialized elements of music, such as the “rise”.
The distribution of compositions in non-literate cultures has not been
studied thoroughly.. Rhodes (1958) has published a rare exception, a study of
the distribution of one Peyote song.
But detailed investigations of this kind would presumably show whether
songs coincide in their distributions and form “areas”, or whether each song
has an area of its own which is different from the distribution of every other
song. Quantification of such data would involve the number of variants of a
song found in each culture or sub – culture, the number of individuals knowing
the song, and the amount of use to which the song is put.
3) The distribution of musical styles, or the identification of musical
areas in the world, has been attempted by various scholars. A musical area is
one which exhibits a degree of homogeneity in its music but is larger than the
tribe, village, or language group. As such it is similar to the culture area
used by American anthropologists (for definition of which see Kroeber 1947:3 –
7). The concept of the musical area is beset by some of the same problems faced
by users of the culture area concept; among them are the difficulty of
formulatingBruno Nettl - Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology criteria for
identifying the area, and the lack of measuring devices for degrees of musical similarity
or stylistic unity. Like the culture area, the musical area is primarily a tool
for musical classification, and further conclusions about it as a unit of
historical development may be drawn only with great caution. Ethnomusicologists
began constructing musical areas in order to systematize the vast amount of
stylistic data which is available about the hundreds of tribes and ethnic
groups in each continent. The fact that these areas may be functional in other
ways was not foreseen at first and still does not ordinarily play a part in
their construction.
Musical Areas in
Ethnomusicological Literature
Although sometimes approached consciously and systematically, musical
areas have also appeared in ways only incidental to the research which produced
them. It has usually been assumed that musical distributions would coincide
with other anthropologically defined areas. Thus, E. M. von Hornbostel believed
that some racial areas, for biological reasons, were also musical units. He assumed,
for example, that the American Indians shared a single main style, now known to
be common only to some of the tribes in North and South America, and that the
manner of performance, especially the voice timbre, was the main criterion of identification
(HombosteI1923). Accordingly, he at times stated that the performance practices
in singing were determined racially, but the other aspects of the style were
learned (or determined culturally).This theory was also supported by Bose's
experiments (Bose 1952).The notion of racially determined musical areas is
otherwise widespread and can be accounted for by the tendency of a racial group
to be located in one area of the world, and incidentally to constitute a
cultural unit of some sort. This tendency was exploited by myself in an attempt
to divide the world into three large areas (Nettl 1956: 142 – 43).The Americas and
the Far East make up one of these areas, and it could be called the Mongoloid
area, although it is evident that the cultural influences of Asia on America
may be responsible for the similarities between Far Eastern and American Indian
music, rather than any biologically inherited style preference. In other words,
although racially defined areas may coincide with musical areas, the notion
that biological inheritance is the cause need by no means be accepted as the
explanation.
The areas defined by culture in general have in several investigations
been assumed to be related to musical areas. Using the culture area concept,
Helen Roberts' (1936) description of North American Indian music, one of the
classical attempts to construct musical areas, was really a description of
musical style in each culture area. Nevertheless, Roberts also subdivides some
culture areas, such as the southwestern United States, where she identifies a
Hokan, a Shoshonean, and a Navaho style – although these subdivisions are not
found in the divisions of the continent into culture areas which are generally
accepted. Similarly, cultural units are the basis of musical distribution in
Merriam's division of Negro Africa into the Guinea Coast, the Congo, and the
Eastern areas (Merriam 1953; 1958).The use of both style traits and instrument
distributions for constructing areas is a feature of Merriam's study (while
Roberts constructs separate instrument areas), and it is important to note here
that instruments often serve as important criteria for culture areas
themselves.
But since the presence of an instrument does not really give
information about the style of the music performed on it, instrument
distributions do not have an essential place in this discussion. Needless to
say, however, a culture whose musical repertory is dominated by instruments,
such as Negro Africa, may have its styles determined to a large degree by these
instruments and the kind of music they are capable of producing. In other
areas, however, the distribution of a particular instrument may have no
relationship at all to the distribution of vocal styles. This is true, for
example, in the case of panpipes, which are found in spots throughout the world
in combination with many different vocal styles; the similarity of panpipes in
Oceania and South America does not have a close parallel in vocal music.
