Ethnomusicology

April 2, 2015 — January 26, 2024

culture
information provenance
making things
music

Miscellaneous notes on culture and musicality.

Figure 1

This is where my scraps and marginalia go. I have little to say on general ethnomusicology, but do see technoethnomusicology and indonesian music, especially sundanese music.

1 Incoming

  • Musical Heresies by Roger’s Bacon makes the case for music being an evolved superstimulus.

  • Philip Tagg— Scotch Snaps: the big picture:

    A huge social and cultural history is embedded in the microcosm of this two-note rhythm. Issues addressed: [1] What is a Scotch Snap? [2] How does it relate to language, class and ethnicity? [3] Is it just Scottish, or is it also Irish, Welsh, English, West African, Hungarian, “Celtic”, “black”, “white” or what? [4] It’s used by Henry Purcell, Béla Bartók, Mahalia Jackson, Woody Guthrie, Stevie Wonder, Ry Cooder, James Brown and Buck Owens; and you’ll also find it in Strathspeys, traditional English ballads, Appalachian fiddling, string band music, spirituals, white gospel, black gospel, even in West African time lines, but you won’t hear it in mariachi, mbaqanga or MPB (música popular brasileira), nor in the music of South or Central Europe. [4] If it has to do with English language rhythm why did it disappear from English music during the 18th century to re-emerge globally in popular musics of the 20th century? [5] Why did Dvořák think that “Negro” and “Scottish” musics were similar? [6] How come some music of English origin is labelled “Celtic” when England is seen by fans of “Celticity” as the devil incarnate? This instructive but entertaining video offers an alternative to ethnic fixations in popular music history and genre labelling. See also Temperley, N., & Temperley, D. (2011): Music-language correlations and the “Scotch Snap” in Music Perception 29 (1), 51–63. [HELP]

2 References

Clayton, Martin. 1997. “Metre and Tal in North Indian Music.”
———. 2001. Time in Indian Music: Rhythm, Metre, and Form in North Indian Rag Performance. Oxford Monographs on Music.
Clayton, Jace. 2009. “Pitch Perfect.” Frieze.
Cook. 1992. “Guide to Sundanese Music.” Bandung: Simon Cook.
———. 1993. “Parallel Versions of Tembang Sunda Melodies in Different Tunings.” Oideion: The Performing Arts World-Wide.
———. 2001. “The Song Is the Thing: Patokan, Alur Lagu and the Impact of the Female Vocal Soloists on Sundanese Instrumental Music.” Contemporary Theatre Review.
I Wayan, and Hendra. 1994. “Kendang Sunda.” Mudra (JURNAL SENI BUDAYA).
Li. 2015. “Jaw Harp: An Acoustic Study.”
Manuel, and Marshall. 2006. “The Riddim Method: Aesthetics, Practice, and Ownership in Jamaican Dancehall.” Popular Music.
Marshall. 2006. “Bling-Bling for Rastafari: How Jamaicans Deal with Hip-Hop.” Social and Economic Studies.
———. 2008. “Dem Bow, Dembow, Dembo: Translation and Transnation in Reggaeton.” Lied Und Populäre Kultur / Song and Popular Culture.
———. 2014. “Treble Culture.” The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies.
Marshall, and Beaster-Jones. 2012. “It Takes a Little Lawsuit: The Flowering Garden of Bollywood Exoticism in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility.” South Asian Popular Culture.
Merthayasa, and Pratomo. 2008. “The Temporal and Spectral Characteristics of Gamelan Sunda Music.” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Mitchell, and Houtekamer. 2000. “An Adaptive Ensemble Kalman Filter.” Monthly Weather Review.
North. 1982. “Degung: My Search for the Ancient Gamelan of Sunda.” Unpublished Manuscript.——. 1982b. Letter from R. North to Michael Wright.
Ramlan. 2013. “Jaipongan: Genre Tari Generasi Ketiga Dalam Perkembangan Seni Pertunjukan Tari Sunda.” RESITAL : JURNAL SENI PERTUNJUKAN.
Rosidi. 1973. “My Experiences in Recording ‘Pantun Sunda’.” Indonesia.
Sopandi, and Kar. 1985. Keadaan Dan Perkembangan Kesenian Sunda Tradisional Masa Kini.
Spiller. 1996. “Continuity in Sundanese Dance Drumming: Clues from the 1893 Chicago Exposition.” The World of Music.
———. 2010. Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java.
Spiller, and Yampolsky. 1998. “Betawi and Sundanese Music of the North Coast of Java: Topeng Betawi, Tanjidor, Ajeng.” Asian Music.
Temperley, David. 2000. “Meter and Grouping in African Music: A View from Music Theory.” Ethnomusicology.
Temperley, Nicholas, and Temperley. 2011. “Music-Language Correlations and the ‘Scotch Snap’.” Music Perception.
Toussaint. 2005. “Mathematical Features for Recognizing Preference in Sub-Saharan African Traditional Rhythm Timelines.” In Pattern Recognition and Data Mining.
van Zanten. 1986. “The Tone Material of the Kacapi in Tembang Sunda in West Java.” Ethnomusicology.
———. 2014. “Musical Aspects of Popular Music and Pop Sunda in West Java.” In Sonic Modernities in the Malay World.
Weintraub. 1993. “Theory in Institutional Pedagogy and ‘Theory in Practice’ for Sundanese Gamelan Music.” Ethnomusicology.
———. 1994. “Tune, Text, and the Function of Lagu in Pantun Sunda, a Sundanese Oral Narrative Tradition.” Asian Music.
———. 2001. “Instruments of Power: Sundanese ‘Multi-Laras’ Gamelan in New Order Indonesia.” Ethnomusicology.
Williams. 1989. “Current Developments in Sundanese Popular Music.” Asian Music.