The Reliability of Oral Transmission: The Case of Samaritan Music

In the absence of theoretical formulation concerning the processes of oral transmission of musical culture, the selection of informants in ethnomusicological research is necessarily haphazard. Yet, without a clear idea of who your informants are it is difficult to elaborate adequate theories. In Vansina's words, 'the value of oral traditions as historical evidence is a problem that has not been solved, because the special nature of oral traditions as a source of information about the past has not been provided.' Of course, no single theory can be expected to apply to all societies, since the 'chain of testimonies' is a function of the network of social communication, and this appears -at least so far- to vary from culture to culture. Thus the starting point for the study of an oral musical tradition must be an examination of the potential network of cultural transmission within a particular society.