Music Ecology, Music Sociology, Music Locality - the case of Epirus by Mpiliax Mpiliens

This master’s thesis investigates and interprets locally produced music and particular music traditions of the world that have strong aesthetics and characteristic sounds. Through the concepts of music ecology, music sociology, and music locality, it identifies the link of the music with its place of origin, in an attempt to find the tools to understand how the world works when it comes down to the tiny but hugely important matter of music traditions. Through music examples from different countries, and with a special focus on the music of Epirus, Greece, music ecology, sociology, and locality become the lenses through which answers are sought to crucial questions, such as: How natural and built environments affect, almost dictate locally produced music; what kinds of tools do music traditions become in the hands of communities; and how can communities express, come together, and function through music traditions? Additionally, this thesis explores the effects on music traditions when they are relocated from one environment to another. Finally, this thesis investigates how immersion into any music tradition can affect ones’ personal musical identity, and how this enhances the development of an individual’s personal style, always taking into consideration the aspects of music ecology, sociology, and locality. In the Case of Epirus, Greece I attempt to answer these questions by visiting the birthplace of the music during my field work, which allows me to immerse myself in the environment as well as the music, communicate with the carriers of the tradition, and learn the music directly from them. Findings emerge in terms of a deep connection between music traditions and the triptych of music ecology, sociology and locality, in the example of the music of Epirus but also in general. These triptych influences, shapes and guides locally produced music, to the extent that one, when researching, should acknowledge its connection to local music to deepen the understanding of why things happen as they happen within a music tradition. Awareness of this connection would also be a powerful tool of an individual’s immersion process into new music traditions, empowering them to come to a deeper understanding of it.

(i)

CONCLUSIONS

This experiment initiated a process of reflection for the researcher.
Even though the percentage of the participants with the more correct matches is significantly higher than the percentage with less matches, it became clear that due to the number of participants, the results are unlikely to be really representative.
Regardless of this fact, the results initiated a thinking process based on which some quality characteristics of the participants came to light. The everyday realities of the participants are common since everyone lives in Helsinki, Finland. The origin of the participants however differs significantly, thus the experiences of natural and built environment also differ. As these experiences become a big part of our knowledge, until we build on it, we have concluded that the understanding of matches between environment and sound, depend a lot on the social aspect, but also on the locality of the origin of the participants.
Thus, instead of drawing conclusions on the percentage of people having an instinctive understanding of the connection between environment and the matching sound, in the case of the music of Epirus, we ended up with the understanding that the social aspect of the traditions of the individual and the locality of music and everyday realities, made the answers of the participants vary.
This strengthens the belief that even though one can isolate the topics of music ecology, sociology and locality and examine them separately, it is more beneficial to look at this triptych as one and analyse the data based on all the three aspects.

Since the beginning of this research there has been a strong intuition that people, regardless of origin, have the inherit ability to match a presented environment with its identifying sound, according to their experiences but also according to what they perceive as information for the image through the music. In this spirit, I presented a sample of 15 listeners with 2 sets of 3 images and sounds, asking them to match the sound to the images without providing any background information on the music or the image.
The objective of this experiment was not to determine if this theory works but to gain some preliminary information, based on which the researcher would reflect on the results, gaining experience in analytical thinking based on music ecology, sociology and locality.

The group of participants in this experiment came from the Global music department of Sibelius Academy, University of Arts. This was intentionally chosen to be, so there could be a more controlled overview of the experiences and knowledge of the group, having their attendance at the academy as a common characteristic. At the same time, it was a diverse enough group to be able to gain trustworthy results. The students of the Global music department who participated come from The bachelors and Masters levels. The students were handed out an answer sheet (attached in the Appendices section) where they would mark their answers. Filling in this sheet confirmed that they give consent for the use of this questionnaire in this thesis.

Below you will find the examples and the results of this experiment

SET 1

Songs

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Set 2

(a) Nteli papas – Polyphonic with music

The answers were discussed in the end of the experiment to gain understanding behind the reasoning of the participants.

Answer sheets:
The data from the answers were collected and grouped with the following results:

6,0 % of the group made 0% of the matches

33,3 % of the group made 16.6% of the matches

13.3% of the group made 33.3% of the matches

46.6% of the group made 66.6% of the matches

(a) Prevezaniko Syrto Sea side Epirus

Pictures:

5.4 The social experiment - The inherent understanding of the snowflake

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(b) Vasilarchontissa – Metsovo

(b) Kapesovo - Zagpriou

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