Universalism and Relativism in the Study of Ethnic Music

t is remarkable with what persistent and single-minded intent human beings strive for inner security and psychic certainty. We cling tenaciously to familiar ways and accepted explanations, blandly disregarding or rationalizing away incongruities and inconsistencies, if only we may be permitted the tranquillity of a system and certainty of a set of principles. Only a few can tolerate ambiguity and its attendant tensions. Perhaps it is this need for the reliability of order and regularity that compels the mind to obey the principles of pattern perception formulated by the Gestalt psychologists: the psychological organization will always be as good as prevailing conditions allow; a motion once begun will tend to continue in the simplest possible way; changes in memory traces will tend to improve shape; and so forth. In the realms of philosophy, science, and mathematics a similar need leads us to accept as best or true those explanations which are the simplest and most economical-as, for instance, in the principle of Occam's Razor. (Observe, incidentally, that in subsuming the theories of Gestalt Psychology and the principle of Occam's Razor under a single general concept, I am obeying the very tendencies which I am discussing.) Not only does a principle of parsimony govern our perception of music, through the unconscious operation of principles such as those of simplicity and good shape, but it also influences the explanations we give of the nature of music, the development of musical styles, and the relations of music to the culture in which it arises. In short, it shapes both musical experience itself and our thinking about musical experience. And it seems possible that the operation of this principle is responsible for the strong tendency toward simplistic monism which has marked our thinking in the area of Ethnic music.