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<\/a>[Portrait of Mr. John Comfort Fillmore]. Photographs. Place: National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>In his article, John Comfort Fillmore presents his analysis of a set of songs collected by Alice C. Fletcher. Aside from the conclusions that Fillmore draws from his harmonic analysis, he provides us with much more information that alerts us to his biases toward Native American Music. He recalls Fletcher\u2019s request of him to analyze the songs to determine \u201cthe scale on which [they] were built,\u201d2 <\/sup><\/a>but the existence of this article alone proves that this simple request made by another scholar quickly ballooned into something much more presumptuous and declarative than it deserved to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fillmore presents the scales of these songs in Western notation on the ignorant basis that, \u201cthe Indians have no musical notation, no theories of music whatsoever.\u201d3 <\/sup><\/a>His deprecating comments continue when describing how he felt obligated to harmonize the versions of these songs since, \u201cthe harmonic sense of these peoples is underdeveloped.”4 <\/sup><\/a><\/span>Fillmore\u2019s imposition of Western notation and harmony onto these songs is an excellent example of \u201ccolonial imposition,\u201d5<\/sup><\/a> which is a term used by Beverly Diamond in Music and modernity among First Peoples of North America<\/i> to describe inadequate documentation of Native American music through the use of Western notation.<\/span><\/p>\n Fillmore\u2019s intentions and biases are made clear at the end of the article, where his initial intentions of using the music of Native Americans to \u201ctest the naturalness of our own musical perceptions\u201d6 <\/sup><\/a>lead to his far-fetched conclusion that Native American music contains a \u201cnoble religious feeling [akin to] the central idea of Christianity.\u201d7 <\/sup><\/a>Contrary to popular ideas of the time, he does advocate for Native American music as being \u201cworthy of comparison to some of the best [music] we possess ourselves,\u201d8 <\/sup><\/a>but only after his unwelcome imposition of Western notation to create versions of Native American music that \u201cthe Indians couldn\u2019t have produced unaided.\u201d9<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Though much of ethnomusicology has changed over the course of its existence, some things remain the same, both positive and negative. Browner notes that the employment of fieldwork as the main method of ethnomusicological research has remained the same throughout history.10 <\/sup><\/a>Similarly, although the field has advanced greatly over time, the misrepresentation demonstrated through Fillmore\u2019s article and research methods remains something to be aware of within ethnomusicology today.<\/span><\/p>\n Bibliography<\/p>\n 1 <\/a>https:\/\/library.artstor.org\/asset\/NMNH_125725565.<\/p>\n 2 <\/a>John Comfort Fillmore. “A STUDY OF INDIAN MUSIC.1.”\u00a0Century Illustrated Magazine (1881-1906),\u00a0<\/i>02, 1894, 616, https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/magazines\/study-indian-music-1\/docview\/125524446\/se-2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 3 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n 4 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n 5 <\/a>Diamond, Beverly. Music and modernity among First Peoples of North America<\/i>. Edited by Victoria Lindsay Levine and Dylan Robinson. Wesleyan University Press, 2019.<\/p>\n 6 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n 7 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n 8 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n 9 <\/a>Ibid.<\/p>\n 10 <\/a>Music of the First Nations : Tradition and Innovation in Native North America. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Accessed September 18, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his article, John Comfort Fillmore presents his analysis of a set of songs collected by Alice C. Fletcher. Aside from the conclusions that Fillmore draws from his harmonic analysis, he provides us with much more information that alerts us … Continue reading