Music and Sustainability: An Ecological Viewpoint

Attempts to preserve music as cultural heritage put applied ethnomusicologists and public folklorists in a defensive posture of safeguarding property assets. By supporting the conservation of those assets with tourist commerce, heritage management is doomed to the paradox of constructing staged authenticities with music treated as a market commodity. Instead, best practices arise from partnerships among ethnomusciologists, folklorists and music culture insiders (community leaders, scholars, and musicians), with sustainability interventions aimed directly inside music cultures. These efforts should be guided by principles drawn from ecology, not economy; and specifically by four principles from the new conservation ecology-diveristy, limits to growth, interconnectedness, and stewardship.