Activist Ethnomusicology in the Anthropocene

Luca Gambirasio

University College Cork

Studying music is a radical choice. Aware of job insecurities, music scholars operate against market trends, trying to make a difference in a world in which the arts and humanities are often put aside in favor of the harder sciences. Ethnomusicology is a radical field. Many of us stand against injustice, fighting for inclusivity, and the fairness of cultural representation. The applied part of our field is defined as research that deals with and solves problems and enhances the quality of life of the community in which our work is set (Harrison 2016)—and in this sense, many scholars argue that all ethnomusicology is applied to some extent (Harrison 2012), whether we struggle to save a fading musical tradition or we study the social benefits of a particular type of community sonic practice.

During the last twenty or so years, scholars working in a variety of fields have been debating whether or not we have entered into a new geological epoch. Following the Holocene, the “entirely new” [1] era that began after the last glaciation roughly twelve thousand years ago, we now live in the Anthropocene, a name with a human-centric connotation. The claim at the basis of this discussion is that during the last three hundred years human activity has had a huge impact on the planet (Crutzen 2006). While the etymology of the term is currently the subject of debate (Luciano 2022), humans have changed Earth forever, driven by the social, political, and economical dimensions of their behaviors (Zalasiewicz et al. 2008). The impact is believed to be so profound, that signs of human activity will probably be observable in the geological stratigraphic record in the future, somehow comparably with the still-observable impact of the various ice ages (Lewis and Maslin 2015).

As ethnomusicologists, culture is the object of our daily joy and struggle. We work with culture, we sustain culture, we promote culture, and we apply culture. Culture is not divided from nature, in the same way an organism is not separated from its environment. The concept of nature evokes the idea of an external entity, and humans look upon it often with detachment, and yet the environments continually affect our existence “since we shape them as they shape us” (Ingold 2000, 20).

The discourse about the Anthropocene and some of its elements such as human-caused biodiversity loss and climate change are hyperobjects way too vast in space and time to be conceived—or solved—by humans who can deal with them only isolating some of their components (Morton 2013). What if ethnomusicology could play a role in this? What if, considering the cultural component of the more evident hyperobject of the Anthropocene, the ecological crisis (Allen 2011), we could apply our culture production-sustaining-promotion-scholarship towards the macro? After all, if we consider the Anthropocene as the age in which human choices and activities impact life on Earth, perhaps from the tiny disciplinary niche(s) of music studies, we can choose to use our skills and tools to frame research and actions that create a positive impact.

Scholarship that goes in this direction is often research fueled by personal motivation, by the need to make a positive difference in the life of others (Alviso 2003), and so is my scholarship. This article is not a comprehensive account of activism in ethnomusicology, or generally, in music studies, nor does it aim to be a review paper of hot topics like “music and ecology” or “music and the Anthropocene,” but it is centered on scholarship that I find inspiring. It is largely subjective, and it is based on my personal approach to this discipline, influenced by my dissertation topic. I research a variety of sonic responses to the ecological crisis in Tuscany, Italy that address the perceived lack of connection between local communities and their environment, employing a comprehensive approach that aims to include music of various genres as used to promote areas of naturalistic interest, activist music, and soundwalks.

I am motivated and inspired by research that goes beyond adding a line to the CV, research that does not end with a dissertation, or with obtaining a (rare) academic job. Instead, I am inspired by research that aims to create positive change through its outcomes, methodologies, and daily fieldwork practices. And this is why I have been drawn to ethnomusicology, under its environmentalist understandings and applications. Within music studies, ecomusicology is possibly the field that has taken the Anthropocene most seriously. Ecomusicology is a place where various disciplines meet, overlap, and cross-pollinate (Pedelty et al. 2022); it is the study of all the complex ontologies of music, culture, and nature when in relation to each other (Allen and Dawe 2016), especially in a time of environmental crisis (Titon 2013). In this sense, ecomusicology is possibly one of the most diverse collective responses of music studies towards the crisis of the Anthropocene, including eco-ethnomusicology, meaning scholarship that employs ethnomusicological methodologies to understand ecological issues (Post and Pijanowski 2018). The various ecomusicologies demonstrate that music and the environment are so inherently intertwined that one induces changes in the other, and vice versa. Climate change has several effects on communities and their music, as observed, for example, in Kazakh Mongolian cultural production as a consequence of climate and mobility patterns change (Post 2021). Climate change affects the economy, and economy affects music, as Michael Silvers observed in Brazil, where severe drought in the northeastern area of the country forced the local governments to divert fundings flows, thus affecting local policies, the materiality of musical instruments, and social relations (Silvers 2018).

