Sending songs into outer space
9-17-77
On August 20, when the Voyager 2 spacecraft blasted off for a trip beyond the solar system, it carried on its side a unique record player and a single phonograph record. Included on that record are 27 musical selections that the New York Times has called "Earth's Greatest Hits." If, someday, extraterrestrial creatures play the record and enjoy it, they will be most indebted to the man who chose 13 of the songs — Westsider Alan Lomax.
That Alan's advice should be so highly respected by a committee that spent eight weeks choosing the other 14 songs is a testimonial to his musical reputation. Ever since he became head of the Folk Music Archives of the Library of Congress at age 20, Alan has devoted1 his life to the preservation2 and study of international folk music. Following the footsteps of his late father, musicologist John Lomax, Alan has taken his recording3 equipment to six continents in search of the rapidly disappearing musical treasures of the world.
I finally caught up with Alan and met him for an interview on a Friday evening at his office/apartment on West 98th Street. One room, I observed, was lined wall to wall with tapes and record albums. Another was filled with music books, a third with computer readouts, and a fourth with movie films.
Alan's foremost interest right now is cantometrics — the science of song as a measure of culture. Recently he published a book titled Cantometrics: A Method in Musical Anthropology4. Accompanying the volume are seven cassette tapes. The songs are arranged in an order that will teach the student to interpret their general meaning without knowing the language.
"When you learn the system, you can understand any music," said Alan. "We analyzed5 4000 songs from 400 societies around the world. Out of that study has come a map of world music." He then showed me a musical chart of Europe, the Far East, and Indian North America. Thirty seven aspects of the music, including rhythm, volume and repetition, had been analyzed by a computer to make a graph.
"Each aspect of the music," said Alan, "stands for a different social style. It's like the guy who says, 'I don't know anything about music, but I know what I like.' It means that kind of music stands for his background and what he believes in."
Alan played a tape for me containing a Spanish folk song, an Irish jig6 and a song from Nepal, explaining some of the elements as the music was playing. "By the time you've heard two or three tapes," he said, "you get used to the world standards of music. In primitive7 societies, he added, "everybody knows the same things about everything, so being specific is a bore, and repetition is what they like. You don't impose your boring accuracy on everyone. By the same token, primitive people find it much easier to sing together than, for example, New Yorkers of different backgrounds. In the latter case," said Alan, "everybody starts singing at a different tempo8, like six cats in a bag. But if you take people who live together and work together, it's like clouds rolling out of the sea."
Alan was not impressed with the 1976 movie Bound for Glory, about the life of American folk singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie during the Great Depression. The movie ends with Woody leaving Hollywood for New York to perform in a coast-to-coast radio show. The man who hosted that show was Alan Lomax.
"We collaborated9 on a number of things," recalled Alan. "It was an enormous pleasure. He was the funniest man that ever talked. And he was so quick. That's what was wrong with the movie. Talking with Woody was like playing a game of jai alai. He was a deeply passionate10 person, and tremendously gifted. He got up in the morning and wrote 25 pages before breakfast just to warm up."
Though Alan can sing and play the guitar, he does not regard himself as a performer but rather as a "funnel11" for other musicians. During the 1940s he helped launch the careers of people like Burl Ives and Pete Seeger by providing them with songs and putting them on the radio. "We set out to revive the American folk music in 1938, and by God we did it," said Alan. "By 1950 it was a national movement."
Alan spent the next 10 years of his life in Europe, where he produced a definitive12 14-album collection of international folk music. Then he moved back to the U.S. and settled on the Upper West Side, where he has lived for the past 15 years. His residential13 apartment is located two blocks from his office.
Besides his research in cantometrics, done in cooperation with Columbia University, Alan is now preparing for publication a study on international dance movement and its relations to society. Energetic, jovial14, and looking considerably15 younger than his years, Alan has no doubts about the lasting16 value of his work.
"I make my living as a very hard-working scientist," he said. "By using scientific methods, I can absolutely refute the ideas of those who say that Oklahoma doesn't matter, or that the Pygmies might as well be exterminated17. Each of these people, we have found, has something for the human future, for the human destiny."
* * *
The Mighty18 Lomax
from The Westsider, late 1977
It's oldies night on the radio. The d.j. has promised to play nothing but
the greatest hits of the '50s and '60s, and sure enough, here they are —
"Irene Goodnight" sung by the Weavers19; "Tom Dooley" by the Kingston
Trio; "Abilene" by George Hamilton IV; "Midnight Special" by Johnny
Rivers; and "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals.
All of these songs reached number one on the charts. And they have something else in common: all are genuine American folk songs of unknown authorship that might have been lost forever if they had not been discovered and preserved by John and Alan Lomax, the famous father-son folklorist20 team.
