The Study of Change in Traditional Music

Author(s): Roger Elbourne

Source: Folklore , Autumn - Winter, 1975, Vol. 86, No. 3/4 (Autumn - Winter, 1975),
pp. 181-189
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1260233

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Folklore

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
The Study of Change in Traditional Music
by ROGER ELBOURNE

One of the most important tasks of ethnological and folkloristic research

is to observe in what form, in what manner, and under what conditions
some of the complexes and elements of culture change. We must
investigate what connection there is between the nature of tradition
and the development of culture.'
THIS is a voice crying in the wilderness. Folklife studies in Europe
and America have concentrated on the collection and analysis of an
accumulated corpus of material, which appears to have a structure,
called 'the tradition'. Charles Seeger points out that this is an
illusion, a result of our position in space and time, since in
reality the repertoire and its relation to the culture of which it is a
part are in a constant state of flux.2 Nevertheless, the study of folk
music has been predominantly concerned with continuity and
stability. Folk music is often seen as an agent in the maintainance
of 'social equilibrium', subject to gradual 'evolutionary' or
'organic' change through the process of variation. For Cecil
Sharp, in the transmission of folk music:
Individual angles and irregularities have been gradually rubbed off and
smoothed away by communal effort, just as the pebble on the sea-shore
is rounded and polished by the action of the waves.3

A. L. Lloyd has warned that this imagery might be too static and
passive:

Too often we think of folk traditions as being like 'constant marble stone',
changing very slowly, if at all, under the snailbite of erosion rather than
through any sharply-defined action of history. If that is the view from
the library, experience in the field teaches otherwise . . . A living
tradition is not a stone column but a plant, hardy but sensitive to
climate change.4

However, a tradition is neither a stone column nor a plant. It

is a form of human behaviour. The rich similes and metaphors
so beloved of folklorists mystify processes of change which are
the result of human interaction within social situations.

i81

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

To simplify, two categories of change in tradition

be distinguished - endogenous and exogenou
changes within songs, resulting from the cumu
efforts of individuals or groups; and there are cha
entire structure of a tradition, as a result of intern
pressures. The two kinds of change frequently inter
other. Using musical and literary criteria, scholars
on the processes of internal change, and developed
variation.5 Since it is difficult to make judgeme
causes and directions of external change on the bas
musical or literary information, the wider and mor
changes in a tradition - perhaps culminating in its
---- are constantly lamented but left unexamined. T
be concerned solely with what might be called
approaches to change in traditional music, that is, the s
relationship between changing social structure and mus
Bruno Nettl discusses two basic types of studies
change: those trying to show the processes of chang
contemporary situations (approached under th
acculturation or cultural transmission in proces
attempting a reconstruction of historical changes
culture or repertory (usually subsumed under t
diffusion or achieved cultural transmission).7
The most common method of observing chang
acculturational situations as they occur. This appro
by the restricted time usually available, and gener
specialized situations in which the cultures studied
the influence of Western civilization. Most docume
changing repertoires and musical styles are pro
contact among people and cultures, and the mo
population which are one case of such contact. P
side by side influence each other and tend to be
through assimilation. An area with little contact am
likely to have a diversity of styles; one in which music
great is likely to have a more unified style. The prob
measure the degree of similarity. A group which m
likely to experience greater or more rapid musical chan
which remains among the same set of neighbours.
might also have a high rate of elimination of mus
182

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

or, by holding on to old styles as new ones are intr

might increase the total number of styles in its repertory.
With musical change through cultural contact the p
to determine the direction of influence. Generally
complex style tends to influence the simpler one. Thi
necessarily mean that the music of a more comple
dominates a simpler one, for occasionally the simpler cu
have the more complex music. A variety of stylistic com
may also occur: it seems likely that each culture co
elements which it has developed to the greatest d
specialization. A musical style may also move from one
another without an accompanying move of the gro
songs can be learnt from a neighbouring culture, and i
can carry songs from one group to another. The s
features of a style appear to be less easily changed than ge
ones. Possibly the larger a body of music, the greater its i
on the repertory through which it passes and the less
subject to change.
An evident problem with such generalized statemen
measurement of similarity, complexity, specialization
overall rate of change.
List has isolated three factors which define the d
acculturation which occurs when two cultures come into
The first is the vitality of the competing cultures, the
which individuals in each accept and maintain their
to the values of their particular culture. The second is
to which the dominant culture accepts or shows toleran
culture upon which it impinges. The last factor is the
disparity existing between values or aspects of the jux
cultures, or between similar aspects like musical style
three factors produce various types of acculturational e
disintegration and disappearance of indigenous mus
most frequently in nonliterate societies. However, a mu
no longer serving a particular function is not necessarily d
but may be adapted and utilized instead to fulfil another f
often entertainment. On the other hand, this transfe
function may result in the near-obliteration of an ind
musical style. When the competing cultures exhibit re
equal musical vitality, unacculturated indigenous m
183

