The Cultural Study of Musical Instruments

Abstract

The sound-producing devices we call musical instruments are firmly embedded in local music cultures worldwide as well as a part of global cultural flows in which they are swept up and relocated (whether in the hands of musicians, tourists, collectors, or museum curators). The forces that move musical instruments around the globe are tied to multifarious systems of social, cultural, economic, and political exchange, their value and meaning negotiated and contested in a variety of cultural arenas. The movement of musical instruments across cultural boundaries is an especially problematic and sensitive issue, as much as “world music” is a thorny and contentious issue. After all, musical instruments are as symbolic and emblematic of peoples and of places as any other musical phenomenon. What I call “world music instruments” are those instruments caught up in the transnational movement of consumer goods, the international trade in “ethnic” crafts, global tourism, and a multimillion dollar music business and musical instrument manufacturing industry. Here, musical instruments are taken into new cultural territories and beyond the range of experience of many of the people who brought them into being. Yet, at the same time musical instruments are still to be found in place in many local contexts throughout the world. When considering the role of musical instruments in the modern world, one quickly enters into a debate about the relationship between objectification and modernity, and how peoples and their artifacts are represented, misrepresented, or not represented at all. Ultimately, any field that defines itself as “the study of musical instruments” has to take all of these matters on board.

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