Aaron S. Allen

Ecomusicology: music, culture, nature... and change in environmental studies?

The five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing. We rely on them daily, professionally, and personally — each can inform our understanding of the world and evoke memories of places and times, both distant and dear. Public policy and science, however, are guided primarily by the visual: maps, not the smell of rich soil or the feel of damp air, are used to understand local and national borders; photographs, not the feel of sticky blood or the cold metal of a weapon, provide evidence for use in court; and data such as lists of ingredients, not individual natural and artificial components to be tasted, are provided in text to be read. Scholarly research, after all, is presented in visual form in the text of a journal: maybe in braille but not as light shows, perfumes, or food, and, while those words in a journal may be read aloud, they are certainly not meant to be performed or sung.

Ecomusicology: Bridging the Sciences, Arts, and Humanities

Paul Ehrlich is a key figure in modern environmental studies. In addition to ecological research, Ehrlich is known for his warnings about human overpopulation (Ehrlich, 1968). In the 1970s, he made a well-known wager with economist Julian Simon: Ehrlich contended that natural resource prices would increase continually during the 1980s, indicating increased scarcity and human suffering brought about by overpopulation, while Simon believed that prices would decline. Ehrlich was a good sport, and because his neo-Malthusian concerns lost to Simons cornucopianism, he paid up and admitted he was wrong—but he was wrong only for that decade. Considering a longer time scale, from 1900 to 2008, we see that Ehrlichs perspicacious concerns were indeed correct (Kiel, Matheson, & Golembiewski, 2010). In the inaugural edition of the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Ehrlich (2011) provided his “personal view” of environmental education. Considering his role as an important and respected environmental thinker and leader, and given the presentation of his ideas in such an auspicious forum, Ehrlichs advice merits our consideration.

Sustainable futures for music cultures: an ecological perspective

In Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures, 14 specialists contribute to a tightly woven book illustrating diverse musical practices from around the world using a theoretical framework regarding the preservation of endangered traditions. The volume is the result of a five-year research project (2009–14) in Australia that linked scholars from England, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States. The concepts and concerns stem from international work beginning in the early twenty-first century as formulated in various UNESCO conventions and initiatives regarding intangible cultural heritage. The project has resulted in other publications and an associated website, which will continue the applied ethnomusicology demonstrated so well in the three theoretical chapters and nine case studies of this book. Other research using the same framework will likely follow, both from these authors and others providing comparable examples.