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This semester, in association with the performance of Tim Souster's World Music, we are going to investigate ways in which music of other cultures can influence our own music.
N.B. For all parts of this project, please ensure that you keep scrupulous details of all music referred to. For the final part of the project you'll be required to submit these details in support of your finished composition.
Over the last twenty years there has been a considerable increase in the interest shown in music from cultures other than our own 'mainstream' one. One of the areas most affected by this interest has been composition; many composers have seen 'other' musics as solutions to difficult problems with style, communication, and aesthetics which have arisen since the second world war.
First, listen to a wide range of non-western-mainstream music. Find three examples of music that:
Make sure the three pieces are very different.
Find out the following things about these pieces:
In addition, you might like to think about and/or listen to the following:
(even with these few examples there'd be things to pick up on I guess, like Messaien's reinterpretation, if not misrepresentation, of the Indian tala system), various other late 19th/20th century composers (Neil Sorrell's book on gamelan has quite a lot on Debussy, by the way); numerous composers who based pieces on folk material (Bartok, Kodaly, Vaughan Williams...);
Listen to how the composers have integrated the 'external' material with their own - probably to the extent that you don't even really notice it. But it was very noticeable at the time! Clearly, these are not actual examples of folk music, but examples of folk music interpreted by western composers and played on western instruments. This has been one of the most important developments in music over the last century.
Since the 1960s, many popular bands and artists have (claimed to have) been highly influenced by a variety of world musics. Examples include:
(Please let me know if you have other interesting examples - I don't have enough time to keep abreast of all these things.)
Nitin Sawhney has done some quite interesting stuff combining western/Indian/flamenco and goodness knows what. Indian musicians do with western music, from Ravi Shankar's sitar concertos to Indian film music orchestrations (you must have heard the massed-violin sound, for instance).
This is one of the main things that you should be looking at. The ideas above are ideas that have already been filtered through someone's mind. Remember to keep distinct in your mind that other cultures, like ours, have particular social, religious and cultural roles for particular types of music. For instance the Gamelan, because of its expense, etc., is generally used for cultural and ceremonial occasions, as opposed to some more vocal based music, (cheaper), which is often used for entertainment or other social purposes. You'll find that, in general, a 'classical' tradition is one in which the exponents have been through some or other form of specific training.
While doing this, try not to let any of your own musical prejudices get in the way. If music sounds strange or weird, make a particular effort to understand it, and to understand the situation and motivation of those who created it.
There are two main purposes for this project. First, to incorporate perhaps unfamiliar ideas and sounds into a fundamentally Western cultural activity. Secondly, you should think about issues of cultural representation and appropriation, the symbolic meaning of musical borrowings, clashes of aesthetic values and ethical issues. by this I mean - what right do we have to feel that we understand another culture? How much can we actually learn about it by understanding their music? Is this form of cultural magpie-ism really pan-cultural or are we simply pilfering the bits we like while keeping well out of the way of the bits we're not so keen on, (in the case of third-world countries - poverty, hunger, political corruption and ineptitude)? Does this matter?
Finally, there are many arguments now against the increasing westernisation/Americanisation of the ethnic music of other countries. In many countries, the classical traditions are being marginalised at the expense of predominantly western popular music or local music that has been heavily influenced by western pop. Are we right to criticise or in doing so are we asking things of others that we would not be prepared to undertake ourselves? Our own culture is the result of many centuries of invasions, both physical and cultural, where existing norms have been replaced by those of 'foreign' powers. Our language is a compromise between these invading forces, and our native languages have been almost totally marginalised. Is this important? Is there anything that can be done about it?
Your composition should fulfill the following conditions:
Listen to the sound of a gamelan orchestra. You'll hear that it would not be possible to recreate this sound on western instruments precisely due to the complex tuning systems gamelans use. However, you can use your imagination to imitate the sound. It'll be different, but new, and you'll have created something.
Another example might be the African Mbira. You might try to mimic this using, say a stringed instrument playing pizzicato. The tuning would not be correct so you could try de-tuning the instrument or using microtones. Why not try adding a gentle marimba like sound, played with soft sticks? Once again, it won't be an mbira, but it may well be something interesting and new, a sound or texture that you wouldn't otherwise have thought of.
Good luck!