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WELCOME ETHNOMUSICOLOGISTS!
Janet Sturman, CMS Board Member for Ethnomusicology  Welcome to Ethnomusicologists and to those interested in a world of music!
The College Music Society provides an unparalleled forum for ethnomusicologists to share their work with other specialists working in university and college music environments and I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as the CMS Board member for ethnomusicology and the chair of the CMS Forum on ethnomusicology.
The ethnomusicologist’s focus on understanding the nature and value of music to the people who make and support it has resulted in the production of vast resources, many of them unfamiliar to a wider public. In our efforts to increase awareness and access to a wide range of musical expression through recording, videos, ethnographic documentation and analysis, we have also discovered an array of techniques for study, instruction and performance that have been even less well recognized by our colleagues. CMS provides an ideal forum for developing wider audiences and new applications for these approaches to the study, learning and performance.
A specific opportunity for such integration lies in the domain of community engagement, a topic that the CMS has identified as meriting national attention. What role should we as college music educators take regarding community engagement? Some answers to that question were provided by Scott Marcus, Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, when he spoke to CMS members at the recent “Two Pacifics” Super Regional Meeting held at Westmont College, March 14-15.
Scott used the example of the UCSB Middle Eastern Ensemble, which also performed for conference attendees, to illustrate the gradual development of a highly nuanced university and community partnership. This ensemble began by performing Egyptian music, but quickly expanded to include a much wider range of Middle Eastern ethnicities and style, incorporating among them Persian, Lebanese, Syrian, Armenian and Sephardic performers and repertory. The result is collaboration among communities that are often opposed in other circumstances. As new performers joined the group, many of them living in the surrounding community in Southern California, the opportunities for study and performance expanded, but interpretive realities grew more complicated, and political concerns could not be ignored.
Some matters could be addressed by shared repertory, as Scott illustrated by showing how subtle rhythmic shifts in the basic drum patterns accompanying a welcome song can represent specific ethnic groups and may therefore be used to salute those present in an audience or signal arrivals at a given performance (he guided attendees in performing a some of these patterns). In most other cases, responsible diplomacy required careful attention to what musical selections were performed, when, for whom, and even in what part of the program a song or performer might appear. Scott’s role as master of ceremonies was instructive as well. His ability to graciously honor and introduce performers and repertory while interacting with listeners provided an essential integrity to what otherwise might be perceived as a disparate mélange of practices. His work with the Middle Eastern ensemble also illustrated the intensive demands of genuine community engagement: it seems that the most rewarding projects require a life-shaping commitment. This realization, like the recognition of community-specific protocols for manners and diplomacy, are lessons that resonate well beyond these specific circumstances.
Community engagement is just one illustration of a topic on which we might fruitfully engage ethnomusicologists and others in dialogue. The protocols of interaction that ethnomusicologists study have value for all types of musical practice and performance. Most important is to recognize that we each have resources to share, both material and conceptual. In closing, I invite all of you to join our CMS forum; let us know what you are doing, what issues you face, and how you think ethnomusicology might or should contribute.
ETHNOMUSICOLOGY RESOURCES
CMS Members have access to all the ethnomusicology resources below. If you are a current member, please login in the left column to access these services. If you are not a member, we invite you to join by clicking here.
- CMS Ethnomusicology Committee
- Book and Other Reviews on Ethnomusicology
- International Ethnomusicology Organizations
- CMS Newsletter Articles on Ethnomusicology
- Music Vacancies in Ethnomusicology
- News of the Ethnomusicology Profession
- Past Conference Abstracts on Ethnomusicology
- Symposium Articles on Ethnomusicology
- Scholarship and Research Conferences
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