Review

Reviewed Work(s): Music-Cultures in Contact: Convergences and Collisions by Margaret J.

Kartomi and Stephen Blum
Review by: David Henderson
Source: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Mar., 1999), pp. 686-687
Published by: Music Library Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/900443
Accessed: 29-10-2021 12:47 UTC

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686 NOTES, March 1999

sonically inferior to the

the cylinder,
cylinder, and
and and
and colliding-some
colliding-someemerging
emergingatattheir
their
des-
des-
Edison did not begin making
making flat-disc
flat-disc tinations
tinations relatively
relativelyunscathed,
unscathed,others
others
des-
des-
records "soon after" 1877; his first disc
tined
tined to
to sprawl
sprawlout
outon
onthe
thegreasy
greasyfloor
floor
of of
records were introduced in 1912. Most au-
an auto
auto repair
repairshop
shopfor
fora afew
fewdays.
days.
The
Thehy-
hy-
phen
phen between
thorities on the history of sound recording between"music"
"music"and
and"cultures"
"cultures"
both-
both-
would dispute Kraft's statement that
ered
ered me,
me, making
makingthe
theentire
entirevehicle
vehicle
look
look
uncomfortably
uncomfortablyand
Victor's disc records were "much superior" andsuspiciously
suspiciously compact.
compact.
Would
Would the
sonically to Edison's cylinders (p. 59). Kraft the authors
authorsdisregard
disregardthetheinterac-
interac-
cites RCA's purchase of Victor in 1929 tions
andbetween music and other kinds of cul-
goes on to say that "Over the next few tures,
years with or without hyphens, in their dis-
RCA-Victor introduced and popularized
cussions of musical change? I feared that
electrical recording as well as slower-turn-
the "convergences and collisions" would ap-
ing, longer-playing, and more flexible
pear too simplistic if isolated from the com-
discs" (p. 78). Electrical recording was in- of social interaction.
plexities
By the middle of the book, my worries
vented by Western Electric and introduced
commercially by Victor in 1925, four were
yearsdisappearing. "Music-cultures" is sim-
before Victor's purchase by RCA. The ply a moniker for the many small or large
Victor LP, introduced in 1931, was a techni-
cultural envelopes in which music exists,
cal and commercial failure. and the results are never so bleak as a head-
Perhaps the most significant shortcom- on collision mopped over to the side of the
ing, from this reviewer's perspective, isroadthe or as simple as a vague convergence of
relative dearth of information on classical different stylistic traits. The book itself
musicians; the book's emphasis is almost works well in presenting a variety of differ-
entirely on various fields of popular music.ent approaches to studying musical change
Discussions of the effects of radio on in both historical and contemporary cir-
per-
forming musicians in the United States
cumstances. In the first line of the book,
seem incomplete without an exploration
Margaret Kartomi asks, "Why and how does
of the seventeen seasons of the NBC change occur in musical culture?" (p. ix).
Symphony Orchestra under Arturo The changes
Tos- are as myriad as the ap-
canini or the advent of weekly broadcasts
proaches to studying them. Yet the book's
from the Metropolitan Opera. The mainunique
fault-and this not a San Andreas,
more a slight rift-is that the majority
effects of the depression on classical-music
of the contributions
recording in the United States should also merely tell us what
changed,
have been investigated. These areas are un- and perhaps why. Less often do
touched by Kraft, who appears to have
we getlittle
a solid description of or even a spec-
knowledge of, or interest in, the field
ulation of how things changed or what
about
classical music. Within its scope,those
however,
changes meant to the people most in-
volved
Stage to Studio is an excellent study, andin fills
them.
a significant void in the literature. The first section, "Cross-Cultural Per-
GARY A. GALO spectives on Genres of Performance,"
State University of New York at Potsdam includes exactly what it says, although
Kartomi's preface led me to expect more
Music-Cultures in Contact: Conver- from some of the authors. For instance, she
gences and Collisions. Edited by suggests that Doris Stockmann, in the first
Margaret J. Kartomi and Stephen chapter, investigates in part "the conver-
Blum. (Musicology, 16.) Basel: Gordon gence between the yoiking song tradition
of the Sami of Scandinavia and Western
and Breach, 1994. [xiii, 289 p. ISBN 2-
popular music, resulting in the syncretic
88449-137-6. $28 (pbk.).] creation of Sami pop music" (p. x). In-
Having just arrived back in California, it trigued, I turned to Stockmann's chapter
was impossible to read the title of this bookand found less than a paragraph on this
without thinking of driving on Los Angelesangle of her work. Many of the contribu-
freeways. I imagined "music-cultures" as tions in this first section in fact read better
Camaros, Preludes, BMWs, Volkswagens, as brief introductions to works in progress
and Sonatas all variously merging, passing, or opera omnia rather than as incisive explo-
tangling, stalling, overheating, speeding,rations of social and musical change.