Quite different from the use of areas in a classificatory sense (in
both music and culture) is the Kulturkreis, a concept devised for culture at
large which cannot easily be transferred to a single aspect of culture such as
music. The theoretical differences between a Kulturkreis and a culture area
include the following characteristics of the former: 1) it need not be
contiguous on the map, 2) it is usually based on a few key traits, and 3) it may
overlap with others since it is not only an area but also a historic era (see
Lowie 1937: 177 – 94).The difficulty of transferring such a concept to music
alone is obvious. But it has nevertheless been done by a number of scholars,
particularly with reference to musical instruments (for example, in Sachs
1929), but also with musical style as a whole (for example, in Danckert 1939),
and with individual elements of music. Schneider (1934), although he does not
label his attempt as relevant to Kulturkrei’s theory, is clearly under its Influence
in establishing areas for polyphony (south Asia and South America; Micronesia; Polynesia;
Africa).In uniting south Asia with South America, for example, he postulates a noncontiguous
area and, characteristically for the Kulturkrei’s school, he gives these areas the
significance of historic units – they indicate a particular stage and time of
development – even though he does not pretend that other traits will have the
same distribution.
Identification of Musical Areas
Assuming that musical areas exist as functional units, their very
identification poses methodological problems, and a number of alternative
methods are possible and may produce differing results. The student has the
choice, for example, of using clusters of traits, single important traits or
what we may call "specialized" or particularly distinctive traits as
the main criteria, or he may make a strictly inclusive, statistical statement
which treats equally all described traits of a given style or corpus of music.
The basis for constructing a musical area is usually a group of descriptions of
tribal and regional styles which must then be either lumped or separated.
Statistical differences among such styles can easily be found, as can be seen
In a study by Merriam (1956) ; but statistics of this sort can also be
misleading if not properly used, for they do not separate significant from
insignificant distinctions.
Using North America as an example, we find that musical areas would
differ depending on the criteria used, but the different constructions would
tend to have something in common.
This is perhaps evidence for the hypothesis – discussed below – that
musical areas are actually functioning units in culture. If single traits or
elements of music are used as criteria, large areas tend to emerge. For
example, if melodic contour is the only criterion, two areas could be
identified, one occupying the central portion of the continent, with heavily descending
melodies, and one occupying the coasts and the northern and southern extremes, with
undulating contours. But in each area the diversity would otherwise still be
great.
The use of specialized musical traits, that is, of traits which have
been developed to some degree of complexity and intricacy, and which are, on
the whole, restricted to single regions, is another possible approach. Of
course it is necessary to distinguish between the greater or smaller degree of
presence of a trait and between the simple presence of a trait in one repertory
compared with its complete absence in another. In the latter circumstance we would
have an example of a specialized trait; but there are few musical traits which
are completely absent in any culture. Applying this criterion to North America,
the isorhythmic structure coupled with descending, cascading melodies would
make possible the identification of a musical area around Lake Superior, an
area quite small compared to the culture areas.
Again, the use of only two rhythmic values in the songs of the Apache
and Navaho would make these tribes the sole inhabitants of a musical area, even
though they do share other musical traits with some of their neighbors.
A cluster of musical traits seems t9 be the most common and successful
criterion of a musical area, especially if some of these traits are
"specialized" while others are shared with some, but not all,
neighbors. This method is illustrated in the diagram in Figure 13, in which
trait clusters and a specialized trait are found in a hypothetical continent.
The fact that areas 1 and 2 share traits A and C, while areas 2 and 3 share
traits B and D, makes area 2 the only one with all four traits, and this information
could be sufficient to call the three areas genuine musical areas. But it would
be possible also to interpret this entire “continent" as a single musical
area, with area 2 a kind of center of development or distributional nucleus.
Since area 2 also possesses a specialized trait, E, however, which its neighbors
lack, this interpretation seems less useful than our first one.
1 2 3
A A B
C B D
C
(B and D absent) D (A and C absent)
E
Figure 13. Diagram of distribution of traits in musical areas.
This method of combining trait clusters with specialized traits was
used by myself in the identification of North American Indian musical areas.
