Musics Lost and Found : Song Collectors and the Life and Death of Folk Tradition

This is the first-ever book about song collectors, music's unsung heroes. They include the Armenian priest who sacrificed his life to preserve the folk music which the Turks were trying to erase in the 1915 Genocide; the prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp who secretly noted down the songs of doomed Jewish inmates; the British singer who went veiled into Afghanistan to learn, record and perform the music the Taliban wanted to silence. Some collectors have been fired by political idealism - Bartok championing Hungarian peasant music, the Lomaxes bringing the blues out of Mississippi penitentiaries, and transmitting them to the world. Many collectors have been priests - French Jesuits noting down labyrinthine forms in eighteenth-century Beijing, English vicars tracking songs in nineteenth-century Somerset. Others have been wonderfully colourful oddballs. Today's collectors are striving heroically to preserve endangered musics, whether rare forms of Balinese gamelan, the wind-band music of Chinese villages, or the sophisticated polyphony of Central African Pygmies. With globalisation, urbanisation and Westernisation causing an irreversible erosion of the world's musical diversity, Michael Church suggests we may be seeing folk music's 'end of history'. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture. This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author's award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever. Table of Contents Introduction Why it all began 1 From broadsides to Child ballads: Songs of the British people 2 Orientalists from France: Jesuit priests in Beijing, Salvador-Daniel in Algiers 3 Going native in Constantinople: Dimitrie Cantemir, the happy hostage The birth of ethnomusicology 4 The Song of Approach, the Pipes of Friendship: Alice Fletcher and the Omaha Indians 5 'I am now a true Eskimo': Franz Boas and first principles 6 Voice of Armenia: The tragedy of Komitas 7 Britain's folk-song revivals, and the contentious Cecil Sharp 8 'I in seventh heaven - Perks': The ineffable Percy Grainger Carrying the torch: Collectors in Northern and Eastern Europe 9 'And what does the gentleman want': Béla Bartók as song detective 10 Girdling the globe: The empire of the Lomaxes 11 'I am a white-skinned Aranda man': Theodore Strehlow's divided self 12 The stirring of a thousand bells: Jaap Kunst, Colin McPhee, and gamelan 13 Hot mint tea and a few pipes of kif: Paul Bowles in Morocco 14 A voice for Greece: Domna Samiou's crusade 15 Things that are made to cry: John Blacking and the Venda 16 Record companies as collectors: Folkways, Smithsonian, Nonesuch, IMA, Ocora, World Circuit, Topic, Pan, Muziekpublique Musical snapshots: The importance of sound archives 17 Magic in two strings: Central Asia awakes 18 Red badge of courage: Musicians in Afghanistan 19 Out of the womb of Russia: Riches awaiting rediscovery 20 Three-in-one: The Georgian way 21 Small is beautiful: Pygmy polyphony 22 It's a physical thing: A Persian musician relocates the radif 23 Plucking the winds: Chinese village music today 24 Voice, handkerchief, fan: New life for Korea's p'ansori 25 'My whole body was singing': Kodo and the taiko drum 26 'Intangible cultural heritage': UNESCO's lengthening list 27 Going, going...: disappearing musics Sources and further reading Bibliography Index This is the first-ever book about song collectors, music's unsung heroes. They include the Armenian priest who sacrificed his life to preserve the folk music which the Turks were trying to erase in the 1915 Genocide; the prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp who secretly noted down the songs of doomed Jewish inmates; the British singer who went veiled into Afghanistan to learn, record and perform the music the Taliban wanted to silence. Some collectors have been fired by political idealism - Bartok championing Hungarian peasant music, the Lomaxes bringing the blues out of Mississippi penitentiaries, and transmitting them to the world. Many collectors have been priests - French Jesuits noting down labyrinthine forms in eighteenth-century Beijing, English vicars tracking songs in nineteenth-century Somerset. Others have been wonderfully colourful oddballs. Today's collectors are striving heroically to preserve endangered musics, whether rare forms of Balinese gamelan, the wind-band music of Chinese villages, or the sophisticated polyphony of Central African Pygmies. With globalisation, urbanisation and Westernisation causing an irreversible erosion of the world's musical diversity, Michael Church suggests we may be seeing folk music's 'end of history'. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture. This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author's award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever. Introduction 1 From broadsides to Child ballads: Songs of the British people 2 Orientalists from France: Jesuit priests in Beijing, Salvador-Daniel in Algiers 3 Going native in Constantinople: Dimitrie Cantemir, the happy hostage 4 The Song of Approach, the Pipes of Friendship: Alice Fletcher and the Omaha Indians 5 'I am now a true Eskimo': Franz Boas and first principles 6 Voice of Armenia: The tragedy of Komitas 7 Britain's folk-song revivals, and the contentious Cecil Sharp 8 'I in seventh heaven - Perks': The ineffable Percy Grainger 9 'And what does the gentleman want': Béla Bartók as song detective 10 Girdling the globe: The empire of the Lomaxes 11 'I am a white-skinned Aranda man': Theodore Strehlow's divided self 12 The stirring of a thousand bells: Jaap Kunst, Colin McPhee, and gamelan 13 Hot mint tea and a few pipes of kif: Paul Bowles in Morocco 14 A voice for Greece: Domna Samiou's crusade 15 Things that are made to cry: John Blacking and the Venda 16 Record companies as collectors: Folkways, Smithsonian, Nonesuch, IMA, Ocora, World Circuit, Topic, Pan, Muziekpublique 17 Magic in two strings: Central Asia awakes 18 Red badge of courage: Musicians in Afghanistan 19 Out of the womb of Russia: Riches awaiting rediscovery 20 Three-in-one: The Georgian way 21 Small is beautiful: Pygmy polyphony 22 It's a physical thing: A Persian musician relocates the 23 Plucking the winds: Chinese village music today 24 Voice, handkerchief, fan: New life for Korea's 25 'My whole body was singing': Kodo and the drum 26 'Intangible cultural heritage': UNESCO's lengthening list 27 Going, going...: disappearing musics __Bibliography____Index__ This book is a piece of serious musicology by a man who has worked as a song collector himself, but his erudition is lightly worn.This ground-breaking book is the first-ever study of the role played in musical history by song collectors. It examines their often extraordinary lives, how they set about their task, and the music they collected. In detailing thepressures which have driven them to travel and explore, it reflects movements in cultural and political history. This book is a musicological and biographical study by a man who has worked as a song collector himself; his aim isto address a general readership, as well as an academic one. In some respects this is the sequel to his previous book The Other Classical Musics, which Boydell published to critical acclaim in 2015. In this new book, Michael Church begins with an overview of song collecting's development, from pencil-and-paper in the seventeenth century through to the age of recording. He devotes major chapters to Komitas, Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger, and Bela Bartok, and to John and Alan Lomax who collected songs in Mississippi penitentiaries; he examines the history of field-recording in Russia, Central Asia, and China. One of his most colourful chapters looks at throat-singing in Tuva;another follows the trail of gamelan in Bali, while yet another investigates song collecting among the Pygmy communities of Central Africa.BR> The development of recording technologies is chronicled here, as is the dawn ofethnomusicology. Church follows the growth of the great sound archives - the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv and its counterparts in Vienna, London, and Washington; he looks at the role of the record industry - big in the mid-twentiethcentury, but now waning to almost nothing - in'capturing'indigenous musics. Church casts a critical eye over the so-called'world music'boom, and over well-meaning musical-conservation schemes, but he concludes witha stark warning. He shows how globalisation, urbanisation, and Westernisation are leading to an irreversible erosion of the world's musical diversity: in this respect the book aligns itself with the Extinction Rebellion movement.Church suggests that we may be seeing'the end of history'for folk music, with old forms dying as the conditions for their survival or replacement disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture. Disappearing folk-music traditions mirror what is happening with spoken languages, as their multifarious richness dwindles to a few privileged and pervasive tongues. This book is a piece of serious musicology by a man who has worked as a song collector himself, but his erudition is lightly worn. This ground-breaking book is the first-ever study of the role played in musical history by song collectors. It examines their often extraordinary lives, how they set about their task, and the music they collected. In detailing thepressures which have driven them to travel and explore, it reflects movements in cultural and political history. This book is a musicological and biographical study by a man who has worked as a song collector himself; his aim isto address a general readership, as well as an academic one. In some respects this is the sequel to his previous book The Other Classical Musics, which Boydell published to critical acclaim in 2015. In this new book, Michael Church begins with an overview of song collecting's development, from pencil-and-paper in the seventeenth century through to the age of recording. He devotes major chapters to Komitas, Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger, and Bela Bartok, and to John and Alan Lomax who collected songs in Mississippi penitentiaries; he examines the history of field-recording in Russia, Central Asia, and China. One of his most colourful chapters looks at throat-singing in Tuva;another follows the trail of gamelan in Bali, while yet another investigates song collecting among the Pygmy communities of Central Africa. BR> The development of recording technologies is chronicled here, as is the dawn ofethnomusicology. Church follows the growth of the great sound archives - the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv and its counterparts in Vienna, London, and Washington; he looks at the role of the record industry - big in the mid-twentiethcentury, but now waning to almost nothing - in 'capturing' indigenous musics. Church casts a critical eye over the so-called "world music" boom, and over well-meaning musical-conservation schemes, but he concludes witha stark warning. He shows how globalisation, urbanisation, and Westernisation are leading to an irreversible erosion of the world's musical in this respect the book aligns itself with the Extinction Rebellion movement.Church suggests that we may be seeing 'the end of history' for folk music, with old forms dying as the conditions for their survival or replacement disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture. Disappearing folk-music traditions mirror what is happening with spoken languages, as their multifarious richness dwindles to a few privileged and pervasive tongues. This ground-breaking book is the first-ever study of the role played in musical history by song collectors. It examines their often extraordinary lives, how they set about their task, and the music they collected. In detailing thepressures which have driven them to travel and explore, it reflects movements in cultural and political history. This book is a musicological and biographical study by a man who has worked as a song collector himself; his aim isto address a general readership, as well as an academic one. In some respects this is the sequel to his previous book The Other Classical Musics, which Boydell published to critical acclaim in 2015. In this new book, Michael Church begins with an overview of song collecting's development, from pencil-and-paper in the seventeenth century through to the age of recording. He devotes major chapters to Komitas, Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger, and Bela Bartok, and to John and Alan Lomax who collected songs in Mississippi penitentiaries; he examines the history of field-recording in Russia, Central Asia, and China. One of his most colourful chapters looks at throat-singing in Tuva;another follows the trail of gamelan in Bali, while yet another investigates song collecting among the Pygmy communities of Central Africa.
