Dimitrije
Buzarovski Musicology and Ethnomusicology in the Digital Era* |
Last year, in my presentation at The Struga
Music Autumn Conference, I was concerned
with the changes in the music culture and
particularly music art in the digital era. This
paper will deal with the influence of computer
technology in musicology and ethnomusicology,
thus corresponding to the main concern of this
session –
contemporary trends in musicology and
ethnomusicology. This presentation is mainly a
result of the everyday practical experience with
digital technology, and the replacement of human
activities with automatic actions of the new
machines. Last year I spoke about technology as
art, now I will speak about the theoretical
problem –
technology as a science. There
are three major issues concerning the
relationship computer technology –
musicology/ethnomusicology: –
theoretical ( humans vs. machines) –
methodological (speculative vs. empirical
methodology) –
stylistical (language, syntax, structure). We
have defined this relation by choosing two
theoretical disciplines (musicology and
ethnomusicology), although the problem equally
relates to all scientific disciplines. In our
case, we are observing an application of a
universal situation in the specific area of
musicology and ethnomusicology. Theoretical
issues We
have already pointed out that humans are more
and more replaced by computers in the scientific
and research activities. Thus, the central
theoretical question relating to the new
environment is: What
is the portion of human participation vs. the
portion of the technical tools in the final
scientific results and conclusions? Consequently
we
can ask: What
role will be played by humans compared
machines in future science? These
questions
place the problem in a meta-theoretical area. In
order to answer them, we will point out the
three different levels of the music phenomenon: –
acoustic level (real sound, observed
independently of our hearing) – perceptual
level (our registration of sound and
perceptional organisation in our consciousness) –
semantic level (our experience and the meaning
of the organised aural sensations). This
division
was developed in order to determine the
participation of the digital technology in the
different levels of the realisation of the
phenomenon. The
acoustic level of the phenomenon can be
exclusively registered by the technical means
for the recording and processing of sounds.
These means experience permanent improvement,
and any technical novelty is immediately applied
in the sound processing. Almost all hardware and
software for digital signal processing includes
some tool for sound analysis and a presentation
of its acoustical features. Consequently we can
conclude that the human participation at this
level is minimal, and limited to the selection
of the input signal and the reading of the
results. The
perceptual level of the phenomenon is elaborated
by different theoretical disciplines - music
theory, harmony, polyphony, musical forms etc.
including the applied disciplines, such as
psychology and sociology. Music graphic symbols
of contemporary western notation (notes, rests,
dynamics, articulations, harmonic symbols etc.)
are completely adjusted to our perceptual
characteristics. They relate to our perceptual
coding and correspond relatively to the real
acoustic status. For
instance, the group of sounds C1E1G1 designates
a triad in a certain tonality (conditinally
tonic in C major) in our perceptual organisation
of the acoustic stimulus. In an acoustic sense,
it is only a reduced form of a complex ratio of
frequencies and amplitudes. Following the same
acoustic approach - this group of sounds does
not build a relation to any other group of
sounds. The relation dominant-tonic is only a
function of our perceptual organisation and part
of the semantic level, which we will discuss
later. As
a result, human participation becomes crucial in
the determination of these characteristics of
the phenomenon. That's why, at this level, we
apply methodology which analyses the acoustic
material through our perceptual organisation and
understanding of the phenomenon. Thus, the
software used both for creation or analysis of
this level (for example - MIDI/score processors)
is built upon the perceptual categories
(intervals, duration and time signature, harmony
based on superposition of thirds, forte/piano
dynamics, legato/staccato articulation etc.).
The first attempts to launch expert systems
(software) for analysis of musical forms in the
mid 80s followed the same principles. We can
predict a complete automatisation of an
analysis at this level in the future. The
most intangible layer for machine analysis is
the semantic one. This is where the specific
connotation of the acoustic and perceptive
material is created. Semantic analysis of this
level requires a very complex approach due to
the large number of parameters. That is why the
conclusions mainly rely on and promote the
unique features of human intuition, again as a
part of human intelligence. The assumption that
we could never build analytical algorhythms i.e.
tools for this level, has only a theoretical
meaning. In
fact, the major technological problem at this
level is quantification. Existing computer
technology is based upon arithmetic operations.
In order to make the surveyed parameters
understandable for machine use, they must be
quantified. That is why the acoustic level was
the easiest one for machine analysis, as it only
contains numerical parameters. All three
categories: frequency, amplitude and time are
quantified at the moment of digitisation, and
thus ready for machine analysis. To
summarise: – the
analysis at the acoustic level is completely
machine-based, there is a tendency for full
computer analysis at the perceptual level, while
the semantic level is still inaccessible for
machine analysis –
there is a constant endeavour to replace human
with automatised machine activities – humans
determine: the aspects of the phenomenon which
will be researched, the technology for analysis
and processing of the data, the way of
digitisation or quantific and the retrieval and
reading of the results of machine analysis. –
we will need to redefine the relation between
humans and tools in scientific research –
we will need to redefine the rights, especially
when expert systems are in use –
we will need to redefine the concept of
scientific discovery . These
conclusions
relate to the entire area of scientific
research, and they are equally applicable to
musicology and ethnomusicology. Methodological
issues We
could approach the problem of general scientific
methodology at two levels: –
theoretical i.e. meta-theoretical and – practical
(the individual manifestations of the
phenomenon). This
corresponds
to the universally accepted principles, in which
for the first level we use the speculative,
rationalistic, or deductive method (as is in
fact, our approach in this paper), and for the
second level we use the empirical approach, or
induction. This division was established at the
beginning of the XVII century by the
rationalistic and empirical philosophical
schools. Our main concern is to determine the
level of changes which have happened meanwhile
(if there are any), especially with the
application of the new computer technology. The
meta-theoretical problems were reserved and no
doubt will continue to rely on the rationalistic
methodology, i.e. rational capacity of the
creative subject - humans. Humans still have a
comparative advantage over machines. As
far as the individual manifestation of the
phenomenon is concerned, the cyber era brought
substantial changes. Among the most important
and evident changes is the introduction of
storage of the research material, i.e. the data
about the phenomenon, in multimedia databases.
