Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft – serie

On the occasion of Gerhard Kubik’s 70th birthday scholars from most diverse disciplines and different cultures were invited to take part in an international symposium. This symposium was held at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Vienna in December 2004. The participants whose lectures are published in this book, came from various European countries and the USA, as well as from Japan and Africa. The symposium was dedicated to the work of Gerhard Kubik. The scholar who was born in Vienna, is one of the leading and most estimated ethnomusicologists of our time. His diversified cultural approach and his decidedly intra-cultural working method have always met with highest international approval. In the course of the past four decades Gerhard Kubik has undertaken extended field research every year which up to now has lead him to eighteen African countries, to Brazil and the USA. African Perspectives presents the scientific results of his friends and colleagues as well as the research activities of Gerhard Kubik.

This study represents a thorough investigation of a polyphonic vocal village tradition in Bistritsa, Bulgaria. Outsiders describe the narrow intervals of these songs as being «maximally rough», while the singers themselves experience their performance as smooth, beautiful and pleasant. Almost identical polyphonic traditions can be found in places sometimes thousands of kilometers apart. This inquiry is carried out within a very broad and comparative context, whereby historical sources, the origin of different constituents and etymologies as well as electronic sound analysis are taken into account. The results are stunning and ever more relevant – and not just for ethnomusicologists: The babi or grannies of Bistritsa and their songs have been inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind in 2008.