Critical Review 6: Nettl

Nettl describes his work in the music buildings of "Heartland U," the name used to represent all the colleges in which Nettl worked and researched. The central question that should be on an Ethnomusicologist's mind, Nettl tells us, is the question of why a society has a certain music or musical culture. Music can often serve as a microcosm of a culture, not in that it necessarily exemplifies or reflects certain aspects of culture, but it is informative, even if we find that the music represents an idealized version of cultural values. The importance of the "who" in music should not be overlooked, and this is especially relevent in Western Classical music, which sees a certain select group of composers as Godlike, and Nettl compares the heirarchy of how much these composers are valued to the heirarchy within the Greek Gods and Goddesses. Aside from the quasi-religious element of how Western Classical music is appreciated, Nettl informs us of other values and practices within the culture of Western Classical music, such as referring to a great living composer as a "talent" and a deceased composer as a "genius," and often the latter will be referred to as if still alive. Nettl discusses the differences in how Mozart and Beethoven, two composers among those most highly respected and worshipped, are valued differently (Mozart had an otherworldly innate sense of genius while Beethoven had to work hard to accomplish what he did). Nettl continues to describe Western Classical music culture, describing such things as the order on a concert program and the roles of individuals in an orchestra.


Nettl claims that, despite his insider status, he will at times take the viewpoint of an "E.T." in his approach to Western Classical music and in his ethnography in order to gain a sense of perspective and eliminate bias. We have read other ethnographies written by insiders into their own cultures. However, I would argue that Western Classical music is a form that is at least familiar to the general audience being targetted here. Based on the audience's presumed familiarity with the subject, is there anything that might be missed, biased, or assumed because an insider is communicating to an audience that is generally familiar with the music style described?