Out In The Field!

The foundation of ethnomusicology is going out into the real world to collect data from the folk in their land. There are a variety of ways to go about fieldwork ranging from recording music with a tape recorder to writing down notes during an interview with a musician. Like any procedure,there are rules and advice that should be taken into consideration  when doing fieldwork. These rules consist of ways to go about interview a musician or how ethics come into play when collecting data.

Say that you are a new ethnomusicologist studying a present-day culture such as Caribbean immigrants living Brockton, Mass, what sort of guide lines should you follow to carry out the process of collecting data.

• First off before you go into the real world you have to study of Caribbean culture and their music. Learn Popular songs and singers, what instruments are used, where,when, and how  the music used. and of course listen to the music learn what it sound like.
• Remember that "fieldwork involves asking the right questions to the right people" (Lornell 75), in other words talk to the native Caribbean folk that are devoted to their music and have strong knowledge in it. Also be sure to prepare question but do not be confined to them, use them as guide posts to lead you to asking the kind of question that interest you and goes in depth into your topic. 
• In regards to ethics, be sure to introduce your self to the Caribbean immigrants and what your purpose for being their is. If you want to record something with a tape recorder or video tape, watch a performance/ ceremonies, or use the information that is given to you. Asking permission shows respect for the folk and their music. 
• Take into consideration that some songs or that the music in general can be considered to be sacred to the folk and must be respected. If you record a song or a ceremony be sure to tell the musicians what you will be using it for and if you have permission to do so. You work your desire and the wishes of the folk to come up with a mutual agreement of the recorded information and music. 
• When collect your data and recordings you can persevere it in a music library to be "maintained to preserve scholarly integrity" (Lornell 77). The other option is to take your data and publish it or take your recordings to and makes copies to release into the public. Whatever the choice maybe be you must be ethical about your approach by asking permission of the folk of what you can do with it. 
• Remember that "fieldwork requires innovation, exploration, and a sense of carpe diem" (Lornell 80) don't be afraid to go into the unknown and drive you're curiosity but retain a respect to the folk and the music. Their will be be bumps in the process but work around the quarrels to acquire the data that you desire. 

These are some basic guidelines to follow when carrying not just these particular folk, but to any folk you wish to study. 

I will be conducting my own research project in which I will be studying the role music plays in religion, The elements of fieldwork that would in my favor for this study would be interviewing and recording. Interviewing would be useful for discussing the use of music in religion with preachers, pastors, choir member, and worship band members. The recording will be useful to tape record songs and services to used to compare one service to another churches service o find any correlation .

Fieldwork is essential to ethnomuiscology. It allows for ethnomuiscologist to collect real world data that is not just found within a page. You are able to discover things that can not be found in any book, you can find data that is genuine and that is not tainted with the perspective of scholars who write the books that ethnomusicologist study from.  

1. http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/online/2008/03/28/Katine-ethnomusicology.jpg

2. http://musicandculture.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html

3. http://www.indiana.edu/~semhome/2012/images/med_street_music_01.jpg

(URL's in order of picture from top to bottom) 

The Africian American role In the American folk Music World

 In folk music there is not just one set of folk, there are many folk ranging from all races and living all around the world. The folk in this cause are African Americans who were forcefully brought over from Africa to America by slave traders. These folk when brought to America lived in the southern region in states such as Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia,and North Carolina. With them they brought their folkways from the mother land of Africa which was greatly based on music. This form of music that they brought with them was fused with  Anglo-American music and  themes to their music that  expressed the struggled they faced as a folk. Their music in the per-twentieth century can be categorized into two distinct groups Gospel and secular folk music each having their own subsets and particular sounds. In the African American community there was a "...need for social cohesiveness and leadership that was particularly pressing...during the decades of legalized slavery" (Lornell 143). One thing common between these two categories, both of them brought a sense a community to a people that had been oppressed and continued to be oppressed b their white counter parts. The music brought a sense of belonging between a people that had been neglected and morally abused. It allowed them to evoke inner emotion of turmoil and struggle in a land where they were not wanted.

