5 44 A m e r i c a n A nthropologist [67, 19651

Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology. BRUNONETTL.New York: The Free Press of

Glencoe (Macmillan), 1964. xiii, 306 pp., appendix, chapter bibliographies, index,
19 figures. $5.50.
Reviewed by WILLARDRHODES,Columbia University
During the past 80 years ethnomusicology, variously known as vergleichende
Musikwissenschaft, ethnographie musicale, and coniparative musicology, has been
studying the musics of non-literate and folk cultures, and the cultivated music of the
high cultures of Asia and north Africa, cultural material and phenomena that have
been neglected by both historical musicologists and anthropologists. The number of
scholars dedicated to the discipline is relatively small, but the value and volume of
their work constitute a major contribution toward the understanding of the musics of
the worlds peoples and the significant role that music plays in their cultures. Though
most of the published work in this field is in the form of articles and monographs, there
has developed an impressive body of theory and methodology. In reviewing and col-
lating this material Nettl has performed a service to ethnomusicology. The book will
not only fill a long-felt need for a basic text in ethnomusicology but will also serve as a
handbook to scholars and students in related disciplines such as anthropology, folklore,
sociology, linguistics, psychology, and musicology who wish to inform themselves of
the purposes, methods, and theories of ethnomusicology.
After reviewing various approaches to ethnomusicology, Nettl summarizes the
consensus in stating that ethnomusicology is, in fact as well as in theory, the field
which pursues knowledge of the worlds music, with emphasis on that music outside
the researchers own culture, from a descriptive and comparative viewpoint. This
statement is later amplified when he writes of the study of music in culture with the
points of view and methods of anthropology and an interest in all aspects of musical
life, in all cultures, individually and in groups. Three important trends in American
ethnomusicology have developed since the early 1950s: 1) the concept of bi-musicality
whereby the scholar achieves a certain degree of proficiency in the performance of the
music being studied as a means of understanding the musical thinking and behavior
in the culture; 2) an increasing interest in and concern with contemporary music as
evidence of the processes of culture change; 3) the investigation of musical culture
based on the role of music and the individuals musical activity rather than the analy-
sis and description of musical style.
Chapters entitled Bibliographical Resources, Field Work, Transcription,
Description of Musical Compositions, The Nature and Description of Style,
Some Theories and Methods, and Instruments take the reader into the ethno-
musicologists laboratory and explain his techniques and methods. Among the many
practical suggestions that Nettl makes is the application of the theory and techniques
of linguistics to differentiate between the significant and incidental in music. However,
he refutes the theory that the origin of musical styles can be traced through language
relationships on the ground that musical styles seem to cross language barriers and are
more subject to change and disappearance than basic language relationships. The use
of electronic devices such as the melograph and the computer in the transcription and
analysis of music is discussed with a warning that description of the individual ele-
ments of music, without a consideration of the interrelationships and points of correla-
tion among them, could give a misleading total impression.
Anthropologists will find the final chapters, Music in Culture-Historical and Geo-
graphic Approaches, and Music in Culture-Context and Communication, pertinent
 Book Zevzews 545
to their studies of culture. Nettl notes the corroborative value of ethnaniusicological
findings to the cultural anthropologist, but he admits that decisions about musicd
change, its causes and direction, cannot be made on the basis of strictly musical iri-
formation. He is critical of Marius Schneiders theories which attempt to explain the
style of music on the basis of racial background and physical inheritance. Studies an
the geographical distribution of musical instruments he finds more rewarding than
similar studies on music because music is a complex that cannot be broken down into
easily circumscribed components.
The statement that the Peyote style presumably moved from the Apache and
Navaho to the Plains Indians (p. 234) needs correction. The Navaho have only re-
cently acquired the cult and did not share with the Lipan and Mescalero in passing the
cult with its music on to the Comanche and other Plains tribes.
The book is much more than an up-to-date account of ethnomusicological theory
and method, for in admitting that the discipline has only begun to scratch the surface
of its possibilities, Nettl poses many questions and problems that challenge investiga-
tion. I n conclusion he claims that ethnomusicology has begun to show that music the
world over is more than artifact, but that it is-even in the simplest cultures-an
essential part of human life.

Musicology. FRANK LL. HARRISON, MANTLEHOOD,and CLAUDEV. PALISCA. (The

Princeton Studies, Humanistic Scholarship in America.) Englewood Cliffs: Pren-
tice-Hall, 1963. xxi, 337 pp., 10 figures, index, 2 plates. $8.95.
Reviewed by DARIUSL. THIEME,
The Library of Congress
Musicology is part of a series devoted to a critical account of American humanistic
scholarship in recent decades, commissioned by the Council of the Humanities, under
a Ford Foundation grant. Other volumes will present to the reader a discussion of such
broad fields as Anthropology, Art and Archeology, the Classics, History, Linguistics,
Philosophy, and Religion.
I n the present volume, the musicological pie is neatly divided into thirds: Harrison
presents the background, Palisca concentrates on American contributions to musi-
cology, and Hood covers the field of ethnomusicology. T o a certain extent, Harrison
views his topic, American Musicology and the European Tradition, from a British
viewpoint. His introductory chapter briefly describes the current aims of the discipline.
He then proceeds, tracing the study of music history and musical theory in Europe,
roughly from Boethius through the Renaissance and up to the 19th century. He also
views the educational position of the field in Europe through history (up to the early
20th century), including its decline and subsequent reacceptance as a recognized
scientific discipline. He concludes by briefly summarizing the place of the American
musicologist in the musical life of his society.
Palisca takes over from there, and discusses American Scholarship in Western
Music, relating how we looked towards Europe for our early inspiration. Many of our
leading professors of this century came from the war-torn Europe of the 30s and ~ O S ,
and numerous others received their training and preparation or conducted their basic
research there. This essentially European-based system has since been shaped and
formed into a reasonably square peg, to take its proper place in the American univer-
sitys educational program. American musicology has achieved a definite character
and personality of its own, and its scope of interests, accomplishments, prospects and
problems are outlined succinctly by the author.