chapter one part i music in its cultural...

Robert GarfiasMusic as Expressive CultureAnthro 138M

Readings

Chapter One

Part IMusic in its Cultural Context

The Cultural Context of Music

We can understand that music must grow out of itsown cultural context. People in each culture createmusic from what they have learned and from whatthey have heard. Even when they create somethingentirely new, it is still based on what existed inprevious experience. Music adds to the culture and isan important form and avenue for personal andgroup expression in it. It is also very much a productof that culture and of all the influences, historical,political, economic as well as aesthetic which haveplayed upon it.

At the same time music has a place in each culture.That is to say that in addition to being an outgrowthof the culture as well as a reflection of it, music hasa status and function in each culture. There is a waythat people use it, practice it, continue it and thinkabout it which is unique to each culture. If in somesociety music begins as the formalizing of soundsused during the corralling and hunting of game andit continues to be performed in a symbolic orreligious association with hunting, this is one kind of

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cultural context for music. If in another societyevery individual in the community is expected toperform in some way, by singing or dancingwhenever the group holds a musical event, then thisis another context. In another society, the religiousleaders may tell the community that music is notgood for them and even so the people go to placeswhere music can be enjoyed and devote themselvesdeeply and passionately to it. In other societies,most of the people may not engage in theperformance of music themselves and will insteadpay others to serve this function for them. All ofthese examples are from real cultures that existtoday. The differences between them are differencesin the cultures and are differences which have, inturn, had an effect on the music itself.

In some societies music serves as an importantaccompaniment to ritual and may have little otherfunction. In such cultures, music is performed onlywhen certain ceremonies are performed. In our ownculture we have few rituals anymore. There are afew, however. There are still times when it isexpected that we will all sing the national anthem.In the United States, at official governmentfunctions, whenever the president appears, the oldRevolutionary War march, “Hail to the Chief” is stillplayed. In Great Britain “God Save the Queen”, isplayed at the end of every theatrical performance,even for the showing of motion pictures. The militarystill use, in addition to marches, specific bugle callswhich are both symbolic as well as clear messagesto the troops. On ships the boatswain’s whistle isused to make similar announcements andcommands to all on board. We do not often think ofthese ritualized and symbolic ways that music is stillused in our society because, in truth, this kind ofritual and symbolism is not characteristic of ourculture anymore.

Music is often associated with ceremony and ritual.In the ancient courts of Asia, music was part of theemblem of the king, emperor or sultan. Certainmusic when played announced the presence of theruler and some musics when played indicated thateven when the ruler was not present, the

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performance had royal authority. Music is often usedin religious ceremonies. In Japan one of theimportant annual religious festivals is the kagura,which means “music of the gods”. In this ceremony,the performance of the music itself is the ceremony,the songs and dances being intended asentertainment for the gods. In Islam music cannotbe associated with religion in any way. Even thereciting of the sacred Koran, which we would regardas singing, is never referred to as singing but as aspecial form of recitation because music of any kindis strictly forbidden in connection with any religiousobservation.

The tradition of religious music in the West until theMiddle Ages was essentially the intoning of thesacred scriptures .Gradually increasingly complexsettings of the scriptures were introduced whichwere intended to serve as expressions ofsupplication and of thanks but also inspire thecongregation towards deeper religious feelings andto make them feel uplifted . Gradually, the music ofthe church came to be music which pleased thecongregation and made them feel welcome. Thus inour own ritual music we have changed from usingmusic to enhance the power of the sacred texts, tousing music as a means of enticing people to cometo church.

From the usage of music in connection with religiousceremonies , as with any of use of music in theculture, we can draw definitions about music in thatculture. In Zimbabwe among the Shona people,music creates an atmosphere which induces theindividual to become one with the spirit and thusserves as a connection to the spirit. In WesternEurope for hundreds of years, the most skilledcomposers were employed to compose music for theritual. This was also true in the Ottoman empirewhere many of the great composers of the classicalmusic of Turkey were also composers for the sacreddervish ceremonies, the Mevlevi ayin . So we haveseen music used in connection with religion as anoffering and entertainment to the gods, as in AncientJapan, as an inducement to union with the spirit aswith the Shone of Zimbabwe and as an expression of

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devotion and inspiration to the devotees as in theWest and in Ottoman Turkey.

Early humans may have made music as are-creation of the activities of a hunt, or asappeasement to the powerful spirits, or as healingfor the sick. But at some point humans began toenjoy the sound of music for its own sake. In doingthis and in performing music for the pleasure it gaveand for the expression of feelings which it allowed,they had redefined music and its role in theirculture.

The Status of Music in Our Culture

Think about the status of music in our culture.Although many popular musicians make substantialincomes, many parents prefer their children to seekother channels of livelihood. Music is often relegatedto a secondary role in our society. It is somethingwhich enriches or entertains us but is regarded bymany as a frill, something extra, nice, but notnecessary. Yet music is all pervasive. In everysociety known to us and in every period in history ithas been there. Its very persistence and everpresent existence suggests that it is more than anenrichment and a refinement to our lives. It , likelanguage is a vital element of our very humanness.If humans everywhere appear unable to get alongwithout music, then music is doing something muchmore than providing entertainment and evenmeaningful enrichment to this life.

But there is something else about the way musicfunctions in our culture that is noteworthy. TheBritish psychologist of music, John A. Sloboda hasnoted:.

Through a long social and historical processcontemporary Western art culture has becomecharacterized by functional specialism. In thecase of music, as with most other art forms, agulf has emerged between producer andconsumer. Adult producers are typically large innumber, usually untrained, and often unskilled inmost forms of musical production. With theadvent of sound recording it has become possiblefor the various functions to be completelyseparated in time and space. Consider, for

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instance, a Beethoven symphony. A group ofperformers construct their interpretation innecessary isolation from the composer, and alsofrom the audience for whom the performance isintended (for example, in a recording studio). Amember of the audience may then ‘receive’ theinterpretation in social isolation from bothcomposer and performer as a disembodied auralexperience. This is particularly true of thedomestic listener who may, through use ofheadphones and darkened room create theimpression of being totally and exclusivelyenfolded by sound. Even at the concert there areusually strong social and geographical factorswhich separate listeners from performers.Performers and listeners go in and out byseparate doors; they do not interact with oneanother. Any form of audience interruption isusually violently resisted. Such constraints tendto reinforce an ’illusion’ which projects the soundof the music away from the realities of its originsin human work, both physical and mental. As inthe puppet theatre, the modes of productionbecome veiled in mystery, and we may have noparticular wish to venture behind the prosceniumarch.

John Sloboda. Generative Processes in Music. ThePsychology of Performance, Improvisation andComposition. Oxford: Clarendon, 1988. p v.

The words and thoughts which we use to describethe concept and ideal of music as “art” are strong inour society. We enjoy music but we remain removedfrom it. We hear much talk about just how importantwe believe the art of music to be. Although wegenerally agree that it is important, in our ownculture we tend to think of music as an enrichment -something which makes our lives fuller butsomething we could manage without if we had to.We enjoy music, but only a few of us actually makeit ourselves. This is often the way the subject ofmusic goes whenever there is talk about the need toimprove the quality and amount of teaching of musicin our society or about the potential expense ofbetter and more fully integrating it into our basiceducation system. It becomes something desirablebut not necessary.

The manner in which music and, in fact, all the arts,are treated in our own society gives little indicationof the more important role which it actually plays. In

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trying to look at some of the ways in which music isconsidered by humans, we must look beyond ourown cultural definitions, beyond our ownpreconceptions and assumptions.

Music in Human Society

usic is the most complete, complex and fullyarticulated means by which humans communicatewith their fellows. It expresses the inner states ofone individual to another, or that of a group toanother group. While it is being performed,performer and listener share in this expression offeelings. We usually attempt to define what we callmusic in terms of the way it is manifested in ourown particular culture. Much of what we to sayabout music is based on our own knowledge andfamiliarity with the music of the Western tradition. Itis reasonable to be influenced strongly by what weknow. However, we need to be mindful that we donot assume universal value systems for music wherethey do not exist.

In many societies, including our own, those whoprovide music are regarded as special people.Sometimes by certain segments of the society, theymay be regarded with disdain and yet by others,they may be respected, sometimes even held inawe. Regardless many are often well-paid. In ourculture, as in some others as well, musicians arepaid by us to sound off and express feelings andthoughts which we believe are like ours. We paythem because we like the way they express how wefeel. In our society they are often mad visionarieswho help us articulate our subtlest feelings anddreams. Our songs may be the most effective meanswe have of defining ourselves as a group, of refiningour emotions and perhaps of helping us to clarifyeven our thoughts. Certainly music articulatesshades of mood and feeling which are impossible forus to describe in words and even the words to thesongs have greater meaning for us because of themusic in which they are engulfed..

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Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lightnin' Hopkins

In all cultures, music provides an index of minutedifferences in form and in feelings. To those who arefamiliar with a tradition, songs which to an outsidermay sound all exactly alike, display differenceswhich are meaningful and important to them.Consider the vast genre known as country blues.The differences between the singing and playingstyle of Mance Lipscomb, Lightning Hopkins and BillBroonzy are immense if you know their music andyet perhaps indistinguishable if you do not. In thesame way, each of the particular Blues of thesemusicians is also meaningfully different from theothers. Even for those people who say they have noknowledge of music, distinguishing differencesbetween one song and another are importantenough that they are able to select preferencesbased on their response to them. Even for those whoare not specialists in music, there is a vast index ofsensitive responses to differences in music withwhich we are already familiar. It is quite possiblethat these differences of form, rhythm and moodmay, by enriching our emotional vocabulary,influence the way we talk and even think. In thisway, music may play an important role in “civilizing”us

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Communication as a Basic Human Activity

When you think about it, we are virtually always incommunication with each other. Even when we dropout, most of us need to stay in touch with thesounds of other humans, in some way, by radio, TVor listening to music. Music is one manifestation ofthe human’s incessant need to communicate with hisfellows. Much of his energy is spent in chattering,gesticulating and signaling to other humans, aprocess with which he has been passionatelypreoccupied since his first appearance on this planet.We find great comfort in this almost ceaseless andnoisy communication with our fellows. Most of us areunwilling to ever stray very far away from it. Once ina while we may hear ourselves declare that we havea deep need to get away “from it all”. Yet manyusually find some means of taking it with us orseeking out more of it where ever we choose to go.

Music is one of those links with our fellow beingswhich most of us prefer not to be without. As asystem of communication we know it works althoughwe cannot yet be certain of just what itcommunicates to us. Given the natural tendency forhumans to want to keep in contact with each other,of all the forms of contact available to us, there aremany who, when given a choice, would prefer tohear another’s human’s music.

Music as a Delimiter of Cultural Boundaries

Even in societies in which there is no consciousverbalization supporting the notion that music is art,it may still be very important. There are cultures, forexample, which have no word for music, or in whichthere is a word, but it is used to refer to only someforms and types in the culture but not to others, butfor which we, even as outsiders, would have nodifficulty calling music. The lack of verbalized systemof terms for music, and its aesthetics does notpreclude a recognition of its importance to thegroup. The stratification of values, whether is itarticulated or not, forms a pattern which is unique ineach society and never precisely reflected in the

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same way in any two. Although each may describe itdifferently it is impossible to find a society anywherein which music does not play a role which issubstantively parallel in importance to the manner inwhich we describe music as art.

n addition to being a system of communication inand of itself, music in most societies functions as aneffective means of defining and delimiting the groupand of helping it to maintain a sense ofcohesiveness. We may find that in some societiesmusic is treated with the same sense of awe which isusually reserved for powerful and incomprehensibledisplays of magic. We do not usually think ofourselves as a society which places great trust in thepower of magic. Magicians and sorcerers might notseem an appropriate parallel, yet, when we try tofathom the reasons by which the income of any ofthe top fifty current Rock groups goes well up intothe highest 5% income bracket of the country, itdoes seem that if not the awe of something likemagic, something akin to it seems to be at work.Our notions of what we imagine to be primitiveman’s superstitious awe of his art may not, in fact,be so different from our own. The high ticket pricespaid for performances and substantial income fromthe sale of recordings of the most popular artists is atrue indication of the role music actually plays for inour society, in spite of what we may think. Theamount of money used in support of popular musicgroups is parallel in level to the support which manyin our society give to religious organizations.

he music we listen to identifies us and explainssomething about us to others. When you meetsomeone as you get to know them, the kind of musicthey listen to may tell you something about them. Attimes it is through meeting others and learningabout the kind of music that they like that we learnabout new kinds of music and expand our owncollection of favorites. In our fluid and open society,we define our subcultures most clearly with music.Although in more cohesive and less highly stratifiedsocieties the same diversity of tastes may not occur,in most industrialized societies there are manyoptions and choices available in the kind of music

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one can listen to and in this way these subculturescan develop. Although the music may be sometimesdifferent, this same diversity of options occurs forexample, in Japan and in most of the countries ofEurope and in some countries in Latin America.

The Status of Musicians

In our own culture, many young children are giventhe opportunity to study music. Only a few continueto pursue this are a career or even as an avocation.Instead like many other stratified societies most ofthe population prefers to pay professionals toprovide their music instead of playing it themselves.Thus the purchase of tickets for concerts or thepurchase of CDs of music satisfies our need formusic without having to learn to play it ourselves.Increasingly in many parts of the world theseparation into music consumer and music produceris becoming more common. It may be a factor inincreasingly diversified societies to rely on specialistseven for music. In Europe during the last threehundred years a well educated person was expectedto perform music himself. Music perform at homeamong even middle class families was somethingwhich continued for many years in Europe and evenin America until recently this was not an uncommonpractice. Nevertheless, even among the nobles ofEurope, many of whom were very adept musicians,they also had a great appreciation for the talent ofothers and employed the best musicians they couldobtain in order to enjoy their performance,sometimes to play together with them and even tolearn from them.

For about perhaps three or perhaps four hundredyears in Eastern Europe a similar practice existed.Throughout much of Eastern Europe, Gypsies hadbeen entering and traveling about. Their receptionwas mixed at best. In some places they werewelcome at other times and in other places the werefeared and despised, in part because many thoughtthey were connected to the Turks who were invadingEurope at the time. Many times they were singledout merely because they were darker than theEuropeans and had black eyes and black hair. The

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one area in which the Gypsies were allowed toestablish themselves was as musicians. The EasternEuropeans quickly noted that the Gypsies wereexcellent musicians, learning the local music andperforming to the pleasure and satisfaction of allvery quickly. This is a case in which an exogamousgroup entered the society and one branch of itbecame valued because they fulfilled a function thatwas valued and important.

In some cultures, professional musicians are lesshighly regarded than amateurs. This is the case intraditional Iran and in Turkey. In these culturesspecial individuals who have devoted their time tothe pursuit of classical music are regarded as thegreatest interpreters and carriers of the Turkish andPersian music traditions. These musicians are peoplewho have other means of employment, generallythey are well educated people who have the leisuretime to study music for many years. But what isimportant is that it is these amateur musicians whoknow more about the old traditions in thesecountries then do the paid professional musiciansand it is they who have preserved it in its presentform.

In some cultures musicians are born into families ofmusicians and outsiders are not permitted to jointheir ranks. The musicians of the Imperial Householdof Japan can trace their lineage back to themusicians who were in service to the court back tothe 9th Century and sometimes even earlier. Untilthe 1950s no one who was not already a member ofone of these families would be allowed to join theranks of the palace musicians, although today thishas changed. There are cultures in Africa in which itis believed that only those from families of musicianscan ever master music.

