1、Ethnography Class IIIShanghaiAnthony SeegerOctober 11, 2013BEFORE WE BEGINPlease tell everyone what you will be doing for your local research project.First in EnglishThen in ChineseTell your colleagues your questions for this weekTory ZhuAliceyaBinLi MoSiwen YiWanxiaoluanYiwen LiDid anyone else prep

2、are questions?Plan for todayDiscuss Professor SHEN Qias paper and the question of local categories of music.Discuss chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Why Suy SingDiscuss: Is this book still relevant to the Suy today and to Ethnomusicology?Why Suy Sing and contemporary ethnomusicologyThe Mouse Ceremony Today a

3、nd the Suy involvement in with national society.The case of the Suy involvement with Brazilian Country Music (musica sertaneja). (From Tony Seegers article).Afterword to the bookStudent Questions about “Facing the predicament of wordlessness when speaking of musical sounds”When studying Chinese musi

4、c, what kinds of terms can be borrowed? Do some terms need to be abandoned? Can our “l(fā)ocal knowledge” be translated into English?Do we need speech for inner feelings like sound-dough?Should a nation keep the original shape of music strictly?Can transcription technology be helpful for the analysis of

5、 music? How? Is the terminology of musical morphology possible to obtain everywhere? Do all people have this, or is it related to environment, culture, lifestyles?What should we do about what is being lost?5What terms can be borrowed or abandoned?When studying Chinese music, what kinds of terms can

6、be borrowed? Do some terms need to be abandoned? Local terminology is very important to collectthere is general agreement on that from Malinowski to the present day.There are certain methods for collecting terminology in a language you are not familiar with.“ethnoscience”Use musical terms in the loc

7、al language even when you are conversing in a contact (non-local) languageBe VERY CAREFUL when using translators that they know what you are trying to do.Do we need speech for inner feelings like sound-dough?Who is the we in this question?Musicians and audiences may be using it.If so, musicologists

8、must try to understand itwe are a speech discipline and this is music-related speech used by musicians. It is important.Can our “l(fā)ocal knowledge” be translated into English?It can probably be approximated, or explained, like sound-dough, using audiovisual examples. Translation is rarely perfect and

9、often quite inaccurate.In addition to learning the local terms, what they mean, how they are related, and what they mean, you can decide how to use them when you write:You may want to use them as I have, kradi and sindaw and genre terms, or you may want to simplify life for the reader by saying “By

10、the term X I am referring to the term Y in the local language. Should you use European terms? They may be useful in some cases. But remember that the terminology of European music is an “emic” or local terminology developed by Europeans to talk about their music, not someone elses.Is terminology fou

11、nd everywhere?Is the terminology of musical morphology possible to obtain everywhere? Do all people have this, or is it related to environment, culture, lifestyles?It may not be found everywhere, but you should listen for it and look for it.Many peoples do not have a word for “music” but rather many

12、 words for specific kinds of music. Some people may not analyze or talk about their music much.Often, however, analysts simply overlook or dont recognize the local musical terminology.I do not know how this is related to other things because it is hard to be sure that something is “absent.”What shou

13、ld we do about what is being lost?Note the existence of somethingRecord it and archive it for future usemaybe a center for terminology.Depending on the cultural policy of the country, you may want to encourage the continuity of the terminology or the musicCultural Sustainability or “safeguarding” co

14、uld apply to the terminology as well as the performanceThe way music is taught in schools is very important: are local terminologies important for schools in a region?Language is constantly changing, and it may not be worth the trouble of insisting on a local terminology in a globalized musical worl

15、d. Should a nation strictly keep the original shape of music ?What do you think?Can transcription technology be helpful for the analysis of music? How? This is a good time to return to Why Suy Sing.We ended last time at the end of Chapter 2, where I talked about the importance of local terminology f

16、or forms of speech and musicOne of you asked “are you using their terms or your terms?” I am using their terms for the types of speech/song.The analyses of the relations between them, however, are minethe outsider. I made those diagrams in order to demonstrate to readers how they are differentit is

17、a kind of translation for the outsiders. These are the kinds of terms (among others) that Professor Shen suggests we need to pay attention to.Chapter 3. The origin of songsIf you know where music comes from, you may learn something important about what it signifies.I describe the various ways Suy mu

18、sic comes from outside, nonhuman sources.Myths that describe how songs were obtainedIndividuals whose spirits are living with a natural species and teach the songs of that speciesSongs from enemy Indians, foreigners, and anthropologistsThen I compare Suy, Kaluli, and Pythagorean views of the origin

19、of music.“Nature” is defined differently by the different traditionsOrigin of musical sounds for them is differentStudent QuestionWhy do the Suy learn their songs only from other people? Why dont they compose songs themselves?Reply: Music has the power it does because it does not come from humans bu

20、t from powerful outsiders. It is “revealed” and unchanging, while human speaking, oration, is not.They could compose if they thought music was composed. According to them it isntit already exists and “is out there” to be acquired.Chapter 4: Singing as Creative ActivityBy creative, I mean creating th

