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New Perspectives on Interactive Field Experiments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2019

Nathalie Fernando-Marandola
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Extract

This article deals with field methodology. It describes conceptual, analytical and practical tools used to study musical scales and proposes an interactive method that was recently developed and tested with the vocal polyphonies of the Bedzan Pygmies of Cameroon. The issues involved are largely cognitive, and they are addressed with experimental procedures using new technologies and work in real time, in the field. Such methods also significantly alter the relationship between the “observer” and the “observed”, with the musicians playing a decisive role in the research process and in all of the steps that characterise this type of study method, guiding the investigator in his work. The subject becomes a partner and plays an active role in the research process.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 34 , 2002 , pp. 163 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 By The International Council for Traditional Music

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Footnotes

1

This research is supported by the French Ministry of Research, ‘Programme Cognitique 2000', project A 108 ‘Conception and perception of musical scales in traditional oral cultures: the case of Ouldémé and Bedzan Pygmies of Cameroon

References

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