Challenge Questions

Agawu wrote a great deal about fictional ethnography. In the end, he seems to suggest that the ethnomusicologist is entitled to some liberties in writing his ethnography; Agawu imagined a scene based on his own life experiences and knowledges of the culture. What are the boundaries that a scholar must observe when he or she writes about a culture? Do these boundaries change if the culture is his own?

Write 2-3 pages about these boundaries, paying specific attention to the ethical concerns of the fieldwork that he must conduct and thinking about the reception of the work when it is published.

In her chapter in Shadows in the Field, Deborah Wong advocates a "new" approach to writing ethnomusicology-she argues for a Performative Ethnography, in which the author both presents the subject as he knows it and reflects on his research at once. How does this writing style differ from Jeff Titon's views, outlined in the same book? How are these two similar? What can future scholars learn from these two authors about writing ethnomusicology?

Think about these questions and the two articles mentioned, and write a 2-3 page response. Look closely at the ways that these two authors write about writing ethnographies.

Critical Review #8 (questions for Kiri)

Questions for Kiri:
How do the people with whom you interacted in your fieldwork react to the term “diaspora” ?

Were the “pilgrims” at Southern conventions treated the same way as the lifelong participants? Were you considered a pilgrim? How were you treated?

Question for the class:
Kiri’s description on pages 38 and 39 of the way non-Southerners cannot differentiate between Southerners sounds awfully familiar to an Arkansan among primarily non-Southerners at Brown. Is every group lumped together before you get to know it and understand that the invented group is in fact composed of many smaller groups, which are in turn composed of smaller groups and so forth?

Critical Review #7

Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. “Toward an Ethnomusicology of the Early Music Movement: Thoughts on Bridging Disciplines and Musical Worlds.” Ethnomusicology 45.1 (2001) 1-29.

In her ethnography of early music, Kay Shelemay describes the early music movement in the United States, using as a basis the BEMF conference in the 1996-1997 academic year. She writes in this article, “Ethnographic inquiry constantly brings pragmatic, grounded issues into focus” (23). After a long description of early music groups in Boston and a data-based analysis and comparison, she writes a short ethnography of these groups; it is in this third section of her paper that she address “pragmatic, grounded issues.” These issues include the need to make money and the desire to fill halls.

Shelemay suggests that an ethnomusicologist’s analysis should incorporate many pragmatic, extra-musical issues. At what point should an ethnomusicologist draw the line? At what point does this become purely anthropology?

PS. There is no “Intergalatic Double Reed Society.” There is an “International Double Reed Society.” She must be poking fun at someone.

Critical Review #6

Nettl, Bruno. “In the Service of the Masters.” Heartland Excursions. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995. 1-42.            

Nettl’s chapter about the “Heartland Music school” is an interesting attempt to analyze his own music-culture from an ethnomusicologist’s standpoint.  He spends more than 25 pages describing, and finally, on page 41, he begins to make concise and clear statements.  He writes about Western classical music that outsiders see in it “certain guiding principles of society: hierarchy, specialization, the drive to complexity, the tension between inspiration and labor, conformity, and more.”  He continues by comparing music with religion and with government, but finally he acknowledges that he has raised many questions and provided very few answers (if any at all).

Is it easier for an ethnomusicologist to work in a music-culture that he already knows well?  Do 50 years of experience make him a better ethnographer and a better person to represent these people?

Interview Transcript

I talked to Melissa K, who is directing a scene from the Threepenny Opera as part of BOP's Scenes Concert, for a good 20 minutes.  I have transcribed a portion of the interview here.

Interview with Melissa Kagen

Josiah’s   11:02 pm   Sunday 10/19 

Jason: How does this scene fit into opera as a genre?

Melissa: It’s obviously right at the cusp of opera turning into musical theatre, even though you still have full fledged operas after, it kind of bridges the gap.  I feel like it’s more musical theater.  What’s cool about it is that people sing in unison all the time.  I feel like that’s something that doesn’t happen as often in opera and I think it makes it easier to sing.  The music is pretty simple, but it has tons of accidentals.  Like the version I have is mostly written in C, and you’re thinking “oh good, I’ll just play it in C” but then you can’t really play it because it’s so difficult.  It’s underhandedly complicated.  But I don’t want to get into the whole Musical theater purist versus opera argument, “musical theater can be complicated too.” (laughs)  But basically, I think it’s a send-up of opera.  No one likes any of the characters.  They do what they do, but they don’t have real good motives.  It’s very Brechtian.  But in terms of opera, the characters are complex enough to make it interesting.  The show seems really off-putting at first, but by the end you love to hate these people.  I feel like in opera, there’s always one character that you like.

Jason: When you were casting, did you think about people’s voices that fell into an “opera” category or a “musical theater” category?

Melissa: I thought about them mostly in the negative.  [name removed] does not have a traditional opera voice.  It was really exciting because in the auditions I knew that none of the other directors wanted him for their scenes.  If it had been with Musical Theater people, everybody would have wanted him because he had the best stage presence.  It was mostly fitting things together. […] I was paying attention to acting more than singing.  Any of them could have done the music.  It’s not that hard.  I was more concerned with which of them was interested, which of them was coachable.

