(b Basle, 14 May 1937). Swiss-French ethnomusicologist. He met the anthropologist Denise Paulme and her husband the ethnomusicologist André Schaeffner during a trip to the Côte d’Ivoire in 1958 and thereafter reorientated his musical career, studying musicology and anthropology at the University of Basle (1958–61) while finishing a diploma in percussion at the Basle Conservatory (1960). He then attended the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and took the doctorate with Paulme and Schaeffner in 1968; he also joined the CNRS at the Musée de l’Homme, Paris, then directed by Gilbert Rouget, in 1967. He was appointed to teach ethnomusicology in 1981 at the University of Paris X-Nanterre; in 1982 he was made editor of the recording series Collection CNRS/Musée de l’Homme, to which he has contributed recordings both before and during his term as editor (Traditional Polynesian Music of the Ontong Java, 1972; Jüüzli: Yodel for the Muotatal Switzerland, 1990; Solomon Islands: ‘Are’are Intimate and Ritual Music, 1995; Voices of the World: an Anthology of Vocal Expression, 1996).
Zemp’s extensive fieldwork in West Africa, Oceania and Switzerland have resulted in writings which are now standard reference works. His dissertation was one of the first books on African music written from the anthropological perspective outlined in Merriam’s Anthropology of Music; Zemp has also explored the sophisticated polyphony and structures of vernacular oral traditions of the ‘Are’are of the Solomon Islands in a number of publications (1978, 1979, 1995). His films (such as Voix de tête, voix de poitrine, 1988) and writings about film, particularly concerning yodelling, investigate for the first time the visualization of musical structure as well as the physiological and acoustical aspects of overtone singing. His writings, recordings and films have earned him several international awards.
‘La légende des griots malinké’, Cahiers d’études africaines, vi (1966), 611–42
‘Comment on devient musicien: quatre exemples de l’ouest africain’, La musique dans la vie, i, ed. T. Nikiprowetzki (Paris, 1967), 79–103
Musique et musiciens chez les Dan (Côte d’Ivoire) (diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 1968; Paris, 1971, as Musique Dan: la musique dans la pensée et la vie social d’une société africaine)
with C. Kaufmann: ‘Pour une transcription automatique des langages tambourinés mélanésiens’, L’homme, ix/2 (1969), 39–88
‘Tambours de femme en Côte d’Ivoire’, Objets et Mondes: la revue du Musée de l’Homme, x/2 (1970), 99–118
‘Instruments de musique de Malaita’, Journal de la société des océanistes, xxvii/30 (1971), 31–53; xxviii/34 (1972), 7–48
with J. Schwarz: ‘Echelles équiheptatoniques des flûtes de Pan chez les ‘Are’are (Malaita, Iles Salomon)’, YIFMC, v (1973), 85–121
“Are’are Classification of Musical Types and Instruments’, EthM, xxii (1978), 37–67
with D. de Coppet: ‘Aré’aré, un peuple mélanésien et sa musique (Paris, 1978) [incl. recording]
‘Aspects of ‘Are’are Musical Theory’, EthM, xxiii (1979), 5–48
‘Melanesian Solo Polyphonic Panpipe Music’, EthM, xxv (1981), 383–418
‘Deux à huit voix: polyphonies de flûtes de Pan chez les Kwaio (Iles Salomon)’, RdM, lxviii (1982), 275–309
‘Filming Music and Looking at Music Films’, EthM, xxxii (1988), 393–427
‘Filming Voice Technique: the making of “The Song of Harmonics”’, World of Music, xxxi/3 (1989), 56–85
‘Ethical Issues in Ethnomusicological Filmmaking’, Visual Anthropology, iii (1990), 49–64
‘Visualizing Music Structure through Animation: the Making of the Film “Head Voice, Chest Voice”’, Visual Anthropology, iii (1990), 65–79
with T. Quang Hai: ‘Recherches expérimentales sur le chant diphonique’, Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles, iv (1991), 27–68
‘Quelles images pour la musique?’, Journal des anthropologues, xlvii–xlviii (1992), 107–17
Ecoute le bambou qui pleure: récits de quatre musiciens mélanésiens (‘Aré’aré, Iles Salomon) (Paris, 1995)
‘The/An Ethnomusicologist and the Record Business’, YTM, xxviii (1996), 36–56
‘Composer et interpréter des rythmes: musique et langage tambouriné chez les ‘Aré’aré’, Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles, x (1997), 191–235
SUSANNE FÜRNISS