The Study of Identity, Music, and Government and their relation using the case studies of; Isicathamiya

in South Africa, Art Music in the Soviet Union, and Ganga in Bosnia

Christa Levko PSC 370 Research Methods in Political Science; Dr. Dolan December 16th, 2011

Introduction

The problem this research design is attempting to study is the relationships between identity, music, and government through three case studies; isicathamiya in South Africa, art music (or classical music) in the Soviet Union, and ganga in Bosnia. The research question is how these three case studies can help to evince the complex relationships between identity, music and government through the lens of constructivism. Constructivism is a theory in international relations that deals with ideas, identity, and behavior. There has been a lot of study on the tradition of isicathamiya in South Africa especially after the global rise of the performing group Lady Blacksmith Mambazo. It is a tradition born out of Zulu migrant workers that evolved from Mbube and was influenced heavily by Christian missionaries in the country and is often a vehicle for protest. In and during the Soviet Union, prominent leaders often banned music they perceived as against their goals. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, ganga is a style of community singing where everyone is equal. Using a constructivist analysis of identity and government, these three case studies will show that the relationship between identity, music and government is a complex one in which music plays a very important role. Literature Review In general there has been a lot of study about the characteristics these musical styles hold and how they apply culturally but there is little study on how their relationship to identity allows it to effect government and vice versa. Through the lens of constructivism, a lot of these studies and works can be taken as definitive of a culture and people both of which have extensive relations with their various governments. The primary text in constructivism is Alexander Wendts Anarchy Is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics.

In the article Migration and Performance: Zulu Migrant Workers Isicathamiya Performance in South Africa, 1890-1950, Veit Erlmann writes on isicathamiya and its relationship with labor migration1. In another article, The Past Is Far and the Future Is far: Power and Performance among Zulu Migrant Workers Erlmann attempts to address some epistemological and methodological issues of interpretive anthropology and performance studies that seem to stand in need of critical revision2. Both of these articles emphasize the importance of power relations in South Africa which evinces the social process of the culture. While popular music forms often align with the rich and powerful, genres such as isicathamiya have a musical power encased in their performance. This idea is central to this research design and will hopefully be extrapolated to other genres as well. Liz Gunther, from the University of Kwa-Zulu in South Africa writes about isicathamiya as a form of mediating subjectivity on a national and transnational scale. Gunner makes note that international groups such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo has to limit its discourse accordingly because in international venues they are not able to engage in discussion of urgent current events the way they would like to3. The conclusion of this paper notes the importance of self-memory in the performances of isicathamiya and emphasizes ties in performances to political and social commentary by the Zulu workers. In Soviet Russia on January 28th, 1936, Dmitry Shostakovichs new opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was chosen as the vehicle for announcing a new official policy of musical and artistic repression4. An anonymous article was published in Pravda, the
1 p. 199 Erlmann, Veit. "Migration and Performance: Zulu Migrant Workers' Isicathamiya Performance in South Africe, 1890-1950." Ethnomusicology 34.2 (1990): 199-220. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. 2 p. 688 Erlmann, Veit. ""The Past Is Far and the Future Is Far": Power and Performance among Zulu Migrant Workers." American Ethnologist 19.4 (1992): 688-709. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. 3 Gunner, Liz. "Zulu Choral Music: Performing Identities in a New State." Research in African Literatures 37.2 (2006): 83-97. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. 4 p. 127 Morgan, Robert P., ed. Strunk's Source Readings in Music History: The Twentieth Century. W. W. Norton &, 1997. Print.

Party paper, calling the work primitive, vulgar, spasmodic and noting that the audience should anticipate to be shocked by deliberate dissonance, by a confused stream of sounds5. This article is a key source which marks the Partys feelings towards what they perceived as a dangerous trend in Soviet music leftist distortion. The accusation that this piece was apolitical shows clearly that the political element in Soviet art had to satisfy very specific criteria6. The relationship between Soviet composers and the official government policy toward the arts was complex and shifting.7 In order to write, composers had to walk the party line8 very meticulously. Many composers were forced into folklorist studies or unimportant bureaucratic posts because of their compositional styles9. Studies about this time period in Russia are mostly purely historical and not compared with the idea of identity even though the Partys position was that art needed to be worthy of the Soviet people. Hopefully this case is able to exemplify the negative effects that government can have on music. Because the government so vehemently opposed certain artists and composers it shows they recognized the power that the music held. Dr. Ankica Petrovic has written extensively on ganga, including her own dissertation in 1977. In her article Paradoxes of Muslim Music in Boznia and Herzegovina she analyzes the Islamic influences on the folk music present in Bosnia. She concludes in this work that Music music cannot be treated as a singular phenomenon and needs more research to parse out these

5 Pravda: 1936 Chaos Instead of Music 6 p. 301 Maes, Francis. A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar. Trans. Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans. University of California, 2002. Print. 7 P. 129 Morgan, Robert P., ed. Strunk's Source Readings in Music History: The Twentieth Century. W. W. Norton &, 1997. Print. 8 Ibid. 9 p. 298 Maes, Francis. A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar. Trans. Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans. University of California, 2002. Print.

intricacies10. Her works are often cited in World Music text books such as Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the Worlds People. In regards to the meaning of ganga she provide the following excellent definition: At the end of the ganga, when songs finish on two different tomes a major second apart, it is as if different individuals are given the same rights in the community11. In regards to gangas relationship to identity, Petrovic notes that a ganga should arousestrong feelings of regional identity among young and old alike12. Dr. Petrovics work is definitive in the study of ganga and is often used to build upon however she does little to connect the practice of the style to identity. In her article, Slavic Folk Music: Forms of Singing and Self-Identity, Barbara Krader identifies ganga as a musical singing style coming from the western mountains of the former Yugoslavia now known today as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Krader herself had not done field research and relies heavily on the works of Professor Dieter Christensen as well as Dr. Ankica Petrovic. Ganga music is very specific to the country people; the urban people dislike the singing very much in favor of their own popular music and vice versa. Krader establishes that further discussion of identity is required13 because she concluded that the scholars she was drawing heavily upon had discovered a very strong group identity and when these identities are challenged it brings forth the peoples love and loyalty to these songs. Her work attempts to draw parallels between the ganga music and the identity of the people but she herself notes that more work needs to be done. Hopefully this study will be able to aid this work in these ways.

