Local Music

Local  Music     Although  not  specifically  employed  as  a  term  in  the  past,  “local  music“  is  a  concept,   which  has  been  always  tightly  linked  to  ethnomusicology.  It  has  been  constantly   changing  and  adapting  its  character  according  to  the  discipline’s  predominant   discourses.  The  long  prevailing  idea  of  local  music  as  a  static  unit  tied  to  a  geographical   place  has  thus  been  transforming  into  a  flexible  construct  related  to  space,  communities   and  identity  within  the  last  years.     Local  Music:  The  History  of  a  Highly  Flexible  Concept     Within  “Comparative  Musicology”  (ca.  1885-­‐1950)  the  concept  of  local  music,  although   not  mentioned  as  a  term,  was  directly  linked  to  nations,  countries,  and  territories.   Strongly  tied  to  the  concept  of  “place  as  a  static  entity”,  it  was  defined  strictly   geographically  as  being  representative  of  one  homogenous  ethnic  culture  per  area  with   an  immutable  tradition.  Besides  folk  music,  Comparative  Musicologists  like  Carl  Stumpf,   Erich  von  Hornbostel,  and  Curt  Sachs  were  interested  in  music  of  the  so-­‐called   “primitive  people“,  thus  especially  in  music  outside  Europe,  which  they  could  look  at  as   the  “exotic  other”  and  compare  it  to  their  own  culture.  Strongly  deviating  from  present   concepts  of  local  music,  this  point  of  view  is  labeled  as  “naïve  localism”  by  modern   scholars  like  Richard  K.  Wolf.       The  idea  of  music  being  directly  related  to  a  geographical  setting  has  proved  especially   important  in  nationalist  movements,  which  emerged  during  the  Romantic  period,  but   has  also  been  playing  an  important  role  in  many  Eastern  European  countries  during   communism  and  in  the  post-­‐communist  period.  Supported  by  their  local  and  national   governments  and  state-­‐sponsored  musicologists,  many  countries,  such  as  Scotland  or   Bulgaria  have  claimed  to  have  their  own  folk  music  and  dance  which  distinguishes  them   from  the  other  nations.  Occasionally,  local  music  styles  were  even  invented  to  serve  this   purpose.     The  territorial  concept  of  “local  music“  remained  largely  unchallenged  until  the  1950s,   when  “Ethnomusicology“  started  to  replace  “Comparative  Musicology“  eventually.  In   this  newly  defined  discipline,  the  notion  of  comparison  lost  its  legitimization,  and  other   concepts,  such  as  “acculturation”  became  important.  Thus,  Jaap  Kunst  broadens  his   definition  of  ethnomusicology  to  non-­‐Western  art  music,  as  well  as  to  social  aspects  of   music,  such  as  musical  acculturation  as  “the  hybridizing  influence  of  alien  musical   elements”  on  the  other  (Kunst,  1959:  1).  This  extended  perspective  of  “local  music“  to   “music  in/as  culture”  was  likewise  employed  and  further  developed  by  scholars,  such  as   Alan  P.  Merriam.  From  the  1950s  on,  this  tendency  of  cultural  hybridization  has   increased  as  a  parallel  development  to  the  ever-­‐growing  mobility.     While  studies  on  world  music,  globalization  and  hybridity  have  dominated  great  parts  of   ethnomusicology  since  the  1990s,  “local  music“  has  often  been  considered  the  less   important  counterpart  of  the  global/local  dichotomy.  The  notion  of  place,  where  the   former  concept  of  “local  music“  was  rooted,  started  to  change  considerably.  On  the  one   hand,  areas  termed  “new  traditionalism“,  “neo-­‐nationalism“,  “new  regionalism“  and   “music  revival“  by  scholars  like  Philip  V.  Bohlman  have  been  emerging.  These  areas  are   closely  tied  to  political  interests,  often  of  ethnic  or  other  minorities,  to  emphasize  the   importance  of  their  communities  and  to  strengthen  their  identity.  However,  as  the  

