Sounding Decolonial Futures: Decentering Ethnomusicology's Colonialist Legacies

Term: Arrangement

Arrangement, another way of graphically depicting musical practices, is markedly different than transcription. The distinctions are important to keep in mind: while transcription involves the act of graphically depicting a sonic source, whether sounded live or through a recording, arrangement takes a sound sources and modifies it, often more drastically than occurs through the act of transcription. As ethnomusicologist Victoria Levine states in the introduction to her volume, Writing American Indian Music: Historic Transcriptions, Notations, and Arrangements,  arrangement

involves the adaptation of a notation or transcription for the purpose of performance, a process that usually involves harmonization, orchestration, or the addition of instrumental accompaniment. (2002:ix-xx; emphasis is mine)

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