AQ Cultural musicology Flashcards
(21 cards)
The “year of birth” of Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft (A)
Importance of Recordings
1900 Berliner Phonogrammarchiv was founded by Carl Stumpf based on 24 phonograms he recorded together with Otto Abraham during a concert of an instrumental ensemble from Thailand visiting Berlin. The Berliner Phonogrammarchiv became home to the so-called “Berliner Schule der Vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft” (“Berlin School of Comparative Musicology”)
The “year of birth” of Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft (B)
Importance of Texts
1885 Guido Adler, “Umfang, Methode und Ziel der Musikwissenschaft” (“Scope, Method and Aim of Musicology”): “Musikologie” as part of “Systematische Musikwissenschaft” as opposed to “Historische Musikwissenschaft”> synchronic perspective
1885 Alexander J. Ellis’ “On the Musical Scales of Various Nations” (Cent system)
1886 Carl Stumpf publishes “Lieder der Bellakula Indianer” (“Songs of the Bella- Coola”)
The “year of birth” of Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft (C)
The establishing of a research design of Vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft
1905 Erich Moritz von Hornbostel is appointed as head of the Berliner Phonogrammarchiv and publishes “Die Probleme der Vergleichenden Musikwissenschaft” (“Problems of Comparative Musicology”)
Trinomial research design of
Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft
1905- Erich Moritz
von Hornbostel-
transcription
analysis
taxonomies and classifications
- transcription
1909 Otto Abraham und E.M.v. Hornbostel, “Vorschläge zur Transkription exotischer Melodien” (“Proposals for the transcription of exotic melodies”)
part 1: what symbols should be used? part 2: the process of transcription part 3: pitch measurement part 4: pitch calculation ( –> Ellis’ Cent System) part 5: representation of scales
- analysis
“the Hornbostel paradigm”
1. “das Tonsystem” (“tone-system”): “die Töne (als Baumaterial aller Musik)” (“the tones as construction material of all music”)
a) “Tonumfang” or “Ambitus” (tone range)
b) “Stufenzahl” (number of tones per octave)
c) “Tonleiter” (scale) (= “System aller Stufen innerhalb einer Oktave”, “system of tones within an octave”)
“Gebrauchsleiter” (scale of tones actually used in a piece of music) vs. “Materialleiter” (“complete scale”)
d) “Stufenarten” (musical intervals) (“Konsonanz” vs. “Distanz”)
e) “psychologische Tonika” (nucleus of melodic movement)
2. “Rhythmus” (rhythm) incl. “Akzentuierung” (accentuation), “Metrum” (meter), “Takt” (pulse)
3. “formale Strukturen” (formal structure) incl. “motivischer Aufbau” (motific structure) und “Periodengliederung” (periodic arrangement)
4. “Instrumentenkunde” (organology)
5. “Gelegenheiten” (“musical occasions”) und 6. “Personen” (=> “Ethnologie”)
- “Systematik” (taxonomies) and “Klassifikation” (classifications)
1914 E.M. v. Hornbostel und Curt Sachs, “Systematik der Musikinstrumente” (“Taxonomy of Musical Instruments”)
Following Victor-Charles Mahillon, Hornbostel and Sachs classify musical instruments according to the type of vibrating (i.e. sound-producing) entity
1. idiophones (the whole instrument vibrates)
2. membranophones (a membrane vibrates)
3. chordophones (a string vibrates)
4. aerophones (a vibrating air column)
(5. electrophones, not yet in Hornbostel/Sachs 1914)
1913 E.M.v. Hornbostel, “Melodie und Skala” (“Melody and Scale”)
1) scales with two or three tones within a range of a minor third are the oldest
2) through an (unconscious) hop to the higher octave when the singer reaches the lower limit of his/her vocal capacities, the range is extended. The starting and end tone that now lies within this extended range functions as tonal center. According to Hornbostel, this is the beginning of tonality.
3) successive tones (a second and a minor third) establish new tonal relations (a fourth)
unilineal evolutionism
teleological theory: evolution has direction and end point:
simple, undifferentiated homogenity
evolution
complex, differentiated heterogenity
unilineal evolutionism
Lewis Henry Morgan
(1818-1881)
1877 Ancient society, or: Researches in the lines of human progress from savagery through barbarism to civilization, New York.
The primitive are the key to our own pre-history: window into the past.
founder of British social anthroplogy
Religion ranking system. Animism to monotheism.
Edward B. Tylor
(1832-1917)
Evolutionist ideas in Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft
theories about the origin of music
Darwin: mating
Spencer: emotional speech
Hans v. Bühlow/Richard Wallaschek: coordinated movements
Stumpf: signals
Hornbostel interest in tonesystems and unlineal evolutionism.
Kulturkreislehre
Leo Frobenius
“German School of Diffusionism”
Kulturkreislehre and Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft
Marius Schneider (1903-1982)
“Tonalitätskreise”
(”circles of tonality”)
Curt Sachs (1881-1959)
Classical anthropological definition of culture
he complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society. Anthropology
The ultimate question the Berlin school wanted to answer
They were looking for the origins of music. To the window into the past.
1950 Comparative Musicology+Cultural Anthropology
= Ethnomusicology
Holistic definition of culture.
Merriam
If culture is the structure
behavior is the parole
Non normative cultural idea
Everything becomes a cultural object.
Levissist idea of cultural
Normative