Religious music has a "...clear stronghold for traditional music in the African American community" (Lornell 143). Not only did the church allow for them to congregate for a common belief in God, it also was a place that "...served as social services networks, rallying points for civil rights, and public spokes persons" (Lornell 143). While such social gathers were held music was a way to express social problems, their religious belief, and as a means of cultural unity. The integration of African Americans churches in American was sparked off by the fire of the Second Great Awakening (1790-1830). Camp meetings would be held in which large crowds would attend (black and white) to hear sermons that would last days. The Africans Americans in attendance would stay up through the night and sing, it provided them with a "...forum for experimentation not previously available to them..." (Lornell 145). These singers eventually began to "...to shift their singing away from camp meeting hymns" (Lornell 142) to form their own churches and write their own songs of belief. Spirituals are one form of African American Gospel music, they are often "...characterized as sad or even sorrowful" (Lornell 149). They are often "...performed by a small group that accompanied and supported its leader" (Lornell 149) and were typically call and response while written in four part harmonies. A ring shout is "...one of the earliest forms of African American religious practice" which "...combines physical movement with song" (Lornell 150).  It is "...reminiscent of some West African religious ceremonies and African folk culture" (Lornell 150) and participants communicate through spontaneous movement and singing.  Both men and women use body percussion while accompanied by a band of clappers, hand drums, and tambourines. These subsets of African American Gospel have been influenced by American music and that of their ancestral  heritage while having their sounds and styles.
Gospel music was not the only foundation of African American music, "...slavery's legacy left so many Africa American in rural southern areas, most of this music originated in the South" (Lornell 171) which formed African American secular folk music. This category of African American music gave birth to such genres of music as jazz, blues, ragtime and consisted of simplistic genre such as work songs. Work songs are songs performed by works to help them carry out their mundane  and monotonous tasks. They were domain of African American laborers out working in the fields. It consisted of unison singing or call and response and they were  "... based on secular themes, often escape or freedom of movement" (Lornell 172).  Songs like these brought together laborers and gave them an outlet of hope and monetary joy to the community. Down home blues was also used as an outlet for African Americans to cope with the moral struggles of the Jim Crows of the segregated South and the activity of white supremacists groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Guitars were greatly used in blues music including Bottleneck blues guitar which could imitate the voice of a singer, They were played with the"... primary cords of I, IV, and V" (Lornell 189). Even though Gospel music was the corner stone of African American music Secular folk music was one of the powerful and diverse category of African American music.
From these two distinct categories of African American music, you learn that that the African American folk were greatly influenced from their American surrounds and the African heritage. From this stems a large range of diverse music that spread through America while also influence American music as a whole. Other cultures that have come to America such as Irish and German immigrants have similar distinctions in American by diffusion their folkways into the American folk stream. African American culture have been a huge influence on American folk by incorporating racial struggles, American influence and African heritage into their works.

1.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiug6YBIPskZtOXrNDLTHA0U0i6_v6q9bX-PdnOWuqCxz4mSs5gMPTHjrip2hjVSLrtS2nrUcYmAcxUEEg8oQeiLEajhjpgzlq5v8MIFzbPe126-MkcAB_IQ8pXJ13j0owceL9-Nlmfb5ds/s640/f+Harper's+Weekly+(April+13,+1861),+p_232_.jpg

2.http://indianapublicmedia.org/arts/files/2010/05/AACE-940x633.jpg

3.http://www.learnclassicalguitar.com/images/three-folk-musicians.jpg

( URL's in order of pictures top to botom)

"Intellectual Intervention" in Folk Music

The "...folk themselves did not tend to study, analyze, and publish their musical folkways" (Slobin 51) the "simple" folk have always played their music with no real thought of really looking into it. But why would intellectuals (the scholars, artists, thinkers, writers, and other upper class people) want to have any part in the music of the simple folk? There was reasoning behind why they wanted to venture in to that land.  It started in the nineteenth century and it all had to do with "...two main trends...identity-seeking and institution building..."(Slobin 51).    2.

