Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES SummER 2014 Sai-natiOnal.ORg 6 By elizaBeth Wood i am a first-year Master's student at the University of California, Riverside, studying ethnomusicology, basically, the study of the intersection between music and culture. Béla Bartók was one of the first people to do what we would today call ethnomusicological work, studying Central European folk music. At the time he was working, as in most other fields, women were few and far between. Today, however, many of the most important and well-known ethnomusicologists are women, and I got to meet several of them when I traveled to Indianapolis for the 58 th Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology in November. e conference was packed with presentations, round-table discussions, workshops, lectures, exhibits, and receptions. Scholars and students from universities all over the country and a few international schools exchanged research and fieldwork experiences. e topics discussed varied widely, but I will highlight a couple of standout presentations that I attended. On a ursday aernoon, I went to a panel on taiko (Japanese drumming) in North America. e second paper, presented by Dr. Angel Ahlgren from Ohio University, discussed white women in North American taiko and the challenges they face as the minority group. Because taiko is practiced predominantly by Asian-American women in North America, the presence of a white woman on stage during a performance tends to defy audience expectations. e cultural norm associating men with percussion further displaces the white woman taiko player from the expected "authenticity" of the performance. Dr. Ahlgren talked about her experience in the Midwest and how her skill as a performer had to compensate for her white skin, blonde hair, and womanhood: Audience members would come up to her aer shows and tell her how good she was, with "even though you're white" implied. One of the ultimate questions raised by Dr. Ahlgren was whether the involvement of a white person in an otherwise Asian/Asian-American experience erases the "Asian." is question was expanded on and mused upon by Dr. Deborah Wong, my professor at UCR and the discussant for the panel. She questioned whether taiko is still a strictly Asian or Asian-American practice and whether the researchers studying taiko have the necessary tools yet to adequately address its recently attained status as a truly global phenomenon. e next day I went to one of the most popular panels of the conference. It was called "Practices of Desire: e Implications of Erotic Subjectivity in Ethnomusicological Field Research," and... was about the challenges women face when doing research. One paper discussed the difficulties faced by a woman who fell in love with one of her informants; marrying him or even just being open about their relationship had the potential to jeopardize her scholastic reputation and her career. Another paper discussed the experiences of single women doing fieldwork in parts of the world where women are required or expected to have a husband with them in public. e presenter talked about how she was verbally harassed by men on the streets because of the lack of a gold band on her le ring finger and a man on her arm and how the first question she was always asked was, "Where is your husband?" e discussant and audience members talked about how many ethnomusicology programs don't currently have the adequate courses to teach women how to protect themselves in the field and how to handle the attitudes they may encounter from men. However, one audience member stood and talked about a mentorship program being started within the Society for Ethnomusicology for that very purpose – to connect women who are getting ready to do their fieldwork with women who have already gone through it so they can get advice and have someone to talk to. ere were, of course, many other papers given, including ones on gender, race, sexuality, globalization, nationalism, and education. ere were also lunchtime concerts, one featuring bagpipes and another Colombian musicians; evening concerts featuring Sogbety Diomande's West African Drum and Dance Company and the Indiana University Soul Revue; workshops on Colombian dance and tassa drumming; and receptions for different colleges every night. People would also gather in the lobby of the hotel throughout the day to play music together and sing, and by Sunday aernoon I was exhausted. I learned a lot, however, and had a blast. I met students at other schools throughout the country and got one step further in deciding on the topic for my dissertation. It is my hope that you have learned something about ethnomusicology by reading this article, and that if you are interested you will look further into it. No matter where you are in life, I think you'll be able to find something there that applies to you. Elizabeth Wood is an initiate of Gamma Iota at James Madison University, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in Music Industry and Percussion. She is a Sword of Honor recipient and a current member of the Riverside-San Bernardino Counties Alumnae Chapter. MusIc notes Society of Ethnomusicology Meets in Indianapolis For more information on the Society for Ethnomusicology visit ethnomusicology.org. clIcK For More t he People-to-People Project is delighted to now be working with BLUME Haiti. On its website, BLUME Haiti states it "works with Haitian and International partners to develop leadership skills, awaken individual potential, and create opportunities for social and civic collaboration, and economic development through music education and performance." A small shipment of music stands, strings, and rosin was delivered to the president of BLUME Haiti, Janet Anthony, in late June. She and other members of BLUME Haiti will deliver these materials during their summer trip to Haiti. I extend my sincere thanks to all members and chapters who have supported the SAI P2P Project in the past. anks to your generosity, the SAI P2P Project currently assists more than 15 organizations world-wide by supplying much needed instruments and other materials. If you or your chapter is interested in assisting the SAI P2P Project, please contact Director Liana Valente (Liana@omegatower.com) before embarking on any venture to discuss current needs of the project. People-to-People Project Update

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