Abstract

This chapter offers new perspectives on the relationship between performance and fieldwork. Anchored in ethnomusicological theory, the chapter focuses on the ethnomusicologist’s experience as both a researcher and a performer in the field. Research was perceived as a performance (after Barz 1997) and this contributed towards legitimising the researcher’s role and identity. As the ethnomusicologist became an accepted outsider, the field developed into a two-way experience between the people on the field and the researcher. However, the “lived experience” (Titon 1997) of music performance was still essential to gain cultural insights, learning what could only be experienced.