Traditional Music and Cultural Identity: Persistent Paradigm in the History of Ethnomusicology

Abstract

As many of the articles in this volume of the Yearbook for Traditional Music celebrate the first forty years of the ICTM and the concerted, if indeed polyphonic, voice that that organization has provided the study of traditional music throughout the world, they evoke a mood of reflection and reexamination of the intellectual history of ethnomusicology. Reflection was abundantly evident as the ICTM paused in 1987 to call attention to its achievements with a grand commemoration in Berlin, itself taking stock of a 750-year history. But the reflective mood of the ICTM's fortieth year was not simply a matter of panegyrizing the past; rather, it seemed equally concerned with reexamining the present and future in light of that past, with contrasting the old and the new, with juxtaposing them and encouraging ethnomusicologists to welcome that which has more recently come to shape our understanding of music throughout the world.

Migracije nacionalizacije glasbe: od ljudske k narodnozabavni

“…Vloge ljudskoglasbenih praks v procesih nacionalizacije kulture v Evropi so se dotaknili številni sodobni raziskovalci, pri čemer izpostavljajo predvsem vprašanje rabe ljudske glasbe za konstrukte nacionalnih identitet v 19. in prvih desetletjih 20. stoletja (npr. Anttonen, 2005;Bohlman, 2004;Ramnarine, 2003). Ti procesi so potekali na različnih ravneh: od zbiranja ljudskih pesmi in izdaj na gramofonskih ploščah do izdaj ljudskih pesmi v učbenikih, pesmaricah in zborovskih priredbah ter spodbujanja in kreiranja njenih reprezentacij na odru.…”

The evolution of human music in light of increased prosocial behavior: a new model

“…The belief in social powers of ethos proved to be amazingly long-living, trackable as late as the Baroque era scholarly discourse on music [594]. The rise of nationalism in European music of the 19-20th centuries, where musical traits typical for a nation were idealized by its nationals and vilified by nationals of the hostile state [595], in essence, revived the philosophy of ethos. For this reason, we think that the entire period from Sumer to the mid-20th century can be qualified as a single evolutionary stage.…”

The mobilising of the German 1848 protest song tradition in the context of international twentieth-century folk revivals

“…The Second World War had had a profound impact on ideological approaches towards folk music. The Steinitz collection, with its emphasis on the folksongs of the werktätigen (workers), was an example of post-war ‘attempts in the study of traditional music to broaden and reformulate previous ways of ascribing and describing cultural identity’ (Bohlman 1988, pp. 36–7) 7 .…”

“… 7 One result had been the movement away from a national focus which, as Bohlman (1988, p. 36) writes, was reflected in the post-war activity of the International Folk Music Council. …”