Dialogic editing

WQED-TV has made a short program about an ethnographic collection project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called "A Lifetime of Music: Ann Walko". The film is available online at the WQED Video On-Demand site. WQED writes:

Ann Walko has sung the folks songs of her Carpatho-Rusyn heritage all of her life. At the age of 100, Ann is now working to preserve them. With the help of musicologist Jerry Jumba, Ann sings and Jerry writes down the music and words. OnQ goes to one of their preservation sessions.

Jerry Jumba's method for working with Ann Walko is dialogic, very much in the same style as Stephen Feld describes in his book "Sound and Sentiment". Through performance interaction and bringing transcriptions back to his informant for comments and corrections, Jumba stands a much better chance of "getting these things into a translation where they're not 'lost in translation'", as he says himself.

An example to be emulated. Bravo, Jerry!