Cartography and Ethnomusicology

Author(s): Paul Collaer and Alan P. Merriam

Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (May, 1958), pp. 66-68
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
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CARTOGRAPHY AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY*
Paul Collaer
Ethnomusicology
is concerned
primarily
with music in the
oral tradition and is thus concerned with a direct manifesta-
tion of a vital
energy
which does not come from the written
score. Such music is due to intuition and is codified and rea-
soned out
only
in more
complex phases
of its
development,
as
in the
high
cultures. It is
impossible,
then,
to
apply
the old
historic-literary
method based on
chronology
and the
interpre-
tation of written documents to the
study
of such traditional mu-
sic; rather,
the methods of
experimental
science,
above
all,
those of the
biological
sciences,
apply
best to
ethnomusicology.
The
problems
which face this
young
branch of science can be
divided into two
parts--
those of
description,
and those of
comparison.
Where the
study
is confined to the
description
of music in
a local
area,
the
problem
is reduced to
using
methods of col-
lection and observation which are as
objective
and exact as
possible. Ethnography, sociology,
and
experimental psy-
chology
are useful to the
musicologist although
his basic
ques-
tion is that of measurement-- of vibration
frequencies,
inter-
vals and durations.
And measurement includes as its corol-
lary,
notation,
for which a
system
remains
to be invented
which will
faithfully
reflect the
reality
of musical sound.
Measurement of
instruments, and,
when all is said and
done,
analysis
of structure are
primary
here.
Once the
stage
of collection and
objective presentation
of
the music has been
passed,
the
question
arises of the
compre-
hension of the
music,
its reason for
being
and its
place
in the
general history
of
music,
its
significance
for the
general
com-
prehension
of the
phenomenon
of musical creation. The com-
parative
method is here as
indispensible
as
comparative
anatomy
is for the
study
of the evolution of animal and
vege-
table forms.
Comparison
throws
light
on the existence of
specific types
and on the distribution of
types
common
to
several countries or
peoples;
it underlines the
importance
of
melodic structures, scales,
rhythms
and
polyphonic concepts,
of musical instruments which are identical or similar
found
in
neighboring
or diverse
regions;
it
suggests
that certain
kinds of music
give
the
impression
of
existing
in
symbiotic
relationship
with other characteristics
of culture.
While one can
hope
to reach some sort of
precision
and
objectivity
in the
descriptive
stage
thanks to electrical
means
of
recording
and
analysis,
the
comparative
stage
leads us
thus
far almost
inevitably
to the
hypothetical.
But it is not suffi-
cient to conclude a work
simply by presenting
a
hypothesis;
rather,
the idea must be conceived as a
working hypothesis
to
be submitted to the test of
comparison
with the results
ob-
tained in
dealing
with other cultural characteristics. Only
*
Translated
by
Alan P. Merriam
66
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the method of
multiple
verification can confirm or invalidate the
hypothesis
advanced,
and the
greater
the number of tests with
positive
results,
the
greater
the
plausibility
of the
hypothesis.
For
example,
a
group
X has a musical
system
in which the in-
tervals are
comparable only
to those which characterize the
music of
group
Y;
on this basis alone it is not
possible
to as-
sume that X and Y are
directly
related. But if
group
X uses
specific fishing
methods and
implements
which are identical
only
to those used
by group
Y,
then we have a
positive
indica-
tion which reinforces the
hypothesis
of their
relationship.
Both statistics and
cartography
can be of
great
value here.
Statistics,
which is
indispensable
in an area in which
values are variable within fixed
limits,
is still too
infrequently
employed
in
ethnomusicology.
But we wish to
speak
here
only
of
cartography.
The
importance
of
cartography
for botanical and
zoologi-
cal studies is well known. The areas of distribution
(Verb-
reitungsareale)
of various animal and
vegetable species
com-
pared among
themselves or with isothermic or
geologic maps
furnish information which
is
of considerable
importance among
the
ecological
factors on which the existence of these
species
depends,
and such
comparison
can show as well their zones of
origin, relationship
with other
species,
relative
degree
of an-
tiquity, perhaps
even their evolution. The
greater
the number
of
agreements among
the various
maps
used,
the
greater
be-
comes the
probability
of liaison and interaction
among
the facts
that the
maps represent.
