Materialist Organology

Abstract

Organologists and music historians have long placed importance on the locales of musical instrument production, sometimes investing near-mythical status to an area’s resources and historical moments. In contrast, modern electric guitar makers create their own production centers through importation of raw materials, components, and machinery that would have previously depended on localized availability. Aided by the development of global supply chains in the twentieth century, large electric guitar firms have instead sought to build factories according to the location of cheap labor markets–a practice called labor arbitrage. 

This paper examines the political economy of electric guitars through the geographic distribution of factories and manufacturing technologies over time. The electric guitar’s mechanical electronic simplicity makes it amenable to developments in globalized trade, embedding itself not only in the West’s socially distributed electrical infrastructure but through its international trade relations as well. The mobility of the electric guitar industry is contrasted with the immobility of labor markets. Electric guitar firms began in small workshops in the Global North and grew into factory production during the rise of American productive hegemony in the early twentieth century. As guitar companies grew, they relocated domestically to take advantage of differences in labor cost. The proliferation of competitors in the postwar period drove firms to seek cheaper foreign labor. Since the 2007 economic crisis, the industry has undergone numerous mergers, acquisitions, and a sharp increase of outsourcing and market stratification as firms struggle to maintain profitability. 

This paper contributes to the study of material culture–which often focuses on “the meanings that objects possess” (Dennis 2018)–by providing insights into the economic processes that create these objects. Corporations’ dependency on labor arbitrage demonstrates that symbols are far from fixed but must be continually reproduced in ever-more-precarious contexts. Thus, though emblematic of industrial modernism and romantic mythologies of individualism and rebellion, electric guitars are subject to the same market logic and dialectical processes as any mass-produced commodity. 

Biography

Michael Dekovich holds a PhD in Music Theory from the University of Oregon. A rock guitarist and composer, his research explores the interaction of political economy and musical form in rock and metal music. In 2021, he presented on the role of the global division of labor on the organology of the electric guitar at the national meeting of the AMS. His chapter, “Death Metal Dodecaphony: Partition Schemes in Ron Jarzombek’s Twelve-Tone Music,” appears in Musical Waves: West Coast Perspectives of Pitch, Narrative, and Form. He has a forthcoming chapter titled “Compound Bridge Sections in Rock and Metal Music” in The Routledge Handbook to Metal Music Composition: Evolution of Structure, Expression, and Production. 

Abstract

Since the common practice period, stringed instruments have been synonymous with the sophistication of Western art music. Stradivarius violins are regarded as pieces of art worth tens of millions of dollars, and stringed instruments from the 17th century are still played today. Modern luthiers continue to source rare or endangered ebony, pernambuco, maple, and spruce to create instruments that last for generations. However, stringed instruments can also be bought through online retailers for less than 100USD. Factory-made stringed instruments can be built in a matter of days, exported in the millions from China each year, and discarded after 15 years on average. In contrast to the craftsmanship of high-end instruments, factory produced stringed instruments are often distributed without knowledge of their creators or materials. Despite musicians’ idealization of artisanal instruments, their larger environmental footprint per unit than factory instruments calls into question what constitutes a “good” instrument amidst the industry’s increasing ecological concerns.

In order to address Elkington’s triple bottom line (1994) of people, planet, and profit and pursue sustainable growth, string manufacturers must pursue ethical sourcing alongside transparency in factory materials and practices. Due to globalized means of production, string instruments can now exist both as a commodity and as a piece of art. This paper examines wood sourcing in the string industry and explores how manufacturers’ considerations are influenced by the status they ascribe to the instrument itself. As the industry’s longevity is threatened due to wood scarcity, the violin’s status evokes different implications for luthiers, corporations, performers, and pedagogues. 

In addition to producer information and export statistics, this paper explores the research and activism of conservation organizations to document the effects of industry practices on ecosystems. Though the quantities and disposability of factory instruments may result in a larger environmental footprint, artisanal instruments threaten old growth forests that have an indeterminable value to our future. Though luthiers have made strides toward a sustainable future, including factory instruments in these discussions will allow conservation efforts to address the output and impact of the industry as a whole and ensure the future of string instruments for all musicians.

Biography

Abigail Byrd (she/her) is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Alabama (UA) in Tuscaloosa, AL, studying Music Theory with a minor in Liberal Arts through the Blount Scholars Program. Originally from Greenville SC, Abigail attended the Greenville Fine Arts Center as part of their chamber strings program and was enrolled in music theory and history courses throughout her high school education. Abigail is an involved cellist and string bassist at UA in the Huxford Symphony Orchestra and chamber music program and is studying the piano, viola da gamba, guitar, and mandolin independently.  At UA, she leads and participates in Reformed University Fellowship’s worship ministry that ministers to 300 students a week. 

She presented a paper titled “Agency, Activism, and Environmentalism in the Current Music Industry” at the AMS-South conference in February and is planning to pursue a PhD in Musicology after finishing her undergraduate degree in 2024.

Abstract

Of the many instruments reintroduced into musical life by the Early Music Movement in the twentieth century, the recorder has doubtless enjoyed the most success. The instrument remains ubiquitous despite the “tidal wave of undisciplined but rewarding enthusiasm” Robert Donington describes it arousing in the 1930s having long since crested and receded. In the classroom, it has outlasted the slide rule and the chalkboard. The recorder’s principal appeal in the modern world consists in indexing an alternative form of musical engagement that evades the infelicities of commercial music making in the industrial period. In the era of mass culture, the recorder’s soft and easily-produced sound lends itself to intimate, amateur performance. Taken up in this way, recorder playing resists the tendency of capitalist social relations to select for a firm division of musical labor and the consequent hoarding of musical skills by professionals. Those who first introduced instruction in the instrument into elementary education were intervening in what they took to be sterile and mechanical modern teaching methods aimed at reproduction rather than expression. The recorder bypasses musical modernity, offering the child an instrument of relative primitiveness that corresponds to their own stage of musical formation. 

The importance of the instrument’s pre-modernity is emphasized by the elaborate ornamental designs featured on standard models. Notably, these decorative elements are always featured on mass produced, plastic recorders despite their being specific to wood turning on a lathe. They serve as a reminder that whatever the recorder’s pre-industrial bona fides, its remarkable trajectory in the last century is primarily shaped by material conditions: advances in material science, and, especially, the revival of German and Japanese manufacturing after the Second World War. If the recorder is a symbol of craft production, its ubiquity is nevertheless a product of commercialism and capitalist industry. This presentation analyzes the recorder’s relationship to its mode of production with the aim of laying bare these informative ironies.

Biography

Stephan Hammel is Assistant Professor of Music at UC Irvine. His work is focused on developing a historical materialist framework for the study of music. His research encompasses the history of Marxist approaches to the subject–both “Western” and “Eastern” variants–as well as the role of music in the communist movement. In addition, he harbors an interest in musical modernism in Latin America, especially as it relates to Left politics. His first monograph, Toward a Materialist Conception of Music History will be published in Brill’s Historical Materialism series in 2023.