160 lucy Green sie is both inerent and delineated, but most important, it proves the allway beeen th two meuings snaking each undetandble es mead though the oes Se swat makes musa experence posse, foritbosh structures our inenions towards inherent meanings and alow i te copaie them in ters of Kine delineation of what onic ets ttoough se thatthe dual musta expdence of Inherent and delineated Imcenng Teches cosconinee a 8 united, mndeenitd, epparety inseparble whole ee On the Pop-Classical Split ALLAN F MOORE eee Inorder to provides closer focus forthe differences in listening state les, shall invoke the term style’ which ultimately contributes to more precise distinctions than just those of ‘popular’ and ‘classical, Musical competence, in the abstract Is a meaningless concept. To take an extreme example, the ability to comprehend the musica relationships present in a work of Mozart 's of no help in comprehending the relationships present in the songs of the Aborigines of Amhem Land (see Jones 1960), Competence is only gained in terms of a style, where it tends to entail the ability to recognize nor mative from unusual exemplars, and to make predictions of the likelihood of certain events in real-time listening, on the basis of past events within the example under consideration. (Ths isa simplified account ofthe con ventional postion. See Green (1988: 17-25) for further comment) To be sure, competence in one style may make it easier to acquire competence in snothet, particularly if they are related, and particularly if the first style has been acquired at an early age, but no more eee Green 1988: 102ff). Thus, competence in a ‘classical’ style does not ensure competence in a ‘populat style, nor vice versa: competence within any style is, eamt. This point ‘tequently causes difculty for those listeners who believe thei'native’ style to be somehow ‘natural, in opposition to others, which are somehaw ‘con. structed, ‘artificial, and even ‘contrived’ The observation that we learn a style through familiarity and constant exposure (in the same way that welearn our native tongue) rather than through methodical exposition, does not mea that ie was not, at some historical juncture, iavented, And, to reiterate, we do styles through familiarity and constant exposure, andits this that mean, here by competence, Its not necessary to be able o explain a style (to be ‘tained in it, perhaps as a performer) in order to have a cognitive competence init, That competence Is demonstrated by being comfortable with particular syle, ‘We can invoke (another! way to discuss the differences between popular and tlassical styles by focusing on the musics’ functions. The ethnomusicologist ‘lan Mertiam draws upon 2 longline of thought in both ethnomusicology and cultural anthropology in making a distinction between the use of a cultural $ractice see Merriam 1964:217-16) and the function(s) it serves, Merriam sug fests that uses tend to be overt. Parallel to them, he proposes some ten cate pres of function, stressing that they concern what he calls analytical” athor Pk Thera unter pen Uist Pes 195,25812 Allon Moore than folk’ evaluations. Not all these functions will be relevant to every culture, bbut they do offer a global perspective, ‘Merriam’ first four categories, although problematic, are probably familar, The fist, ‘emotional expression, includes music as a means of emotional release and of evoking specific emotional sates. Concerning the second, ‘acs thetic enjoyment, he attempts to analyse the Western concept of ‘aestheti comparing its constituent aspects with views from other literate cultures. ‘He argues that it may not be relevant to non-literate cultures on the grounds thatthe function of aesthetic enjoyment is predicated upon the existence of @ Philosophy of the aesthetic (which is not, of course, the way 1 have used the {erm above). His third category, entertainment, he treats as se-evidert, The function of communication, his fourth, i beset with problems... Mersiam’ next two functions are also fairly self-evident. Symbolic representation refers to the practice of mimess, the representation (rather than the evocation) of ‘emotional states, and perhaps the exstence of homologies. Physical response includes dance, the encouragement of the reactions of warrior and hunter, practices of possession and the excitation and control of crowd behaviour. His last group of four are less transparent, and less ensy to diferentate He terms them the functions of enforcing conformity to social noms... validation of social instutons and ‘elpious rituals... contibution othe continuity and tbl of eu a ‘contribution tothe icegrationofsccey.(Metlam 1964-24-71 Merriam’ distinetion between use and function, and his stess on the dif ference between ‘analytic’ and ‘folk’ evaluations, seems close o arguing that ‘use’ refers toa folk evaluation (an ‘emi’ understanding), while unetion’ rep. resents the analytic evaluation (an ‘ei’ understanding). This teading of the situation has been criticized by another leading ethnomusicologist, Bruno Nett. Nett argues, with reference to particular cultures, that we need to take ‘sccount not only of etc statements of function and emle statements of use, bit, also of etc statements of use and emic statements of function: ‘in eld vesearch ‘turns out that informants are quite capable of making “etic” statements that 's, of describing their ovm culture in “objective” ways that do not give the culture’ primary evaluations’ (Nett 1983: 154-5). Nettl subscribes to an alter. native ethnomusicotogial position which elaims thet music has only one func. tion, which for him 's to control humanity relationship ta the supernatutl, mediating between People and otter beings, ane to support the interty of indvidea soc ‘ups It dots this by expressing the relevant central valies of eure in abscaced form. (Net 1988155) Although Nets position often finds greater favour (it espouses the “homolo Bical’ model)... Merriam’ further distinetions ace fruitful in the ease ofthe op-classical spit. To exemplify this, I shall use‘popular classes’ (the ‘Mozart’ Greatest Hits phenomenon, the post-war avant-garde’ (Stockhausen, Boulez, Xenakis, eral), and ‘pop dance’ (what used to be simply dso), Pop dance music clearly call forth physial responses (Merriam’ssith func (On the Pop-Classca Split 163 tion: the ext naar of se beat an, more patsy, he symcoptions Inthe bas of Song ke Cameos Word Up mate lthaad ae oes bar othe bodyin tine. The physical aponse cae up Dyson fenendtat moron peormancestiaton andthe nena ee former athe ha the musi. The applatae given tina cong hak Romilly be ow of place when steningathenea the ees his music makes strenuous demands o | would suggest that many ofthe argu iments concerning the relative merits meg tant muses an be resolved Into arguments conceming the hag a roti tittent functions, which thus becomes an ethieal rates ties oe sae musical ssw. forone, have arather extreme dsike of being coten te fc plc, man, The ncon see abe of hase bat sdependenton bother ee {wo evenings bere wrtng hs spent tne on ase Send of ov; pimay for he teasing emcees oe hen ‘cds Loam the Was an Ho Gott tere es ad set tin hh td monemom of Tosa ee Bony in order t experience the composts uoee ae ee I sory. nba cae the mule none aesthatg e the listening strategy I decided to adopt (I could have used Tears for Fears to sto rhe Teast a mea of emai at hea Ths o acknowledge that we cans