With their shared interest in the exposition of deep musical structure and fundamental melodic procedure, ethnomusicology and Schenkerian analysis seem at first to be well-matched bedfellows. However, differences in ideological outlook have made the union of the two occasional, temporary and often ill-trusted, and there seems little prospect at present of the conception of a new breed of 'ethno-Schenkerians'. The first part of this essay provides an introduction to representative ethnomusicological analyses which have recourse to Schenkerian techniques and a reconsideration of the compatibility of Schenkerian modes of analysis with ethnomusicological inquiry in general. The latter part develops this reconsideration by discussing three sample analyses, each drawing on Schenkerian principles, as an illustration of directions in which reductive techniques can be exploited in the analysis of music from beyond the Western art tradition. Scholars concerned with the extension of Schenkerian techniques to preor post-tonal Western musical structures may find some parallels amongst those problems confronted in these nonWestern examples. The whole discussion is introduced by a brief summary of the aims of ethnomusicological inquiry, as are currently in widespread acceptance, the presentation of which is a critical prerequisite to the debate of ethnomusicological attitudes to music analysis in general and Schenkerism in particular.