10 p. 136 Petrovic, Ankica. "Paradoxes of Muslim Music in Boznia and Herzegovina." Asian Music 20.1 (1989): 128-47. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. 11 P. 218 Titon, Jeff Todd. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. Schirmer, 2001. Print. 12 Ibid. 13 p. 16 Krader, Barbara. "Slavic Folk Music: Forms of Singing and Self-Identity." Ethnomusicology 31.1 (1987): 9-17. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2011.

Indeed, there have been a number of recent publications surrounding the study of music and identity. Daniel J Levitin has been an important scholar on the topic of music and neuroscience. His first book on the topic, This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, was released in 2007 and the second, The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, in 2008. In This is Your Brain on Music, Levitin studies how brains and music co-evolved14 and takes a neurological perspective on how music affects everything we think, including how we categorize music why we like the music we do. The World in Six Songs concludes that there are six simple reasons or ideas that are associated with music; friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love. Levitin points out that anthropologists, biologists and other scientists have rarely studied the origins of music. His purpose is to argue that music is not simply a distraction or a pastime, but a core element of our identity as a species15. Oliver Sacks has been another doctor to study music and its power through individual experience. Sacks writes his book Musicopilia entirely by personal experiences of a wide variety of people. The last section of his book deals with music and identity including topics such as music and depression and music therapy with dementia patients. Music is not only an expression of individual identity but reflects a communitys identity and expresses who we are16. In conclusion, there has been a lot of separate study done on varying musical traditions as well as how music and identity are related. This research design is intended to study further the

14 p. 12 Levitin, Daniel J. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York, NY: Penguin, 2007. Print. 15 P. 3 Levitin, Daniel J. The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. New York: Plume, 2009. Print. 16 p. 492 Miller, Terry E., and Andrew C. Shahriari. World Music: A Global Journey. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

reasons why governments can be scared of music or how music can be used to bring people together. On the aggregate, how is music power and how does music represent power in society? Theoretical Framework By using comparative case studies as defined by John W. Creswell, this research design is able to adequately determine the different effects that identity, music, and government can have on each other. Because of the apparent gap in literature to address the topic of music and its relationship to government this research design is aimed at using these three case studies to reveal this relationship and hopefully conclude that there is no apolitical music because of the ties between the three; Identity, Music and Government. Hypothesis My hypothesis is that there is no apolitical music and that if there is it is communal in nature and holds political power into itself. Case Study The variables in this study act on all three levels of analysis. In the three different cases: isicathamiya, art music, and ganga, there are individuals, nation-states, and ultimately the international system. Individuals are the creators, participants, and listeners. They are also creators and participants in their respective governments. Nation-states also hear the music of their people whether it was meant to be political or not. Music can often be used as an aggregate judge of mood of a people or culture group. Ultimately, in a global society, music is one of the most salient commodities that can be transferred across state lines and often travels around the world influencing and uniting many listeners.

The sampling plan, which will expand further upon the work of previous scholars by taking new samples and interviews, in this case study is to use the work of varying psychologists and anthropologists to first take a look at how music is important to identity. The emic works of ethnomusicologists will also be key in determining how music is connected to its society. To study how government acts in this relationship varying scholarly works on the importance of music as well as historical approaches are useful. These three cases are the best musical traditions to study for a number of reasons. They are not only all time tested, but they come from varying areas of the world. These three were selected for specific reasons. Isicathamiya was chosen because it is music of the people who are being oppressed in that society. During apartheid in South Africa, the Zulu workers would often hold all-night-long isicathamiya contests where a white male, usually right out of prison, would be chosen to judge the best group though he could not understand any of the Zulu language. The songs that they sing are often about trivial matters they can also be about lost ethnic identity or loss in general17. The Soviet Union was chosen because of their policies about music during their rise to power. They saw certain music as being un-Soviet and outlawed it, instead promoting a purer, more Soviet sound. Ganga was chosen because of its communal meaning. It is a style that brings community together in a way that all participants are equal no matter who they are. The sources for this study come from a wide variety of scholars and professionals. They are mainly ethnomusicologists but also neurologists and psychologists. Ethnomusicologists often live among the people they are studying and take an emic perspective to their study. The sources often write about musics place in society or how a society functions around music.

17 P. 120 Kivnick, Helen Q. Where Is The Way: Song and Struggle in South Africa. New York: Penguin, 1990. Print.

Obviously, because this is an intensive comparative case study of three cases there are a few limitations and possible biases to contest with. The ethnomusicologists that studies these groups may favor there group and portray them in a favorable light. While this is unlikely, there are still some limitations to taking these case studies and extrapolating them to the wider global system. Conclusion Many scholars, ethnomusicologists, and anthropologists note the importance of music to identity and culture. Through the lens of constructivism one can conclude that this would have an influence on behavior and therefore action. By combining the ideas that music is power and the music and identity are integrally related the design is ultimately aimed at proving the idea that music holds political power.