World music

This course examines the sonic expressions of people's status, identity, rights, and duties as political subjects across multiple scales of place. We will consider the value of cultural advocacy in the public sector and social activism in the public sphere; and the importance of partnering with (non)governmental institutions, community organizations, and grassroots affiliates to advance one's musical art. While this class does not ignore the important critiques of cultural policy's hegemonic tendencies in modern states, it will take seriously the possibilities of political engagement, appeal, and protest in culture sectors that both encompass and exceed those states. Further, by taking a comparative, cross-cultural, and trans-national perspective, we will consider the myriad ways in which music (and expressive culture more generally) is (and is not) implicit to social contracts worldwide. Students will approach these issues through a range of ethnographic case studies, including ample examples of related performance practice, a broad survey of current (ethno)musicological scholarship, as well as popular commentary and critiques, and practical engagement with the politics of cultural production in Columbus, Ohio.

Abstract:

This webinar invites Jewish Studies faculty to learn about Jewish music resources for curriculum development and class assignments, or to help students interested in developing projects in Jewish music. There is a wealth of media-based and text-based material available online for teaching and research in Jewish music. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of Jewish music research, resources can be difficult to locate, as they are scattered across many different library databases, archives, and subject specific websites. This webinar, which is hosted by the Association for Jewish Studies and is co-sponsored by the Jewish Music Study Group of the Society for Ethnomusicology and the Jewish Studies and Music Study Group of the American Musicological Society, will offer faculty a concise overview of the essential primary and secondary resources they can use to bring Jewish music into any Jewish Studies classroom.

"In this paper I discuss World Music within and beyond its economic dimension. Focus is on the question of how a musical space in which various actors intonate their visions of transcultural unity and difference, can be analysed ethnographically. In order to do so, the paper gives an ethnographic account of such a space and how it is created in a particular version of a well-known song, Bob Marley’s 'Redemption Song' played by the Réunionese band Bastèr.

My central argument is that World Music(ians) mediate(s) local images of authenticity for global audiences. On Réunion Island, an Overseas-Department of France in the Indian Ocean, this process becomes strikingly apparent. Before its colonisation the island was uninhabited. As such, traditions here cannot be termed original or rooted, but are indicators of cultural transition and 'routedness'.

I argue that Réunionese musicians use traditions to (re)territorialise themselves within a larger translocal soundscape, a World Music scene in which Réunion Island for them becomes only one of many points of reference. As such, the specific musical mediation of Bastèr offers a different perspective on what a World Music that incorporates both unity and difference might sound like."

The inclusion of world music from a variety of cultures and traditions within the general music curriculum creates valuable opportunities for students to experience music in ways that are both culturally and pedagogically beneficial. By exploring the connection between the fields of ethnomusicology and music education, we can expand our current body of world music resources to include more of the beautiful and varied music traditions that exist in this world. Within this article, one practicing general music educator considers the important work of ethnomusicologists as she shares her experiences with a world music tradition that has not yet been thoroughly explored within the context of music education: the rhythmic timelines of Southern Benin. This article also includes a set of suggested learning experiences, which provides clear examples of how the rhythmic timelines of Southern Benin can become meaningful to music educators and students everywhere.

La critique élaborée ici porte sur trois sujets : a) il
y a des récits qui nous viennent dans la temporalité et
qui portent des relations inégales entre le Nord et le Sud
globaux ; b) la world music n’a pas une forme esthétique
définie pour fonctionner comme un genre musical, mais
fonctionne comme un signifiant ou écriture (un gramme)
pour contenir des singularités dans un champ homogène ;
et c) l’analyse sémiotique d’oeuvres des artistes Bantu
Continua Uhuru Consciousness (BCUC) et M.I.A. pour
identifier les éléments sonores de différentes frontières
culturelles et le sens politique de la révision narrative qu’ils
assument.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a better understanding of 4th–8th grade students’ levels of cultural understanding within the context of a twelve-lesson world music curriculum intervention, inspired by the traditional music of the Fon people in Southern Benin. Data collection consisted of artifact analysis and student interviews. Triangulation of two distinct forms of qualitative data helped to increase the trustworthiness of the findings.  Findings indicated student participants experienced this curriculum intervention as a combination of increased musical knowledge/skills, cultural knowledge, and cultural understanding.  The students’ views of this music culture became more complex and less biased over time; however, most did not achieve high levels of cultural valuing by the end of the intervention period.  These findings suggest cultivating (and maintaining) high levels of cultural sensitivity and valuing through world music education may require longer intervention periods and/or a sustained dynamic multicultural/intercultural approach over time.

