A Transcription Technique Used by Zygmunt Estreicher

Abstract

uring the course of extensive work transcribing Bororo vocal music and Ahearmiut Eskimo songs, Zygmunt Estreicher developed a personal technique which he has described in a report to the city of Neuchatel, Switzerland in his capacity as director of the musicology section of the Musee d'Ethnographie de Neuchatel.' The practical points which he emphasizes in this short work should be of considerable value to anyone faced with the demanding problem of analytically sorting and orally transcribing recorded materials from discs or from magnetic tapes. The report begins with the thought that there is no one universally applicable transcription procedure, and the style of the music to be transcribed, whether vocal or instrumental, monodic or polyphonic, will demand that the analyst find specific procedures which will take all the particular elements of that style into consideration. The crux of the problem is to grasp the maximum number of musical traits evidenced by the recordings, and to notate them with maximum exactitude and minimum subjective interpretation. The personality of the researcher will be affected by his previous musicological training and this in turn will affect his choice of emphasis on such materials as absolute pitch level, rhythm, vocal timbre, and so forth. Temperament and character will of course determine the amount of autocriticism and patience the analyst will bring to his task, and Estreicher feels the latter two qualities are important in the matter of verifying the accuracy of the details of a musical transcription. He cautions against overconfidence, in relying on first impressions and a good musical ear alone, and against too superficial a review or too rapid satisfaction with one's final score. A passage from the report seems apropos here, in translation: