Western Norway is uniquely beautiful, but health can
really be a challenge in the cold Nordic winters! After a series of unexpected delays, I
am determined to get caught up with my schedule of writing and editing very soon.
Meanwhile,
there has been another encouraging book review . . .
In NOTES: Quarterly Journal of the Music
Library Association, Justin Hunter describes Theory and Method in Historical
Ethnomusicology as ‘a valuable resource for any music scholar
interested in the past and its relationship with the present. . . . a jaunty
and robust contribution to how music studies could be enhanced by a sensitivity
to historical pasts. McCollum and Hebert’s lengthy discussions of the cognitive
dissonance of cultural memory are particularly poignant for researchers working
to connect oral histories with written sources.’
Jonathan McCollum
and I also co-authored the definition for ‘Historical Ethnomusicology’ in a
forthcoming encyclopedia on Sage press, and we have recently seen our very
short article entitled ‘In Defence of Historical Ethnomusicology’ accepted by the
journal Music and Letters, in which
we manage to correct some misleading claims that were unfortunately
published there by a doctoral student. We look forward to seeing further
reactions to our book in the recognition that some of what we suggested is
likely to stimulate a rethinking of assumptions regarding the musical past as well as both theories and
methods in music research.
