ers, modern instruments and studio equipment. While the cultures we are learning about have no such luxury. Nettle takes this fact a step further by saying, "We think of a piece of music as existing in its truest form on a piece of paper. The academics among us can hardly conceive of discussing music without knowledge of a single, authoritative, visible version." When listening to the Mbuti music a complex system is clearly audible. In Western society notation helps with the conception and birth of a musical idea but, "It equates composing with writing and accepts the creation of music on paper even when the composer can barely imagine its sound until he has heard it, of music which contains devices that can only be appreciated by the eye." The music of the Mbuti is a constant flow of creation encompassing writing and composing while performing. This is why the task of the ethnomusicologist is noble. The first reaction most scientists or any rational minded person will have to a new idea that isn't easily understood is to reject it. If the importance and emphasis in the conception of music in these African cultures have been placed on sound, as in producing and listening, from generation to generation for hundreds if not thousands of years what can this tell us about Western music? Is it possible that the music produced within these societies has evolved much more rapidly than in Western music? In Western society we have been slaving away with our pencils and paper for centuries. Can we say that environmental and cultural difference is the reason we have difficulty understanding music structured differently than our own? The task of transcription would seem excruciatingly painful coming from a Western background. Are there many western musicians who would consider singing for twenty-four hours straight without a proper break? While westerners are more concerned with the complexity of music, it is clear that people such as the Mbuti and...
