Diamond Chapter 2 summary

In Chapter 2 "Music and Historical Encounter: Inuit Communities" Diamond discusses Inuit communities and how Inuits of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland use drum dances, and music in games as forms of traditional knowledge.  First Diamond goes into detail about traditional drum dances and how these dances are used to tell storie, usually filled with emotions, to the listener.  For example, the psiit of a women "often relate to their children, expressing love and also concern about their well-being" (Diamond 43).  Music also plays an important role in giving meaning to the places where the Inuits live.  Thus games often utilize music because of the close proximity in which Inuit people lived.  For example, throat singing evolved into a popular game, particularly among women. Diamond extensively discusses throat singing and how it became so popular among Inuit populations that it has also become modernized.
Throughout this chapter, there are two important things to take note of.  First, just because one Inuit tribe has one meaning for a song, another Inuit tribe could have an alternate meaning behind the song.  Therefore, as ethnomusicologists, it is crucial not to make the generalization that all Inuit styles of music are the same.  Diamond notes that throat singing varies as you move from place to place through the Inuit's history.  Also, the issue of authenticity arises when discussing the modernity of inuit music, in particular throat singing. Diamond discusses how some modernized solo artists are incorporating "authentic" inuit music in their work.  The question remains as to where the line of authenticity is drawn.  Are the bits and pieces of throat singing in Tanya Tagak Gillis's music authentic, or have they lost their authenticity? Authenticity means genuineness; altered renditions of throat singing thus is no longer genuine because it has been tampered with, thus her music lost its authenticity.

Dvorack Summary

In "Antonin Dvorak and the Development of National Music," Dvorak fully believes that the roots of the american national identity is centered on the music of Native American and African Americans.  He then uses the Native American/African American music to compose his new music, and allow for performances that will sounds like Native American and African American folk music.  He also firmly believes that everyone in American can identity with these two styles of music.  He argues that where he comes from, in England, there is no true English school of music because English composers always failed to take into consideration Scottish, Welsh and Irish music when forming a distinctly English School of music.  Therefore, he wanted to ensure that the same thing would never occur within America.  He also argued that the plantation songs were the most distinct and sought after musical tunes in the New World, thus leading to his belief that Native American and African American music were the foundation of the American school of music. However, I agree with his critic, Amy Beach.  America is far too diverse for any one type of music to be representative of such a vast majority of people.  Also, she makes a particularly interesting point: "The Africans are no more native that the Italians, Swedes or Russians."  She denies that African American, as well as Native American music in particular cannot be representative of an entire diverse population that was  continuously growing.

As ethnomusicologists, we must remind ourselves that there are multiple ways for people to express themselves and their patriotic identity.  When studying Native American music in particular, we must keep in mind that there are multiple different cultures under the umbrella of Native American music.  What may be representative of one tribe, might have little to no meaning in another tribe.  Thus ethnomusicologists must remind ourselves of this when researching distinct groups of people.

Titon and Nettle Summary

Titon's "Knowing Fieldwork" discusses what ethnomusicology is and goes into detail about the difference between knowing and understanding how research and field work is a key component in that difference.  Titon talks about how ethnomusicology is not a necessarily a scientific study of a culture's music; if it was strictly scientific the researcher would just want facts about the music to simply know about the music.  Therefore, transcriptions were the key piece and often the only sought after piece of research because it helped other to know the music.  However today ethnomusicologists go above and beyond knowing and try to understand the people and the culture behind the music. On this note, during their research, ethnomusicologists' field work is comprised of experiences and observations that involve interaction with a culture and people.  This method of research and type of fieldwork can be applied to our study of Native American music.  Transcriptions do not allow us to see the larger, over reaching picture behind the music.  In order for us to reach a better understanding of the music, we must draw upon interviews, observations and other forms of interaction with Native American people and culture that go along with our recordings and possible transcriptions.
Similarly, in Nettle's "Come Back and See Me Next Tuesday: The Essence of Field Work," Nettle expands on the issue of ethnomusicology fieldwork that was laid out in Titon's article.  He discusses aspects of culture that ethnomusicologists should attempt to collect and he talks about the methods and approaches to field work that ethnomusicologists should take when starting field work.  He mentions how field work methodology is typically individualized as there is no universal methodology.  There are five general stages of field work: collecting, preserving, being the observer, being the participant,  and making a specialized contribution.  These stages evolve as your relationship with the people evolves.  There is a major issue of outsider v. insider that arises when beginning field work, so it is important to develop a relationship with informants or consultants or teachers because field work is primarily interactive.

Curtis, Densmore, McAllester vs. Diamond

There is a notable difference in the Curtis, Densmore, McAllester and Diamond articles in regard to how they approach the study of Native American music and culture.  In Curtis's, The Indians Book, Curtis approaches Native American music as uncivilized, and in a way looks down upon Native American music as foreign and lowly in comparison to white man's more civilized music.  He approaches the topic in a "respectful manner," however in today's academic society it would not be considered respectful; he refers to Native Americans as the"red man" and non-Native Americans as "the white men friend."  He holds traditional western civilization in high regard, as if it is better than the Native American way of life.  In terms of his informants, he takes into consideration what they have to offer about Native American Music, yet he tries to understand Native American music from his strictly western perspective, for example, he attempts to transcribe the music into standard staff notation, and disregards songs that he cannot transcribe.  Similarly, Densmore has a similar relationship with Native American music. Densmore also analyzes Native American music using his western music education.  He transcribes songs and then analyzes them using traditional scales and musical notation.  Both authors fail to set aside their western and white supremacy perspectives, thus disallowing them from truly comprehending Native American music from the Native American perspective. In the McAllester article, "An Apache Fiddle" McAllester approaches Native Americans and their culture with much more respect and dignity than Curtis and Densmore  He has a greater sense of respect for his informants, and he is better able to set aside his western music understanding to delve into Native American culture to better understand how the Apache fiddle is made and the significance of the fiddle and its sound.  However, there is still some bias toward the Native American way of life in McAllester's article.  In Diamond's book on the other hand, Diamond approaches Native American culture with little to no bias.  Also, Diamond recognizes that staff notation is useful when it comes to analyzing Native American music, however, Diamond also recognizes that there are multiple approaches that lead to a better understanding of Native American music.  Also, Diamond places a great amount of emphasis on the necessity of putting aside stereotypes and bias and instead focusing on the cultural background behind the making of Native American music.

Diamond Chapter 1 Summary

In Chapter 1, "Traditions of Knowledge: Indigenous Knowledge and the Western Music School," Diamond discusses how there are three main themes that are incorporated throughout the book. Diamond explains that traditional indigenous knowledge (TIK), encounter, and indigenous modernity must be utilized when learning about Native American music because Native American music is different from the traditional western view of music.  In order to learn and understand Native American music, it is key that outsiders understand the traditional indigenous knowledge that is connected with a given song or dance, and we must also take into consideration observations and values of the people on a local level and to avoid generalizing because Native American music is culturally diverse.  Thus it is also crucial to be aware of the inter-relationships that the music has to the place and the environment.  Once we are able to incorporate these three main themes in our studies of Native American music, we can begin to learn and understand the diversity among Native American people in North America.