Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology

by Gregory F. Barz (Editor), Timothy J. Cooley (Editor)

Overview

Ethnomusicological fieldwork has significantly changed since the end of the the 20th century. Ethnomusicology is in a critical moment that requires new perspecitves on fieldwork - perspectives that are not addressed in the standard guides to ethnomusicological or anthropological method. The focus in ethnomusicological writing and teaching has traditionally centered around analyses and ethnographic representations of musical cultures, rather than on the personal world of understanding, experience, knowing, and doing fieldwork. Shadows in the Field deliberately shifts the focus of ethnomusicology and of ethnography in general from representation (text) to experience (fieldwork). The "new fieldwork" moves beyond mere data collection and has become a defining characteristic of ethnomusicology that engages the scholar in meaningful human contexts. In this new edition of Shadows in the Field, renowned ethnomusicologists explore the roles they themselves act out while performing fieldwork and pose significant questions for the field: What are the new directions in ethnomusicological fieldwork? Where does fieldwork of "the past" fit into these theories? And above all, what do we see when we acknowledge the shadows we cast in the field? The second edition of Shadows in the Field includes updates of all existing chapters, a new preface by Bruno Nettl, and seven new chapters addressing critical issues and concerns that have become increasingly relevant since the first edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199886708
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/09/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Timothy J. Cooley is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is the author of Making Music in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians. He serves as the editor of Ethnomusicology, the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and is the president of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Southern California Chapter. Gregory Barz is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbuilt University, and the general editor of the African Soundscapes book series. He serves as African Music editor for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and is the author of Singing for Life: HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda, which has been nominated for a Grammy Award and Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture.

Table of Contents

Foreword   Bruno Nettl     v
Contributors     xiii
Casting Shadows: Fieldwork Is Dead! Long Live Fieldwork! Introduction   Timothy J. Cooley   Gregory Barz     3
Knowing Fieldwork   Jeff Todd Titon     25
Toward a Mediation of Field Methods and Field Experience in Ethnomusicology   Timothy Rice     42
Phenomenology and the Ethnography of Popular Music: Ethnomusicology at the Juncture of Cultural Studies and Folklore   Harris M. Berger     62
Moving: From Performance to Performative Ethnography and Back Again   Deborah Wong     76
Virtual Fieldwork: Three Case Studies   Timothy J. Cooley   Katharine Meizel   Nasir Syed     90
Fieldwork at Home: European and Asian Perspectives   Jonathan P. J. Stock   Chou Chiener     108
Working with the Masters   James Kippen     125
The Ethnomusicologist, Ethnographic Method, and the Transmission of Tradition   Kay Kaufman Shelemay     141
Shadows in the Classroom: Encountering the Syrian Jewish Research Project Twenty Years Later   Judah M. Cohen     157
What's the Difference? Reflections on Gender and Research in Village India   Carol M. Babiracki     167
(Un)doing Fieldwork: Sharing Songs, Sharing Lives   Michelle Kisliuk     183
Confronting the Field(note) In and Out of the Field: Music, Voices, Texts, and Experiences in Dialogue   Gregory F. Barz     206
The Challenges of Human Relations in Ethnographic Inquiry: Examples from Arctic and Subarctic Fieldwork   Nicole Beaudry     224
Returning to the Ethnomusicological Past   Philip V. Bohlman     246
Theories Forged in the Crucible of Action: The Joys, Dangers, and Potentials of Advocacy and Fieldwork   Anthony Seeger     271
References     289
Index     313

Editorial Reviews

The authors of eleven papers engage the challenges facing present-day ethnomusicology by focusing on processes of fieldwork. The essays discuss the shift in emphasis from classification, description, and explanation of music structures toward attempts to understand music as culture<-->recognizing the different and equally valid worldviews held by different societies. They discuss how this shift necessitates new fieldwork theories, methodologies, and epistemologies. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"Shadows in the Field should be required reading in all such courses because the essays represent a sustained effort by ethnomusicologists to grapple with experimental and representational issues that are central to contemporary research and writing practices in the discipline....a welcome—and essential—addition to the ethnomusicology syllabus and bookshelf."—Ethnomusicology

"The essays in Shadows in the Field address one of the key facets of ethnomusicological research, providing a stimulating set of reflections on fieldwork as experienced in a number of different settings."—The World of Music

From the Publisher