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

continue to be practised side by side with the pr

acculturation as well as imported music. When two mu
vitality meet and mingle they can form a recognizab
equally vital musical style or genre. This hybridizati
most fruitful. Again the problem is how to measure '
music, but List usefully emphasizes that the response of
music to competition need not necessarily be i
capitulation."
Alan Lomax has underlined the generally conservative nature of
traditional music:

Only the most profound social upheavals --the coming of a new

population, the acceptance of a new set of mores - or migration to a
new territory, involving complete acculturation, will profoundly
transform a musical style.'0

The processes of urbanization and industrialization are prime

examples of such profound social upheavals, and might be
expected to affect the inheritance, cultivation and transmission of
traditional music. These two major areas of change have received
little attention in folklife studies. J. H. Nketia has suggested that
i?jrban-rural relations might be fruitfully viewed in terms of the
geographical contiguity of different cultures, and the impact of
industrialization as the imposition of an alien culture." Urbaniza-
tion and industrialization may be seen as a form of forced
acculturation.
Most folklorists would agree with the art-historian Ernst
Fischer that: 'Increasing industrialization irrevocably destroys
folk art.''12 Traditional music, it is argued, seems unable to
withstand the pressure of complex industrialized societies: the
defensive power of ingenuous music is weak against the strong
offensive powers of cultivated urban music. The image is one of
rape. Seeger comments:
We may concede that where industrialization has been limited, slow and
gradual there may have been minimal disturbance of traditions of folk
music. But where it has been extensive, rapid and uneven the dis-
turbance has been maximal.'3

The literature of folklore abounds with laments for the passing of

traditional ways of life which assume the inevitability of the
process. There is an underlying determinism:
184

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

It is surprising and sad to find how quickly the instinctive cu

people will seem to disappear when once they have been b
touch with modern civilization, and how soon they will im
manners and become imbued with the tastes of 'polite soc
the singing of traditional songs is relegated almost immedi
past life, which has not only been outgrown, but which has
bearing on the present existence.14

When they are not indulging in leprous metaphors,

ascribe the decline in traditional music to a variety of
most frequently mentioned are education and lit
disruption of the continuity of communities throug
communications and transport, and the influx of
cultural material in the form of modern amusements and mechani-
cal music.15 Few progress beyond the simple listing of such
factors to examine in more detail the processes involved in
urbanization and industrialization. Perhaps there is no need. If one
works with the stereotype of the isolated, homogeneous, self-
contained, nonliterate 'folk society' - as many folklorists do -
then almost by definition folk art is incompatible with urban
industrial life. However, the prevailing conception of the folk
society is more a caricature than a realistic model. A soundly-based
impression of what actually happens to a traditional society in
the process of change can be gained only from detailed studies
of clearly defined historical and geographical situations. These are
extremely rare.
Some research has been carried out into the effects of urbaniza-
tion on native music in South Africa. H. Tracey talks in terms of
the dismemberment of the old culture once the floodgates of
foreign intrusions are opened:

Original forms of music and dancing give place to imitations of foreign

styles, the arts lose their meaning and their contribution to social
integration is wasted. Taste is destroyed and licence extolled.'6

D. Rycroft modifies this cataclysmic picture slightly, and points

to a degree of continuity between rural and urban forms:

Upon first coming to town, tribal Africans bring with them their
tribal music and their habit of making up personal songs to express
thoughts and feelings of the moment."

