CITING SOURCES
(Notes copyright by Helen Rees, 26 October 2007)
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We cite sources to show where we got information. By telling the reader where the information came from, (a) we allow the reader to replicate our research path; (b) we provide the reader with the means to determine the types of sources used, the likely reliability of the information and any potential biases, etc.; (c) we give due credit to the person who originated that information; and (d) we avoid potential accusations of plagiarism. The need to cite is not restricted to direct quotes: it obtains even when you are paraphrasing, and even when you are drawing on popular culture sources, websites, or your grandmother's recollections.
Many of you are used to particular citation formats from your majors (e.g. MLA style). It is fine to use any standard format with which you are comfortable. The specimen below is in the citation style favored by Ethnomusicology, the principal journal of the field. I have included several different kinds of sources: books, journal articles, websites, CD liner notes, program notes, interviews, and informal conversations. Please note that especially with less conventional sources such as websites, CD liner notes, and program notes, there may be two or three different ways to organize the information efficiently.
If you are using any extra sources to amplify your observations at performance events, you need to cite them. It could be that that extra information is coming from the program notes for the event, a website on the genre, a journal article, or a conversation with a knowledgeable onlooker standing next to you. Regardless, you need to tell us where this information came from. The same is true of your critique of a CD in the Ethnomusicology Archive: if you are stating facts obtained from the liner notes, you need to direct the reader's attention to where those facts are to be found. If you are amplifying from extra online or documentary research, those sources must be acknowledged.
If in doubt as to what should be cited or how to cite it, please see the instructor.
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FOLK AND TRADITIONAL MUSIC ON THE MODERN CONCERT STAGE
By the early 21st century, participation by folk and traditional musicians in prestigious international concert tours and arts festivals is a daily occurrence. At UCLA, for instance, we are about to welcome a group of musicians from Central Asia, who will perform at Royce Hall on Friday 2 November 2007 ("Spiritual Sounds of Central Asia" 2007). Often such events fly past all too quickly, leaving little lasting impression; in particular, it is all too rare that we learn of the artists' own impressions of their experience. Occasionally, however, the performers do record their own recollections and thoughts about an event. This was the case with two of the six Old Regular Baptists from Kentucky who participated in the 1997 Smithsonian Folklife Festival: one produced an extensive written narrative about her experience, while the other delivered his impressions orally (Titon 1999). Similarly, Ravi Shankar, the eminent Indian classical musician, has written at length about his tours and performances in Europe and North America, and the often unexpected reactions of the audiences there (Shankar 1969, ch.3). Sometimes a particularly successful or high-profile tour can have longterm ramifications not only for the performers but also for the culture or nation they represent. For example, when Peking Opera star Mei Lanfang visited the United States in 1930, his tour was proclaimed a triumph of cultural exchange that would prove the validity of Chinese theatre as an art form of international standing (Goldstein 1999:377). In numerous informal discussions with me, my friends from the Naxi ethnic minority of southwest China have noted how vital their 1995 tour of Britain has been to the survival of their music and to the marketability of their culture within mainstream Chinese society. The importance attached by many Naxi to their traditional music was driven home for me this last summer, when in an interview Naxi folksinger He Jinhua told me of her strenuous efforts to learn and preserve folksongs from all over the Naxi region, not just her own township (He 2007).
There are many intriguing narratives of how musicians from so many countries are finding their feet on the world stage. For example, when the well-known Shanghai-based qin player Lin Youren toured England in 1998, he enjoyed watching the World Cup soccer matches in local pubs. Struck by the exuberant singing of the English fans when Michael Owen scored a goal against Argentina, he subsequently improvised and recorded a qin piece inspired by their impassioned musical outpourings (Jones and Lin 2000). In a slightly different vein, the Taiwanese group Han Tang Yuefu used their 1995 tour of Europe and mainland China to promote appreciation of their genre, Nanguan, and to emphasize their belief in its extreme antiquity (Taipei Han Tang Yuefu 1995).
References cited
Goldstein, Joshua. 1999. "Mei Lanfang and the Nationalization of Peking Opera, 1912- 1930." Positions: East Asian Cultures Critique 7(2): 377-420.He Jinhua. 2007. Interview with the author, 1 July.
Jones, Stephen, and Lin Youren. 2000. Liner notes to CD Music for the Qin Zither: Lin Youren. Monmouth, UK: Nimbus Records NI 5656.
Shankar, Ravi. 1969. My Music, My Life. Delhi: Vikas.
"Spiritual Sounds of Central Asia: Nomads, Mystics and Troubadours." 2007. UCLA Live website, http://www.uclalive.org/event.asp?Event_ID=455 (accessed 26 October 2007).
Taipei Han Tang Yuefu. 1995. Program notes for a tour of Europe and mainland China, 1-25 September.
Titon, Jeff Todd. 1999. "'The Real Thing': Tourism, Authenticity, and Pilgrimage among the Old Regular Baptists at the 1997 Smithsonian Folklife Festival." World of Music 41(3): 115-139.