British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Carole Pegg
Reviewed work(s):
The Tale of Crazy Harman: The Musician and the Concept of Music in the Trkmen Epic
Tale, Harman Dli by Sawomira latex$\grave Z$/latexeraska-Kominek ; Arnold Lebeuf
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2001), pp. 128-130
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3060668
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BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETH N OM U S I CO LOGY VOL.10/ii 2001 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETH N OM U S I CO LOGY VOL.10/ii 2001
Gonzailez finds so abhorrent, and it has
been
part
of colonial and
nation-building
processes
for
centuries.)
According
to
Broyles-Gonzalez,
the
aim of the book is to use Mendoza's
narrative "to
probe
and reveal
processes
and
strategies
of
self-empowerment
for
women..."
(201). Ironically,
Mendoza's
voice and narrative are
ultimately
dis-
empowered by
the
editing, explanation
and
analysis
of Mendoza's own account.
Feedback from Mendoza on these
interpretations
would have redressed
the balance. Does Mendoza
accept
the
Broyles-Gonzailez's interpretation
of her
success? Does she
classify
herself as a
"raza woman"?
Broyles-Gonzailez
notes: "Since time
immemorial, native women have
per-
formed their histories in
ways
inaudible
to the colonial
imaginary
of
print
cul-
ture"
(200).
She
frequently
reminds us
that we are
"listening"
to Mendoza "tell"
her
story.
This book, then, is an
attempt
to avoid
previous colonial-style appropriations
and
re-presentations
of fieldwork data.
But it raises the
question
of whether an
academic book
published by
an academic
press
can ever achieve this. A more inno-
vative
approach might
have been to
produce
an audio or video
recording
that
stood alone
(although
even these would
have to
undergo
an
equally problematical
editing process),
with the
accompanying
essay published separately.
In its
present
form this book
-
although attempting
to
tackle some of the
problems
-
is not the
"milestone in the
writing
of music his-
tory" (xiv)
that
Broyles-Gonzailez
would
have us believe.
RUTH HELLIER
University of
Warwick
ruthhellier@ hotmail. com
Gonzailez finds so abhorrent, and it has
been
part
of colonial and
nation-building
processes
for
centuries.)
According
to
Broyles-Gonzalez,
the
aim of the book is to use Mendoza's
narrative "to
probe
and reveal
processes
and
strategies
of
self-empowerment
for
women..."
(201). Ironically,
Mendoza's
voice and narrative are
ultimately
dis-
empowered by
the
editing, explanation
and
analysis
of Mendoza's own account.
Feedback from Mendoza on these
interpretations
would have redressed
the balance. Does Mendoza
accept
the
Broyles-Gonzailez's interpretation
of her
success? Does she
classify
herself as a
"raza woman"?
Broyles-Gonzailez
notes: "Since time
immemorial, native women have
per-
formed their histories in
ways
inaudible
to the colonial
imaginary
of
print
cul-
ture"
(200).
She
frequently
reminds us
that we are
"listening"
to Mendoza "tell"
her
story.
This book, then, is an
attempt
to avoid
previous colonial-style appropriations
and
re-presentations
of fieldwork data.
But it raises the
question
of whether an
academic book
published by
an academic
press
can ever achieve this. A more inno-
vative
approach might
have been to
produce
an audio or video
recording
that
stood alone
(although
even these would
have to
undergo
an
equally problematical
editing process),
with the
accompanying
essay published separately.
In its
present
form this book
-
although attempting
to
tackle some of the
problems
-
is not the
"milestone in the
writing
of music his-
tory" (xiv)
that
Broyles-Gonzailez
would
have us believe.
RUTH HELLIER
University of
Warwick
ruthhellier@ hotmail. com
SLAWOMIRA ZERANSKA-KOMINEK
with ARNOLD LEBEUF, The tale
of Crazy
Harman: the musician
and the
concept of
music in the
Turkmen
epic tale, Harman Ddli.
Warsaw: Academic Publications
DIALOG, 1997.
305pp.,
14
plates,
bibliography,
index. ISBN 83-
86483-57-1
pb.
The book falls into three sections: Part I
presents
the socio-cultural
background
to
the subject of the book, the
epic
narrative
Harman Dali, drawing heavily
on
Zeraniska-Kominek's fieldwork in Turk-
menistan from 1988 to 1996; Part II is a
translation of the Turkmen version of this
tale
performed
in 1937
by
the bard
Palwan
bagsy;
and Part III
provides
inter-
pretations
of it. The book in
general
was
translated from the Polish
by Jerzy
Ossowski, but assistance was
given
on
Part II
by
Ms
Malgorzata
Labqcka-
Koecherowa, so it is unclear who is
responsible
for the occasional
jarring
term: the use of those
twentieth-century
consumer items
"gabardines"
and "eider-
downs", for instance, feels
distinctly
odd
in an ancient tale. But that's a
quibble.
