There have been many new developments in the production of moving film with synchronous sound track. In this all too familiar medium, developments are usually taken for granted and are not generally noticed. Areas of technology which have combined to produce ‘sync-sound’ have at the same time offered to a field of study, which some may prefer to call ethnochoreology, others ethnomusicology, a research facility the efficacy of which has not yet, in this writer's opinion, been fully explored. Because of this, the full impact of this facility on the practice and study of folk music and dance can not yet be properly gauged.

The survival of any type of music in Ghana is dependent upon the extent to which the music is able to satisfy the values the people look for in such music. The values, which may be aesthetic or structural, social or religious, may operate individually or in a simultaneous complexity. In other words the factors that shape and maintain the folk music in Ghana may be found in the music per se, in the artist or in the context of performance.

There are musical norms which the community expect in a musical performance. One such norm is the sound quality. The Ghanaian concept of music (and this may go for other African peoples too) does not unduly discriminate between sounds of definite pitches and sounds of indefinite pitches. It is true that in some situations the emphasis may be on one or the other. However, examples abound in which musical ensembles employ both pitched and unpitched instruments. And both categories of sound are given relatively equal roles in a performance.

A recent article by Jairazbhoy in Ethnomusicology is perhaps the first cogent account of the oboe in India. Here I wish to offer a few comments on his paper and give some supplementary material and ideas.

Survey courses in world musics survive on aphorisms, and one of the favorite characteristics appended to Asian music in such studies is its great interest in improvisation. The major problem with this saying is that it is not true. While it may apply to certain forms of South Asian music and be a part of the Southeast Asian polyphonic stratification structures, it is a rare thing in the music of East Asia. Thus, when I was asked to speak on Japanese music for a symposium on improvisation held by the University of Chicago, I was genuinely hesitant, because I simply could not think of examples upon which to base such a discussion. This study is the result of my search.

Two-part singing, based predominantly on the drone type of polyphony, is a phenomenon which is still common in the Razlog district of Bulgaria. Ritual songs such as those for St. Lazarus’ Day, St. George's Day, and Easter, rain-begging, dance songs, and harvest songs are all well preserved though rarely performed, and are representative of what is known as the “old style” of singing. This type of singing is performed mainly by older women, recreating from the past songs which they once sang as young women and girls. Characteristic are narrow-range melodies commonly based on the following scale formations: ABC, ABCD, ABCDE, with or without the subtonic G, a major second below the tonic A, which ends all melodies in the collection (the melodies have been transposed for comparative purposes). Also characteristic are the traditional, harsh-sounding parallel majoren oinor seconds. Alongside this older style exists a “new style” of part singing which to a certain extent is limited to younger women. Melodies in the “new style” have a larger ambitus, with the range formulas 1-6, VII-6, 1-7, and VII-7. Although the younger women are relatively familiar with the older style and sometimes condescend to use it, they seem to prefer the modern style, in which the melodic range is less restricted and more consonant-sounding intervals are used.

Except for a few casual remarks in the specialized works of historians, linguists, travelers, and ethnographers, the musical folklore of Kirghizia received virtually no attention in pre-Revolutionary publications. But, even though the scattered observations of pre-Revolutionary nonmusician scholars failed to convey a comprehensive idea of this folklore, they continue to provide valuable source material in terms of vivid first impressions of the people's musical life. All of the reports refer to improvisational song-creation as the most typical characteristic. And all remark upon its popular nature, traditionalism, and ties with the soil.

One of the most pressing demands of current Hungarian folk music research is to single out those precise elements in the traditions of Hungarian folk music which can be proved to be archaic residues of an early culture of Finno-Ugric origin. Under the inspiration of the labours of Bartók and Kodály this goal was attacked with enthusiasm as much as with methodical reflection. The methods of investigation which have been applied and also the results of the research attained thus far could arouse objection at many points. On the other hand, there can be no doubt about the justification of formulating the question as such.

Following the model of linguistic science, Hungarian folk music research has used above all comparative as well as historical methods. Through close study of recent collections of melodies recorded from Finno-Ugric peoples living far apart from each other, pains have been taken to establish stylistic coincidence or relationships which justify the tracing back of certain melodic structures and style complexes to Finno-Ugric roots.

Like all exceptionally creative people, Zoltán Kodály was an untiring and strongly focused worker. Music education, folk music research and composition are considered his most important fields. Regardless of certain preferences at one time or another, he always understood his work in these diverse areas as mutually supporting an integral whole.