Modernism "... disrupted and reorganized Euro- American life...made peasants into proletarians, and raised the bourgeoisie above the aristocrats". While all of this shifting was taking place in the modern world the "...small, educated, and artistic elite scrambled to find new identities" (Slobin 51) , their places where no longer required in society and they needed a new way concentrate their skills. The standard of modern living brought with it the advancement of science and technology, which caused the "passions" (scholars, artists, writers) to turn to the countryside as a place for "...personal and group grounding...". The "...composers whipped out their notebooks to catch local tunes they could weave in their works. Scholars searched for origins of modern languages in antique song texts, and writers turned folk song into high-culture poetry..." (Slobin 52), which explains the term "intellectual intervention". The intellectuals of society needed a way of identity and they used the folks music as an outlet to use their skills in modern society. From there sparked the fire of ethnomusicology. Focusing on the folks way of life and language was another instance of intellectual intervention without music.

1.

But with the study of the simple folk from the perspective of the intellectuals, there are bound to be misinterpretations and bias.  As culturalist  Olive Dame Campbell once advocated, with any study of a people it  "involves presumptions and judgement about the worth of disparate cultural systems' (Campbell 126). No matter who you are studying you are always going to have images and presumption of a cultural would could cause you to be bias on the data that you collect. An example of this is when Campbell (who was from New England) held has an image of what southerns were like when she went down to the Appalachian with her husband to study the people. She passed judgment on the southern folks tobacco chewing ways. The way Olive Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp (ethnomusicologist that study the folk of the Appalachians) shared somewhat similar attitudes of ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore in regard to the fact that they all did pass judgment on what they studied (The Sioux for Densmore and the Appalachians Folk for Campbell and Sharp), They did not let the folkway speak for it self, instead they put themselves into their data therefore causing the data to be "tainted. 
Intellectual intervention brought folk music into the lime light of modern society.No longer did the music of the folk stay with the simple folk, it was brought before the modern world. Intellectuals jumped on to the folkways of the common people to gain a new identity when they lost theirs with the shifting of social systems.


1. https://www.folkschool.org/BrasstownCarvers/images/justOlive_small.jpg
2. http://janeaustensworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/20-lavish-lifestyle.jpg
3. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/HatfieldClan.jpg

The Native Americans way of Music

Before Christopher Columbus step foot on the New World, natives how had migrated down from Asia through Alaska had settled the "new" land. With them they brought their way of life and one of the biggest aspects of their way was their music. Music was vital to their culture and it was closely tied to myth and religion. The majority of tribes music was an essential ingredient in regards to their ceremonies such as rite of passage and worship. It was believed that spirits transferred knowledge and special power to humans by teaching them song. Songs could be used in almost any part of life from curing the sick or asking the spirits for help in providing water or food.  Music is woven into the fabric of Native culture in any area of the country whether it be the natives from the Plains or the Great Basin.                                                                                            1.


Of course where there is music there are ethnomusicologist to study it, and such study of Native music began in the late nineteenth century when sound recording was available to document. There are different forms in which this music is archival, some have written books while other have posted it on to a website. Author Kip Lornell published a book entitled Exploring American Folk Music in which he talks about Native American Music, there is also a web page on Wikipedia on the subject. Both of these forms of documentation cover broad areas of the Native music such as describing hat the music is "...closely tied to myth and religion" (Lornell 211) and that it "...is traditionally said to originate from deities or spirits" (Wikipedia Par. 5). They both go on to talk about how Native use vocables "...or lexically meaningless syllables, are a common part of many kinds Native American songs" (Wikipedia Par 4) an that they "..consist of short syllables like he, wi, or yo" (Lornell 215).
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But of course there are significant difference between the two documents, The Wikipedia has a different perception of the role of sexes in songs, it describes men's songs invoke power, the women's songs draw power away from opposing stick ball team" (Wikipedia Par 7). In contrast Lornell describes that "... woman sometimes take leadership roles" but that "...men generally take a leadership position" (Lornell 215). Wikipedia claims that woman had a specific role in songs while Lorenell proclaims that woman occasionally took leadership roles. Lornell goes in grave detail that "people who sing and dance receive this music from the supernatural, as opposed to creating it themselves these impulses come from dream" (Lornell 213). The Wikipedia article merely describes the Natives songs are based on spirits and religious belief. He also details that "...forced migration of tribes permanently altered their musical" (Lornell 210) where as the wiki-article fails to mention it at all. I would consider the Lornell book to be a better form of authentically due to the fact that hard evidence and extensive research that is provided by Lornell.            3.