Such is the richness of this book that I
was
constantly
stimulated to
go
from the
cross-cultural
comparisons
made
by
the
author to connect to
my
own area of
specialism, Mongol
music.
Only
in the
last
chapter,
written
by Lebeuf, did the
comparisons
made become
wildly
incomprehensible.
The
opening chapter,
"The Ttirkmens",
reconstructs their
history, politics,
ethni-
city, society
and
religious beliefs, and
enlightened
me as to
why,
when I first
heard
performances
of Turkmen
epics
(Grund, 1989, 1995; Zeraniska-Kominek
1991),
I was struck
by
a
similarity
between the vocal tone of the
performers
and that used
by Mongol
bards and over-
tone-singers.
I now know of the historical
intertwinement between Turkmen and
SLAWOMIRA ZERANSKA-KOMINEK
with ARNOLD LEBEUF, The tale
of Crazy
Harman: the musician
and the
concept of
music in the
Turkmen
epic tale, Harman Ddli.
Warsaw: Academic Publications
DIALOG, 1997.
305pp.,
14
plates,
bibliography,
index. ISBN 83-
86483-57-1
pb.
The book falls into three sections: Part I
presents
the socio-cultural
background
to
the subject of the book, the
epic
narrative
Harman Dali, drawing heavily
on
Zeraniska-Kominek's fieldwork in Turk-
menistan from 1988 to 1996; Part II is a
translation of the Turkmen version of this
tale
performed
in 1937
by
the bard
Palwan
bagsy;
and Part III
provides
inter-
pretations
of it. The book in
general
was
translated from the Polish
by Jerzy
Ossowski, but assistance was
given
on
Part II
by
Ms
Malgorzata
Labqcka-
Koecherowa, so it is unclear who is
responsible
for the occasional
jarring
term: the use of those
twentieth-century
consumer items
"gabardines"
and "eider-
downs", for instance, feels
distinctly
odd
in an ancient tale. But that's a
quibble.
Such is the richness of this book that I
was
constantly
stimulated to
go
from the
cross-cultural
comparisons
made
by
the
author to connect to
my
own area of
specialism, Mongol
music.
Only
in the
last
chapter,
written
by Lebeuf, did the
comparisons
made become
wildly
incomprehensible.
The
opening chapter,
"The Ttirkmens",
reconstructs their
history, politics,
ethni-
city, society
and
religious beliefs, and
enlightened
me as to
why,
when I first
heard
performances
of Turkmen
epics
(Grund, 1989, 1995; Zeraniska-Kominek
1991),
I was struck
by
a
similarity
between the vocal tone of the
performers
and that used
by Mongol
bards and over-
tone-singers.
I now know of the historical
intertwinement between Turkmen and
128 128
REVIEWS 129
Mongol groups
in the Altai Mountain
area
(now
divided between four states
-
China, Mongolia,
Khazakhstan and the
Russian
Federation);
even
today many
terms are shared
by
these
peoples,
albeit
with
differing
shades of
meaning (e.g.
tamga, han, batyr,
baggy),
and as the
book
progresses
similarities in ritual
activities, such as
weddings, poetic-musi-
cal contests, races and
competitions
of
strength,
become
increasingly
evident.
Equally intriguing
are the differences
thrown
up by
the Ttirkmen's
negotiation
of the
overlapping religious complexes
of
Sufi Islam and Shamanism, rather than
Buddhism and Shamanism as in the
Mongol
case. There is also much in this
introductory
section to absorb those
interested in Iranian and Turkish influ-
ences
among
Central Asian
groups,
and
the first of
many highly
informative
footnotes (f.n.20 the
etymology
of the
ethnonym "Ttirkmen", but see also
pp.
168, 194 and 224 on musical
genres,
relations between
maqam
and states of
mind, and instruments, respectively).
Less
happy
is the classification of the
nomadic Turkmen tribes as "backward",
with features
typical
of "ancient
primitive
communities"
prior
to their assimilation
by
Russia in the
early
twentieth
century,
and the
general
use of a Marxist societal
model of evolution that one
hoped might
have been
dropped
in the
post-Soviet
era
(32-33).
Also worth
querying
is whether
making
and
jumping
over fires is
really
only
to be associated with
agrarian
cults
(35)
since these activities also had ritual
significance
for
many
nomadic
pastoral-
ist societies.
Chapter 2, "The
bagsy",
is devoted to
this non-Muslim and non-shamanic
epic
bard, who
yet
served the
spiritual
needs
of his
group.