185

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

But this is a temporary overlap. Tribal traditions suf

personal adjustment is made to the multi-tribal town
and longer urban residence leads people to despise the
past and aspire to Western ways of life. African musical t
town is closely correlated with education, and hence
and social standing. The old music is considered socially
dated and primitive. A. M. Jones distinguishes two
African folk music: indigenous village music and
quasi-African, quasi-European music. Educated Africa
despise traditional music; but uneducated people return
the towns to the villages tend to fall back into the village
Both the old and the new hybrid forms are vital and l
tions, though the old is waning under the impact o
culture.'s
The African experience suggests that the transition from village
to town living is exceedingly complex, with initial continuity,
at least, between rural and urban musical life. T. Domotor's work
on the influx of Hungarian agrarian workers into the towns
between the two world wars similarly modifies the accepted
picture of an abrupt severance of rural traditions:
These masses of poor peasants, arriving in the industrial centres -
especially the capital - from all over the country, brought their
traditions, special culture, customs and folklore to their new places of
work. The life in the city and the more advanced ideological and
political views acquired there inevitably led to a radical transformation
of the culture, the way of thought and the folklore imported from the
countryside, so that, as a result, a new form of collective life and
culture and a special industrial folklore came into existence. Yet, this
new culture was still determined by the national folk-culture which came
with the peasants who invaded the cities.19

Studies of the continued performance of ethnic music by immi-

grants into North American cities20 provides another counter-
balance to the standard interpretation by folklorists of the
consequences of urban industrial living. The pattern is an initial
persistence of pre-industrial forms accompanied by the emergence
of a hybrid type of musical activity owing much to earlier rural
models.
The historical approach to the study of change over an extended
period often suffers from undue speculation on inadequate
186

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

material. Geographical distributions of musical styles

used for historical studies of musical instruments and the
ment of polyphony.21 These studies often betray an u
evolutionary bias, positing a series of stages of music
ment into which a judicious selection of data is then
results can often be reversed if other musical elements are used
as criteria. The assertions that all cultures ultimately pass through
the same set of musical stages, or that style is determined by the
position of a culture on some evolutionary scale, are even super-
ficially valid only if the grossest distinctions are made. In any case,
measures of complexity are difficult to establish:

We can say categorically that there is no evidence to support the

notion that music passes through predetermined and predictable
stages.22

If it is to serve any useful purpose, an evolutionary scheme must

be restricted to limited areas and phenomena, and must always
take account of the existence of other factors. It is, for
instance, possible to trace the changes that individual songs have
undergone by a comparison of variants or the construction of
tune families: the history of European folk song has largely been
reconstructed through the use of variants.
Treatments of a limited geographical and cultural area over
an extended period of time, like David Buchan's recent historical
study of changes in the ballad tradition of Northeast Scotland,"
are almost non-existent. Many more historically-based studies of
this kind are essential if such desperate formulations as the
following are to be avoided:

Measurement of the rate of change in music, and the amount of change

in a given instance, awaits the discovery of proper methods. On the
basis of impressionistic observation . . . we may assume that change
takes place irregularly; sometimes it is rapid or sudden, sometimes
almost absent.24

NOTES

i. B. Gunda, 'The Investigation of the Culture of Different Gen

Ethnology and Folklore', Midwest Folklore, I, p. 85.
2. C. Seeger, 'Oral Tradition in Music', in M. Leach, ed., Standard
Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend (New York, Funk and Wagnalls,
2 vols., 1949), pp. 825-9.