They represent the most economical coverage of a
large, in fact - enormous, quantity of different
types of parameters (audio, text, numeric,
graphics in still and movie pictures) . The
databases per se are not a novelty, and they
were a logical result of the collection
processes in the empirical approach. The
difference between the computer databases and
the previous ones, is the possibility of
extremely fast search and retrieval of different
categories of materials. The creation of
computer databases automatically enables the
performance of very complicated statistical
analyses, something unthinkable in the past.
These analyses are far beyond the capacity of
human calculations. The use of statistics, which
is now a prerequisite for any scientific work
with serious ambitions and stable methodology,
was totally unknown for music disciplines, until
recently. The progress brought by statistical
methodology in the analysis of nominal data,
(facing the previously-mentioned problem of
quantification) was especially important. In
general, there is an evident challenge for the
methodology applied in musicology and
ethnomusicology. They have to adjust to the
advantages of the new technology. Musicological
research with a descriptive approach, which
moves slowly from parameter to parameter, is
part of history. In order to enable statistical
analysis, every musicologist is obliged to
organise the research material in a database
with clearly defined fields and consequent
quantification. The statistical analysis is not
a guarantee for a scientific discovery, but is
definitely a prerequisite for any scientific
activity. Stylistical
issues The
participants in the cyber era predominantly
communicate in English. Although there is a
controversy concerning its pros and cons, the
use of a common language has facilitated global
communication, especially in the computer nets,
such as the Internet. The arguments against the
use of a common language are mainly based on the
loss of the subtle nuances of the local
languages. The
use of English has a direct influence on the
stylistical formation of the theoretical papers.
This influence can be observed at three levels: –
lexical, –
syntactical and –
structural. At
the lexical level we can observe a large number
of borrowed words and neologisms. Nevertheless,
the existing equivalents in the local languages
and the neologisms are less used, especially in
communication among computer specialists. The
syntactic level undergoes morpho-syntactical
changes (due to the use of compound words). The
constant use of English in Internet menus,
browsers, search engines, manuals etc., has
permanent pressure on the syntax of other
languages. The need for economisation imposes a
simplified syntax structure, a reduction of the
number of words and a loss of surface
realisation of predicates. The sentences may
consist only of nouns with very few indicators
pointing to their relations. The use of video
presentations with a lot of graphical elements,
tables, drawings, still and movie clips, has its
direct influence in the syntactic level of the
theoretical papers. The condensed presentation
of the thoughts in thesis is another example of
the loss of the use of verbs. The
stylistical changes are evident in the general
structure of the papers, which is becoming more
and more standardized for all theoretical
disciplines. The need for economisation results
in an increase of the use of graphs, tables,
numbers of the chapters, parts of the chapters
etc. The footnotes are omitted in accordance
with the principle - if there is something
important, it should be a regular part of the
text, not part of the additions. The
number of theoretical works in all scientific
areas is increasing constantly. In order to make
them accessable for reading (having in mind
human capacity), the sole solution is to reduce
their length. The quantity of theoretical works
which were offered to a scientist of the XIX
century cannot be compared to the quantity which
is emerging at the beginning of the XXI century.
The XIX century scientist could still read most
of the theoretical works during active life. The
XXI century scientist will be able to read only
a part of the theoretical literature that
emerged in the meantime. Thus, stylistical
condensation , i.e. economisation, is an
unavoidable process of improving the
accessibility of the new papers. Among
the other aspects needing revision is the
quotation from the available literature, or
bibliography. The theoretical papers written in
the 60s and the 70s contained large lists of
literature from the area, sometimes bigger than
the actual text. They presented small databases
for the published literature in the area and
consequently played a very special role in
assisting the scientist living further from the
big scientific and cultural centres. The
situation basically changed with the use of
Internet search engines and the increasing number
of specialised institutions for bibliographical
databases (RILM for instance). A common search
with several key words in some of these
databases is able to create
a list of works, with the length, or number of
pages, far beyond the capacity of reading in an
average human life. We could assume that the
future use of bibliographical quotations will be
restricted to the control over the author's
knowledge of the adequate literature in the
area. We
cannot consider the economisation and the
simplification of the theoretical papers,
particularly in a stylistical sense, as a
pauperisation of the scientific and human
spirit. The central issue for any scientific
paper is whether it has something to say. The
complicated stylistical, often metaphorical
expressions, were a possibility for hiding the
theoretical and methodological deficiencies. Our
paper was based upon the distinction between
musicology and ethnomusicology. We deeply
believe that the unification of methodology will
make this disctinction obsolete. Music folklore
is only one of the genres of music culture. The
concept that musicology deals with artistic
music and ethnomusicology with folklore can
result in the formation of other separate
disciplines for the other genres, such as jazz,
pop, rock etc. We do not believe that each genre
should possess a parallel discipline and
methodology. We have already pointed out that
all music is equal at the acoustic and
perceptual level. The differences might appear
at the semantic level, mainly because of the
socio-cultural influence. In
that sense, musicology is the general discipline
covering all manifestations of the music
phenomenon. This does not contradict the
formation of specialised branches for different
genres. In accordance with the specific features
of the genre they might develop additional
methodological tools.
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