Parallels abound with the
practices
of Central and Inner Asian
bards and
poets (Turkish ashik, Uzbek
bakshy,
Kazakh
akyn, Azerbaijani ashug,
Kyrgyz manashy,Yakut
olonkhosut and
Mongol tuul'ch),
for instance, in their
reception
of the
gift
from
spiritual
sources, often in dreams and
involving
fearlessness in
spiritual encounters, in
their roles as transmitters of culture, and
in the
magical capabilities
of their lutes
and fiddles. Nineteenth- and twentieth-
century
travellers'
descriptions referring
to
performances
of
baggy
as
using hoarse,
throaty tones, strained
larynxes
and
high
tones
emanating
from the chest
(e.g.
Vambery 1867; Gartevel'd 1913:67-72)
evoke further connections with Inner
Asia
(i.e. overtone-singing).
An overview
of the
post-1917
establishment of Soviet
Turkmenistan and
consequent
transfor-
mations in the
bagvy's
role and music is
equally fascinating. Chapter 3, Turkmen
Dessans, situates the
widespread epic-
cycle Gorogly (of which the Harman
Dali forms one
part),
discusses its narra-
tive of love, explains
the
journey (yol)
undertaken
during
the
epic's
recitation
and describes its musical motifs.
Section II, based on the 1983 Moscow
edition of the Turkmen version of
Gorogly, perhaps surprisingly
retains
some of its
magical
elements
-
for
instance, the
mythical winged
horse that
can
complete
a
journey
that would nor-
mally
take several months in five or six
days. Refreshingly,
it
promotes
sexual
equality,
one of the more commendable
aims of Soviet
ideology
and unusual in
epic tales, which
may
have
protected
it
from
heavy bowdlerization; Harman Dali
is an
independent woman, a
princess
with
monumental
strength,
who
rejects
the
traditional route of
matchmaking
and will
only marry
the
baggy
who can defeat her
in
song.
Chapters
1 and 2 of Section III, "The
marriage
of the Turkmen hero" and "In
the circle of life and death", are
again
informative and
thought-provoking.
The
former
provides
detailed data on the ritual
marriage process: matchmaking, pre-wed-
ding ceremonies, fighting contests, the
130 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.10/ii 2001 130 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.10/ii 2001
bride's
passage
to the
bridegroom's house,
the
wedding party,
and the
marriage
and
post-marriage period;
the latter looks at
the
symbols
of death and rebirth used in
the
epic
as the hero matures
sexually,
overcomes the barriers to his beloved's
bed and
finally
reaches existential matu-
rity.
It also
explains
for the first time
why
"Harman" in the book's title is
"Crazy"
(219).
The
parallels
drawn with sources
on Shamanism and Sufism are
intriguing,
as is the relation drawn between the
plucked
lute dutar and
stages
of the ini-
tiation
journey (191-96).
It is
only
in
Chapter
3 of this section, "Cosmology
of
love madness", written
by
Arnold Lebeuf,
that the connections made stretch credi-
bility
as we
leap dizzyingly
from the
poetry
of John Donne
(230),
to Hindu
astronomical tradition
(233),
Polish folk-
lore
(235),
the Latin
liturgy
of St
Mary
Magdalene (236),
Sumerian cuneiform
writings (239),
the
sixteenth-century
Mex-
ican codex Annales de Cuauhtitlan (241),
North American tribes
(242), Mayan
legends (243), Cinderella (248),
the French
tale about Melusine (253),
Russian folk
iconography (254), Europe's
witch covens,
water
nymphs
and werewolves (272)
etc.
But don't be
put
off
by
this. The rest of
the book is a
gem.
References
Gartevel'd,
V. N.
(1913)
Sredi
sipuchnikh
peskov
I
otrublennykh golov.
Moskva:
Putevye
ocherki Turkmenistana.
Grund,
Franqoise
(1989)
Voix de l'Orient
sovietique. Inedit, Maison des Cul-
tures du Monde, W260008.
Grund,
Franqoise
(1995)
Turkmenistan:
chants des
femmes
bakhshi. Inedit,
Maison des Cultures du Monde,
W260064.
Pegg,
Carole
(2001) Mongolian music,
dance and oral narrative:
performing
diverse identities. Seattle and London:
Univ. of
Washington Press, with CD.
Vambery,
A.
(1867) Puteshestviye po
bride's
passage
to the
bridegroom's house,
the
wedding party,
and the
marriage
and
post-marriage period;
the latter looks at
the
symbols
of death and rebirth used in
the
epic
as the hero matures
sexually,
overcomes the barriers to his beloved's
bed and
finally
reaches existential matu-
rity.
It also
explains
for the first time
why
"Harman" in the book's title is
"Crazy"
(219).
The
parallels
drawn with sources
on Shamanism and Sufism are
intriguing,
as is the relation drawn between the
plucked
lute dutar and
stages
of the ini-
tiation
journey (191-96).
