ABSTRACT
The issue of using audiovisual documentation in ethnomusicological research has a long history. Visual anthropology, or ethnographic film, in fact appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, almost at the same time as the motion picture itself was invented, as Rouch (1968) reminds us. Among the first examples of the use of film in documenting rituals and dances, one might mention the works dedicated to the Australian aborigines (by Baldwin Spencer, 1901), the Kwakiutl Indians (by Edward Curtis, 1914), and other cultures in various parts of the world (Heider 2006). In European ethnomusicology, this interest can be traced back to the work of a few pioneers, in particular a seminal paper, ‘Esquisse d’une méthode de folklore musical’, published in 1931, in which the Romanian scholar Constantin Brăiloiu stresses the importance of the use of photographs and images in musical ethnography. I explicitly mention this text among others not only because it is related to audiovisual documentation as such, but because, in stressing the importance of the use of images in ethnomusicological research, it was particularly important for the development of Italian ethnomusicology. I should, however, begin by quoting my own two teachers in this field, both engaged in such endeavours: Diego Carpitella and Mantle Hood.
