New Ethnomusicological Analysis Techniques

Abstract

Research in traditional oral music must not carry on today with strictly musical means of investigation, means which, we must admit, have given some clear results so far, but which today, viewed from a generalized perspective, will provide a partial, superficial knowledge of the phenomenon. The lack of its own methodological tools has led to borrowing various models of analysis from linguistics, phonology, experimental psychology, and acoustics, in order to understand the relevant criteria that can clarify the articulation means between music and the studied sociocultural context. In a general manner, all these concur with the analysis of the music act and contribute equally to highlighting the anthropological dimension of each ethnomusicological approach. Of the many possible approaches that can be applied in the typological classification or in the comparison of the melodic, rhythmic, or metrical features in folklore genres, we will hereinafter mention nine.