tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146962885201070339.post8071084077294321725..comments2023-10-02T10:57:07.769+02:00Comments on Birdseed's Tunedown: I'm being nudged into ethnomusicologyBirdseedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01161105277182690887noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146962885201070339.post-28538049083599806592009-04-09T00:27:00.000+02:002009-04-09T00:27:00.000+02:00Well, I can't really see how I'm going to avoid ta...Well, I can't really see how I'm going to avoid taking an all-sides approach to music, unless my courses in algorithmic analysis of music in Helsinki next term pan out and I can become that insular music statistician I dream of. Consider this my last stand before I join your ranks.Birdseedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01161105277182690887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146962885201070339.post-25301387496671078862009-04-08T22:54:00.000+02:002009-04-08T22:54:00.000+02:00I see what you're saying, but I resist reducing et...I see what you're saying, but I resist reducing ethnomusicology to a particular set of questions. I understand what you mean by holism -- there's definitely a tendency to resist abstracting music outside of social/cultural context, but the abstraction of music, of course, only ever happens in some such context.w&whttp://wayneandwax.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146962885201070339.post-519367116877779182009-04-07T23:19:00.000+02:002009-04-07T23:19:00.000+02:00Anyway, the questions asked are very different. Su...Anyway, the questions asked are very different. Sure, I've got an interest in the background of the aesthetics, how they can be explained using great theories, how they connect to the creator/listener. But I'm also interested in how music works, its internal operational logic, its cognitive properties and why it's great. Those aren't really questions you can reasonably approach from a viewpoint of ethnology, unless you make them out to be something other than what they are.<BR/><BR/>I can readily recognise that something like greatness is cultured, and that Sinatra and Soulja Boy are great in totally different ways, but it works at a level beyond consciously expressed values. Reducing it to just a function of social taste (or whatever) is also, if anything, an abstraction. (Yes, I know, I do that too.)Birdseedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01161105277182690887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146962885201070339.post-84166049878004647562009-04-07T21:22:00.000+02:002009-04-07T21:22:00.000+02:00An abstraction, as Carl Dahlhaus aptly points out,...An abstraction, as Carl Dahlhaus aptly points out, is not necessarily a false abstraction. It's perfectly possible, even worthwhile and desirable, to study the details of a particular piece of music or genre or technical detail without taking a holistic approach.<BR/><BR/>It's just I'm not allowed to. In the gentlest kind of way possible.Birdseedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01161105277182690887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6146962885201070339.post-70566740002370176502009-04-07T20:24:00.000+02:002009-04-07T20:24:00.000+02:00False dichotomy! Aesthetic matters can -- and shou...False dichotomy! Aesthetic matters can -- and should, and are -- also be a part of ethnomusicological inquiry. Indeed, I think you absolutely should keep asking questions about aesthetics even as you take into account important issues of society and culture. It's all inseparable.w&whttp://wayneandwax.comnoreply@blogger.com