Society for Ethnomusicology

Cartography and Ethnomusicology

Author(s): Paul Collaer and Alan P. Merriam
Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 2, No. 2 (May, 1958), pp. 66-68
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/924385
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 AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY*
CARTOGRAPHY
Paul Collaer

Ethnomusicology is concerned primarily with music in the

oral 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 to
several 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
66
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 only
of 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 maps
furnish information which is of considerable importance among
the 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 number
of 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 live
above 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 of
the plant are compared with those tracing minimum tempera-
ture curves or representing the composition of solar light for
the 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 of
hypotheses 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 pentatonism
and pre-pentatonism, of pentatonism and heptatonism, etc.
Such a map, compared with the areas of distribution of other
culture elements (hunting-gathering, pastoralists, agricui-

67
turalists, nomadic or sedentary people, etc.) should furnish
evidence 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. Where
is 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 proposed
the 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:ItsAims & 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 established
with 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--

68