The division of Negro Africa by Merriam r(1953) is similar, for it postulates
three areas, the center one of ; which shares with both neighboring areas
certain traits and develops some of them to a specialized degree. The implied
construction of a musical area by Picken (1937) in Southeast Asia, on the other
hand, illustrates the use of a single, specialized trait as a criterion.
The identification of borders and their nature is a problem which
logically follows these considerations. For while the borders of a musical area
are at times clear – cut, they may also be so vague in other cases that the
areas are clearly marked only by their centers. Thus the Plains area of North
America is characterized at its center (Arapaho and Dakota tribes) by sharply
cascading, terrace – shaped melody, large range, great vocal tension, scales of
four or five tones, large intervals, and melodic fourths at key points. At the
eastern boundary of the Plains, the so-called "wild rice" (Menomini
and Winnebago) and Prairie (Pawnee) districts, the cascading melodies are
smaller in number and are replaced by a more generalized contour which happens
to be similar to that of the Eastern tribes, and the tetratonic scales subside
in favor of five – and six – tone ones (as in the eastern United States).On the
other hand, the eastern characteristic of responsorial singing does not extend
to the Prairie and "wild rice" tribes, which makes these something of
a no – man's land between the Plains and the East. On the western border of the
Plains, the Plains traits do not, however, extend to the neighboring Great
Basin area (or did not, until recently) – or vice versa – except among the Ute
Indians. This can perhaps be due to the natural barrier of the Rocky Mountains.
The difficulty of identifying musical areas and their boundaries is even
greater in the Old World, where influences between high and non-literate
cultures and the more rapid cultural changes have produced combinations of styles
whose distribution has changed more rapidly in recent centuries than has the
more stable North American Indian music.
Musical Areas and other
Distributions
The fact that musical styles influence each other is obvious, and that
style combinations should emerge at musical area boundaries is inevitable. What
is perhaps surprising is the fact that the borders can be identified at all,
and that some are relatively sharp. There are at least two possible reasons for
this situation: 1) the musical areas coincide with other areas, natural,
cultural, and linguistic; and 2) the style elements in a musical area
complement each other to such an extent that for structural reasons they coincide
in their distribution. But in separating a style or repertory into its
components, we must be careful to distinguish between the elements of a style
(rhythm, melody, form, etc.) and the song types (based on functions of the
songs).
Natural areas evidently coincide with musical areas in some cases, and
natural barriers may also be effective musical barriers.
Very obvious is the Himalaya chain, which draws a rather sharp line
between two main types of oriental music. Islands and island groups may be musical
areas, although water is at times an ineffective barrier. Micronesia and
Melanesia could be construed as musical areas (based on small intervals and
parallel polyphony in the former case, and the development of more complex
forms of polyphony in the latter), but Indonesia seems to have been subject to more
influence from several Asian styles than these mainland styles have been
influenced by each other. In the style of its folk music, Great Britain seems
to be aloof from the neighboring European countries whose musics are, by
comparison, more strongly interrelated.
Areas determined by vegetation and fauna seem to be the bases of
musical areas in Africa, for here the boundaries coincide approximately with
those limiting cattle breeding. In North America, the island – and shore –
dwelling Eskimo and Northwest Coast tribes belong together musically, as do the
inhabitants of the Great Basin desert area. The possibility that a natural
environment itself determines a musical style must not be rejected outright,
although it cannot carry great weight. The development of instruments and of
functions of music is no doubt affected by such conditions. Finally, however,
some musical areas do not coincide with gross natural areas at all, and where
they do, direct influence of the natural environment on musical creativity can
hardly be assumed.
The possibility of racial distribution coinciding with musical areas
has already been mentioned, and the direct influence of racial (physical)
factors in music seems unlikely or at least unproved except in a cultural
context. The relationship of cultural area to musical area is generally close,
even though the two rarely coincide exactly. Thus, in North America, the tribes
of the eastern United States form a cultural and musical unit; the Plains
tribes, although they are linked to the Pueblos in musical character,
constitute an area in both respects, as do the Northwest
Coast tribes and those of the Great Basin area. The cultural contrast
between East and West Africa is reflected in music as is that between Negro and
North Africa. Europe is, on the whole, a cultural unit as well as a musical
one, in both folk and cultivated music.