21、e universe and humans. Music doesnt just have context, it creates it.How music creates space by clarifying the zones of the village and out-of-village spaces.The village as a concert hallHow music creates time by establishing start and finish of days, and the rainy and dry season.The year as a conce

22、rtor maybe a single piece with two six-month long movements (rainy season and dry season unison songs)How music creates people, by initiating them to ceremonial life, but also through the specific ways they sing at different points in their life cycle. How music is performed with the body in movemen

23、ts and sounds.Performing music is enacting the world, or re-creating it through performance Suy sing one genre of song in wet season, another in dry season (announce start of seasons)The ceremonial moieties only appear during ceremonies, and each identifiable ceremonial group has its own songs (enac

24、t social groups).Sometimes sing first half of song (kradi) on East side of village (kradi), and then second half (sindaw) in West (sindaw).Through performing music the past and the present are brought together, and the cosmic made visible, present, and ordered by action.Chapter 5Rainy Season Unison

25、Song First half(Why Suy Sing CD track 3Jo-jo ha i, jo jo ha-iJo jo ha-i, ne jo ha-i, ne ki teU ha jo jo ha-I, jo jo ha-iHe a, ne jo ha-i ne a ji e aU-hanguwa katawe daw sogo daw ngre-neNguwa katawe daw sogo daw ngre naLater: ki kruduchi na , ngu wa katawe.daw sogoHuuuu, huuu.Rainy Season Unison Song

26、 second half(Why Suy Sing CD track 3Jo-jo ha i, jo jo ha iJo jo ha-I, ne jo jo ha-i ne ki te, he haU ha, jo jo ha-i jo jo ha-i He a, ne jo ha-I ne a ji e aU-hanguwa katawe wi sogo daw ngre-neNguwa katawe wi sogo daw ngre na.Later: Samadawtina, nguwa katawe wi sogo daw ngre ne. Huuuu, huuu.Chapter 5:

27、 The Role of Transcription in AnalysisThis is the heart of the book, in some respects. It does an analysis in the most detail.Unlike the other chapters, this is an analysis of a musical feature for which I could not get a Suy term.The main point of the chapter is that we can study musical phenomena

28、using various kinds of data.I wanted to investigate the relationship between the actual sounds of the music and the aspects of Suy culture I had described elsewhere. If I could not do this, I could not justify the book or your reading it.Rainy Season Unison Song (track 3)A. First Part (kradi) 1. Jo-

29、jo-ha-i jo-jo-ha-i jo-jo-ha-i ne jo-ha-i ne ne-he t2.nguwa gatw daw sogo daw ngre 3. Ki krdeti na, nguwa gatw daw sogo daw ngreCoda: Huuu, daw sogo daw ngre, huuu, huuuSegunda part (sindaw):1. Jo-jo-ha-i jo-jo-ha-i jo-jo-ha-i ne jo-ha-i ne ne-he t2. ngwa gatw wi sogo daw ngre3.Samudawti na ngwa gatw

30、 wi sogo daw ngreCoda to part and song: Huuu, wi sogo daw ngre, huuu, huuu, huuuuuuu (then a slow verse, and final huuus to conclude song)The ProblemMicrotonal rising in the transcription of a single rainy season unison song by Marina Roseman, a student.She had a number of questions which I took to

31、the field.Is this rising a significant part of the music? Or is it unique to this recording?Checked a dry season unison song to see if it rises or not. It does rise.Checked other rainy season unison songs to see if they rise. They all do, but in different parts and in different degrees.Not a problem

32、 of batteries, and seemed to be general to unison song forms.Singing the Suy SongOne reason Mantle Hood suggests that students learn to perform the musical traditions they study is that the experience of performing them may teach you something.I noticed that when I sang these long unison songs that

33、my throat would get tired.I also noted that people made mistakes as to when certain sections were starting.Men were supposed to sing by forcing their epiglottis down as low as they could and “opening their throats”or to sing with a “big throat”.You can learn some things by performance, and other thi

34、ngs by taking lessons, when appropriate.A defective Commercial RecordingEven though the recording at the wrong speed and thus not accurate, the Suy said it was beautiful, the way the old people sang in the past.What can statements like this teach us?It can be important to take recordings into the fi

35、eld, either of other groups or earlier recordings of the same group. It can lead to discussions.I hypothesize that the defective recording reinforced Suy ideas about the people in the past being better than those in the present. They were able to sing lower (and thus beautifully), and the recording

36、was evidence of it.A Normal Archive RecordingTo check whether the old men 10 years earlier had really sung lower than the younger men I was recording (all the older men had died), I located some archival recordings at a university made by a photographer.The recordings revealed that the old men had N

37、OT sung that much lower in the past than in the present.They also revealed microtonal rising in his recordings.They confirmed my idea that the commercial recording was defective.This shows the importance of accessible archival materials. I could only have done this because the recordings were still

38、available.Deep Throat: The Aesthetics of Unison Song When the Suy talked about song, the term of evaluation was the “throat”: strong/weak; beautiful/ugly; and others.Like almost everything else, this positioning in the throat was dualthere were only two. Unison songs (ngere) were sung with a “big th

