Response to Julie’s Comment
Julie’s comments in regard to my response provided a well-rounded view on the notion of how much historical context should be taken into account when viewing a culture’s musical performance. In reading your response, I became really interested in how an ethnographer views a performance ethnography versus an ethnography of a musical culture. Furthermore, how does historical context and background play a role in each one? Is it the job of the ethnographer to record an individual experience or the culture as a whole? I would agree with Julie that disregarding a culture’s history and background digresses focus from the culture and places more emphasis on the individual’s relationship to the performance. Ultimately, when we read an ethnography, we seek to maintain a balance between the two. As someone unfamiliar to a culture and its music, it is important to receive as much information about that culture as possible in order to truly understand the importance of the music that he/she is listening to and/or witnessing.
Your response only furthers the fact that this is an open-ended question. While no response will ever produce a precise or “correct” response, different views on what is covered in an ethnography can only add to this on-going discussion. Furthermore, I completely agree with your idea that performance ethnography deals with time-specific occurrences, while an ethnography of a musical culture focuses on events over a larger span of time. How does this shift in time effect how we will understand a culture and its musical performance? Will a specific moment versus a longer historical journey alter what we witness?
1 comment:
Jaime does a great job of articulating the case for phenomenological ethnography. Note however that experience of musical performance need not occur the formal, concert setting you describe. Many musical traditions around the world are non-performative. Phenomenological ethnography can still be a valuable approach for studying these cultures so long as we adjust our notions of the musical event.
Julie’s point about experience-based ethnography drawing towards “heroic journey” sentiments is valid. I also think Julie is wise to differentiate between a performance ethnography, and an ethnography of a music culture. Excessive historical context in a performance ethnography can undesirably shape our experience of the music. And a lack of historical information in an ethnography of a musical culture can hinder us from understanding the meaning of a music to its practitioners.
But, as Jaime implies, a musical ethnography could also benefit from experienced-based description.
It was a pleasure to read your discussion: You both came with thought-out stances, provided quality feedback, and used each other’s ideas in the formulation of new ones.
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