Ethnomusicology

I recently had the pleasure of reading an essay entitled: "Musically Expressed Ideas About Music: Techniques and Technologies for Performing Ethnomusicology in the Digital Age," written by Wayne Marshall over at wayne&wax. The premise of his essay is that music itself is a valid means of expressing critical ideas about music, in the aural rather than verbal realm. The interesting slant that he offers on this basic idea is that technology, and specifically remixes or mashups, offer a particularly fertile ground for this type of aural expression, and that juxtaposition of musical elements can provide a critical framework that is fruitful in its own right, apart from any verbal commentary.

He does an excellent job of explaining the history of ideas relating to performance as a valid and important aspect of ethnomusicological practice, including referencing the works of Mantle Hood and Richard Taruskin.

Although I never tackled the technological aspects of improvisation (something I am currently preparing to do i the near future) in my essay The Aural Princple, I did have a chapter entitled Music and the Realm of Non-verbal Understanding. While the contents of the chapter are tangential to the thesis of "Musically Expressed Ideas About Music," the basic understanding musicians expressed was that they believed music to be a complete expression that required no further explication verbally. Of course that won't stop any self respecting ethnomusicologist from tackling the social and cultural ramifications of musical practices, it points towards an intrinsic value in music itself as a medium for communication.

I particularly enjoyed and agreed with Wayne's assertions regarding the democratizing effect of technology and the internet, and I believe he's absolutely correct that embracing these modes of communication allows for a much wider and more diverse audience for the ideas. Besides, as anyone who has ever listened to someone talk about music for a lengthy period of time can attest, hearing actual music to support and further the course of a discussion is a welcome respite from processing words about music rather than music itself. Wayne is proposing to take it one step further: to let music become a discourse unto itself, and perhaps support that with some words. He's not calling for a wholesale replacement or anything quite that radical, but I believe he's right to draw attention to the ways music itself can play a larger role in the academic study of musical practices in ethnomusicological circles.

And now, to follow my own advice and shut up so you can hear some music, check out one of Wayne's examples, a mashup of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.