Jason: Do you have a music director for the scene?

Melissa: No.  Should I?  I would like to get an accompanist, though.  I could accompany, I guess, but I wouldn’t really like to.  I am music directing the rehearsals.  I guess I hadn’t really thought of that.  We’ve just had script rehearsals.  I guess that’s gonna require a rehearsal pianist.  I’d better note that.  (makes a note) I almost feel like having a Music Director and a Director breaks up the divide superficially and with a scene this short, I feel like one person can do both.  […] That may just mean I don’t know enough what a music director does. (laughs)

Jason: Is there anything I should know before I come to a rehearsal?

Melissa: I want to do this whole thing organically.  I mean, with Yeoman (sorry to bring up Yeoman again, I guess it’s the last major thing I did) it was so planned out and I had to just say “hit this point,” “experience this emotion.”  I wanna do a lot of improv like we did tonight with the scene.  I want the whole thing to be comfortable and I want the scene to evolve, instead of me telling them exactly what to do.  It’s a much more Socratic directing than I’ve done before.

Critical Review #6

Waterman, Richard. “African Influence on the Music of the Americas.” Acculturation in the Americas.  Ed. Sol Tax.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952. 207-218.

In his chapter on the influence of the music of Africa on American music, Waterman makes a great number of soaring generalizations and characterizes the music of an enormous region by outlining very simple elements that are common.  His oversimplification of the subject allows him to draw any conclusions he might like, and so he shows the influence of African rhythms on jazz in an unconvincing argument.  This article shows the earliest attempts at ethnomusicology, and the reader can still see the attempt by the scholar to put everything into categories and into a system understandable by the Western reader (for example, he cites three Western rhythms to be played at once in order to understand the African rhythms). 

What can we gain from this article today?  Can we still learn anything from Waterman’s study? 

Critical Review #5

Barz, Gregory.  “Confronting the Field(note) In and Out of the Field.”  Shadows in the Field.  Ed. Barz and Cooley.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. 206-223.

Gregory Barz addresses the writing of fieldnotes in this chapter.  He tackles the old notion of fieldnotes as a stepping stone from Experience to Interpretation and suggests that the process is more “interactive.”  While he acknowledges that reflection goes into the writing of the fieldnote, he suggests three levels of notes: an “initial” note written in the field, a “second, reflective note” written after the fact, and a third note whose goal is to analyze the first two.  He suggests that the ethnomusicologist begins to reflect and analyze before writing and continues the analysis well after the fieldnotes are completed.  His interactive model reminds me of Wong’s performative ethnography.

According to Barz's model, fieldnotes happen after the "experience." How can we account for our preconceptions and other things that happen before the "experience" itself? Do we not start to think about our topic well before we make our first "fieldnotes?" 

Fieldnotes 1

BOP Scenes Concert – fieldnotes 10/4/2008

I attended the Brown Opera Productions board meeting today. I am currently serving a double role—although I am a member of the board, I am also directing one of the scenes for the scenes concert. I will not conduct fieldwork on the piece on which I am working and consequently will be an observer during rehearsals and not a participant-observer.

Doug, a sophomore, has been put in charge of this evening of scenes as a sort of producer. The board was careful to make the distinction that it is the BOARD that produces the show and not Doug; Nick, who is a co-chair of the board wanted to make sure that no one person had too much power and that instead all of the decisions were made democratically. Although there is another co-chair, Charlie, it seems that Nick holds all the power and all of the board members really defer to his decisions and opinions. He has also been on the board the longest (since his freshman year, which coincided with the inception of BOP). This creates an interesting power dynamic.

The concert is scheduled for the weekend of November 7-9, but the board had not made much progress on its planning on Saturday. It seems like the kind of event that will come together quickly, even though they want it to have a lot of rehearsal. Last year, according to Ben Skerritt, his group only rehearsed twice before their performance. I am certain that the quality of the work will be high, but I worry that my fieldwork may be constricted. I will have to conduct some preliminary interviews with cast members and directors before the rehearsal process starts. I am curious about the preconceptions of the actors and the director. I would like to see how these thoughts play out during the rehearsal and performance process.

Doug has been emailing directors this week to arrange auditions for the scenes. There are (tentatively) 6 directors. Directors will hear all the singers and then split up the singers according to needs/fairness/distribution. I will have to be in contact with other directors as soon as plans are finalized so that I can arrange to be at their rehearsals and schedule interviews. Auditions will occur next Tuesday and Wednesday.

I hope to do my fieldwork on the scene directed by Melissa Kagen. She will choose an excerpt from Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The board has been worried about drawing an audience with opera scenes because the genre is outdated. Charlie talked about “crossover” shows, between musical theater and opera. Last year, a scene from Bernstein’s Candide was performed, and this year, Threepenny Opera seems to be filling that void. It will be interesting to see who comes to see which scenes and why. I don’t know how best to investigate this other than to gauge the audience reaction (laughter, poise, applause) at the concert.

I will focus primarily on the relationship between the dramatic action and the music (embodied in the roles of the director and the music director, if Kagen chooses to employ one). I will refer to my research questions and try to explore the possible conflict in this relationship.