While Trinidad and Tobago’s constituent ethnic groups maintain individual cultural traditions, contemporary Trinidadian identity is marked by a persistent cultural fusion, one that encourages the invention and constant reinvention of unique localized practices. Trinidadian nationalist discourse often draws upon musical performance as a metaphor for both cultural distinctiveness and cultural fusion, a dichotomy that often leads to conflicts in which one group is perceived to have advantage over another. Such political processes often motivate contemporary performance practice, especially via strategies that agitate for greater representation or alternately seek to defuse cultural tensions through fusions of disparate musical practices. This entry examines carnival musics in Trinidad and Tobago as well as some of the region’s notable musical fusions.

El presente curso ofrece una aproximación a distintas culturas musicales del mundo, entendidas como sistemas sonoros que adquieren significación en relación a sus contextos y prácticas de reproducción. A partir de literatura etnomusicológica en África, América, Asia, Europa y Oceanía, se estudiará cómo diversos grupos humanos entienden la(s) música(s) en tanto práctica(s) cultural(es). Al mismo tiempo, se compartirá información sobre sistemas, prácticas, instrumentos y eventos musicales alrededor del mundo. Complementariamente a los casos de estudio, se estudiarán aproximaciones etnomusicológicas a la relación entre música y cultura, así como a fenómenos musicales contemporáneos como las músicas transnacionales o el fenómeno de la World Music.

Through 12 Chinese rock songs, this playlist “Chinese Rock: Mapping Modern China” tries to demonstrate different musical traditions & fashions and different social situations reflected across China geographically. We may be able to have a glance of the complicity of modernization in China through modernized Chinese rock.

U tekstu se razmatra razvoj i transformacija žanra, marketinške kategorije i muzičke kulture world music u Srbiji, od devedesetih godina XX veka do prve dve decenije dvehiljaditih. Pažnja se poklanja čitanju odrednica "world" i "etno", kao promenljivim žanrovskim, ideološkim i komercijalnim označiteljima, sa različitim registrima upotrebe (kritika/nauka, scena, industrija). Metodologija rada ukršta dugogodišnje posmatranje sa učestvovanjem, sa metodom ankete (izvedenom putem onlajn upitnika na heterogenom i reprezentativnom "uzorku" izvođača) i analizom diskursa
o etno/world music.

Against a prolonged vision of values linked to imperialism, colonization and the expansion of European cultures (cultural imperialism) are the voices and values of Indigenous cultures, still virtually absent in modern/mainstream curriculum.  This text uses the music and art of Native North American cultures to propose multiple values and perspectives essential to balance the very linear/monolithic or dualistic and argumentative practices of Western academia and cultures, as practiced in Native cultures across America.

One question has yet to be asked regarding the relatively recent phenomenon of world music: What can music teach us about other cultures? If we take Youssou N’dour’s singsong text at face value, the answer would be “not very much,” since we have known for some time that “everybody has a culture.” In this chapter I show that the promotion and consumption of world music is a series of essential- izing practices that actually hide behind a rhetoric of non-essentialism. For those who consume or promote this type of cultural commodity, world music represents a promise that comes from the desire to heal the wounds of a colonial past and, increasingly, a neoliberal present. Unfortunately, however, the cosmopolitanism in the consumption of world music is often one step away from essentialism, as Western consumers identify with a musical culture that is either poorly defined or not defined at all. In the first part of the chapter I analyze essentialist strategies in the promotion and consumption of this emerging genre of music. !e second part of my analysis focuses on the relationship between world music and the ex- pression of a cosmopolitan lifestyle that seeks to increase the social status of the Self by consuming the music of the Other. Finally, I discuss several important mo- ments of anti-essentialist critique and propose a series of listening strategies whose main objective is to make the encounter with other peoples’ music more complex by going beyond the simple act of listening.

Reflexing on intercultural Musical Education, this work discusses issues related to the musical cultures of the world, including themes such as identity, authenticity, decolonialism, among other. Describes three projects that deal with the presence of World Music in Education: for children (Teca Oficina de Música), for young people (Ethno) and for adults (A Magnífica Orchestra Paulistana de Músicas do Mundo) concluding that the world music is  very attractive material bringing changes and  denormalizing the hegemonic repertoire.

Music is a powerful cultural medium. The volume explores the varied roles that music plays in human culture and society, and its unique symbolic and communicative properties. Contributors discuss Richard Wagner, Bob Dylan, John Cage, Eric Burdon, and Igor Stravinsky. From electronic and inner-city DIY to world music and rock concerts, the book looks at music’s part in creating the human sense of place, space, transcendence and identity. Philosophers, cultural thinkers, and sociologists collaborate to explain the exhilaration and fascination that human beings experience when they listen to music.

Table of Contents

Volume Foreword vii
Chapter One Introduction: Philosophical and Cultural Theories
of Music
Eduardo De La Fuente and Peter Murphy

Chapter Two Modern Hermeneutics and the Presentation
of Opera
Agnes Heller

Chapter Three Algo-Rhythm and Mello-dy: A Consideration of
the Relationship Between Technology and the Embodied
Performance of Music
Daniel Black

Chapter Four Bob Dylan Ain’t Talking: One Man’s Vast Comic
Adventure in American Music, Dramaturgy, and Mysticism
Peter Murphy

Chapter Five Music and Religion: Reflections on Cultural
Secularization
David Roberts

Chapter Six Prophet and Priest, Ascetic and Mystic: Towards
a Cultural Sociology of the Twentieth Century Composer
Eduardo De La Fuente

Chapter Seven Collective Effervescence, Numinous Experience or
Proto-Religious Phenomena? Moshing with Durkheim,
Schleiermacher and Otto
Mark Jennings

Chapter Eight Music as a Space of Possibilities 129
John Rundell

Chapter Nine Some Suggestions for a Phenomenology
of Rhythm
Stuart Grant

Chapter Ten The Paradox of “Do-it-Yourself” in
Unpopular Music
Joseph Borlagdan

Chapter Eleven Musical Culturespeak and Cosmopolitan
Identities in Australian Multiculturalism
Graeme Smith

Chapter Twelve The Piano and Cultural Modernity in
East Asia
Alison Tokita

Chapter Thirteen Popular Music, Cultural Memory and
Everyday Aesthetics
Andy Bennett

Chapter Fourteen Everything is Dirt: Reevaluating the Place
of Cultural Status in Producing Aesthetic Attachment
Claudio E. Benzecry

Chapter Fifteen Musical Listening and Boundary-Work
Michael Walsh

Worlds of Music offers a textbook aimed squarely at students who want an authoritative and pleasurable introduction to the music of the world’s peoples. It comes in two versions: this full version, in its fifth edition; and a shorter version, now in its second edition. This fifth edition differs markedly from the fourth in several ways. First, timed listening guides keyed to the musical examples on the accompanying CD set have been added to the transcriptions in musical notation, making discussions of musical form and structure accessible to beginning students who do not read music as well as those who do. Second, two new chapters introduce music-cultures new to this book, those of China and the
Arab World. Third, a new chapter on Europe replaces the corresponding chapter from the fourth edition. The chapter on Japan from the fourth edition, including the musical selections, has been moved to the Worlds of Music companion website, where it will be accessible to teachers and students who use the book: academic.cengage.com/music/titon/worlds_5. Fourth, the addition of color photographs in most of the chapters portrays people, musical instruments, performances, places and contexts more vividly. Finally, key terms are now boldfaced for ease of identification and referenced in the Index; as before, intext pronunciation guides smooth readers’ way through potentially difficult terminology.

Islam reguluje wszystkie aspekty życia jednostki i społeczności wiernych – zarówno materialne, jak i duchowe. Prawo muzułmańskie – szari’a (z arab. ‘droga do wodopoju’) – bardzo precyzyjnie określa, co jest, a co nie jest dozwolone, zawiera wytyczne proceduralne dotyczące życia codziennego, np. wyglądu, jedzenia, stosunków rodzinnych, zachowania, a także słuchania lub uprawiania muzyki.

This article explores the historical framework of the bullerengue, a musical Afro-descendant tradition of maroon communities in the Colombian Caribbean, from the career of Petrona Martinez (b. 1939). The genre remained invisible and marginalized to Colombia's cultural and political consciousness during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, Petrona Martinez managed to preserve and take it to the World Music stage. Consequently, she helped to turn it into a cultural entity in Colombia. Currently, Petrona and bullerengue are part of the multiethnic and multicultural political agenda promoted by the state and the media.

The article deals with the issues of preserving the unique Tuvan throat singing tradition, Khѳѳmei, which is seen as part of Tuva’s intangible cultural heritage. Correspondingly, our article is based on the UN recommendations on how to deal with challenges to this type of heritage.