The folk music explosion in America that peaked in the early 1960s and continues today owes more of a debt to the Lomaxes than to any performer or songwriter. John Lomax died in 1948 at the age of 80. His son Alan, 62, has been a resident of New York's Upper West Side for the past 15 years. Working seven days a week at his 98th Street office and his 100th Street apartment, Alan has carried on his father's work with a remarkable21 talent and energy. He has gone far beyond the simple collecting of folk songs, and maintains a dizzying schedule of activities — writing books, catching22 planes for Europe or Africa, making movies, producing record albums and tapes, and heading a musical research project for the Anthropology Department of Columbia University.
Fathers and Sons
The elder Lomax was primarily a songhunter. His first collection, Cowboy Songs, was published in 1910. It contained such gems23 as "John Henry," "Shenandoah" and "Home on the Range," which he heard for the first time in the back of a saloon in the Negro red light district of San Antonio.
Alan was born in Texas in 1915. When he was 13 years old his father gave him an old-fashioned cylinder24 recording machine, and the boy was hooked. He became a full-time25 song scholar at 18. In that same year his father was put in charge of the newly created Archives of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in Washington. When Alan was 20 he took over as archives director. The father-son team eventually provided more than half of the 20,000 songs in the collection.
The Lomaxes wrote many books together; they introduced American folk music into the nation's public schools, and through their radio programs in the U.S. and Europe, made celebrities26 out of such performers as Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie.
Whereas John Lomax was interested in the music for its own sake, Alan began some time ago to look for the deeper meaning, or social significance, of folk songs. In his many trips around the world he built up a collection of recordings27 from every continent and virtually every major culture. Along with a co-worker he developed his findings into the new branch of anthropology known as cantometrics.
When the Voyager 2 spacecraft left Earth last August for a journey beyond the solar system, it carried on its side a unique record player with a specially28 made disk for alien beings to hear and enjoy. The disk contained 27 musical selections, which have been named "Earth's Greatest Hits"; 13 of them were chosen by Alan Lomax.
The following interview was conducted in various rooms of Alan's office on a Friday evening in August, 1977. One room was filled with recording equipment, tapes and records; another with music books; a third with computer readouts; and a fourth with movie films. Lomax spoke29 rapidly and found it difficult to sit still. He is not a neat housekeeper30, a sharp dresser or a master of the social graces. He is, however, a tireless worker who gives the impression of being totally absorbed in his work. A large, robust31 man, he will no doubt continue to be a major figure in the field of international folk music for years to come.
Question: What exactly is cantometrics?
Answer: It means, literally32, singing as a measure of culture. With it, a song performance may be analyzed and related to a culture pattern. Each aspect of music stands for a different social style. By using cantometrics you get the story of mankind in musical terms. … It's like the guy who says, "I don't know anything about music but I know what I like." It means that kind of music stands for his background and what he believes in.
Q: How did you develop this new science?
A: I started this project in 1961. … We analyzed 4,000 songs on a computer. Out of that has come a map of world culture. There are 10 big groups or styles of music. Stone age people have style 1. … We found there's a similarity of Patagonian music and Siberian, even though these people live near the opposite poles. … Along with studying song, we have also studied dance and conversation in the same way, from film. I probably have the biggest collection of dance film in the world — 200,000 feet. Maybe the New York Public Library has more, but that's specialized33 in fine art.
Q: What's the purpose of cantometrics? How can someone learn it?
A: I recently published a set of seven cassette tapes of folk songs from all 10 cultural levels around the world. In the booklet that comes with it, the songs are broken down and analyzed so that the student can learn the cantometrics system on his own. When you learn the system, you can understand any music, even if you don't know the language it's being sung in. By the time you've heard two or three tapes, you get used to the world standard of music. Cantometrics measures things like repetition, ornamentation, rhythm, melody, orchestral arrangement. … It analyzes34 music in relation to social structure — political organization, community solidarity35, severity of sexual sanctions. Cantometrics makes the world's music into a geography.
Q: How does American music differ from that of the world in general?
A: In our culture, for example, we didn't have much repetition until rock and roll came around. And that represents another influence. … As you know, we of European background don't sing very well together. Everybody starts singing at a different tempo, like seven cats in a bag. But if you take people who live and work together, it's like clouds rolling out of the sea. … It turns out that the people with the most repetition in their songs have the most primitive cultures — at least, in relation to their economic development. Everybody knows the same thing about everything. So being specific is boring, and repetition is what they like. You don't impose your boring accuracy on everyone.
