Toward a Sound Ecology is a collection of essays from eminent ethnomusicologist Jeff Todd Titon, gathered over a forty-year period. The book is organized in three sections, tracing the evolution in his thinking on topics pertaining to field work, cultural and musical sustainability, and finally what he terms a “sound ecology” (254). Each section could be used as a primer for the major issues in these three areas. In fact, if one subscribes to Titon’s theories, the work as a whole could easily serve as an introductory textbook to the field while simultaneously functioning as a compendium of the major life work of one of ethnomusicology’s key figures to date.

Each chapter begins with an orienting paragraph that details the ways that Titon’s personal journey affected his thinking on the chapter content. These details from his research and teaching experiences model what he proposes in the “The Life Story,” which suggests that personal fictions offer insights unavailable in the typically more heavily edited genres of published interview and autobiography. The book sits somewhere between memoir and magnum opus, offering the reader an opportunity to peek behind the curtain of Titon’s writing—where he was at a given time and his relationships with students, mentors, and his garden.

As we read, Titon shifts from concerns about an “experiential, friendship-based approach to ethnographic fieldwork, documentation, and interpretation,” (2) to a “concern for reciprocity, equity, and justice” (3). His thoughts on applied ethnomusicology appear at the end of the first section but are key in demonstrating his gradual transition from the bread and butter of ethnomusicological thought of his generation (as demonstrated in “Ethnomusicology as the Study of People Making Music,” “Text,” and “Knowing Fieldwork”) to his well-known theories on cultural sustainability. The relationship between the ethics of fieldwork and the eco-mindedness of Titon’s later writings thus becomes illuminated through his thoughts on sustainability and resilience.

The final section, Toward a Sound Ecology, is particularly useful for the present moment, as it traces not only the history of ecomusicology but also its attendant issues, including its continuing failure to engage with critiques of scientific realism. The section ends with a previously unpublished essay, prefigured in a variety of keynote addresses, where he proposes sonic relationality as the basis for animal communication. In so doing, Titon presents a master narrative that situates human musical practices in broader ecological ones while attempting to subvert the dangerous territory of biological determinism. “Music,” claims Titon, “is the corporeal expression of a sound connection as a vibrational exchange… all beings are in the world of vibrations and sound experience. This, I suggest in conclusion, is a sound way of knowing that it is worth pondering and building on in hope of changing our unsound and unbalanced world to a world worth having” (274).

Towards a Sound Ecology offers not only a retrospective on shifting thought in ethnomusicology throughout the length of Titon’s career but also suggestions about where it may go in the future. Titon’s book is a fascinating character study that shows the evolution of his thinking, situated within real-world ethnographic and biographical specifics, and proposes future expansions for the field in its current state. Each of the essays can be excerpted and used out of context for a variety of purposes, but the book as a whole serves as an excellent refresher on the field as a whole, as well as a suggestion of what it may soon become.

--------

[Review length: 576 words • Review posted on March 11, 2022]