5 - Theoretical Assumptions

Cambridge Books Online
http://ebooks.cambridge.org/
African Polyphony and Polyrhythm
Musical Structure and Methodology
Simha Arom, Translated by Martin Thom, Barbara Tuckett, Raymond Boyd, Foreword by Gyorgy Ligeti
Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511518317
Online ISBN: 9780511518317
Hardback ISBN: 9780521241601
Paperback ISBN: 9780521616010
Chapter
5 - Theoretical assumptions pp. 105-106
Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511518317.014
Cambridge University Press

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS 105
tion of the part played by drum 1, each has been recorded as performed when
mixed with the immediately preceding part).
- n - 1 mixed recordings.
Each drum part included in a mixed version is thus the same as the one recorded
separately. The requirements for coherent transcription are thereby satisfied.
In this way, we were able to conjoin a field method and a laboratory technique in a
single process, so that we could actually do laboratory work in the field. We would
thereby hope to escape, at least in this area, from the awkward situation pointed out by
Alan Merriam (1964: 38):
Despite the fact that ethnomusicology is both afieldand a laboratory discipline, and that its most
fruitful results must inevitably derive from the fusion of both kinds of analysis, there has been
both an artificial divorcing of the two and an emphasis on the laboratory phase of study.
In trying to restore field work to its rightful position, we encountered some of the
difficulties inherent to experimentation in the social sciences, but we also recovered the
invaluable advantage of being able to subject our results to immediate checking, as we
will see below.
Theoretical assumptions
At this point, we must set out the theoretical foundations of our method. We will first
have to state a postulate. Any polyphonic piece of music can be looked at as a complex
sound structure characterised by the superposition of a given number of coherently
related monodies. This leads us to the following assumption: insofar as a polyphonic
piece is based on a coherent structuring of all its parts, each of these parts must be
coherent in itself. If this is true, each part should be playable separately, i.e., have its
own individual existence in sound, just as it exists in the mind of the person who per-
forms it. By this hypothesis, if we can isolate each part and determine the points at
which it fits together with the others (or at least one other), we may assume that we have
all the elements we need to reconstitute the polyphonic structure. For insofar as the rela-
tionships between parts, or between any part and the whole, are coherent, the number
of linkage points must be relatively small. The whole can thus be reconstructed, even
without the complete set. These interrelations are furthermore based on the principle
that all the musicians performing a polyphonic piece will start to play or sing their
parts, not simultaneously, but consecutively. This principle holds not only for tradi-
tional African music, but also for almost all known forms of orally transmitted poly-
phony. The only reference used by the individual musician will thus be the part of the
musician (or one of the musicians) who has already come in.
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106 BOOK III TECHNICAL TOOLS: METHODS OF RECORDING
The order of entry varies from one repertory to another. It may be fixed by tradition
or remain undetermined. This should be ascertained during a preliminary investigation.
If the former, it will be sufficient to make partial recordings in the proper order of entry.
The second musician comes in after the first, whose part will necessarily be his refer-
ence. The sole reference of the third musician, who comes in after the first two, can
then be the part of the second, and so forth. If the order of entry is not determined
by tradition, the problem is even simpler. The musicologist need only ask which
musician wants to start, and in what order the others will follow.
In practice, however, these theoretical principles are applied differently, according to
whether the music is strictly percussive with no assigned pitch, is played by wind instru-
ments using the hocket technique, or by instruments which are themselves polyphonic,
or is vocal polyphony. We will return later to this point.
Experimental working conditions must, however, also be recognised as involving
certain difficulties. First of all, when traditional musicians are removed from their
normal performing situation, they tend to restrain their creative impulse and thus
show less of their sense of improvisation, which is one of the essential factors in orally
transmitted music. On the other hand, paradoxical as it may seem, the experimental
situation has the advantage of this very drawback. With less stimulation than in the
traditional performing situation, the musicians will improvise less, and stick more
closely to a 'basic pattern' with fewer variations, which will therefore be structurally
more fundamental. The structural models used by the musicians as references will thus
stand out more quickly and clearly. This point is of particular importance to the investi-
gator dealing with music which is not subjected by the musicians themselves to theoreti-
cal analysis or verbal formulation, for his job is precisely to discover the basic structures
whose realisations are the actual improvisations he hears performed. By being some-
what inhibitory, the experimental conditions actually turn out to be quite useful in
helping to reveal the invariant foundations underlying spontaneous musical expression,
i.e., in giving access to the models to which the musicians refer.
With the help of this experimental situation, a new dialogue is also set up between
the investigator, who can escape from his position as an outside observer of the material
he is studying, and the musicians, who are no longer relegated to the role of mere
informants with no part in the research activity. Rather, they now accede to the posi-
tion of scientific collaborators in conducting experimentation intended to obtain a
diachronic reconstitution of an intrinsically synchronic musical event, where they also
furnish an order of entry known to them alone (or at least only partially available to the
musicologist).
Needless to say, the investigator must be extremely careful in applying an experi-
mental method to the study of the musical heritage in an oral culture, and unfailingly
respect all aspects of the tradition. Supposing the required experimental conditions
obtain, the investigator then need only take proper precautions to make sure not to skip
any phases of the method. This is a mere technical problem, to which we now turn.

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Cambridge Books Online

African Polyphony and Polyrhythm

Musical Structure and Methodology

Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511518317

Online ISBN: 9780511518317

Hardback ISBN: 9780521241601

Paperback ISBN: 9780521616010

5 - Theoretical assumptions pp. 105-106

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511518317.014

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2009

Cambridge Books Online © Cambridge University Press, 2009

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