Q: What do you consider the real beginning of the folk music movement in America?
A: It all began in Texas in 1885 when my father heard "Whoopee Ti Yi Yo" on the Chisholm Trail. He was a country boy. He grew up in Texas, and the cowboys drifted past. He wrote the songs down just for the hell of it. Then he got a grant from Harvard and found out how important it was. He was the first person in the country to use a recording device, in 1902.
Q: Did you know Woody Guthrie very well?
A: Know him? I made him famous. I had a coast-to-coast radio program when Woody first came to New York. I introduced him when he first sang on radio. He stayed at my house. … They offered him a huge contract, but he just walked off and went to Oklahoma. He was a deeply passionate person, and tremendously gifted. First of all he was the funniest man that ever talked. And Woody was so quick: talking to him was like playing jai alai. He got up in the morning and wrote 25 pages before breakfast just to warm up. And there was always a slightly strange thing about woody — an itchy feeling that he had. It might have been beginning of the disease which later killed him.
Q: What's your connection with Pete Seeger?
A: Peter Seeger is my protege. I gave him his banjo. The banjo was a dead issue, and he came to me and asked what he should do with his life. He was a Harvard hippie. … We got to be colleagues. We worked on the whole revival36 of the American folk music. I taught him most of his early songs.
Q: Were you ever a performer yourself?
A: Yes, I've made a few records. But I was always more of a funnel. I regarded myself as a dredge, dredging up the rich subsoil of American folk and putting it back on the developing music scene. We set out to revive the American folk music in 1938, and by God we did it. By 1950 it was a national movement.
Q: What are some other things you've done?
A: I did the first oral history — the Leadbelly book and the book on Jelly Roll Morton. The Leadbelly movie (1976) was taken from that oral history. For Jelly Roll Morton, I transcribed37 the tape and made it into a piece of literature. The story has been bought for a movie by the same people who made the Woody Guthrie movie, Bound for Glory.
Q: Have you done a lot of research outside the United States?
A: Yes, I spent 1950 to 1960 in Europe assembling all the best material that had been collected into 14 albums, geographically38 arranged. Then I started thinking about what I heard on albums — not what musicians or literary people heard, but what I heard. Then I met some people at the National Institute of Mental Health who were interested in the norms of healthy behavior. I indicated to them that I was that getting at the behavior styles of the people of the world. They gave me some dough39 and I got a staff together.
Q: How was the American folk music scene then?
A: I was very shocked when I came back to the United States in 1960. The musical scene at Washington Square made me sick. They said, "Alan, those people you talked to are all dead." I kind of withdrew from the whole business. … Later I set up a concert in Carnegie Hall and brought in the first bluegrass group and the first gospel group to perform in New York. People stormed the stage. There were fistfights and everything. Well, that was the whole end of people saying New York was the center of the folk scene.
Q: What do you think of Bob Dylan?
A: Dylan came along in the footsteps of Ramblin' Jack40 Elliott. He lived with Woody for a while, and picked him as his model. He absorbed the whole southwestern style from Woody. And the country for the first time fell for a national American vocal41 style. Then Dylan left the scene and went middle class after three years. He turned his back on folk music, turned his back on people. I think he did a big disservice to the country when he did that. … The whole thing has been to make urban mobile people have a folk music of their own. It's not a bad idea. Terribly boring though.
Q: Do all your projects lead to one goal?
A: I make my living as a very hardworking scientist. I do that because it was important finally to take this huge world that was coming out of loudspeakers, and get down to the meat of it so that it can be used for the betterment of our future … so that we can keep all the treasures of the past and use them. That's what I'm doing. I'm doing it in a scientific way so that I can absolutely refute the idea of those who say that Oklahoma doesn't matter, or that the Pygmies might as well be exterminated. Each of these people, we have found, has something for the human future, and for the human destiny.
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1
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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anthropology
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| n.人类学 | |
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analyzed
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| v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析 | |
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jig
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| n.快步舞（曲）；v.上下晃动；用夹具辅助加工；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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tempo
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| n.(音乐的)速度；节奏，行进速度 | |
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collaborated
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| 合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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funnel
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| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
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definitive
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| adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的 | |
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residential
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| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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exterminated
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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weavers
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| 织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 ) | |
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folklorist
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| 民俗学研究者 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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cylinder
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| n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸 | |
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full-time
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| adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的 | |
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celebrities
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| n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉 | |
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recordings
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| n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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analyzes
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| v.分析( analyze的第三人称单数 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析 | |
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solidarity
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| n.团结；休戚相关 | |
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revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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transcribed
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| （用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的过去式和过去分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音） | |
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geographically
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| adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面 | |
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dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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