Re: heartless, soul-less ethnomusicologists

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Cheers, Judith.

This seems to be an example of music-making separated from the
tradition from which it comes and justifying (in fact praising) it all
on the grounds of anti-intellectualism, a duality that artificially
separates heart and mind and disparages the mind.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Judith R. Cohen <judithc (at) YorkU(dot)CA>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Friday, March 17, 2000 6:06 AM
Subject: heartless, soul-less ethnomusicologists


>Hi, the note about the Geneva concert is interesting, but I take
>exception to a tendency I've seen before , expressed at the end of
the
>message.
>> Katia et Christian n?interprètent pas ces musiques en
ethnomusicologues, mais avec leurs c?urs, avec leurs âmes d?ici ou
>> d?ailleurs, d?hier et d?aujourd?hui.
>For those who don't read French, the musicians "don't perform this
music
>as ethnomusicologists; rather, with their hearts and their souls from
>here or elsewhere, of yesterday and today..."
>
>Great. So performing "as an ethnomusicologist" (whastever that
means -
>does one wave one's degree about in the air while singing?) is the
>OPPOSITE , by definition, of engaging one's heart and soul. To me,
this
>is part of a tendency I've seen to excuse one's inability or
>unwillingness to really research and understand a tradiiton one is
>performing by claiming that that is just what academics do to spoil
the
>tradition in question; that one's own mystical intutions will do a
much
>better job, whether they are backed up by knowledge or not. As an
>ethnomusicologist, I don't separate my heart and soul (or, hopefully,
my
>sense of humour, somewhat lacking in many of these presentations)
form
>my work, and will be writing to them shortly.
>Cheers, Judith
>>
>
>----------------------
jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
>