Dale A. Olsen. Music of El Dorado: the ethnomusicology of ancient South American cultures.

Dale A. Olsen. Music of El Dorado: the ethnomusicology of ancient South American cultures. DALE A. OLSEN. Music of El Dorado El Dorado, legendary country of South AmericaEl Dorado(ĕl`dərä`dō, –rā`–)[Span.,=the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America. : the ethnomusicology ethnomusicologyScholarly study of the world's musics from various perspectives. Although it had antecedents in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the field expanded with the development of recording technologies in the late 19th century. of ancientSouth American cultures. xxxiii+290 pages, 80 figures, 3 tables. 2002.Gainesville (FL): University Press of Florida. Dale Olsen begins with a very telling quote from ChristopherColumbus: 'Truly for gold he can gain entrance for his soul intoparadise'. Naturally, the book is not about metal and Catholicspirituality The belief of the Roman Catholic Church is that, once one has accepted the faith (fides quae creditur) by making a personal act of faith (fides qua creditur), then one lives it out through spiritual practice. at all, but about cultures in which other values besidesthose of the Spanish (and, by extension, ourselves) held sway. Heimplies, and then discusses at some length, that ancient South Americancultures such as those of Peru and Colombia placed a high, evenreligious premium on musical products and productions. Olsen Usesethnographic analogy--the study of modern cultural/ritual practices todetermine potential continuities over long spans of time and reconstructancient lifeways--to show how music has played a key role for millennia.His evidence is first hand in the case of the North Coast of Peru, as heworked with the famous shaman Eduardo Calderon of Trujillo for manyyears and key archaeologists such as Christopher Donnan. Thus, Music ofEl Dorado adds significantly to our understanding of how music fits intovisionary spirituality past and present. However, there are certainly ways in which a specialist in one artform (the aural) cannot help but fall a bit short when using another artform (the visual) as a central part of his or her analysis. Whendiscussing the actual musical instruments, with their correct technicalterminology Technical terminology is the specialized vocabulary of a field. These terms have specific definitions within the field, which is not necessarily the same as their meaning in common use. and sensitivity to nuances of sound, Olsen is veryconvincing, generates appreciation, and remains surprisingly readablefor a non-musician. However, being an art historian, I must object to afew assumptions that Olsen makes regarding art as evidence for music. Hetreats such art styles as those of the Moche, the early hegemonicculture in northern Peru c. AD 1800, as encyclopaedic Adj. 1. encyclopaedic - broad in scope or content; "encyclopedic knowledge"encyclopediccomprehensive - including all or everything; "comprehensive coverage"; "a comprehensive history of the revolution"; "a comprehensive survey"; "a comprehensive education" treatments of thedaily and ritual lives of their makers. He writes, 'their potteryis like a ceramic ethnographic textbook' (p. 15), despite the factthat archaeologists and art historians repeatedly agree that certainsubjects are not illustrated in the sculptural or painted record. Norcan small-scale ceramic surfaces detail all aspects of an ancientpractice. Therefore, for example, when Olsen comments that Moche musicalscenes show only a flutist and a drummer, it cannot be concluded, as hedoes, that the actual ceremonies only featured a limited range ofperformers. So much archaeology is going on in this area (having justcome back from there in August 2004, I can personally attest to this)that such generalisations are dangerous as well. The most seriousproblem he flirts with is using objects from private collections whosepieces may not have been carefully screened by objective scholars. Ifthe instruments on which he bases his analyses are not, in fact,ancient, then the foundations of his findings are suspect from theoutset. Some plain or lesser objects in all collections, as well as someof the most impressive, are often found to be heavily reconstructed orculturally incorrect when a trained conservator conservatorn. a guardian and protector appointed by a judge to protect and manage the financial affairs and/or the person's daily life due to physical or mental limitations or old age. , scholar, and, or,curator examine them in person. These objections do not, however, take away from the copiouslyreferenced, logically presented, and original aspects of Music of ElDorado. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the book is that itdirects the reader to a website containing the actual recordings of theillustrated instruments when they were played. Usually a visitingmusician and a very lenient conservator are the only ways for the publicto gain such an experience. Having access to these recordings isobviously invaluable for conveying what he calls 'non-speechcommunication' and listening creates a powerful sensory interactionwith the sounds of the past and present. His presentation of the wordsof shamans, their fascinating points of view and ways of using music,such as their experiences of synaesthesia, are all remarkable. Olsenalso is careful to frame his more controversial claims as hypotheses,and presents the shamans answers fairly. For instance, after askingCalderon if he thought the Moche pursed-lip human effigy EFFIGY, crim. law. The figure or representation of a person. 2. To make the effigy of a person with an intent to make him the object of ridicule, is a libel. (q.v.) Hawk. b. 1, c. 7 3, s. 2 14 East, 227; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 866. 3. vesselsdepicted shamans whistling to call spirits, Olsen reports his informantas replying 'One cannot know ... They are probably just peoplewhistling' (p. 153; one is reminded of Picasso saying that a birdin the painting, Guernica, is just a chicken). Of course, the commentsof one man do not invalidate the point that music was a highly spiritualpursuit in the ancient Americas and Olsen gives us many insightful waysto approach this crucial topic. REBECCA STONE-MILLER Michael C. Carlos Museum The Michael C. Carlos Museum is administered by Emory University on its campus in DeKalb County near Atlanta, Georgia.The Carlos Museum has the largest collections in the Southeast United States of objects from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near East, and the ancient , Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.