The points at which cultural and musical. areas do not coincide are
also of interest. In the southwestern United States, for example, a single
Indian culture area contains tribes belonging to three musical areas (Pueblo,
Yuman, Navaho – Apache), perhaps indicating that in this case the musical
traits of an earlier period remained at least partially intact while the other
aspects of culture changed more rapidly and amalgamated into a more unified
pattern.
In Europe, the cultural entity formed by German-speaking peoples does
not find reflection in the relatively great differences between north German
and Alpine folk music.
The great cultural differences between Japan and China are contradicted
by a relative similarity of musical style (but again: how can we measure
degrees of similarity?), which may also be a relic of earlier times. Even in
these cases, however, the relationship between musical and cultural
distributions seems complicated only by what may be a tendency of music to
change (in the cases mentioned) at rates different from other cultural
elements. The hypothesis that certain culture types (determined by way of
reckoning descent, subsistence, etc.) coincide with or determine certain types
of musical style need not be accepted, for the actual connection, in human
life, between music and other activities, ceremonies, dance, etc., is
sufficient to explain the congruent distribution of music and such activities.
The quasi – linguistic nature of music points to the possibility of
musical areas which coincide with areas occupied by speakers of a language, or
a language family, or other linguistically determined groups. Here also there
is conflicting evidence. In North America there is little correlation between
language and music; indeed, one of the most closely knit musical areas, the
Plains, is divided among five language families (Algonquian, Siouxan, Kiowa,
Uto-Aztecan, and Athabascan), while only one musical area, the Athabascan,
comprising Apache and Navaho, coincides approximately with a language family.
The Indo – European language family does not share one musical style, although
a large portion of its speakers, located in Europe, share a broad sort of homogeneity.
Several of the Finno-Ugric peoples, along with some Turkic – speaking ones, share
some musical traits, such as melodic sequences at the fifth, even though their
areas of habitation are not contiguous. The music of the Semitic – speaking
peoples can be described as possessing a single style, but it is shared with
some neighbors speaking unrelated languages, including Persians, Turks, and to
some extent, Spaniards. These examples show that there is only occasional
congruency among musical and linguistic areas. In the case of individual
languages, the correspondence is much closer, for the obvious reason of simple communication
within a language area. But the theory that the origin of musical styles can be
traced through language relationships cannot be generally accepted, for musical
styles seem to cross language barriers and to be more prone to change and
annihilation than basic language relationships.
As we implied earlier, musical areas may tell us something about the
prehistory of music, especially if we compare them to culture and language
areas. A musical area with a sharp boundary coinciding with a culture area with
a sharp boundary may be one which has a long history of stability. Another one
which does not coincide with language or culture units may be a layer of
material recently introduced – or an exceedingly archaic stratum. An area with
much stylistic variety may be one which has undergone frequent contact with
other cultures, and constant change. One with a unified style may have existed
in relative isolation.
Of course we do not know precisely what historical conclusions we can
draw in each case, but there is no doubt that these musical areas can
eventually be used to gather important information about the world's musical
past, and about the relationship of musical events to events in the history of
language and culture.
Musical Areas as Independent
Units
It is evident that musical areas are sometimes closely related to
natural, cultural, and linguistic areas, but we have seen that they are
sometimes quite independent of them, and that they sometimes retain their
individuality through periods of stylistic change. One important reason for
this kind of cohesion, and one which has perhaps not been sufficiently explored,
is the functionality of the individual elements in the total style. Some
musical styles are made up of musical elements (rhythm, melody, etc.) which
complement each other or which are interdependent to such an extent that a
change in one stimulates changes in particular directions in other elements.
Thus, a change from isorhythmic to freely moving rhythm may be accompanied by a
change from heterometric to isometric structure, a tendency which can be
observed in African and New World Negro music.
These complementary changes may be based on the need, in orally
transmitted music, for the presence of certain unifying elements as mnemonic
aids, and on a desire for a certain degree of unity – bringing simplicity. They
are also evident in some cultivated traditions, such as European organum, whose
increased complexity seems to have been accompanied by a gradual simplification
of meter.