One of the more well know enthnimusicologists that study Native music was Frances Densmore. She collected of the  music Teton Sioux in South Dakota by means of recording devices to make a vocal documented record. She also took notes and analyzed the patterns, techniques, and styles that she found within the music. I become an enthnomusicologist for the day  and asked people what songs they could sing from memory. I just wrote down there answers while she recorded and mad e her subjects sing to her. She held an attitude of "the singer must never be allowed to think that he is in charge of the work" (Slobin 68). She would only record the best singer and she would depose of recordings that she did not deem worthy to be held on record. She let controlled what she recorded, she did not let the music speak for itself.
Native American music is a pure form of folk music. It is of the people and it is about there beliefs and ways of life. It is the basis of what folk music is, about people and their way of life.
Here is a link to a video f the oldest video of Native Drumming it includes Ghost Dance and dances of the Sioux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igmpvrRQIkI

1.http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DYvNAHByKPM/0.jpg
2.http://bastienzara.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/a0316v.jpg?w=368&h=289
3.https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8VtHWQLGav5VK7LDRCUqPitQMNICxr3ZKu1de_HRBvzf0iLqsdQdeS_OtWR3mrVWZazCHjBI352dWEODkvf1uJxY_2rc8paVuILnrrxha6xnC4mjh_2gfR4NCnoYlNPLZpDpefhNDy0DO/s320/Drums.bmp

Ethnomusicology and the part it plays in Folk Music

Ethnomusicology may not be a social science you are aware of (unless you're a professional musician, Music Professor, or an enthnomusicologist) but it study of music of different cultures especially non-western ones. Much like a cultural anthropologist (who studies cultures in general), ethnomusicologist study the way people use music and its significant to peoples lives. Folk music is a form of expressive culture and can be found in any society or culture. Therefore ethnomusicologist study a great deal of folk music, because to be honest any form of music could be considered folk music due to the fact that folk fact that it can take any form and adapts from generation to generation. Enthomusicologists goal is to collect musical data from other cultures and to share such data with others.  3.
Now in an age where anything can be found and viewed with the touch of a finger, such data and be shared over the eyes of the internet. The internet can be used as a means of dissemination of cultural folk music while also be used as a archival to store such information. It can be a light unto those who could be in the dark of little understanding of cultural objects. But ethnomusicologist (and others documenting about cultural object such as music) has the obstacle of respect to face. One must respect the values that folk music may hold for a people. Such music can be considered sacred and should not be exploited due to the fear that those who are not deemed worthy to listen may listen. Displaying such information can rise some issues and concerns for the folk whose music holds sacred meaning to them.

Even though such information may be fascinating to read and study, one must keep in mind that not all music can be present out of respect of the folk and their music. We are also in an era where anybody can be enthomusicologist with the press of the record or camera button on their phones. People often feel free to capture  any public (or private)  performance, ceremony, or event then of course from there up load it onto the old YouTube and Facebook machine. Is such displaying a positive act or a negative one? It is positive that people hold an interest in others people folk ways, but like I said prior you have to keep in mind that you must be "...sensitive and sophisticated in the ways that..." you "...gathered, interpreted, and analysed..." from what you hear "...among unfamiliar populations" (Slobin 70).
                                                                                                            2. (David McAllester)
David McAllester, enthnomusciologist who worked with Navajos ritualists, had to work for years too get approval from Frank Mitchell (Navajo ritualists) to film a Blessing ceremony. David had to agree though that when ever he played it Frank had to be in the room. Therefore people must obtain this high standard of respect towards folk and their music or folkways because such thing can hold great meaning.
1.
When ethnomuicologist collect data they tend to record what they hear, so what effect does recording have on folk music and our understanding of it? When ethnomusicologist first started collecting data in the early 20th century, the folk they recorded "... had mixed reactions to this mechanical incursion. Some saw it "...as a magical form of robbery...of custom" (Slobin 67). It can seem as though something is lost from the music and contort our understanding of the music because we are not there to grasp the true density of it. Then question such as authority, ownership, and authenticity arise when folk music is recorded. How has the right to deem what is worthy to recorded or edit out, who has true ownership of the music; the recorded or the musician?,is the recording truly authentic since it is not experience first hand? Well  nobody has the right to deem what is worthy to record it or own it because it is something that can't be captured and boxed because the music holds its own. In regards to authenticity, nothing is authentic unless it's experienced first hand recordings are sometimes the closest people will get to the real thing.
Enthomusicologist study the idea of "music culture" which is how music touch aspects of our life such as religion, art, or politics. Music dose touch at least one aspect in our lives, for me it is religion. I am a baptist and in my church we sing songs of worship. It is a form of communication we use to relay our belief to one another so that we can share our expression of belief.
All in all, one music respect the customs of folk and their music like enthomusicologist. also that music touches at least one aspect of lives whether it be religion or some other form.