There is a lot of information, including research, on Khѳѳmei available now. It has been collected primarily by two state institutions of Tuva whose task is to study and develop the throat singing tradition – Khѳѳmei International Research Center and the Center for Developing Traditional Tuvan Culture and Crafts. Although a number of publications have come out, there is still no dedicated catalogue of works on Khѳѳmei, nor of Khѳѳmei singers. Another set of challenges yet unmatched is to collect audio and video recordings of Khѳѳmei performances and provide access to it to all those interested. So far it has been in the hands of enthusiasts, including Khѳѳmei aficionados from outside Russia.

A most important task to preserve the authentic, true form of Khѳѳmei as intangible heritage is augmented by the fact that orally transmitted traditions are by nature “nimble” and changeable. The art of Khѳѳmei now exists both in its original form and – transformed – within contemporary musical forms where it is fused with various genres of pop, jazz, rock and avant-garde music. It has also  entered the domain of what now is known as “world music”. This success has had an impact on Tuva’s international cultural ties and on the rise of ethnocultural tourism, and thus Khѳѳmei may and should be seen as a brand of contemporary Tuvan culture, as well as a factor of ethnic mobilization.

In 2011, the job of a throat singer has been officially recognized in Russia, and  Khѳѳmeizhi now can enjoy the right for job benefits. This can be seen as an organizational victory. However, Khѳѳmei itself, as every form of art, needs legal protection. There is a global trend to see it as analogous to the so-called European mechanism of sound production (two-voice texture). Although Khѳѳmei can be entered on national and global registers as an asset of Tuvan ethnic culture, it is much more important to accept the correct methodology of teaching Khѳѳmei to students at educational institutions of art.

Future progress of Khѳѳmei also requires international cooperation in the fields of both research and practice.

This thesis consists of an ethnomusicological approach to the development of Controllers as musical instruments, and conceptualizes Controllerism as a musical practice. I make a case for a revision in organology that includes Controllers, and other instruments of the computer society, by seeking out commonalities and providing comparative analyses between historical instruments and modern Controllers. I then provide definitions of the term Controllerism; by discussing its origins, history, musical logics, strains of musical practice, and current technological explorations. By situating the Controller and Controllerism in a cultural and historical timeline, I have traced informing logics that have led to the development of this new instrument and musical practice. Ethnography has been undertaken with informants from Europe, America and Japan in order to ascertain generalized understandings of the instrument and musical practice; and participatory action research undergone in three separate artist residencies with the intent of determining common perspectives and concerns of international Controllerists. A Portuguese case-study has provided a unique glimpse, by comparison, of this emerging art-form and growing mind-set in modern music.

The record labels Sahel Sounds and Sublime Frequencies position themselves as insurgent alternatives to the mainstream music industry’s capitalist profiteering in the global circulation of Tuareg music. While they are rooted in an art scene promoting a new media ethics and mode of world music circulation characterised by David Novak [2011. ‘The Sublime Frequencies of New Old Media’. Public Culture 23(3): 603–34] as ‘World Music 2.0,’ the relations of production among the Tuareg artists and American producers involved, in many respects, differ little from those of other labels. I argue that these producers’ claims to subversive subject positions are primarily motivated by the values of their U.S. social worlds rather than those of northwest Africa, though these worlds are entangled. To this end, I situate these labels within a particular global network of music circulation, examining their remediation of salvaged recordings, production of new studio albums, and competing claims of ethnographic authority to show their ambivalent reckonings with the commodification process.

Music is considered to be one of the most complex among the fine arts. Although various scholars have given different opinions about the origin of music, the historical perspectives reveal that this art, made by mankind on account of various social needs and occasions, has gradually developed along with every community. It is a well-known fact that any fine art, whether it is painting, sculpture, dance or music, is interrelated with communal life and its history starts with society. Art is forever changing and that change comes along with the change in those societies. This paper looks into the different sources of contemporary popular Sinhala songs without implying a strict border between Sinhala and non-Sinhala beyond the language used. Sources, created throughout history, deliver not only a steady stream of ideas. They are also often converted into labels and icons for specific features within a given society. The consideration of popularity as an economic reasoning and popularity as an aesthetic pattern makes it possible to look at the different important sources using multiple perspectives and initiating a wider discussion that overcomes narrow national definitions. It delivers an overview which should not be taken as an absolute repertoire of sources but as an open pathway for further explorations.