English Music

English vernacular musics (and, of course, classical and popular traditions) are highly rewarding to study with ethnomusicological perspectives. As opposed to "traditional" folkloric approaches (and this is probably an unkind generalisation), the ethnomusicologist is often more concerned with the gathering of material on musical performance seen as a field of human experience and interaction (rather than gathering good recordings of songs or tunes). He or she might look at a range of people that are involved in musical life (not just "source singers"), and at how their musical life fits into their broader experience. The ethnomusicologist would be very interested in what those people had to say, in that he or she would want to try to understand how they reach their understandings (this more so than the expert's sorting out of right from wrong, tracing of historical sources, etc.--an emphasis on social fact above actual fact, as it were). We'd look also at how our own presence and methodology shapes the results we get. There's more to it than this, and much good folklore does exactly these things already, of course. Prospective students are encouraged to get in touch and informally discuss their research plans before applying. Sample research topics include:

• Folk music among expatriate Britons in the USA
• Musical learning among family singers
• Biographical approaches to the folk revival
• A study of the Whitby Folk Festival
• Creating new traditional music
• Improvisation and memorisation in traditional music performance
• Yorkshire carols in contemporary Britain