Critical Review #2

Shelemay, Kay Kaufman. 1997. “The Ethnomusicologist, Ethnographic Method, and the Transmission of Tradition.” Shadows in the Field: New Perspectives for Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology, Barz and Cooley (2008): 41-56.

The main point I feel Shelemay makes in this article is that ethnomusicologists doing fieldwork have a noticeable impact on cultures’ music. She sights three different case studies, her experience with Syrian Jews and others’ studies of Japanese-Hawaiian Drummers (1549-150) and the Falasha of Ethiopia (150), where cultures saw the fieldworker as someone who would keep their traditions alive. In some cases, the ethnomusicologist not only documented their music culture, but their presence and research contributed to the spreading of interest in that music. I previously knew that ethnomusicologists mediated between the “community and outsiders” (151), helping to promote understanding and writing for an audience that may not be familiar with the culture. What I did not know, and what Shelemay points out, is that an ethnomusicologist can give insight on a culture’s music to the people who actually produce it (151).

I see Shelemay’s thesis as positive one, even though she stays neutral about the effect of ethnomusicologists on cultures’ music. So my question is what is the benefit of ethnomusicologists not having a relationship with a music culture? I agree with what Shelemay is saying, but I don’t see any overarching ethical problems with them. Don’t these relationships enrich an ethnomusicologist’s research?