Category: ethnomusicology

  • From the Village to the Concert Hall

    Bartók recording folk music. His subject sings into the horn of an Edison phonograph, which incised a cylinder disk with a needle. Bela Bartók was one of the earliest ethnomusicologists. Here is a field recording he made of Romanian folk dances. Here is his piano composition entitle Romanian Folk Dances. Here is a folk song he…

  • The Appropriation of Cultures

    Listen to a wonderful live reading of Percival Everett’s 1996 short story “The Appropriation of Cultures”: This is the song, “Dixie,” that Everett’s character Daniel sings. It was written in 1859, and was adopted, with additional lyrics, as the national anthem of the Confederacy. Perhaps the way that Daniel sings “Dixie” sounded something like jazz…