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AbstractMany issues in organology offer the scholar fertile ground for increased examination and discussion. The function of decoration as an acoustic or culturally significant feature, procedures and terminology used in making instruments, and the relationship between economics and musical instrument production and acquisition are but a few of the realms which offer opportunities for further exploration. Margaret Kartomi's cross-cultural compilation of 17 musical instrument classification systems addresses yet another aspect of the field, and is one among several recent publications acknowledging the significance of musical instruments in the cultures they serve. What Kartomi reveals in her introductory study, On Concepts and Classification of Musical Instruments, is the tendency for societies to imbue their instrument classification systems and descriptions with culture-specific concepts; concepts which in turn enrich and mediate the organizational logic of their classificatory schemes. These concepts may include musical practice, theory, or genre, a world view and cosmology, gender and sexual dualism, and a plethora of other historic and sociological information. In addition, these indigenous views may act as cultural symbols to reinforce a sense of group identity and the established order. In the process of her discussion, Kartomi demonstrates that such concepts are often integral and indistinguishable from the structure of a classification system, and that two or more concepts may operate simultaneously on many levels within a culture or, inversely, may sometimes be peripheral. |