Some musical areas have perhaps achieved stylistic integration, as
indicated by interdependence of musical elements, to a greater degree than
others, and it is those that have which are probably genuine musical areas. On
a large scale, African Negro music, although considerably influenced by outside
styles, is a unit whose identity is rather clear. In North America, the Plains
and the neighboring Great Basin are stylistically integrated units to a greater
extent than, for instance, the Navaho – Apache area, which is not clearly distinguished
from its neighbors and whose songs exhibit more variety in style. The number of
sub – styles in an area is also a criterion of the degree of integrity in a
musical area. An area with a single style or a few overriding traits seems
destined to remain intact longer than one with great variety.
A heterogeneous area would appear to be particularly receptive to
outside influences, and perhaps it could be interpreted as one whose musical
traits have not complemented each other in a satisfactory way, and whose
inhabitants are, as it were, searching for the proper degree of specialization
in musical style. Accepting these factors, we could consider the possibility of
musical areas gradually being formed by the tendency of musical elements to combine
in complementary fashion until the proper style has been found, and being, in turn
or simultaneously, dissolved by the disrupting influence of outside cultures.
At a given time, the world's musical areas may be at various stages of this
development: the North American Plains in the perfected stage of integration,
but being influenced and diversified in the late nineteenth century by the
Ghost Dance and Peyote styles as well as by European music. The area of
European cultivated music, on the other hand, may be consolidating itself into
a stylistic unit (comparable perhaps to its state during the Baroque period)
after a multitude of influences and innovations during the past century – some
from the outside, from folk and oriental music – have borne upon it. Needless
to say, these statements are highly speculative, but they may help to solve
some of the problems connected with geographic distributions in music, and with
the phenomenon of musical areas in particular.
Conclusions
Quite aside from the musical area approach, it would also be useful to
plot the distribution of stylistic types – such as the North American Indian
Peyote songs and the Ghost Dance style, which were superimposed on older tribal
repertories, the peculiar style of singing epics in the Balkans, etc. There are
some cultures which have several diHerent styles each of which is accommodated
more or less equally with the rest, and this is in itself worthy of
cartographic and historical investigation. The fact that a kind of combination
of musical elements can develop considerable homogeneity and then spread, as a
unit, from culture to culture, without necessarily bringing it the individual
compositions, is somewhat analogous to the picture of compositions spreading across
stylistic lines. In other words, a composition can move – and change its style
– to an area with a different style; and a style can move – assuming that new
compositions are created with it as a basis – across the lines of distribution
of individual compositions.
We have combined the discussion of change and of geographic
distribution because these are the broad, comparative, and potentially world –
wide ways in which music can be studied as a phenomenon of culture, and iIi
which the theories of anthropology as a comparative science can be applied to
music. The possibilities of distributional and historical studies mentioned
here indicate that the music of the world is indeed a complex phenomenon,
inexplicable in terms of any single theory or dogma. The beginnings of musical cartography
could proceed along any one of the lines mentioned, but it would hardly be complete
if all of the components of musical distribution discussed here were not
included.
And the study of the world's musical cultures would hardly be complete
without detailed consideration of the manner in which music changes, and the
way in which musical phenomena come about.
It remains for us to make some suggestions for independent study on the
part of the student. Broad theoretical study in the field of change in music is
not well suited to short – term work, nor, as we have seen, is it as &ee of
the unproved assumptions and the theoretical biases as one would hope to have
it in projects for the beginning student. The most promising approach is
perhaps the study of distribution of musical compositions and of stylistic
features. Thorough study of certain features whose distribution has already
been stated impressionistically, especially for European folk, African, and
North American Indian music, should be pursued. The areas mentioned are best
because their music has been published in greatest quantity. Types of scales and
rhythms as well as form patterns should be used. In all cases, he student
should be careful to go beyond statements of the ere presence or absence of a
trait, to weigh his findings carefully against the reliability and size of the
sample which is used, and to take into account the cultural and linguistic
context of the music.
Other projects which need to be pursued involve the study f musical
change as it occurs. Finding informants who have made recordings in the past
and asking them to re – record is one approach. Observing the change in the
repertory of a community r an ethnic organization over a period of months might
be useful, and studying the differences in repertory and style between older
and younger individuals of a community could be of great interest. Adding
concrete data to an area of ethnomusicology which has so far been dependent
mainly on unproved or unprovable speculation would appear to be a tremendous service.
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