The Use of the Computer in the Classification of Folk Tunes

Abstract

The invention of the phonograph, the later development of the magnetic tape recorder, and their use in the recording of folk music and the music of non-literate cultures have provided the ethnomusicologist and folklorist with a plethora of material - a corpus so immense both in cultural depth and geographic breadth despite recognized lacunae, that the scholar is confronted with serious problems in dealing adequately with this mass of data. Inasmuch as music is a living expression of the society which produces it and an integral part of the culture of that society, this bodyof material is constantly increasing and at an accelerating tempo, for it is in the tradition of folk music that the fluidity resulting from oral transmission allows the creativity of the folk musician to express itself not only in new and personal variants of traditional pieces but also in the invention of new ones, instrumental and/or vocal. All this material is grist to the mill of the scholar, for he must be as interested in the processes of change as in the stability of tradition. A piece of music, folk or so-called primitive is more than an art object. It is an expression of the thought, feeling, and musical behaviour of the folk that is voiced by its most articulate members, the folk antists, and as such claims the serious attention of the scholar. The ethnomusicologist's problem in working with an unwieldy mass of material that seems to increase in direct ratio with the increase of the world's population has its counterpart in other disciplines. The constantly accelerating accumulation of information and data in the fields of science and the humanities requires new methods and techniques if the scholar is to meet the challenge which this material presents. The problem is one of classifying and ordering data so that they become readily available for study. In the field of folk music and the music of non-literate cultures the systematic arrangement and classification of tunes is a matter of prime importance if the fullest use is to be made of this wealth of material from