Music in American Culture

Abstract

IT SEEMS safe to say that anthropologists have paid virtually no attention to music in American culture. Partly this is because anthropologists traditionally have concentrated their efforts on the of nonliterate peoples and cultures, and partly it stems from a rather general disregard of the humanistic aspects of culture which all too frequently, and unfortunately, characterizes the study of man. Partly, too, it is in the nature of musical studies themselves, which require a double specialization for fullest resultscompetence is needed in both anthropology and music, a combination not frequently found. At the same time, the double specialization need not be a block to significant research, as a perusal of some of the articles cited here will indicate. It does not take special musical training to investigate the status of a musician in his society, the relationship of music to other aspects of culture, or the dynamics in the spread of a particular kind of music. Indeed, the research carried out by an ethnomusicologist in the field is centered about purely anthropological problems stated in terms of a particular aspect of culture. In this respect the ethnomusicologist cannot be separated from the anthropologist on any but a conceptual plane-technical analysis simply requires special skills no more abstruse than those used in studying the structure of society. It seems reasonably clear, then, that the of music in American culture has not been neglected because of the lack of specialized skills but because of a lack of specific interest. For discussion purposes, four major musical streams may be considered here: academic music, most often discussed under the misleading term classical; folk music of white communities; popular music, as distinctly differentiated from jazz and including hit tunes of the day; and Negro music, which should perhaps be subdivided to distinguish jazz from other forms of musical expression. There are not many who would insist that academic music has contributed a distinctively American art form to the world. The music of Charles Ives or Aaron Copland has a distinctive touch, but in last analysis the form and the concept are European derived even though they may have been extended somewhat. The same is generally true of the folk music of white communities; this may show specific ethnic characteristics as represented by Polish people singing Polish songs, for example, or the song texts may represent specifically American situations and concepts as in songs of the Civil War or perhaps cowboy songs of the west. But again, the music itself, the idea, the cultural tradition it represents is not significantly different from the European patterns from which it derives. This further applies to American popular song in terms of musical structure, although again in text material a mode of expression perhaps typically American has emerged.