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Book Reviews 687

The second section, "Institutions and they

they not
notin
incontact?
contact? In In
hishis
thoughtful
thoughtfuland and
satisfying
satisfyingconclusion,
Agents of Cultural Interaction," is valuable conclusion, though,
though,Blum Blum
ac- ac-
precisely because here the authors tendknowledges
to
knowledges this,
this,reminding
reminding us that
us that
"every
"every
culture
cultureisisa asite
focus on the specific individuals and formal siteofofencounters"
encounters" (p. 255).
(p. 255).
or informal groups who promoted change, The
The encounters
encountersinin this
this
bookbook
are are
by no
by no
reacted against it, or simply experienced means
means
it. complete,
complete, but
butthey
they do do
urgeurge
us to
us to
Jann Pasler writes an elegant tale of thethink
think carefully
carefullyaboutabouthowhow culture
culture
works
works
French composers Albert Roussel and and
and where
wherewe
wemight
might hear
hear
it working.
it working.
Maurice Delage; each of them toured India DAVID HENDERSON
in the early 1900s, yet came back with very Pomona College
different impressions of and appreciations
for Indian music. Pasler's detailed analyses
of the travels and works of only two com- A Trade Like Any Other: Female
posers might seem to be too microcosmic Singers and Dancers in Egypt. By Karin
to tell us anything about the interactionsvan Nieuwkerk. Austin: University of
between French and Indian culture, but
Texas Press, 1995. [xi, 226 p. ISBN 0-
the effect is quite the opposite. As Stephen
292-78723-5. $15.95.]
Blum writes in his conclusion, "Perceptions
of cultural distance can take many forms, Based on fieldwork conducted in two pe-
and the only way to avoid false conscious-
riods between 1988 and 1990 and a review
ness of 'cultural purity' is to examine the
of available sources dating from the late
transactions through which individuals and
eighteenth century, Karin van Nieuwkerk's
groups reproduce cultural knowledge"investigation concerns the paradox that, al-
(p. 255). By avoiding generalizations about
though Egyptians are generally "very fond
"culture" and focusing on the "transac- of singing and dancing" and regularly in-
tions" of two composers, Pasler providesclude
a professional entertainers in "the
palpable sense of how music travels and most important occasions in people's lives,
changes. Similarly, William Noll givessuch
a as births, engagements, and wed-
convincing account of how rural musical
dings" (p. 2), the female entertainment
styles changed in the Ukraine between the
profession is widely considered to be disre-
two world wars, focusing on how villagesspectable, shameful, and dishonorable. Her
in eastern and western Ukraine were inte- book's focus is thus the social and cultural
grated differently with urban agenciesperception
in- of the "entertainment trade" in
tent on using music to promote national
Egypt, with special emphasis on female
unity. Some of the authors in the book
singers and dancers.
gloss over the process of musical change byNieuwkerk divides entertainment into
attributing it rather vaguely to "geographic,
three major performance contexts: the per-
socioeconomic, political or religious" ties
forming-arts circuit (concert halls, theaters,
(p. 19), "intercultural contact" (p. 70),radio,
or television, etc.), the nightclub cir-
"extra-musical" circumstances (p. 221), cuit,
but and the circuit of weddings and
saint's-day celebrations. She then focuses
Noll plainly shows how difficult it is to pull
these domains apart without doing some
on female performers in the last two of
violence to the whole. these three contexts.
Studies of musical change have pro-A strong point is her emphasis on letting
gressed from simple enumerations of dif-
modern Egyptian voices be heard, those
ferent kinds of change (which sometimes
of the singers and dancers themselves-a
sounded like one of A. L. Kroeber's early
wealth of quotations and life stories are in-
anthropology textbooks with the word "cul-
cluded in chapter 4, "Life Stories of Female
ture" repeatedly scratched out and the
Entertainers"-as well as those from
word "music" written in) to rich ethnogra-higher, lower, and similar classes within
modern Egyptian society. She succeeds
phies that start by recognizing the constant
flux of societies and people as the back- wonderfully in presenting a multilayere
ground against which all musical experi-
view of the women entertainers' livelihood.
ence occurs. Thus "music-cultures in con- Chapters 2 and 3 provide a historical sur-
tact" almost sounds like an academic vey of female entertainment in Egypt in the
anachronism-where, or even when, were nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here

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