All diverse ecomusicologies sit somewhere along the continuum between poetic and practical approaches to the crisis of the Anthropocene (Allen 2021). Poetic approaches are those that elucidate understandings of the connection between musical practices and the environment, constructing evocative ecological ideas around a sense of place (Dibaba 2021), whereas practical approaches are those that build on the assumption that sound and music directly impact the environment and its ecosystems, and vice versa, problematizing the role of cultural practitioners such as musicians, composers, and facilitators, and analyzing their direct impact on the communities (Allen 2021). In this sense, Mark Pedelty urges music scholarship to apply the outcomes and methodologies towards community benefits, thus bridging research, local identities, and meaningful actions that bring concrete benefits to communities (Pedelty 2016, 2017). The work of the “Field to Media” project is notable in this regard, employing visual means along with music to raise awareness and bring social change in different contexts around the world (Pedelty et al. 2020).

If it is true that music and music studies and the environment affect each other, then it is true that music can affect society and induce change. Musicologist David Hesmondhalgh builds on Martha Nussbaum’s understanding of the capability approach in development studies [2] to highlight how much music matters and is a tool that aids community development, an individualist by-product of a capitalist society (Hesmondhalgh 2013), and influences behavior towards consumerism (Taylor 2012). Ethnomusicologists are well aware of the influence that music has on society. Localized case studies provide models of participatory musical activities used to promote social change through enacting active and alternative forms of citizenship, especially if we broaden the definition of musical participation to include listening and dancing. Thomas Turino observes how musical participatory practices help to re-frame sets of shared habits of context-specific social units—or cohorts—by enabling the imagination of alternatives that go against what is the perceived “common sense” of a particular culture. These activities frame spaces where individuals can enact alternative ways of being social, even in our capitalist societies (Turino 2016).

We must think contextually, we must think of the planet as a whole, and we must think ecologically. To think ecologically is to acknowledge the interconnection between all the elements that populate Earth’s ecosystems (Morton 2010; Devall and Sessions 1985). This implies a holistic approach to the sonic realm that involves going beyond the notion of ethnomusicology as the study of people making music to a more inclusive eco-ethnomusicological approach that considers all sounds, including sonic communication between living beings (Titon 2021) and environmental sounds, that often inform local ecological epistemologies of places (Feld 2012 [1982]). In this sense, the work of Benjamin Tausig is notable in his approach, even though it is not strictly related to environmental ecology. In an extensive account of 2010-2011 Thailand’s political protests, Tausig chose to include all the sound, whether it is cassette music, protest songs, or the city soundscape during the demonstrations (Tausig 2019). According to Michael Silvers (2020), ethnomusicologists could learn more about how to tackle the current crisis, considering that human musicking affects the non-human world, and vice versa. [3]

In conclusion, can we ethnomusicologists (and more generally, music scholars) make any difference in the Anthropocene? Short answer: maybe yes, but it will be hard. The change we can apport as individuals is but a little step forward, but that’s important too! Juha Torvinen lists three elements of scholarly activism: it involves a plurality of individuals, it aims to make a change through convincing arguments, and it is slow (Torvinen 2022). Expanding on these points, I believe that an activist music research should include:

1. Direct, beneficial impact on the community and its environment through the active participation of the community members and working through local infrastructures. Creative social work can be evaluated following the conceptual approach defined by Kathleen Van Buren and Brian Shrag (2018) in which the members of the community are the focal point for a holistic evaluation process of the impact of a research project outside academia.

2. A more inclusive, post-humanist, approach to the sonic dimension of life on Earth in its entirety that includes all musicking and sound, not only the one made by humans, avoiding divisive distinctions between sound and music. To acknowledge all sounds as equally important is a step forward to acknowledging relationships of interdependence between all the elements of the planet’s ecosystem. To observe all the aspects of life musically (Pilzer 2021), ultimately aiming to move from an anthropocentric understanding of the universe to an ecocentric one (Allen and Titon 2019), in which humans are but a small part of it.

3. Strong motivation and commitment towards advocacy work, and trust in the proof that music, and music scholarship, matter, and can induce social change, no matter how slow.

This article may seem incomplete, and it probably is. I included here what inspired me in believing that I too, in my own small way, can counteract the current crisis, and perhaps be part of the movement from an anthropocentric society towards a more holistic, just, and inclusive, ecocentric one. I am aware that many readers will not feel included or represented here, but instead of apologizing—for I might not have encountered some research yet—I want to leave this essay open-ended, again to try to go beyond institutionalized norms around academic writing and scholarly publication. I encourage whoever reads this to write an email to semstudentnews@gmail.com with their understanding of activism in music studies. Some of the responses will be included in the next issue of SEM Student News, and please, do include what inspires, motivates, and moves you, because it is where our hearts take us that ultimately matters.

Notes:

References

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