The Year 1968 marked the coming of age of the International Folk Music Council. As I was in some measure responsible for its birth twenty-one years earlier, the Executive Board invited me to give an account of its activities during that time.

In a Stimulating and comprehensive survey of some of the problems of ethnomusicology, Professor Mantle Hood distinguished three important aspects of our study of music: 1. The function of music as an aspect of the behaviour of man in society. 2. Characteristic musical style identified in its own terms and viewed in relation to its society. 3. The intrinsic value of individual pieces of music viewed in relation to the world of music.

Zambia is, for administrative purposes, divided into eight provinces: the Northern, the Luapula, the Western, the Northwestern, the Eastern, the Central, the Southern, and the Barotse. Linguistically, it is divided into four main language groups: the Bemba, the Nyanja, the Tonga, and the Lozi. The language groupings coincide to a great extent with the provinces, with the Bemba-speaking people spread over the Northern, Luapula, Western, and parts of the Central provinces. The Nyanja speakers are in the Eastern Province, the Tonga speakers in the Southern and parts of the Central provinces, and the Lozi speakers in Barotse Province. The Northwestern Province is occupied by a group of tribes whose lingua franca is usually regarded as Luvale-Mbunda.

Tonangebende Richtungen der Avantgarde haben aus der seit langem tiefgreifend schwelenden gesellschaftlichen Krise der Musik in diesem Jahrhundert die Konsequenz gezogen, musikalische Kunstwerke setzen zu können, die aller Konvention entrückt sind und keinen außermusikalischen Zwecken zu genügen haben. Aus frei mit dem Material umgehender Subjektivität heraus, die bereit ist — ohne das Engagement einer sozialen Selbstverpflichtung — ganz auf sich verwiesen und unter Erleiden einer zuweilen bitter quälenden Einsamkeit zu existieren, entstanden mithin Kompositionen, die ohne Rücksicht auf die nahe Mitwelt und die Realitäten ausschließlich an künstlerischen Notwendigkeiten orientiert waren. Neben der Anbiederung an die gemeine Menge mittels verbindlichen, gefälligen, von Trivialitäten und Klischees durchwirkten Werken der großen Zahl, rangen um keinen Konsensus nachsuchende, gänzlich frei sich wähnende “Schöpfer neuer Musik” um die Realisation von Tonstücken, die die Allgemeinheit brüskiert ablehnte. Paul Hindemith ist als “Bürger-schreck,” als aufrührerisches enfant terrible sowie als rücksichtslos empfundener “Neutöner” der letzt genannten Tendenz während einiger junger Jahre nachgefolgt. Mit dreistem Gestus schrieb und interpretierte er eine antiromantisch gemeinte Musik ohne Weihe, Pathos und konventionelle Schönheit. Diese frech wirkende Demonstration des Unbehagens am Etablierten wurde ihm zeitlebens nicht vergessen und mancherseits auch nicht verziehen, obwohl Hindemith sehr bald in einem Prozess von “Selbstbescheidung” (Winfried Zillig) davon abließ und gesellschaftlich wie auch künstlerisch um ein erneuertes Verhältnis des Einverständnisses bemüht war. Er ging einen Weg des “Hin und Zurück,” der ihm wieder eine Heimstatt eröffnen sollte und somit eine lebhafte Resonanz im Hier und Jetzt.

In the first part of this paper, three New Zealand Maori scales and a possible fourth were derived from interval associations, using strict criteria of melodic usage. An unexplained fact is the coincidence of these three scales with the plagal forms of the medieval phrygian, ionian, and aeolian modes. Historical connection with ancient Greece seems too unlikely a hypothesis to be entertained, and exposure of the Maoris to the medieval modes through early missionary activity can also be ruled out. An alternative explanation is that the ancient Greeks and the New Zealand Maoris shared common principles in their music which led to the evolution of similar scales, but such principles seem impossible to demonstrate. The conclusion must be that there is, as yet, no acceptable explanation for the parallels observed in this paper between Maori scales and those of medieval Europe and ancient Greece.

This short paper contains some general remarks about a type of Russian folk song called protiazhnaia. It is a unique genre of “old” Russian folk songs and is remarkable for its broad development of melody, to which its profound textual content and overall emotional impact are intimately bound. The subject matter of these songs is highly varied and rich, developing out of a deep lyricism which makes a powerful artistic impression upon those who hear them.

The dance is undoubtedly one of the most powerful and beautiful expressions of the Rumanian people. Its present-day forms are the product of an evolution during which it was subject to diverse influences (both internal and external) and shaped by the spiritual needs of its creators. While part of the whole realm of folk creation, the dance is in itself a most complex phenomenon. Consequently, it has for quite some time been regarded as an independent genre, and little study has been devoted to its relationship with other folkloristic elements.

Un análisis, así sea somero, de la enorme variedad de toques y cantos con los que hoy día acompañan los hombres y mujeres de Latinoamérica su vida diaria ofrecerá al estudioso enseguida también un panorama de las escalas usadas en esa música mucho más vasto y complicado de lo que generalmente se piensa. El mundo criollo no más ofrecerá grandes sorpresas en este sentido, sorpresas que se duplicarán al penetrar y analizar el mundo indígena.

In 1963 the Institute for Scientific Cinematography received the financial means to carry out its first expeditions to make documentary films, and the first comprehensive plans were made for the visual and aural recording of the music of various ethnic groups and of entire populations. Since then, four expeditions have taken us to Thailand, Chad, Hadramout, and the Ivory Coast.

The limited amount of information on the arġūl, often based on secondhand reports or museum exhibits, that has been available to scholars in the past accounts no doubt for many an inadmissible generalization. But European musicologists, accustomed to the relatively high degree of unity and centralization characteristic of the composed music of the West, have also tended to forget that local autonomy is a typical trait of most folk cultures, including Egyptian folk music.