Juha Torvinen JOHDATUS EKOMUSIKOLOGIAAN: MUSIIKINTUTKIMUKSEN VASTUU YMPÄRISTÖKRIISIEN AIKAKAUDELLA "Voivatko etnomusikologit pelastaa ympäristön? Meidän on pakko." Näin kirjoitti Timothy J. Cooley (2009) pari vuotta sitten Ethnomusicology-lehdessä. Cooleyn ilmaisema velvoite ei kuitenkaan rajoitu vain etnomusikologeihin vaan koskee kaikkia musiikintutkijoita, kaikkia tutkijoita, kaikkia ihmisiä. Ympäristökriisit, kuten ilmastonmuutos, saasteet, eläinlajien sukupuutto, ydinjäteongelma, sademetsien tuho, ryöstökalastus ja juomaveden puute, ovat nykyisin arkipäiväistä todellisuutta. Viimeistään 1900-luvun viimeisinä vuosikymmeninä kattava ympäristötuho syrjäytti laajamittaisen ydinsodan pahimman uhkakuvan paikalta (Buell 2005: 4-5). 1 Cooleyn vaatimuksessa ei ole erikoista sen sisältö vaan pikemminkin esittämisen ajankohta. Miksi ympäristöetnomusikologiasta (engl. environmental ethnomusicology; ks. Cooley 2009; Ramnarine 2009) tai ekomusikologiasta (engl. ecomusicology) on alettu puhua toden teolla vasta 2000-luvulla, vaikka luonto on ollut hälyttävässä tilassa jo vuosikymmeniä? Ympäristöliikkeellä ja tunnetuilla ympäristöjärjestöillä on yli 40 vuoden historia ja kansalaisten tietoisuus ympäristöongelmista on ollut tavallista viimeistään 1970-luvulta alkaen. Silti musiikintutkimuksen suhdetta ympäristökysymyksiin on alettu pohtia vasta hyvin hiljattain.
Ineffability of musical meaning is a frequent theme in music philosophy. However, talk about musical meaning persists and seems to be not only inherently enjoyable and socially acceptable, but also functionally useful. Relying on a phenomenological account of musical meaning combined with a naturalist explanatory attitude, we argue for a novel explanation of how ineffability is a feature of musical meaning and experience and we show why it cannot be remedied by perfecting language or musico-philosophical study. Musical meaning is seen as an experiential phenomenon that consists of layers, some recent, others archaic. As such, musical meaning is strongly characterized by asubjectivity. It is in-between, in a state where the division of subject and object is not yet valid or valid anymore. A naturalistic interplay of experiential layers in music brings about a non-reified dynamics driving for expressions, interpretations, engenderings of (musical) subjects and objects or even for political action. Generally speaking, the inbetweenness of musical meaning can never be universally reified or symbolic nor can it ever be "subjective," "mine" or present "at the origin." In this view, ineffability has two primary reasons. First, the criteria offered for defining musical meaning are often too strict, resulting in untenable pretensions of universality. Second, the processual and relational nature of the in-between keeps meaning in flux; any snapshot creates a new situation and new meanings.
Historically speaking, only love, death and religion can compete with nature as the most common topic in European music (see Toliver 2011, 8). 1 In the context of current environmental crises, this close relationship between music and nature has been given a novel twist. On the one hand, explicitly ecocritical musical practices are today more frequent than ever. On the other, while "being under crisis" is a fundamental condition of today's environment, any contemporary nature-related music can be seen and heard as a site for negotiations about ecological concerns and human-nature relationships regardless of the level of conspicuousness of music's possible ecocritical message. Environmental concerns transform also the way we hear nature-related music made before the current era of major ecological problems. For example, the centuries-old topic of the pastoral in music can be perceived nowadays with ecocritical ears. (Allen 2011a;
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