The Fieldworker as Performer: Fieldwork Objectives and Social Roles in County Clare, Ireland

Abstract

M any years have passed since Mantle Hood formulated the concept of bi-musicality, the basic musicianship of a researcher with regard both to his own music culture and to a different music culture which is the subject of his investigations (Hood 1960:58; 1971:35). A growing number of ethnomusicologists have participated both musically and socially within the culture on which they concentrate. More recently, John Blacking has stressed the importance of musical performance as a research technique, while reporting some of his successful applications of this technique (1973:181). While other forms of social participant observation may be as fruitful as active musical performance by the fieldworker, and should support the latter technique, musical performance is emphasized in many ethnomusicological curricula as a most important research tool for fieldwork. When applied in the field, the use of this technique of musical performance forces both the researcher and the members of the culture under investigation to select an acceptable social role for the musically active ethnomusicologist. In every society a number of roles will be available, such as pupil, member of a particular ensemble, teacher, etc. If possible, the researcher should decide which role is the most profitable in terms of opportunities to collect useful data; he also must know which roles are open to him on the basis of his competence. Whether he will know this, depends on his preparation and on his policy in the field. The selection of a particular role may limit the researcher's access to specific information. Moreover, because of role expectations existing within a particular culture, the researcher's behavior may have consequences for the behavior of his informants. Such consequences are not always understood by the researcher as being results of his interference with the culture and its role structure. Of course such biases in collected data and subsequent analysis may result from any fieldwork technique. The sheer presence of an ethnomusicologist within a community will interfere with his informants' behavior. Yet since I consider musical par-