examples  of  Celtic  music  or  Klezmer  illustrate,  these  communities  are  not  necessarily   bound  to  a  defined  physical  place.  On  the  other  hand,  “local  music”  denotes  the  area  of   the  “translocal“,  which  is  deeply  rooted  in  postmodern  thought.  Here,  the  former   boundaries  become  permeable  and  blurred,  and  various  musical  styles  are  mixed  up   with  other  ones.  However,  this  hybridization  can  likewise  create  new  music  styles,   which  might  become  important  for  a  specific  place  or  community,  such  as  “new  folk   music“,  and  therefore  establish  a  new  kind  of  “local  music“.     Other  recent  studies  dealing  with  “local  music“  carefully  aimed  at  separating  this  term   from  nationalism  and  new  traditionalism,  therefore  connecting  “local  music“  to  any  kind   of  real  or  virtual  identities  of  various  micro-­‐communities.  This  new  approach  on  “local   music“  is  taken  by  Richard  K.  Wolf.  In  Theorizing  the  Local,  Wolf  sets  the  concept  of   “local  music“  against  various  global  and  translocal  processes.  Accordingly,  the  local  can   be  any  place  where  music  is  played,  performed,  talked  about  or  where  musical   instruction  happens,  such  as  a  music  venue,  an  event,  a  music  school,  or  an  instrument.   In  Ethnicity,  Identity  and  Music,  Martin  Stokes  discusses  further  parameters  of  “local   music”  such  as  ethnicity,  class,  gender  and  the  media,  which  again  are  spaces  not   directly  connected  to  a  geographical  place.  Other  recent  studies,  such  as  Music  Scenes:   Local,  Translocal,  and  Virtual  edited  by  Andy  Bennett  and  Richard  A.  Peterson,  have   extended  “local  music“  to  virtual  spaces,  and  have  therefore  replaced  the  former   definition  of  the  local  as  place  with  the  local  as  space  and  community.  Here,  “local  music”   is  defined  as  “a  focused  social  activity  that  takes  place  in  a  delimited  space  and  over  a   specific  span  of  time  in  which  clusters  of  producers,  musicians,  and  fans  realize  their   common  musical  taste,  collectively  distinguishing  themselves  from  others  by  using   music  and  cultural  signs  often  appropriated  from  other  places,  but  recombined  and   developed  in  ways  that  come  to  represent  the  local  scene.“  (p.  8).     Constructing  the  Local     Given  the  history  and  the  versatility  of  the  term  “local  music”,  which  always  entirely   depends  on  the  context,  the  following  variety  of  categories  seem  particularly  evident:     a)  Historic  local  music   This  category  comprises  musical  traditions,  which  are  historically  documented  and  tied   to  a  specific  region.  This  type  of  local  music,  uninfluenced  by  other  music  styles,  was   regarded  the  ultimate  perfection  by  folklorists  and  literature  scholars  like  Frances  James   Child  or  Ludvig  Mathias  Lindeman  during  the  19th  and  early  20th  century.  It  remains   questionable  whether  such  “uncontaminated”  or  unchanged  music  ever  existed,  since   music,  especially  in  oral  tradition,  never  remains  static.  However,  there  are  local  music   traditions  which  seem  to  go  indeed  back  some  hundred  years,  such  as  Sami  Joik,  which   was  evidenced  in  context  with  shamanism  in  the  17th  century.     b)  Revalorization  and  revival  of  local  music   Revalorization  and  revivals  of  local  music  are  developments  of  the  20th  century.  They   are  usually  divided  in  the  following  three  stages:  In  the  early  1900s,  folklorists  like  Cecil   Sharp  or  Béla  Bartók  aimed  at  collecting,  transcribing,  and  documenting  music  from  the   rural  population,  which  they  regarded  as  pure  and  historically  authentic.  In  the  1960s,   folk  music  revivals  were  generally  marked  by  the  creative  handling  of  traditional   material,  as  evident  with  nationally  sponsored  state  ensembles,  such  as  the  Bulgarian   Filip  Kutev  Ensemble.  On  the  other  hand,  American  folk  singers  like  Bob  Dylan  or  Joan  

Baez  started  to  create  new  contemporary  folk  material  based  on  traditional  music.  From   the  1980s,  the  procedure  of  mixing  local  music  material  with  contemporary  global   music,  jazz,  or  pop-­‐rock  music  influences  took  place.  Interpretation  of  local  music  for  an   urban  audience  and  the  world  music  market  gained  importance,  and  this  development  is   since  regarded  as  the  third  folk  music  revival.     c)  New  local  music   Characteristic  of  the  21st  century,  new  local  music  is  closely  related  to  modern   globalization  with  its  migration  processes.  Communities  of  second  or  third  generation   immigrants  in  large  cosmopolitan  cities  create  new  types  of  music,  in  which  they   express  their  multinational  identity,  as  apparent  with  Asian  Underground  in  London.     d)  Displaced  local  music   Another  notion  closely  tied  to  emigration  is  displacement.  An  example  of  displaced  local   music  is  Talava,  a  music  style  originally  based  in  Kosovo,  where  it  developed  within  the   Albanian  speaking  Roma  community  Aškalije  in  the  1990s.  During  the  ethnic  cleansing   in  Kosovo  in  1999,  most  Aškalije  fled  to  the  neighbouring  Republic  of  Macedonia,   settling  in  Shutka,  the  Rom  town  just  outside  Skopje.  While  Talava  is  basically  extinct  in   Kosovo,  it  has  developed  considerably  in  Macedonia  and  can  now  be  encountered  at   every  major  festivity  in  Macedonia  and  increasingly  in  Albania  as  well.     Lea  Hagmann,  Britta  Sweers   University  of  Bern     See  Also:  Acculturation,  Ethnomusicology:  History,  Revival,  Folk  Music,  Folklore     Further  Readings   Bennett,  Andy  and  Richard  A.  Peterson,  Eds.  Music  Scenes:  Local,  Translocal,  and  Virtual.   Nashville:  Vanderbilt  University  Press,  2004.     Biddle,  Ian  and  Vanessa  Knights.  Music,  National  Identity  and  the  Politics  of  Location.   Between  the  Global  and  the  Local.  Bodmin:  Ashgate  Publishing  Company,  2007.     Bohlman,  Philip  V.  The  Music  of  European  Nationalism.  Cultural  Identity  and  Modern   History.  Santa  Barbara:  ABC-­‐CLIO  world  music  series,  2004.     Kunst,  Jaap.  Ethnomusicology,  3rd  ed.  The  Hague:  Martinus  Nijhoff,  1959.     Stokes,  Martin.  Ethnicity,  Identity  and  Music.  The  Musical  Construction  of  Place.  Oxford   and  Providence:  Berg  Ethnic  Identities  Series,1994.     Wolf,  Richard  K.,  Ed.  Theorizing  the  Local.  Music,  Practice,  and  Experience  in  South  Asia   and  Beyond.  Oxford  and  New  York:  Oxford  University  Press,  2009.