Musics of Multicultural America: A Study of Twelve Musical Communities (review)

Musics of Multicultural America: A Study of Twelve Musical Communities. Edited by Kip Lornell and Anne K. Rasmussen. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997. [xii, 348 p. + 1 compact disc. ISBN 0-02-864585-5 (text); 0-02-864932-X (compact disc). $35 (text); $20 (compact disc).]

The twelve essays in this rich and innovative collection explore diverse traditions that range from Czech American polka music in Wisconsin to Arab music in Detroit and West Indian steelbands in Brooklyn. The contributing authors come from an impressive variety of backgrounds, with training in ethnomusicology, folklore, anthropology, American studies, history, ethnic studies, and other disciplines.

Kip Lornell and Anne K. Rasmussen provide an engaging and highly useful introductory chapter that identifies the collection's unifying themes and issues but goes well beyond this task in many notable ways. Lornell and Rasmussen discuss the contributors themselves, commenting on their backgrounds and perspectives and outlining their scholarship and professional activities. Unifying themes include the intersection of music, community, and identity; the role of core cultural institutions; the actions of individual musicians; music preservation and its impact; and access to and use of mass media. The editors also situate their volume within scholarship on American music and provide short but worthwhile discussions of American musical geography, the study of world music, and music, ethnicity, and identity. Students could profitably return to the issues raised here after having read part or all of the volume. Together, the elements of the introductory chapter add unity, subtlety, and specificity to the collection.

Two of the essays explore traditions from southern states. Ron Pen's account of "fasola folk" provides an accessible history of psalm singing in the United States and then considers two markedly different "tributaries" of the musical tradition. Along the way, Pen raises questions about how one enters a folk tradition, how musical transmission occurs, and how changing contexts affect musical performance--themes that resound throughout the collection. Lornell invokes these and other questions in his study of African American sacred quartets in Memphis. His account of quartet training practices and his exploration of "family" within the tradition are of particular interest.

The midwestern United States is represented by two essays. Jim Leary's contribution on Czech American polka music focuses on a few eastern Wisconsin communities. Here, too, the role of the family in community musicmaking is explored, as are the musical values of the community as a whole. Leary also addresses the theme of changing contexts for musicmaking, with descriptive passages enlivened by evocative quotations from informants. Rasmussen's essay explores a number of contexts--including three wedding celebrations--in Lebanese, Yemeni, and Iraqi sections of Detroit. Her thoughtful reflections on her own fieldwork and roles are substantive and helpful, and likely to interest students greatly. Rasmussen outlines the history of Arab American music and provides an introduction to maqam and iqa', drawing on knowledge a lay reader is likely to have while adding context, nuance, and correction.

New York is the primary locale for three of the communities explored in the collection. Henry Sapoznik's masterful history of klezmer music is beautifully augmented by a detailed consideration of the life and career of klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras. Into this narrative, Sapoznik weaves an account of his awakening to his own musical roots, his founding of the band Kapelye, and the renaissance of klezmer. Sapoznik's brief discussion of issues of "cultural ownership," in which he admits conflict about the proper role for outsiders in klezmer, is typical of reflective offerings to be found throughout the volume; it is provocative and useful. Gage Averill's account of pan and steelbands in New York City explores the role of this music in West Indian identity. In addition to providing histories of Caribbean immigration and steelband, Averill brings to life the nuances of musical arrangement and Carnival preparation and problematizes such simple dichotomies as "amateur/professional" and "local/foreign." In an engrossing essay that provides a...