39、roat” and shout songs (akia) with a “small throat.” (notes were not called “l(fā)ow or “high” because they did not read music).Young men were said to have smaller throats than older onesThe aesthetics of song was that all the voices should sound like oneno differences. (Akia are the opposite: every indi

40、vidual SHOULD sound different).Maybe the microtonal rising was because young men couldnt sing as low as the older men.BUT when a single singer taught a songI recorded a single man teaching a song to a group of other men.His teaching was sung under his breath and thus without any tension in his throa

41、t.In spite of this his solo teaching of the unison song had microtonal rising.Is this because young men would eventually sing it? Or is it because of some other aesthetic that I do not know? ?So I looked at the literature on American Indian song.Microtonal rising appears in a number of places and se

42、ems to be an intensifierit makes the music more meaningful.Student Question on Vocal TechniqueIn the chapter 5, you mentioned that Suy musical genres could be classified by where in the throat they were sung. Shout songs were said to be sung at the upper end (sindaw) of the throat, or with a small t

43、hroat. The unison songs were sung at the base (kradi) of the throat or with a big throat. My first question, are different throat in a relationship with different songs and their content, function and meaning, or just in a relationship with the identity, age and gender of Suy?TS: The vocal technique

44、s represented really different kinds of use and ownership, and to a degree meaning.Student Question on throat termsThen, you point out further that these two ways of phrasing the differences were basically equivalent. One was locational - at the top as opposed to the bottom. The second described the

45、 feeling of the positioning of the vocal chords - the open throat was precisely the position I found it difficult to maintain; the small throat was the tight, forced position for shout songs. My second question, are these classification methods and concepts Suyas or your observation?TS: These were t

46、heir terms that I am using. Evaluations of performance were done by talking about the “throat” and therefore I thought the terminology important How can we analyze tone quality (timbre)My third question, in addition to describe in words, what other methods of the representation, description and anal

47、ysis of vocal technique and tone colour are available?European transcription is especially weak on timbre.Student question: Why did you focus on the rising pitch rather than other musical features of the song?Good questionIt was partly because that was what Marina Roseman wanted to know.I already kn

48、ew the other features of the song, and have described most of them earlier in the book. Student Question on Rising PitchQ2：I heard the CD 2.1 where the woman narrates a story. In her speech I also found some sounds rise many times. So is there any relationship between sounds rise in their songs and

49、sounds rise in their speech?I never thought of this! What an interesting question!Her voice mostly rises in quoted speech, when she is speaking the words others have spoken.For a long time her own voice is pretty flat, but it may be that it rises toward the end. I would have to compare this with oth

50、er myths, and I dont have them here. Conclusions to Chapter 5Transcription can be usefulit can reveal aspects of the music that are not talked about.The confrontation of native terms and the terms of other musical systems for analysis can be useful.In addition to transcription, there are other ways

51、to supplement analysesAnalyzing more examples to find patternsLearning to perform to experience music makingArchival recordings may reveal differencesGeneral aesthetic preferences may lead to musical features.“Armchair” and “field” research can be done by different people or the same person at diffe

52、rent times. Both good.Student Question about Chapter 6Why did you spend so many pages describing the ritual rather than discussing the music in this chapter.Just as the first chapter describes fieldwork so you know the way the data was gathered, the description in this chapter illustrates in words m

53、any of the points I have made in a general way in the middle chapters. It also reveals the way I learned about those things.It demonstrates the argument that sound and movement create the context.Also important: Someone else can read it, listen to the tapes, and watch the video and say “I think you

54、are wrong.”The End of the Ceremony Chapter 6This chapter focuses on the final part of the ceremony and explains what is happening and at the same time shows the use of space (in diagrams) and sound (in recordings) very specific to the event.This is pretty straightforward description, focusing on sou

55、nd.The event involves “formal friends” who are not close relatives.It involves name sets, who are not close relatives.It involves sisters and mothers of the singers, who are specific kinds of relatives.It also involves a transformation into a mixed human/animal being and return to human form.The Mov

56、ement and Sound of Chapter 6A name group sings in the house and leaves it, singing in front of the door, then in front of the mens house, then going out of the village with women following carrying food. (Seeger DVD part II 7:30).Eating then singing away from the village (ibid 15:00)Silently stampin

57、g over child receiving his namesCall into the village and singing, first unison songWomen wound the dancers/animalsThe animal/dancers die in the morning. Women remove the masks and pour water on them.Men throw ornaments in the river, to go back to the mouses river.Why Suy Sing (Chapter 7)This is the

58、 concluding chapter in which I summarize everything that came before and repeat the general points that were made along the way.It is very important to step away from ethnographic detail in the conclusions and discuss what the general lessons may be. General final points: Music establishes the order

59、 of the self and the universe.Music and the body (alteration of perception in singing)Music and the person (the social construction of person)Music and society (social reproduction of humans). It is beautiful when everyone participates appropriately.The cosmological order is re-established.Further A

60、spects of the CeremonyMusic and economic lifean intensification of production and food consumption.Distributed in a different way from usual domestic productionMusic and socio-political lifeMusic and the representation of ethnic identity within the Xingu Indigenous area.Identity is not a thing, it i