Society for Ethnomusicology
The Music-Network: A Model for the Organization of Music Concepts
Author(s): Ellen Koskoff
Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 353-370
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/850685
Accessed: 27/09/2010 17:36
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://links.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you
have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may
use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://links.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=illinois.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Society for Ethnomusicology and University of Illinois Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve
and extend access to Ethnomusicology.
http://links.jstor.org

THE MUSIC-NETWORK:
A MODEL FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF MUSIC CONCEPTS
Ellen Koskoff
One of the basic interests of ethnomusicologists has been discover-
ing and understanding shared music behavior. Generally, learning
about a particular culture's music has involved documenting and analyz-
ing those aspects of music culture that many individuals have in common.
A general concept, "music," eventually emerges from the collected ex-
periences, behaviors, attitudes and beliefs of those individuals whose
cultures we study.
While it is true that individuals of the same culture tend to share to a
great extent their most basic and general concepts of music, a great deal
of variety exists in response to questions concerning specific music and
music behaviors. Further, differences also occur between what may be
regarded by many informants as an ideal music concept and what actually
takes place in individual thinking or action. Although such variation may
result in part from basic problems of ethnosemantics (Conklin 1969, Black
1969, Frake 1969, among others), or in the problems inherent in express-
ing "music" in speech (Seeger 1971), they are probably more significantly
linked to basic differences in the ways individuals organize and give
meaning to music concepts. This paper examines some of the cognitive
structures used by individuals to organize music information; the term
"music-network" will be used here to designate such structures. The
term "network" is used as in information theory (see Amosov 1967:52
and others). Examining these music-networks can shed light on the intri-
cate relationship between the cultural and individual meanings of music.
People develop a cluster of concepts that comprises a highly general
concept of music; this concept is used to differentiate certain sounds from
others, such as speech or noise. Hearing, remembering, and learning what
music is involves the ability to process sounds and to organize this infor-
mation into logical and meaningful systems (Wallace 1962, Neisser 1967,
Lindsay and Norman 1972, Anderson 1975). In fact, such acts as remem-
bering or reproducing music are evidence that these systems exist.
Understanding what music is also involves engaging in music behavior,
developing attitudes and beliefs concerning music, and experiencing
Final version, rec'd: 4/15/82
0014-1836/82/2603-353$0.90 ? 1982 Society for Ethnomusicology, Inc.
353