Sonic Anthropology in 1900: The Challenge of Transcribing Non-Western Music and Language

Coming to terms with foreign otherness in 1900 inevitably involved interpretation, negotiation and acceptance of the ungraspable 'space between' the oral and the written. Julien Tiersot's transcriptions of non-western music into western notation tell us more about racial preconceptions and the search for musical universals than about musical difference. Leon Azoulay, French physician and member of the Societe d'Anthropologie, similarly presumed something universal in human languages, and wished to fix them through 'non-systematic' transcriptions into phonemes and 'semi-literal' translations. However, whereas Tiersot took dictation from musicians performing at the Paris Universal Exhibitions, in 1900 Azoulay made over 400 wax cylinder recordings there. This little-known and, until recently, unavailable collection includes diverse languages and dialects, accompanied by notes on the linguistic and sociological characteristics of those recorded. These documents shed light upon the 'revolution in knowledge' they sought to bring about, and how the genre of transcription reveals fundamental aspects of the colonial experience.