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PART V EUROPE AND RUSSIA

winter and kept traveling as soon as the snow melted. The concept of a “grand tour” was certainly alive and well in the 1980s! The idea of the “grand tour” inspired the belief that Western European architec ture, foods, and arts represent the highest achievements of civilization; that every one outside of Western Europe was unworthy, somehow. In many respects, this set of attitudes has affected scholarship about the music and people of the rest of the world, to the point that ethnomusicology has itself been characterized as a lesser pursuit than the much more “serious” sounds that you might hear on the grand tour (presumably opera, symphony orchestras, and string quartets). Please keep in mind, though, that in ethnomusicology we study all the world’s musics in cultural context, and that includes the music of Europe, too. European music has certain musical instruments common to most areas: fiddles, plucked lutes, wind instruments such as flutes and oboes, accordions, bagpipes, and drums of various shapes and sizes. European music has songs for seasonal celebrations, laments, calming babies, wooing lovers, honoring patrons, and en gaging in religious practices. Some, but not all, instrumental music is intended to accompany dancers. Some, but not all, vocal music is performed solo. So how does one distinguish the music of Ireland from that of Spain (or France, Sweden, or the Netherlands), or the music of Bulgaria from that of Russia (or the Republic of Georgia, Ukraine, or Poland)? Collectively, we listen for rhythms, melodies, genres, and timbres that immediately differentiate the Irish uilleann bagpipes from the gaita bagpipes of Northwest Spain, or the gaida bagpipes of Bulgaria from the volynka bagpipes of Russia. We explore the contexts of music for laments, religious practices, and courtship. We ask questions, we make mistakes, we correct those mistakes, and we move on; each time we hope to approach more closely what it means to be a participant-observer in a European musical context . . . and not solely in Western Europe.

Europe has a history of acting as the colonial master for much of the rest of the world. Politically, nations in Western Europe colonized Africa in a period of just thirty terrible years at the end of the 19th century (the “Scramble for Africa”). Although Christianity began in the Middle East (as did Judaism and Islam), the colonial arm of Catholicism came to the Americas from places such as Madrid and Lisbon, not Bethlehem. After the Reformation, the enforcement of an Anglican (Protestant) vision on places such as Ireland and India came from England. As a collective political powerhouse, the European leadership of the West became wealthy, while those living east of the Alps faced armies from Turkey (the Ottomans), Central Asia (Genghis Khan and his soldiers), and elsewhere. Even as the United States moved toward independence in 1776 and Canada attained PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS