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Society for Ethnomusicology

Cartography and EthnomusicologyAuthor(s): Paul Collaer and Alan P. MerriamSource: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (May, 1958), pp. 66-68Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for EthnomusicologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/924385

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CARTOGRAPHY ND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY*

Paul Collaer

Ethnomusicology is concerned primarily with music in theoral tradition and is thus concerned with a direct manifesta-

tion of a vital energy which does not come from the written

score. Such music is due to intuition and is codified and rea-

soned out only in more complex phases of its development, as

in the high cultures. It is impossible, then, to apply the old

historic-literary method based on chronology and the interpre-tation of written documents to the study of such traditional mu-

sic; rather, the methods of experimental science, above all,those of the biological sciences, apply best to ethnomusicology.The problems which face this young branch of science can be

divided into two parts-- those of description, and those of

comparison.Where the study is confined to the description of music in

a local area, the problem is reduced to using methods of col-

lection and observation which are as objective and exact as

possible. Ethnography, sociology, and experimental psy-

chology are useful to the musicologist although his basic ques-tion is that of measurement-- of vibration frequencies, inter-

vals and durations. And measurement includes as its corol-

lary, notation, for which a system remains to be invented

which will faithfully reflect the reality of musical sound.Measurement of instruments, and, when all is said and done,

analysis of structure are primary here.

Once the stage of collection and objective presentation of

the music has been passed, the question arises of the compre-hension of the music, its reason for being and its place in the

general history of music, its significance for the general com-

prehension of the phenomenon of musical creation. The com-

parative method is here as indispensible as comparative

anatomy is for the study of the evolution of animal and vege-table forms. Comparison throws light on the existence of

specific types and on the distribution of types common toseveral countries or peoples; it underlines the importance of

melodic structures, scales, rhythms and polyphonic concepts,of musical instruments which are identical or similar found

in neighboring or diverse regions; it suggests that certain

kinds of music give the impression of existing in symbiotic

relationship with other characteristics of culture.

While one can hope to reach some sort of precision and

objectivity in the descriptive stage thanks to electrical means

of recording and analysis, the comparative stage leads us thus

far almost inevitably to the hypothetical. But it is not suffi-

cient to conclude a work simply by presenting a hypothesis;

rather, the idea must be conceived as a working hypothesis to

be submitted to the test of comparison with the results ob-

tained in dealing with other cultural characteristics. Only

* Translated by Alan P. Merriam

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the method of multiple verification can confirm or invalidate the

hypothesis advanced, and the greater the number of tests with

positive results, the greater the plausibility of the hypothesis.For example, a group X has a musical system in which the in-

tervals are comparable only to those which characterize the

music of group Y; on this basis alone it is not possible to as-sume that X and Y are directly related. But if group X uses

specific fishing methods and implements which are identical

only to those used by group Y, then we have a positive indica-

tion which reinforces the hypothesis of their relationship.Both statistics and cartography can be of great value here.

Statistics, which is indispensable in an area in which

values are variable within fixed limits, is still too infrequently

employed in ethnomusicology. But we wish to speak here onlyof cartography.

The

importance

of cartography for botanical and zoologi-cal studies is well known. The areas of distribution (Verb-

reitungsareale) of various animal and vegetable species com-

pared among themselves or with isothermic or geologic mapsfurnish information which is of considerable importance amongthe ecological factors on which the existence of these species

depends, and such comparison can show as well their zones of

origin, relationship with other species, relative degree of an-

tiquity, perhaps even their evolution. The greater the numberof agreements among the various maps used, the greater be-

comes the probability of liaison and interaction among the facts

that the maps represent. A plant, for example, cannot liveabove an altitude of 2, 000 meters; is this limit imposed by the

minimum winter temperature or by the excessive ultraviolet

radiation? When maps showing the geographic distribution ofthe plant are compared with those tracing minimum tempera-ture curves or representing the composition of solar light forthe region under observation, some answers are possible.

The cartographic method can render considerable service

to ethnomusicology if it is established in the necessary de-

tail. One frequently sees sketches of such maps, but sketches

are not enough, for great detail is vital, and it is only on this

condition that cartography can help us go beyond the stage ofhypotheses concerning the genesis, transmission and evolution

of the first forms of music.It would be of great interest, for example, to map the an-

hemitonic pentatonic scale with careful attention to its various

modal aspects; at the same time, hemitonic pentatonic scales

as well as the prepentatonic (tri, and tetra types) should be

mapped. Such work could obviously only follow an exchange of

views among the specialists in the genesis of musical scales

which would serve to fix the characteristics used--pure penta-tonism, "pyen" pentatonism, the coexistence of pentatonismand pre-pentatonism, of pentatonism and heptatonism, etc.Such a map, compared with the areas of distribution of other

culture elements (hunting-gathering, pastoralists, agricui-

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turalists, nomadic or sedentary people, etc.) should furnishevidence on which we can base probabilities or even certain-ties rather than mere vague or hypothetical conclusions.

Let us take another example-- that of polyphony. Whereis it found (and the maps must be on a large enough scale to

permit detailed localization)? What is the geographic distri-bution of each type of polyphony (simple, double, fixed, os-

cillating bourdon; parallel fourths, fifths, or other intervals;

contrary motion; of two, three or more voices, etc.)? Here

again, cartography would disclose the most archaic types,those which are universal, those which are due to cultural

differences, etc. And it is also possible to see how a detailed

map of musical instruments or of specific melodic types, con-sidered always against ethnographic and other maps, could

give valuable clues to fixing points of origin, as well as to

the presence or absence of various outside influences or pos-

sibly migrations.The realization and publication of a work such as that en-

visaged here cannot be achieved by a single individual or even

by a single local or regional organization; if anything good is

to come of it, all interested musicologists must agree to the

project and give freely of their advice and suggestions. It is

in dealing with these various problems that we have proposedthe problem of cartography as the principle theme of the Third

Colloquium at Wegimont (Liege) of European ethnomusicolo-

gists in September 1958. All suggestions received from our

extra-European colleagues will not only be received with grat-itude but will be conceived as the first step in the labor we

propose, as the first gesture in a great collaboration and as

the beginning of a common work which we feel to be indis-

pensable to the progress of ethnomusicology.

THEEXOTICMUSICSOCIETY:ts Aims & Activities

H. de Vries, Secretary

An increasing interest in ancient and primitive cultures,and even more in exotic music, led, in the beginning of 1957,to the foundation in Amsterdam of the Exotic Music Society,under the joint leadership of Mr. H. Arends, a student in

Sinology and ethnomusicology, and the writer, a collector of

primitive art and lover of exotic music.The general aim of the E. M. S., the only organization of

its kind existing in the Netherlands, is to bring together pro-fessionals and laymen to study ethnic music and its cultural

and social background, and to further a wider understanding

of it by the general public. Contacts have been establishedwith noted ethnomusicologists in Holland,- of whom e. g. J.

Kunst of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam and G. D.

van Wegen of the National Ethnographical Museum at Leyden--

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