Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
Introduction
Sources of information about music have generally been the mass media: broadcast — the easily accessible radio and television programs. However, a print publication for several decades also enjoyed the role of authority on information about music; as broadcast introduces the theme, the print provided the necessary information that includes musician, the musical piece, and even the persons involved in a musical work, such as the musicians, production and technical staff, performers, directors, amongst others.
This is easily said about music starting from the mass production of recorded music in the late 1950s until the advent of MTV. Before mass-produced vinyl, however, there has been a long history of musical developments worldwide in different cultures and ethnicities, which cannot be overlooked. Today, this is highlighted on Youtube, where music video dominates viewer internet user uploads. Various forms of music, however minority a group is, can be easily searched and viewed on Youtube, which has started to give rise to inter-racial and ethnology interest, specifically in music. This paper will try to provide light on the music information sources focusing on Western and Indian musicology.
Discussion
Indian music has been considered “elusive” due to its improvised and un-notated reconstruction making it problematic (Ramnarine, 1996). European travel literature, however, greatly aided interest in placing Indian music in its rightful historical place as cultural documentation detail musical information (Wade, 1998). Even denial by musicologists to refer to such materials due to contradictory and non-straightforward narration does not rob its usefulness (Ramnarine, 1996).
On the one hand, accounts usually examine music and the musicians in the context of people movements or migration from rural to urban centers (Turino, 1993), such as African music in the United States that provided the basis for Indian music. For instance, the International Centre for Comparative Musicology interviewed more than 150 organizations for the Klangbider der Welt, providing an overview of the “range of approaches and histories of formation, activity, and stylistic choice” (Slobin, 1993, p 66) with regards to intercultural networks in Berlin.
One Western source about musicology, interestingly, has been Max Weber, who analyzed and provided the parallel of Western rise to power and popularity to the Roman Catholic Church, which “led to the standardization of music notation, standardized music instrument construction, and standardized performance that produced a unique vision of the West,” (Turley, 2001, p 634). This was proposed in Weber’s 1921 book Economy and Society (Turley, 2001). This analysis also complements Theodor Adorno’s (1962) reciprocal model of society, which influences music and music and controls society. Who wrote, “a musical sociology should take its bearings from the social structures that leave their imprint on music and musical life” (p 43).
However, as mentioned earlier, India has been richly described in British colonial writings (Jairazbhoy, 1993). But aside from the problem of Eurocentrism in these travelogues, readers also find the music told to be strange and affected by what is perceived as contemporary, which was Western music. This makes Indian music described as still wanting textual and contextual analysis. While Miller and Chonpairot (1994) called for objectivity, and many complied, objectivity has been limited to the “use of positive or non-derogatory language, a non-religious outlook, and a distanced, detailed approach in the description” (Brown, 2000, p 3).
Going on the opposite, using a positive approach in the description then becomes quasi-fictional or photographic. This still depended much on whether the observer liked the musical piece or not (Miller and Chonpairot, 1994, p 25). With this in light, Brown (2000) suggested that “It is imperative, therefore, that we challenge our present-day understanding of historical reliability by reading these texts in the light of the contemporary culture and circumstances that produced them” (p 3). In addition to the mentioned problems, Western writings aimed primarily to entertain their readers with the exotic stories they may produce. Secondly, it boosted individual prestige, nation, or trading companies in a given region. Musicology, therefore, is a continuing search and research as more materials are brought to light on a broader audience and involvement.
Conclusion
The convergence of various music genres, ethnicity, and origin on the internet, easily accessible to millions of users in a single given second, has hastened the learning and understanding of ethnic musicology either from the West or India. Nevertheless, music has maintained its power to surmount boundaries as a universal language over the years. It has touched individuals and crowds of people of various ages, times, and places so that it continues delighting and evolving.
It is of blessing. However, information and communication technology have greatly aided this thirst for music and knowledge about its roots, origins, evolution, and other developments. As more information is unearthed and learned in every corner of this world, easily uploadable over the internet, music has never been left behind in most aspects. This includes India’s various kinds and types of music. Most listeners and learners could do google and keep on searching. While many forms, genres, and ethnicities still need to be represented in this platform, it usually pays off that more groups and individuals are now involved than an elite group with influence or resources.
Reference
Adorno, Theodor. 1962. Introduction to the Sociology of Music. Seabury Press.
Brown, Katherine. “Reading Indian Music: The Interpretation of Seventeenth-Century European Travel-Writing in the (Re)construction of Indian Music History.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2000), pp. 1-34.
Jairazbhoy, Nazir. 1993. “India.” In Helen Myers (ed) Ethnomusicology: Historical and regional studies, pp 274-93, Macmillan.
Miller, Terry and Jarernchai Chonpairot. 1994. “A history of Siamese music reconstructed from Western documents, 1505-1932.” Crossroads 8, 2, pp 1-192.
Ramnarine, Tina Karina. 1996. “Indian” Music in the Diaspora: Case Studies of “Chutney” in Trinidad and in London.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 5, pp. 133-153.
Turley, Alan. 2001. “Max Weber and the Sociology of Music.” Sociological Forum, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 633-653.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.