Engagement: Ethnomusicologists

I now realise that the Arts, including music, creates opportunities to engage, inspire and enrich our lives. Music making and responding can challenge, provoke responses and enrich our knowledge and understanding of ourselves, our communities and the world.

Without the human intention, perception, and interpretation of sound, then the existence of music would be imaginary. Music includes talking words in a way that the person creates a sound that is made with the intention of being music (Deutsch, Diana 10-13, Justus & Timothy., 33-40). Besides, people can perceive silence and sound and put them together so as to call the outcome music. In Bakan’s fourth proposition, he identifies the approach as the Human Intention and Perception (HIP) approach (Resnicow, Joel E., 10-22). In other words, the proposition tries to suggest that music is inseparable from the makers; or more specifically the people who perceive and experience it. Bakan gives numerous examples to show that music is a product of human intention and perception. This paper conducts research and gives appropriate examples to show that music is only identified as music if the person is making it has the intention for their words to be music.

Joanne Lipman’s memoir And the Orchestra Played On is about the lasting bonds music can have on members of a community who engage – whether it be as listeners or musicians – in music together. She reflects on the death of her beloved childhood music teacher, Mr. K, and the coming together of his student for one final concert. Lipman ties her introduction and conclusion together to develop her message. In both, someone is searching for music: Lipman for her viola, and a girl only known as the sister of a boy whose funeral Lipman and the rest of the orchestra player at over 30 years previous. Lipman suggests that the search for music is actually a search for belongingness because the bond of music gives

My life would be incomplete without performing music. I’ve spent time, in concert bands, in bell choirs, in school and church choirs, and singing, playing in music festivals, and in pit bands trying not to laugh my head off at the actors’ improvisations. But the art that truly speaks to my soul does not lie in creating music, it lies in dancing to it.

According to Laurence O’Donnell, “Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe.” This proves that music is more than a simple class teaching random notes. It is a common denominator

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

1. How do the principal musical manifestations found in the sub-Saharan Africa reflect the collective community and encourage group participations?

In the late 2004, a series of papers (research project) on the topic of world music and globalisation became a hot topic in a conference and gradually took on a life turning onto a virtual laboratory for teaching and research on the relationship between music and globalisation under ethnography which was funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and humanities Research Council from 2003-2006. Since then this topic has got wide meaning and more complicated.

Native American music is compelling due to its rich history, beauty, otherworldliness, and its unique ability to unify, heal, reach ancient deities, signify changing seasons, and tell stories through song and dance. By exploring the history, organology, and aesthetics of the Native American flute via the Cheyenne and Lakota tribes, the unique use of this instrument for tribal customs, courting, personal expression, and ceremonial purposes have set Native American music

The book Songs in Their Heads: Music and It’s Meaning in Children’s Lives by Patricia Shehan Campbell is an anthropological study of samples of children in the US and their relation to music and music making. The book is broken into three parts: children at musical play, conversations with children about music, and children’s musical education. Campbell’s study focuses on what children musically are and what they musically become through parents and teachers.

This brings forth the ideology that musicians within the contemporary era must also have a working understanding of the recording process more so now than seen in previous decades. This notion also draws a correlation with Carvalho's journal, which also mentions the fine line between professional and amateur sound studios. Kühn's research, however, reveals a few major flaws with a lack of substantial evidence acquired through the method of research. The lack of evidence is consequently alleviated by other sources within this research paper, however Kühn's methodology is inadequate as a standalone source. In contrast, Christopher A. Scales, reveals the crucial connection between musician and sound producer in the creative process within his research article, The Politics and Aesthetics of Recording. As well as this concept, Scales also explores the restrictions faced by Native American people when attempting to record due to the unique interactions the music

To further analyze how music brings together, music must be understood as a universal language. Researchers from Universities of Canada, McGill, Montreal, and Berlin went to go explore this concept through playing music to Mbenzele Pygmies and Congo tribes in solitude. (This is How Music Is Indeed a Universal Language). Not only is the author credible, By playing different musical compositions to the two groups and while measuring various physiological responses such as heart pulse, the experiment resulted in both parties feeling similar emotions and objective emotions. Knowing that idea, will

Music made for dancing in the club has the social power that forms the sense of ethnic solidarity and the sense of belonging. Hesmondhalgh (2013) states that listen to the music in the same pattern is a way of being together in public. Likewise, consuming music in the club is a means of collective flourishing. Further, listening mother tongue music in dance club indeed can be considered as a ‘treatment’ to the diasporic journey, which somehow gives rise to the sense of social solidarity to the diasporic community. ‘Music can help constitute identities and communities’ (Street, J. 2012). For example, ‘Asian’ club nights can provide the sense of belonging to the ethnic minority’ diasporic journey. In the ‘Asian night’, the whole club is the Asian’

There are many types of music in the world, with many different artists, backgrounds, and stories to tell. Every genre holds within itself a message, and this message shows a glimpse of the past as well as the possibilities of the future. People everywhere love music for these reasons and more, and I love one style of music in particular: a style that brings me comfort, makes me question the world, and gives me insight as to who I am. Classical music describes a genre that, for me, means more than just notes on the page or in the air; the music speaks to a deep and wonder-seeking part of me that cannot quite be described using words. The true evolution of primitive music began around 1750 during the Classical Era in Europe, with the pioneering works of Mozart and Haydn, as well as many others. Deriving from these great composers, the genre further evolved during the Romantic and Modern Eras by encompassing a deeply emotional and expressive side unlike anything heard before. Indeed, these periods of music entail a vast and rich history of pieces written to please royalty, soft and haunting works of lost love, and vast orchestral suites that try to capture the majesty of the natural world. Such vast detail and eloquent composition allows the listener of classical music to immediately be transported to another time, another world, and especially another mindset. Other genres of music may contain hints of these same elements, but none can fully compare to the true qualities

One of the basic ideas defining music is outlined in the Professor Michael B. Bakan’s second proposition: that the sounds and lack of sounds of a musical work are organized. Throughout the past years, many professors of ethnomusicology and music in general have attempted to define exactly what music is. Although there was and is a lot of discussion on the matter, most researchers began with the notion that music is essentially organized sound. However, there are cases where sounds are organized but humans do not consider them as music. Some of these instances include speech, poetry, and natural sounds. Due to this primitive and elementary basis that music is organized sound, researchers have attempted to create conditions or categories which music falls into. Despite the conflicting opinions on the different characteristics, I, along with most researchers, believe that although music is indeed a form of organized sounds and silences, this definition is too broad to accurately define music.