It is
only
in
Chapter
3 of this section, "Cosmology
of
love madness", written
by
Arnold Lebeuf,
that the connections made stretch credi-
bility
as we
leap dizzyingly
from the
poetry
of John Donne
(230),
to Hindu
astronomical tradition
(233),
Polish folk-
lore
(235),
the Latin
liturgy
of St
Mary
Magdalene (236),
Sumerian cuneiform
writings (239),
the
sixteenth-century
Mex-
ican codex Annales de Cuauhtitlan (241),
North American tribes
(242), Mayan
legends (243), Cinderella (248),
the French
tale about Melusine (253),
Russian folk
iconography (254), Europe's
witch covens,
water
nymphs
and werewolves (272)
etc.
But don't be
put
off
by
this. The rest of
the book is a
gem.
References
Gartevel'd,
V. N.
(1913)
Sredi
sipuchnikh
peskov
I
otrublennykh golov.
Moskva:
Putevye
ocherki Turkmenistana.
Grund,
Franqoise
(1989)
Voix de l'Orient
sovietique. Inedit, Maison des Cul-
tures du Monde, W260008.
Grund,
Franqoise
(1995)
Turkmenistan:
chants des
femmes
bakhshi. Inedit,
Maison des Cultures du Monde,
W260064.
Pegg,
Carole
(2001) Mongolian music,
dance and oral narrative:
performing
diverse identities. Seattle and London:
Univ. of
Washington Press, with CD.
Vambery,
A.
(1867) Puteshestviye po
srednei Azii v 1863
godu.
Moskva:
Izd. A. I. Mamontova.
Zeraniska-Kominek, Slawomira. 1991.
Turkmenistan: la
musique
des
bakhshy.
Archives Internationales de
Musique Populaire.
VDE-GALLO
CD-651.
CAROLE PEGG
University of Cambridge
carolepegg
@
mawson59.fsnet.
co. uk
srednei Azii v 1863
godu.
Moskva:
Izd. A. I. Mamontova.
Zeraniska-Kominek, Slawomira. 1991.
Turkmenistan: la
musique
des
bakhshy.
Archives Internationales de
Musique Populaire.
VDE-GALLO
CD-651.
CAROLE PEGG
University of Cambridge
carolepegg
@
mawson59.fsnet.
co. uk
ABDUL HALIM JAFFER KHAN:
Jafferkhani
Baaj.
Innovation in
sitar
music, Mumbai, 2000. 68
pp.,
appendix, index, glossary
of Indian
musical terms. With interactive CD
ROM. Available from interstrat
@vsnl.com;
www.jafferkhanibaaj.
com
As Kamala Ganesh
points
out in her
insightful
introduction to this book, the
concept
of "innovation" in Indian music
is rather a loaded one. The value of tradi-
tion and traditional
ways
of
playing
are
always emphasized by
Indian classical
musicians. Indeed, as Ganesh observes:
"Sometimes 'innovation' is
implicitly
contrasted with 'classicism', the
presence
of one assumed to foreclose the
presence
of the other."
(9). So, in this book it is to
be
expected
that the famous and accom-
plished
sitarist Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan
steers a careful
path
between acknowl-
edging
the worth of traditional
styles
of
sitar while
making
clear the nature of his
own
unique
contribution to this art in the
twentieth
century.
This
beautifully produced
work uti-
lizes both text and interactive CD ROM
to
explore
Khan's distinctive
approach
to
sitar
performance.
In
many respects
Khan
stands
slightly
outside the
stylistic
main-
stream of North Indian sitar in the twen-
tieth
century.
He does not come from
any
ABDUL HALIM JAFFER KHAN:
Jafferkhani
Baaj.
Innovation in
sitar
music, Mumbai, 2000. 68
pp.,
appendix, index, glossary
of Indian
musical terms. With interactive CD
ROM. Available from interstrat
@vsnl.com;
www.jafferkhanibaaj.
com
As Kamala Ganesh
points
out in her
insightful
introduction to this book, the
concept
of "innovation" in Indian music
is rather a loaded one. The value of tradi-
tion and traditional
ways
of
playing
are
always emphasized by
Indian classical
musicians. Indeed, as Ganesh observes:
"Sometimes 'innovation' is
implicitly
contrasted with 'classicism', the
presence
of one assumed to foreclose the
presence
of the other."
(9). So, in this book it is to
be
expected
that the famous and accom-
plished
sitarist Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan
steers a careful
path
between acknowl-
edging
the worth of traditional
styles
of
sitar while
making
clear the nature of his
own
unique
contribution to this art in the
twentieth
century.
This
beautifully produced
work uti-
lizes both text and interactive CD ROM
to
explore
Khan's distinctive
approach
to
sitar
performance.
In
many respects
Khan
stands
slightly
outside the
stylistic
main-
stream of North Indian sitar in the twen-
tieth
century.
He does not come from
any