The "Objective" and Subjective View in Music Transcription

Abstract

L thnomusicology could never have grown into an independent science if the gramophone had not been invented (Kunst 1959:12). Prior to the invention of the phonograph, scholars of non-Western music were obliged to transcribe music by ear in the field; the resulting notations, however well-intended, usually fell short in every respect-i.e., both rhythmically and as regards pitch (ibid.). Early scholars often transcribed music during festivals and rites through all the accompanying confusion and without the benefit of repeats.1 The many difficulties encountered in the transcription of unknown traditional musics, and the fact that conventional methods of transcription failed to convey the style and manner of music performance, led some to attempt to learn the songs and to use their own renditions as illustrations of the exotic music traditions-sometimes with very strange results. Nettl (1964:100) refers to the apocryphal story of the anthropologist who learned an Australian aboriginal song and practiced it on the long voyage back to Europe, making such changes in it (presumably unconsciously) that it was transformed into a German folk song. In addition to providing a check on field transcriptions, the phonograph obviously added new dimensions to ethnomusicological studies. Kunst (op. cit.) draws attention to one of these dimensions, musical style, which could now begin to be investigated in comparative terms. The early cylinder, disc, and film2 recorders naturally suffered from poor fidelity and often from the perishable nature of the raw stock, which could not stand the strain of many repeats. Transcribing from these early recording devices can hardly have been an easy task. With the invention of magnetic wire and tape recorders, the discipline of ethnomusicology received a further stimulus in the 1950s. These machines were compact, light, portable, and many were even within the financial reach of casual tourists, with the result that the music of many previously unknown traditions became available in the West. For the transcriber, the advantages of tape over disc or cylinder are too obvious to need enumeration. However, while tape recorders have continued to improve in every respect and significant collections of recorded materials are in existence, there has been no major breakthrough during the past twenty years as far as the transcriber is concerned.