Here's a link for those who'd like a direct meaning of ethnomusicology... http://degreedirectory.org/multimedia/What_is_Ethnomusicology_-_Video.html

1.http://www.indie-music.com/ee/themes/site_themes/dailyedition/images/uploads/ethnomusicology.jpg
2. http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~rgarfias/photos/symposium-1963/England1_000.jpeg
3.http://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/u63/gambuh_ensemblemcphee197506_04_l0152_k.jpg

What is this thing we call Folk music?

What is folk music? Such music is not discussed or regarded much with this generation of adolescent music lovers. In a musical age that breeds of music produced by technology in a studio, the cognizance of folk music to the adolescent music listener is elderly folks playing the banjo out in the woods of the south. But what is it really? There are so many perception of it, but one thing that can be agreed upon is that folk music is that the concept of it is "...a living tradition, and that it's all about all the stuff that is happening around you" ( 9 Dunaway /Beer). It has been handed down from generation to generation taking new from as it travels into a new set of hands.   1.

The foundation of the music is part of  expressive culture that has been used since the time of our ancestors. It is a form of articulation, it allowed for people to evoke emotions beliefs, hopes, love, and in our ancestors times; a way to state they new their place in society. it can take the form of a woman of an African tribe teaching her children songs while they worked, to sports fanatics chanting rhythmically to their favorite team (Slobin), or a rambling man singing songs of life by the campfire. Folk music is of the folk, it is forged by the people of the land and take any shape. Everyone can sing in some way, therefore there are folk singers everywhere (Slobin), we are our all folk singers but the singers that an intoxicating voice are the ones that draw groups together for the  is aesthetically pleasing to the ear. The beautiful noise "...enters the ear as complex sound patterns, then turns into emotion and meaning in the brain" (13 Slobin), folk music (with any music) to the power to fly over barriers that divide one group from another. Folk music is more than just notes on a sheet of paper or the strumming of a guitar, it is words that are held "...in the moisture of the breath that carries them" (5 Slobin). It is of the folk and it is continually changing like the people that make it, it is purely the expression of the people and can not be categorized into one way or genre, nor can it be defined in one way because it is held in the perspective minds of the folk.     2.


It is tradition, and such tradition is passed down by word of mouth creating an oral history. Oral history can hold great value in regards to the information is genuine, it is not of a text book or of one person. As the information is put into another hands more is added to it and new interpretation can be used, Therefore the information is  genuine like the folk music itself, But alas the down side of containing information is that it can be misconstrued or even misinterpreted cause the information to be tainted for the next set of hands to hold it.   3.
One must keep in mind with "...all historical sources should be treated with equal skepticism. Such skepticism should also be turned on themselves as interviewer". In others words, you take all information that is given to you as it is and have your perspective of it and you should be open to all perspective. You must also expect that your interpretation should be and that other will be skeptical of your interpretation of the music.But you must see other peoples perceptive of the music in order to amplify your understanding. Folk music is express and in held in different perspectives of different folks of the land.

1.  http://www.bluesworld.com/fa29534.jpgsound
2. http://www.noorculturalcentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/arabic-folk-music-main.jpg
3. http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02256/folk-music_2256313b.jpg