Random access: your role in music history.

Of course you have studied music history in school and (hopefully) have continued your music history studies, either formally or informally, since then. But have you thought about the role you play in that history? How about the role your students play? Given the possibilities of new information technologies, your potential role might be bigger than you think.

What Is Music History Anyway?

We all know what the study of music history is: the study of the life, times, musical practices and culture surrounding musicians, as well as their contributions to the musical art form. But what, really, is the history of music itself?.

When studying music history or any other history, it is easy to assume we are studying actual events that took place. In reality, however, history is not the sum total of the events themselves but, rather, our record of those events. That record can be at times accurate, inaccurate or rather muddled, yet we still study it to find meaning. Whenever we study that record, we must remember that there is a story in history.

The Individual Roles We Play

As a record of the past, our musical history can be found in many places, including information passed on through oral tradition, print, historical artifacts, pictures, recordings and even musical interpretations. Indeed, there is no single place where the entire accessible record of our music history resides.

Whenever we teach our students, we participate in the ongoing documentation of musical history and an evolving interpretation of it. For example, when we teach a student how to execute a trill in Mozart's music, starting (or not starting) on the upper note, we are contributing to the history of music by passing on information that may take on a life of its own through our student and everyone who comes in contact with that student and his music. What we pass on to our student may or may not be accurate or insightful, but it does become part of music history.

Although it might be comforting to think that we can go to scholarly sources, such as Grove's Dictionary of Music" and Musicians, to get the facts, the actual history of music is a larger embodiment of the collective understanding of all mankind--and that includes the minds and the writings and the performances of many people--even those who do not necessarily have any expertise in this field.

We may think that articles written by scholars and printed in peer-reviewed journals are more important than our own contributions to music history, but it stands to reason that our own contributions are significant. In fact, our own contributions are very significant in the lives of our students. And, if we take advantage of new and easily accessible technologies, our personal influence may expand exponentially.

An Opportunity for You

The Internet and new information technologies make it possible for anyone to become a noteworthy contributor to the history of music. A good example is a relatively new, free and ever-evolving online encyclopedia called Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Main_Page).

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia writ ten by everyone who chooses to contribute constructively. Unlike a writer for Grove's, you don't have to be a pedigreed scholar to write for Wikipedia. All you have to do is post an article or edit an existing article.

The encyclopedia grows and evolves on a moment-by-moment basis. Currently, there are about 732,000 articles in the English section alone. Many more languages are represented, but to a lesser extent.

The notion that anyone can write or edit an article for Wikipedia may seem quite bizarre but before you completely discount what I am telling you, please suspend your disbeliefs for a few more paragraphs.

I first encountered Wikipedia a few months ago. I found some very interesting and helpful material in the form of text, images, sounds and so on. While I was browsing, I decided to search for a rather esoteric computer-music topic that is dear to my heart: score-following. Sure enough, I found a brief article.

According to Wikipedia: "Score following is the process of automatically listening to a live music performance and tracking the position in the score. It is an active area of research and stands at the intersection of artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, and musicology." I found this to be a good definition. The underlined words provided helpful links to other articles.

The article went on to mention a few pioneers in this field. Although these people certainly deserved the citations, I thought two important people had been left out: Barry Vercoe of MIT and Frank Weinstock of the University of Cincinnati. So, I decided to edit the article.

Editing was very easy. My changes were posted immediately. When I added a sentence containing these two additional names, a link to another article about Vercoe was automatically created. Apparently, there was no article about Weinstock, so the encyclopedia offered me the opportunity to write one. In addition to adding these two names, I also cited three patents that had been granted to Weinstock.

Over the next few weeks, I periodically checked the article to see if there had been any further changes. Eventually, I noticed that someone had made some modest enhancements to the article and that Wikipedia had become smart enough to link my patent citations to the actual patents posted on the website of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Indeeed, this article, including my contributions to it, had taken on a visible life of its own!

Truths, Half-truths and Falsehoods

You might be wondering how trusting you can be of any of the information found in Wikipedia--or anywhere else on the Internet, for that matter. Although I agree that the reader should always be cautious, I am optimistic that a living, breathing encyclopedia such as this actually makes sense.

Wikipedia does have a small community of editors who prevent outrageous postings or defacements of the encyclopedia. (For an in-depth discussion of Wikipedia's inner workings and "self-repairing" aspects, refer to this article in the March 2005 issue of Wired magazine at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1 3.03/wiki.html.) Beyond that, however, there is apparently a good bit of leeway for accommodating contributions from many sources and perspectives.

In a number of ways, Wikipedia is not very different from Grove's and similar reference works. Grove's has been updated and re-released many times over the years. During its history, the amount of information has steadily increased; some articles have been continuously edited and improved, while other articles have been completely replaced. In the process, it has been evident that errors have been identified and corrected, a fact that leads to the conclusion that even a scholarly publication is not flawless.

Wikipedia is currently going through a similar process of growth and evolution--albeit much faster and in public.

Taking Note of Our Responsibilities and Passing on Our Insights

As discussed above, history is really humanity's collective understanding of the past. Wikipedia represents a fascinating embodiment of that collective understanding because it is open to contributions from all members of the human collective. In that sense, Wikipedia offers itself as an intriguing source of information.

When I approached the task of editing a Wikipedia article for the first time, I almost felt my hands tremble on my computer keyboard. Although I am never at a loss for words, I found the act of editing an article in a reference work of this magnitude to be awe-inspiring. I had an overwhehning feeling of responsibility resting on my shoulders.

Are you ready to take the Wikipedia challenge and share your insights into the history of music with the greater global community? What about your students? No responsible person is excluded from participation.

If you are ready to take the plunge and offer up your own insights, I expect you will feel that same sense of responsibility. And, when you click the button to post your contribution, I expect you also will enjoy an amazing feeling of exhilaration as your words make their debut on the world's online stage.

George F. Litterst is a nationally known music educator, clinician, author, performer and music software developer. He is co-developer of the intelligent accompaniment software program Home Concert Xtreme from TimeWarp Technologies.