From Modern Science to Postmodern Art:

Ethnomusicology in Transition

Abstract

Ethnomusicology primarily deals with living music in oral traditions. From the very beginning this oral transmission of music determined the widely-understood methodological direction of ethnomusicology, regardless of how its subject was defined. For decades, transcribing traditional music in visual notation was considered to be the chief task of the ethnomusicologist. The ideological premise behind such an approach was the belief in the superiority of written over unwritten music. Consequently, it was considered necessary to make music transmitted orally similar to the model of music handed down in written form. Moreover, visuality in notation was thought to be the only means by which music could be subjected to analytical procedures. The development of increasingly sophisticated methods of transcription was accompanied by growing scepticism about its effectiveness in studying oralitybased cultures. Due to disappointment with the musicological paradigm of studying oral musical cultures, film-aided visuality has come to play an increasingly important role. The recording and “notating” of music, where its integrity and natural context are fully preserved, has its origin in postmodernistic doubts about the cognitive capacity of ethnomusicology and its methodology. Analytical commentary increasingly often gives way to poetic visualisation of music which appeals to researchers’ feelings and emotions and makes little use of scientific methods.