Intercultural music psychology Better late than never

Intercultural music psychologyBetter late than never Richard Parncutt Centre for Systematic Musicology University of Graz, Austria Joint Meeting of the National Committees of Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia of the International Council for Traditional Music Vienna, Austria, 27 May 2011 SysMus Graz

My right (not?) to speak… My qualification • music psychology: • perception of structure, origins of tonality/ music, performance • ethnomusicology: • no “exotic” fieldwork… • intercultural music psychology: • preliminary empirical study (1986!) • Conference on Applied Interculturality Research (2009) • My motivation: interest in • music including its cultural diversity • intercultural interaction – countries, disciplines, gender…

Social groups and discrimination Any social group • with a clear identity • anysize, anyhierarchicallevel Definition of group membership • “being” • appearance: skin color… • sound: language, dialect, accent… • “doing” religions, academic disciplines…  communitiesofpractice Tendencytowarddiscrimination • competitionforthe same resources • power differences • justificationbytheoriesofself-superiority

Conference on Applied Interculturality ResearchGraz, April 2010 Short term aim • synergize practice and research • in all areasofinterculturality Long term aim • promote intercultural communication • reduce racism

cAIR: Communities of practiceEqual opportunity as a prerequisite for constructive collaboration Equal rights and obligations • practitioners and researchers • practitioners/researchers in different areas • languages, religions, skin colors  Analysis, exposure and deconstruction of implicit theories of self-superiority

Skin color and poverty One billion people are hungry. They are mostly black. A child dies due to hunger or poverty every 5 s.

~ International Conference on Financing for Development Monterrey, Mexico, 2002 world’s 22 richest countries pledge: 0.7% of national income in ODA (official developmental assistance) ~$200 billion/year (cf. Iraq war: ~$100 bn/year) ~could eliminate extreme poverty (Sachs, 2005) Average current level of ODA ~0.33% USA~ 0.22%

Intercultural music psychologyan interaction between two communities of practice Intercultural includes multi-, cross- and transcultural Music psychology psychol. research methods  musical questions Intercultural music psychology aka psychoethnomusicology Prerequisiteforsuccess equal, deep, detailedcollaboration ofethnomusicologistsandmusicpsychologists

Communities of practice in intercultural music psychologyTwo independent potentials for othering and discrimination 1. Object of study Individual musical “cultures” 2. Disciplines Ethnomusicology (mainly humanities) Music psychology (mainly sciences

Quick quiz Have you ever thought that scientists* have no right to talk about non-Western cultures or intercultural comparison? Has a scientist* ever given you the impression that ethnomusicologists have no right to talk about sciences such as music psychology? “Science” in English refers to natural, social and formal sciences; excludes humanities

Twospecific-general dichotomies 1. Cultural relativism versus universalism • ethnomusicology vs comparative musicology • uniqueness vsglobalisation & universal rights 2. Humanities versus sciences • humanities: specific musics • sciences: general principles Aim in both cases: an appropriate balance

“Better late than never” -??? Disappearingcultures  museumapproach? OR Take advantageoftheunused potential ofinterdisciplinarity?

Recentresearch in interculturalmusicpsychology Fewstudies Practicaldifficulty: become a psychologist, get a job, thengo on ethnomusicologicalfieldtrip?! Increasingawarenessofissues beingawareofandavoidingculturalbias

“Universal recognition of three basic emotions in music”Fritz … Peretz … Koelsch, Current Biology, 2009 Method • Mafa (Cameroun) ratedemotion in Western recordings • facialexpressions happy, sad, scary… Result • universal sensitivityforbasicemotions in music Pros • goodpsychologicalmethod, goodjournal, attractedattention Cons • unsurprising (similarreports in otherjournals) • Western listenersdid not rate Mafamusic • noMafaco-authorship • collaborationwithethnomusicologists?

“Lost in translation”Demorest et al., Music Perception, 2008 Method • US & Turkishparticipantshearunfamiliar US & Turkishmusic • All participantsare uni students in large cities Result • Bothgroupsbetteratrememberingmusicofownculture  Empiricaldemoofeffectofenculturation on musiccognition • Turks betteratremembering Western than Chinese music • Noeffectofmusicalexpertise ( passiveenculturation) Pros • Goodpsychologicalmethodology • Symmetricalrolesof 2 cultures (music, participants, researchers) Cons • trivial result? • noequalcollaborationwith a Turkishuniversity

“Lost in translation”Demorest et al., Music Perception, 2008 “It is clear from these results that any study of music cognition needs to consider the match between the culture of the listener and that of the stimulus material. Future work examining ‘universal’ properties of music processing must include participants and musics from several distinct cultures to account for possible effects of enculturation. Research in music cognition that includes diverse music and subject populations will provide an effective empirical complement to the qualitative work of anthropologists and ethnomusicologists and lead to a more unified view of the role of culture in shaping cognitive development in music.” (p. 221)

“Bimusicalism”Implicit dual enculturation of cognitive and affective systemsWong, Roy & Margulis, Music Perception, 2009 Method • Indian, Western and “bimusical” listeners • Recognition memoryandtensionjudgments Results • Replication ofDemorest et al. • Resultsforbimusicallistenersliebetween Indian & Western Pros • Goodmethod; symmetricalrolesof 2 cultures Cons • Trivial result? • Impoverishedstimulitoincrease experimental control (unaccompaniedmelodies on Sitar and piano) • meaninglessto rate tensionof a melodywhenfinished?

“Fusion theory and Asante ivory trumpet music“ Joseph S. Kaminsky, Muzyka, 2009 Findings • Asante know this music is dissonant (to scare enemies) • Highly dissonant soundscan also fuse (contra Stumpf) But… • Dissonance can be due to roughness, independent of fusion Misleading statements… • “fusion is a neurophysiological phenomenon” • in fact experiential - an epiphenomenon of neural processing • “fusion is a cultural construct” • in any culture you can ask how many tones have been played • “If a dissonance does not require a resolution, it may be considered a consonance, within its context” (citing Kolinski) • The definitionofdissonancerefersinitiallyonlyto an isolatedsonority Solution: Collaborationwithmusicpsychology!

(Western) consonanceaccordingtomusicpsychology 3 psychological components, all universal? • roughness (Helmholtz)  peripheral • fusion (Stumpf, cf. Terhardt)  central, “hard-wired” • familiarity (Cazden)  central, “soft-wired”? Arguments for a cross-cultural approach • Infant sensitivity (motherese research) • caring adults have consonant voices • angry adults can be dangerous • General definition of “consonance” • Is this a good sound or pattern? • Do these two sounds or patterns go together? • No more culture-specific than “music”!

Cross-cultural similarities and differences Thompson & Balkwill, in Juslin & Sloboda 2010, Music and Emotion “Of critical importance in cross-cultural research is an awareness of one‘s own cultural perspectives and how they can bias every facet of the research, from the question being asked, to the methodology employed, to the analysis strategy employed, to the interpretation of observations. Consulting with members of the cultures under investigation is one important way of increasing an awareness of one‘s biases.” (p. 759)

Cross-cultural similarities and differences Thompson & Balkwill, in Juslin & Sloboda 2010, Music and Emotion “Cross-cultural emotional decoding”: In evolutionary psychology we separate • phylogenetic (“genetic”, “inborn”) • ontogenetic (“cultural”, “learned”) • universal (universalsofenvironmentandbiology) • culture-specific • THREE categories! The differenceisadaptation… …ismusicitself an adaptation?  relationbetweenearlymusicalpredispositions & enculturation?

Infant musicalitye.g. many studies by Trehub and collaborators Sensitivity to... • melodic contour; relative pitch/duration • specific musical intervals (e.g. fifths) • changes in unequal scales/rhythms + pulse (Winkler et al., 2009; Phillips-Silver & Trainor, 2005) These are “predispositions” “evident in infancy, before they have obvious utility” (Trehub, 2001)

Origins of infant musicalitytwo possibilities • “Genetic” (Trehub) selection for music (mate attraction, training, social glue, motherese…) • Learned (Parncutt) prenatal exposure to changing maternal sound, movement and hormone levels  Both imply universal musical sensitivities!

Musical emotion Hot topic in musicpsychology e.g. Juslin & Sloboda (2010) Different fromeverydayemotoin e.g. morenostalgiaandspirituality Paradox ofsimultaneousemotions e.g. in rock: joyandanger  Not evenunderstood in West Letaloneelsewhere!

Universals in (musical) emotion My tip for psychologists: To avoid reification, anchor emotions to functions (survival, reproduction) • Cold/heatandpain discomfort • Hunger andthirst satisfaction • Disease and health; healing songs • Fear and cosiness (dangerous situations) • Anger and acceptance (getting your own way); war songs • Sexual lustandfrustration; „love“ songs • Love andloneliness (parent-child, friends, lovers) • Happinessandsadnessassociatedwiththeabove • Idea: it‘s ok toinvestigatemusicalemotionacrossculturesifthe (evolutionary) functionoftheemotionisclear • Assumption: nochange in „human nature“ in 100 000 years

Interculturalmusicpsychology:Historical context Around 1900 • Stumpf and others • very successful, considering social and cultural context After World War Two • rise of ethnomusicology, fall of comparative musicology • separation of ethnomusicology from “systematic musicology” • broader context: “two cultures” of humanities & sciences (Snow) • separation at two levels: musical cultures, academic disciplines

Interculturalmusicpsychology: Solutions Deep, detailedcollaborationbetween • ethnomusicologyandmusicpsychology • humanitiesandsciences in musicology Interdisciplinary peer-review procedures • onereviewerfrom EM, onefrom MP, e.g.: • Music Perceptionsubmissions ethnomusicologists • Ethnomusicologysubmissions musicpsychologists

Conference on Interdisciplinary MusicologyJournal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies Forums for constructive interaction among all subdisciplines or paradigms of musicology: analytical, applied, comparative, cultural, empirical, ethnological, historical, popular, scientific, systematic, theoretic ...and all musically relevant disciplines: acoustics, aesthetics, anthropology, archeology, art history and theory, biology, composition, computing, cultural studies, economics, education, ethnology, gender studies, history, linguistics, literary studies, mathematics, medicine, music theory and analysis, neurosciences, perception, performance, philosophy, physiology, prehistory, psychoacoustics, psychology, religious studies, semiotics, sociology, statistics, therapy

Conference on Interdisciplinary MusicologyJournal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies promote interdisciplinary collaboration within musicology All contributions have at least two authors. They represent at least two of the following three groups: humanities, sciences, practically oriented disciplines. focus on quality rather than quantity Academic standards are promoted by anonymous peer review of submitted abstracts by independent international experts in relevant (sub-) disciplines. The review procedure is transparent, and the reviews are impersonal and constructive. promote musicology's unity in diversity CIM promotes all interdisciplinary music research and treats all musically relevant disciplines and musicological subdisciplines equally.

Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicologyprevious conferences

Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicologyin future, we need more ethnomusicology!

Conference on Interdisciplinary MusicologyWhy? • Fragmentation of musicology • Starkly contrasting epistemologies • Institutional separation of subdisciplines • Counterproductive power structures

Fragmentation of musicologyA “semiquantitative” history of music research: historical systematic ethnological 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

Institutional separation of musicological subdisciplinesconflicts between “communities of practice” out-group(Others) • music acoustics • music psychology • music physiology • music computing • in-group (“the” musicology) • music history • music theory/analysis • cultural studies • intermediate • ethnomusicology • pop/jazz research • music sociology • music philosophy • performance research

Power games in musicology Ambiguous use of word “musicology” • broad definition (correct) = all study of all music • narrow = music history of western cultural elites Ambiguous use of “science” • broad definition includes humanities • narrow (correct) excludes) Status of humanities • in universities: too little power • in musicology: too much power

Solution: “Integration” • multidisciplinary balance • promotion of minority disciplines • democracy, balance of power • gender/culturebalance • womenresearchers • non-western researchers • collaboration • teamwork and collegiality • intra- and interdisciplinary quality control

Collegiality in interdisciplinary teamssocial consonance and dissonance • common goals • research question • excellence • democracy • equal value and rights of team members • mutual respect • transparency • clear statement of aims • openness to evaluation • quality control • evaluation within disciplines • realistic appraisal of strengths, weaknesses • mutual constructive criticism

Role of internal quality control Europeans can’t evaluate Ghanaian music Psychologists can’t evaluate historical research Musical subculture: • internal aesthetic norms • procedures to promote “good” music Academic subdiscipline: • internal epistemological/methodological norms • procedures to promote “good” research • Definitions of “music”, its “study”, “musicology”

The bottomline • Interaction between musical cultures • Respect their uniqueness and autonomy • Promote “integration” (Parncutt & Dorfer, 2009) • Interaction between musicological subdisciplines • Respect their uniqueness and autonomy • Promote “integration” of musicology

Intercultural music psychology Better late than never