A
plant,
for
example,
cannot live
above an altitude of
2,
000
meters;
is this limit
imposed by
the
minimum winter
temperature
or
by
the excessive ultraviolet
radiation? When
maps showing
the
geographic
distribution of
the
plant
are
compared
with those
tracing
minimum
tempera-
ture curves or
representing
the
composition
of solar
light
for
the
region
under
observation,
some answers are
possible.
The
cartographic
method can render considerable service
to
ethnomusicology
if it is established in the
necessary
de-
tail. One
frequently
sees sketches of such
maps,
but sketches
are not
enough,
for
great
detail is
vital,
and it is
only
on this
condition that
cartography
can
help
us
go beyond
the
stage
of
hypotheses concerning
the
genesis,
transmission and evolution
of the first forms of music.
It would be of
great
interest,
for
example,
to
map
the an-
hemitonic
pentatonic
scale with careful attention to its various
modal
aspects;
at the same
time,
hemitonic
pentatonic
scales
as well as the
prepentatonic
(tri,
and tetra
types)
should be
mapped.
Such work could
obviously only
follow an
exchange
of
views
among
the
specialists
in the
genesis
of musical scales
which would serve to fix the characteristics
used--pure penta-
tonism,
"pyen" pentatonism,
the coexistence of
pentatonism
and
pre-pentatonism,
of
pentatonism
and
heptatonism,
etc.
Such a
map, compared
with the areas of distribution of other
culture elements
(hunting-gathering, pastoralists, agricui-
67
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turalists,
nomadic or
sedentary people, etc.)
should furnish
evidence on which we can base
probabilities
or even certain-
ties rather than mere
vague
or
hypothetical
conclusions.
Let us take another
example--
that of
polyphony.
Where
is it found
(and
the
maps
must be on a
large enough
scale to
permit
detailed
localization)?
What is the
geographic
distri-
bution
of each
type
of
polyphony (simple,
double, fixed,
os-
cillating
bourdon;
parallel
fourths, fifths,
or other
intervals;
contrary motion;
of
two,
three or more
voices, etc.)?
Here
again, cartography
would disclose the most archaic
types,
those which are
universal,
those which are due to cultural
differences, etc. And it is also
possible
to see how a detailed
map
of musical instruments or of
specific
melodic
types,
con-
sidered
always against ethnographic
and other
maps,
could
give
valuable clues to
fixing points
of
origin,
as well as to
the
presence
or absence of various
outside
influences or
pos-
sibly migrations.
The realization and
publication
of a work such as that en-
visaged
here cannot be achieved
by
a
single
individual or even
by
a
single
local or
regional organization;
if
anything good
is
to come of
it,
all interested
musicologists
must
agree
to the
project
and
give freely
of their advice and
suggestions.
It is
in
dealing
with these various
problems
that we have
proposed
the
problem
of
cartography
as the
principle
theme of the Third
Colloquium
at
Wegimont (Liege)
of
European
ethnomusicolo-
gists
in
September
1958.
All
suggestions
received from our
extra-European colleagues
will not
only
be received with
grat-
itude but will be conceived as the first
step
in the labor we
propose,
as the first
gesture
in a
great
collaboration and as
the
beginning
of a common work which we feel to be indis-
pensable
to the
progress
of
ethnomusicology.
THE EXOTIC MUSIC SOCIETY: Its Aims & Activities
H. de
Vries,
Secretary
An
increasing
interest in ancient and
primitive
cultures,
and even more in exotic
music,
led,
in the
beginning
of
1957,
to the foundation in Amsterdam of the Exotic Music
Society,
under the
joint leadership
of Mr. H.
Arends,
a student in
Sinology
and
ethnomusicology,
and the
writer,
a collector of
primitive
art and lover of exotic music.
The
general
aim of the E. M.
S.,
the
only organization
of
its kind
existing
in the
Netherlands,
is to
bring together pro-
fessionals and
laymen
to
study
ethnic music and its cultural
and social
background,
and to further a wider
understanding
of it
by
the
general public.
Contacts have been established
with noted
ethnomusicologists
in
Holland,-
of whom e.
g.
J.
Kunst of the
Royal Tropical
Institute in Amsterdam and G. D.
van
Wegen
of the National
Ethnographical
Museum at
Leyden--
68
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