BR> The development of recording technologies is chronicled here, as is the dawn ofethnomusicology. Church follows the growth of the great sound archives - the Berlin Phonogramm Archiv and its counterparts in Vienna, London, and Washington; he looks at the role of the record industry - big in the mid-twentiethcentury, but now waning to almost nothing - in 'capturing' indigenous musics.

Church casts a critical eye over the so-called "world music" boom, and over well-meaning musical-conservation schemes, but he concludes witha stark warning. He shows how globalisation, urbanisation, and Westernisation are leading to an irreversible erosion of the world's musical diversity: in this respect the book aligns itself with the Extinction Rebellion movement.Church suggests that we may be seeing 'the end of history' for folk music, with old forms dying as the conditions for their survival or replacement disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture. Disappearing folk-music traditions mirror what is happening with spoken languages, as their multifarious richness dwindles to a few privileged and pervasive tongues. "This ground-breaking book is the first-ever study of the role played in musical history by song collectors.This is the first-ever book about song collectors, music's unsung heroes. They include the Armenian priest who sacrificed his life to preserve the folk music which the Turks were trying to erase in the 1915 Genocide; the prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp who secretly noted down the songs of doomed Jewish inmates; the British singer who went veiled into Afghanistan to learn, record and perform the music the Taliban wanted to silence. Some collectors have been fired by political idealism - Bartok championing Hungarian peasant music, the Lomaxes bringing the blues out of Mississippi penitentiaries, and transmitting them to the world. Many collectors have been priests - French Jesuits noting down labyrinthine forms in eighteenth-century Beijing, English vicars tracking songs in nineteenth-century Somerset. Others have been wonderfully colourful oddballs.Today's collectors are striving heroically to preserve endangered musics, whether rare forms of Balinese gamelan, the wind-band music of Chinese villages, or the sophisticated polyphony of Central African Pygmies. With globalisation, urbanisation and Westernisation causing an irreversible erosion of the world's musical diversity, Michael Church suggests we may be seeing folk music's 'end of history'. Old forms are dying as the conditions for their survival - or replacement - disappear; the death of villages means the death of village musical culture.This ground-breaking book is the sequel to the author's award-winning The Other Classical Musics, and it concludes with an inventory of the musics now under threat, or already lost for ever."-- Site Web de l'éditeur Front Cover 1 Contents 8 Illustrations 10 Acknowledgements 14 Author’s note 16 Introduction 18 Why it all began 31 1 From broadsides to Child ballads 34 2 Orientalists from France 42 3 Going native in Constantinople 52 The birth of ethnomusicology 56 4 The Song of Approach, the Pipes of Friendship 58 5 ‘I am now a true Eskimo’ 64 6 Voice of Armenia 72 7 Britain’s folk-song revivals, and the contentious Cecil Sharp 80 8 ‘I in seventh heaven - Perks’ 96 Carrying the torch 104 9 ‘And what does the gentleman want’ 108 10 Girdling the globe 124 11 ‘I am a white-skinned Aranda man’ 150 12 The stirring of a thousand bells 160 13 Hot mint tea and a few pipes of kif 174 14 A voice for Greece 182 15 Things that are made to cry 186 16 Record companies as collectors 190 Musical snapshots 200 18 Red badge of courage 222 19 Out of the womb of Russia 230 20 Three-in-one 238 21 Small is beautiful 244 22 It’s a physical thing 252 23 Plucking the winds 256 24 Voice, handkerchief, fan 264 25 ‘My whole body was singing’ 268 26 ‘Intangible cultural heritage’ 274 27 Going, going 280 Sources 284 Index 292