187

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

3. C. J. Sharp, English Folk-Song: Some Conclusions (4th. ed.

Books, 1965), p. 21.
4. A. L. Lloyd, Folk Song in England (Panther, 1969), p. 173.
5. See, inter alia, R. D. Abrahams and G. Foss, Anglo-Americ
Style (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall, 1968), chapter z;
The British Traditional Ballad in North America (Philadelphia,
Folklore Society, 1963), chapter I; D. J. McMillan, 'A Survey
Concerning the Oral Transmission of the Traditional Ballad', Sout
Quarterly (SFQ), 28, pp. 299-309; G. Ortutay, 'Principles of Oral
in Folk Culture (Variations, Affinity)', Acta Ethnographica 8, especially
pp. 20oo-21; and W. E. Richmond, 'Some Effects of Scribal and Typographical
Error on Oral Tradition', SFQ, x5, pp. 159-70.
6. For a rare specifically sociological treatment of the effects of urbanization
on rural aesthetic activities, see chapter 15 of P. A. Sorokin et al., eds., A
Systematic Source Book in Rural Sociology (New York, Russell, 1965).
7. B. Nettl, Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology (New York, Free Press,
1964), chapter 8. This paragraph and the following two owe a great deal to this
chapter, which should be consulted for examples to fill out the necessarily
brief precis presented here.
8. G. List, 'Acculturation and Musical Tradition', Journal of the International
Folk Music Council (IlFMC), x6, pp. i8-21.
9. For a critique of the belief that industrialization necessarily undermines
traditional societies, see H. Blumer, 'Industrialization and the Traditional
Order', Sociology and Social Research, 48, pp. I29-38. Also E. Willems,
'Peasantry and City: Cultural Persistence and Change in Historical Perspective,
a European Case', American Anthropologist (AA), 72, pp. 528-44.
io. A. Lomax, 'Folk Song Style', AA, 61, p. 930o.
I1. J. H. Nketia, 'Changing Traditions of Folk Music in Ghana', fIFMC,
Ix, pp. 3I-6. R. L. Beals, in 'Urbanism, Urbanization and Acculturation',
AA, 53, PP. I-io, also presents the provisional hypothesis that rural-urban
acculturation and cross-cultural acculturation differ only in degree and do not
represent substantially different processes of change.
12. E. Fischer, The Necessity of Art: A Marxist Approach (Penguin, 1963),
p. 67.
13. C. Seeger, 'Folk Music in the Schools of a Highly Industrialized Society',
JIFMC, 5, p. 41.
14. M. Karpeles, preface to C. J. Sharp and M. Karpeles, English Folk Songs
from the Southern Appalachians (London, 1932), p. xvi.
I5. See, for instance, A. Geering, 'Quelques Problbmes Touchant la Chanson
Populaire en Suisse', JIFMC, 2, pp. 39-40; 'General Report Presented to the
Fifth Annual Conference of the International Folk Music Council. Section I.
Definitions and General Principles', JIFMC, 5, p. 13; M. Karpeles, prefac
to Sharp and Karpeles, op. cit., pp. xiv-xv; A. L. Lloyd, op. cit., pp. 408-
S. Michaelides, 'Greek Folk Music: Its Preservation and Traditional Practice',
JIFMC, I, pp. 21-3; and J. C. Squire, introduction to I. Williams, English
Folk-Song and Dance (Longmans, 1935), p. x.
I6. H. Tracey, 'The State of Folk Music in Bantu Africa', JIFMC, 6, p. 35.
17. D. Rycroft, 'African Music in Johannesburg: African and non-African
Features', JIFMC, 11, p. 25.
i8. A. M. Jones, 'Folk Music in Africa', JIFMC, 5, PP. 36-9.
19. T. Domotor, 'Principal Problems of the Investigation on the Ethnography
of the Industrial Working Class in Hungary', Acta Ethnographica, 5, p. 335.
20. See R. M. Dorson on Gary, Indiana in 'Is There a Folk in the City?',
Journal of American Folklore, 83, pp. I85-228; and B. Nettl on Detroit in 'Folk
Music in the Metropolis', chapter 7 of An Introduction to Folk-Music in the
United States (Detroit, Wayne State University Press, i96o), and 'Aspects of
Folk Music in North American Cities', in G. List and J. Orrego-Salas, eds.,
Music in the Americas (The Hague, 1967), pp. 139-47.

I88

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE STUDY OF CHANGE IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

21. See again chapter 8 of B. Nettl, Theory and Method in Eth

for examples.
22. Ibid., p. 242.
23. D. Buchan, The Ballad and the Folk (RKP, 1972), especially parts three to
five.
24. B. Nettl, Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology, p. 236.

This article is an adaptation of part of an M.Phil. thesis, 'Industrialization and

Popular Culture: A Study of Lancashire Handloom Weavers, 178o-1840',
presented to the University of London in 1974.

189

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Thu, 15 Jun 2023 06:16:53 +00:00
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms