World Music Lecture

collage of world music groups

II. Definition of world music (reference: NPR Curious Listeners Guide to World Music)

“local music from out there” – fRoots Magazine

Ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown, coined the word “world music” in the early 1960s at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he developed academic programs in the discipline. To enhance the process of learning, he invited more than a dozen visiting performers from Africa and Asia and began a world music concert series. The term became current in the 1980s as a marketing/classificatory device in the media and the music industry, and it is often used to classify any kind of non-Western music.

It is a musical category encompassing many different styles of music from around the world, including traditional music, quasi-traditional music, and music where more than one cultural tradition intermingle.

World music can take any form from the most ancient rituals to music inflected with pop, rock, hip-hop or electronica. It does not need to be traditional though, but it should have an awareness of its roots.

Blues, Gospel, Country, Rock and Roll, Jazz are also anchored on their roots (American) however these genres have already gained wider acceptance in the mainstream to deserve their own category.

World music is: - inclusive

Its scope is wide and quite diverse since it includes music of many cultures each having its own characteristics. Therefore, the word itself connotes elasticity and flexibility. An exact

definition is difficult to achieve.

Tibetan monks / electronica

- is more than entertainment.It is instructive and informative. It is a look at the culture of a country or a region. It studiesmusic in relation to human behavior, how it is used in rituals and sacred ceremonies. It can alsobe a political force or a vehicle for propaganda.

III. Historical Background

Migration as key element of the spread of musicIn the beginning there was the simple chanting and clapping or stamping of feet to accompany

dances or rituals then people made their own songs and unique rhythms and developed instruments. They moved from one place to another and their music moved

with them.

World music pathIslamic empire spreading across North Africa, the Middle East and into SpainThe trade route know as the Silk Road, which ran from the Near East, across Asia and into ChinaAfricans arrival to the Americas

Migrations to the USA by Europeans fleeing wars and persecution or those seeking fortune Jewish DiasporaThe Romany people fleeing India from Islamic invasion (discuss p. 9 NPR)

Influence of Radio and Recording

Before the invention of recording, music can only be preserved through the written notation and oral transmission of it. With the new technology, folk musicians who do not read

music can record and preserve their music.

Aside from cultural preservation, another aim of the recording companies and perhaps the moregenuine one is to take advantage of this commercial opportunity. People would surely

pay to own recordings of their own local music.

With the popularity of radio in the 1940s, musicians gained more popularity and sold more records.

It was in the 1980s that world music began to gather momentum. Singer Peter Gabriel founded WOMAD (World Music, Arts and Dance) – an organization that stages festivals that

offered artists from all over to play. Paul Simon recorded his ground breaking album Graceland that featured South African musicians. The album opened the door for the awareness and acceptance

of world music. The Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour became very popular in the last years of the1980s. The 1990s saw the popularity of Latin music (Cuban and Mexican) in America most

notable among them was a group composed of Cuban musicians and singers past their retirement age, The Buena Vista Social Club. Meanwhile, world music was embraced by the world of electronica. The most successful world electronica band to date is the Afro Celt Sound System who combines Celtic melodies with African rhythms backed by loops, samples and techno beats.

However, it was hip-hop that became universal as the world entered the new millennium. From its origin in the US, it spread across the world often incorporating native instruments.

IV. Concepts and Assumptions

Prelude: Notes on the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart

Musical: functional harmonycounterpointorchestrationbel canto singinglogical structuresimultaneous melodies are united and independentidiomatic writing of the vocal partscomplex workLanguage of the opera

Extra-musical: Comments on social issues and revolts against social normsAn example of fine entertainment during its daycaters to a small segment of society

A. Relativistic View*

*(the notion that right and wrong are not absolute but are according to the individual’s circumstances, culture, etc.)

Making these as bases for judging the musics of other cultures will make us conclude that Western music is the best and the greatest.

However, an Indian musician whose main task is improvisation, will not be happy with the idea that the performance must be as exactly as what was written in the score.

African drummers will find the rhythm of Figaro simplistic

The diverging viewpoints of a Westerner and an Asian cannot be reconciled. Hence,we assume a relativistic view on the issue. Each society has a musical system thatsuits its culture. We avoid making these comparisons as the basis for judgement. Instead,we recognize that each society evaluates its own works of music by its own criteria and that each community creates the kind of music it needs for its particular rituals.

B. Music is sound, behavior and ideas (or concepts)This is a model suggested by Allan Merriam. Music is studied as sound itself with all its

elements, then the kind of human activities that music accompanies and its consumption by the people and finally the ideas which a society has about music. This includes the relations of music to other components of culture such as religion, economics, agriculture, The ideas about music determine how music will sound in a given society.

C. Universals of MusicWhile realizing the diverse sound, behavior and ideas of the music of the world, we can

suggest a few things that all societies can share in common. Nettle referred to these as “universals”

1. Music itself is a universal. All societies to our knowledge have a certain musical culture.

2. All cultures have musical instruments and singing. Instruments have similarities. (bowed, plucked, blown, struck)

3. Music is found in all religious rituals. (This is the behavior and ideas part of the Merriam model) Was music invented primarily to perform this role of communicating with the supernatural?

4. Music accompanies dancing.

5. Music is used in transforming ordinary experiences for ex: trance rituals or edification after watching a concert

6. Music is used as an emblem of identity, a cultural marker that identifies a culture.

7. Most societies share some genres of music that include:a) ritual and religious music

b) ritual calendaric music: accdg to cyclic events (spring, solstice, harvest)accdng to life events (wedding, initiation rites, funeral)

c) children’s game songsd) love songse) narrative music (epic chants)f) entertainment musicg) music to accompany work or labor

8. Question: is the ability to sing a universal just as the ability to speak is universal?For sure, humans can learn to sing minimally but not all can attain proficiency

D. Change and TransmissionChange in the western perspective is basically from simple to complex. This is notso in non-western cultures. Change can occur in different directions and it happensin relation to their own culture.

(the monophonic quality of Asian music does not imply a primitive or earlier stage

However, western culture can be an influence to non western culture. (the violin entering India)

Musical transmission is through word of mouth (oral tradition). This also causes change.The attitude towards musical permanence also determines change and transmission.

While some cultures stress the importance of improvisation, others maintain stability and unchangability (fidelity to the written score).

Reasons of rapid change in music 1. Colonization by Western nations2. Advances in science, communication and technology3. The dissemination of Western and Middle Eastern cultural values through the

diffusion of Christianity, Jewish and Islam through much of the world.4. Globalization as a whole.

Globalization is the process of increased interconnectedness among countries most notably in the areas of economics, politics, and culture.

Musical styles cross with each other sometimes to a point that cultural markers

are blurred. One effect of this is that the musics of the world is getting more alike,

hence a “global” sound.