Sustainable futures for music culturesTowards an ecology of musical diversity

Professor Huib SchippersQueensland Conservatorium Research CentreGriffith University. h.schippers@griffith.edu.au

Defining the challenge

Over the history of music, styles and genres have always appeared and disappeared. This is part of a natural cycle of change and renewal

Over the past decades however, the speed of change has accelerated enormously. Through forces that are often summarised under ‘globalisation’, musics are ‘being disappeared’

Tony Seeger, UCLA

It’s not really an even playing field: it’s not as though these are just disappearing, they’re ‘being disappeared’; there’s an active process in the disappearance of many traditions around the world. Some of them are being disappeared by majority groups that want to eliminate the differences of their minority groups within their nations, others are being disappeared by missionaries or religious groups of various kinds who find music offensive and want to eliminate it. Others are being disappeared by copyright legislation . . . (Mar 2008)

Key concepts

Additional reasons for the decline of many musics cited by various musicians and scholars include: Technological developmentsInfrastructural challengesSocio-economic changeFailing educational systemsLack of media attention

Surface and underlying challenges

While musicians and other stakeholders will often complain of a lack of audiences (or dwindling, aging ones) or a lack of funding, these may be symptoms rather than the problem itself

When a music culture is in danger of disappearing, the underlying problem is often a lack of connection to its community (or communities), which is often linked to a lack of prestige

Safeguarding initiatives

Over the past decades, numerous initiatives have provided support for specific music culturesSingle events or festivals to highlight the musicIndustry or education projects running for a number of years to develop trade or teachingDocumentation of traditions in danger of disappearing, often in traditional contexts

Limitations of such initiatives

Valuable as they are, these efforts do not always provide sufficient basis for the actual survival of musical styles as part of an unbroken, living tradition, which many will argue is a key condition for maintaining the essence (explicit and tacit, tangible and intangible) of specific styles and genres. The effect is either short-term or too limited to truly support sustainability

Embracing contemporary realities

There is a need for musical styles to be examined in close collaboration with the communities themselves; not only for their histories and ‘authentic’ practices, but also for: dynamics and potential for recontextualisation new musical realities changing values and attitudes political and market forces

Five domains of music cultures in contemporary contexts

There are five major domains that influence or even determine the sustainability of musics:How music is learned (enculturation)The interaction between musicians/communitiesContexts and constructs (values & attitudes)Infrastructure & regulations (inc. taxes and laws)The role and potential of the music industry

Applying the domains

This framework, which does not contain value judgements, can elucidate the status of music cultures as influenced by a single factor

For instance, while western opera seems to have almost insurmountable challenges in each of the domains (in terms of its needs in funding, skills and support), it survives on its very successful campaign to maintain the highest prestige

The ARC Linkage project

Based on these ideas, QCRC developed a five-year, 5 million dollar project involving ten partners in Australia and overseas, including the International Music Council (founded by UNESCO in 1949)

The aim of this project is to deliver instruments to empower communities around the world to forge musical futures on their own terms

The approach

Nine in-depth case studies of music cultures across the range from ‘in urgent need of safeguarding’ to ‘highly successful’ will lead to a profound insight into the mechanisms of musical survival and the ecology of musical diversity

While the research teams will be acting largely independently, they will be guided by a manual built around some 250 questions/subquestions

Position in the discipline

The project would be placed in the realm of ‘applied’ or ‘engaged’ ethnomusicology, which has abandoned the illusion of the objective observer and feels the responsibility to ‘give back’ to the communities with which one works

Methodologically, it ironically returns to some aspects of ‘comparative musicology’, the discarded predecessor of ethnomusicology

Deductive approach

Professor Ricardo Trimillos of University of Hawai’i commends the innovative ‘deductive approach’ of the project, based on five predetermined “categories of information that we want to look at for each particular case, as opposed to so much of ethnomusicological study which goes to a culture and does it inductively” (Mar 2008)

Beyond romantisation

Professor Deborah Wong, President of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), expressed appreciation for the fact that unlike many others, the project “is not romanticised. It’s so easy to talk about musics that are in danger of disappearing.” She commends the fact it acknowledges contemporary realities: “This is looking at ‘musicking’ as something that is already mediatised, already globalised” (Nov 07)

Systematic study

Tony Seeger sees great benefit in conducting “a systematic study of musical traditions to see how they are

sustained and what makes the successful ones successful, and how the other ones are being affected by some of these causes of ‘disappearing’ that I was referring to—and also how they’re being affected simply by changes in musical taste musical interest that have nothing to do with oppression or power.

I think if we understood those better … communities would probably be able to better defend the things that they think need to be defended and preserved, and safeguard those traditions they think they’d like to safeguard, and change the ones they want to change” (Mar 2008)

Outcomes

The project is expected to lead to a variety of outputs and outcomes;A substantial report on the mechanisms of survival of nine very distinct music traditionsHeightened awareness of the value of musical diversity as part of the cultural ecologyA practical print and online manual to support music cultures in intelligent forward planning

Empowering communities

While work on the ground with the various communities will be crucial, there is even greater benefit in a template supporting sustainable futures which allows stakeholders to make in-depth analyses of their specific situation, and making available key experiences of others in similar circumstances. This will take the form of a copyright-free online resource and manual