Mcrsic ifi edutafionmusic of magical rites, family cults, work, festival and dance, to the
highly developed music of our modern composers. Nor must it be
forgotten that what we call Music with a capital M is Western music
only. The world is a big place and in certain parts of it, like in
Turkey, in Iran, in Malaya, in Hindustan, in China, in Korea or in
Japan, there are peoples whose musical sensibility finds expression
in modes unknown to our schools and which the sound libraries
are eminently fitted to collect, preserve and popularize.
As the great folklore expert, Van Gennet wrote: ‘We are almost
entirely ignorant of non-European music. Not only have very few
competent observers concerned themselves with it but-an even greater
difficulty-our system of notation is valid only for our own music. In
Arab, Polynesian, Amerindic or Chinese music there are intervals which
do not fit into our scale and instruments whose tone-values are differ-
ent from ours.’ This deficiency in our musical notation can be over-
come only by sound recording. Thanks to this new process, the collec-
tions in our sound libraries enable us to get to know the most intimate
side of the most distant peoples, to compare the way they express in
music their passions, beliefs and dreams. Sound recording reveals the
inner feelings of unknown hearts as X-rays reveal the organs of the
body.
Thus the records of folk music held in sound libraries, simply as
music or for scientific purposes, make it possible for us to know
mankind better.
For the moulding of mass opinion through music, my personal
experience over the past 25 years has convinced me that it is excellent
to acquaint the people with what might be called ethnic music through-
out the world. Thus sound recording shows us no longer what divides
peoples and races but what binds them together in common humanity.
Thus knowledge of music, of all kinds of music, contributes to the
work of culture and peace which is the mission of Unesco. The sound
libraries have their part to play in this task and can co-operate effectively
in the great work of international understanding.
[Translated from the French]