Music and Gender

In most traditional cultures of the world, music wasexclusively a profession for men. Often reflecting asystem of segregation which was in place in otherareas of the society, in some cases, there could bewomen musicians but then, as in the case of thewomen’s orchestra’s of ancient China, there would

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be women alone and men would not be permitted tojoin them. Since the segregation into men’s andwomen’s quarters was the practice in much of theancient old world, the segregation of femalemusicians from male musicians was an outgrowth ofthe general practice. Women wanted to have musicin their own quarters just as the men did andpressure to allow that gave way to the establishmentof women’s ensembles and orchestras. In 16 and17th century Europe, women were encouraged totake up the study of music because it was thought toadd refinement to young women. Men did also takeup music and it was not uncommon to have them doso and to do so was considered a refinement. In thecase of women, however, it was thought to make ayoung woman of good family more desirable formarriage since the study of music showed arefinement, something which did not hold true in thesame manner for men.

In England, France and in Spain on until even theearly 20th century the study of music among womenwas encouraged by polite society. In the NorthernPhilippines where the playing of the old Spanish harpcontinues, many women in their youth wereencouraged to learn to sing and play the harp,although most did not play again very often aftermarriage. In Japan the study of the 13th string kotoand the 3 string shamisen in a repertoire in whichthey were both used, were thought appropriate forwomen whereas other forms of music, even otherkinds of shamisen music, were not consideredappropriate. It is curious that in this same genre,only blind men could play, whereas in other forms ofJapanese music, only men were allowed to learn andto perform. Many of these ideas have slowly andsteadily changed, particularly under the purview ofchanges in government policy. In China, Korea andJapan, many forms of music in which formerly onlymen were allowed to perform, now have womenmusicians in their ranks.

One of the areas in which the strictures againstwomen performing music was not enforced was insinging. Throughout history and in many cultureswomen were noted as singers in situations in which

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otherwise music was not considered seemly forthem. Nonetheless, in many traditional societies thesame restrictions still apply. In some countries of theMuslim Middle East, for example, even recordings ofmale and female voices together cannot be playedon the radio.

Music in Human Life

Music plays a much more important role in each ofour daily lives than we might ordinarily think. Weare accustomed to thinking of music, and the arts ingeneral, as valuable to us because of the refinementand depth which they add to our lives. Yet, it is verylikely that music has much more to do with ourbalance and sense of well being than we may havebelieved possible, affecting and enhancing even thepattern and nuances of meaning in our speech andthoughts.

To the best of our knowledge there has never been asociety in which music did not play a vital andintegral role. Claude Levi-Strauss in the Raw andThe Cooked after describing music as a metaphor formyth and then drawing several parallels betweenthem says ‘music has its being in me, and I listen tomyself through it.’ 2 (Claude Levi Strauss. The Rawand the Cooked. pg 17.) The use and function ofmusic in all societies known to us suggests that sucha contention or something parallel to may exist forall of us. But such a statement logically draws us toconsider some of the distinct roles of music andspeech.

Performers and Listeners

In music, communication between composer orperformer and listener may come with difficulty asthe result of a conscious attempt by the composer orperformer to modify the context with each newperformance or composition by expecting increasedfamiliarity with the style and requiring deeperconcentration for fuller perception of what thecreator has attempted. For communication to takeplace under such conditions there must have been asupporting cultural context in which pre-existing

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aesthetic parameters have been defined in orderthat they either now be followed or redefined. Thecultural context will define not only the basicaesthetic system to which changes and redefinitionscan be superimposed but must also define thedegree of expected deviance which can be tolerated.

While we can always be certain that music has beenheard - that is that sound waves have actuallyreached the ear drums - we cannot ever be certainthat the sounds thus heard are having anyimmediate or postponed affect on the listener. Wecannot be certain about how much of the sound hasbeen perceived or how much of the signal mighthave reached the level of consciousness. The signalcan be clearly heard and perceived but the“message” may remain opaque. The nature anddegree of distinction between signal and message inmusic is one of the most perplexing questions andone which remains virtually impossible tosatisfactorily unravel.

Although we have no means of measuring iscommunicated when listening to music, we knowthat communication takes place. Some folks may goto concerts just to be seen there and because it is acool thing to do. Most, however, go to hear themusic and thus whatever drives this social activity isin the music itself. The external behavior verifieswhat we cannot yet measure.

If we can observe that individuals respond whenexposed to selected kinds of music, one of theconditions we can predict is that no positiveresponse to a music can occur without a preexistentcultural context which defines the experience for thelistener. This does not mean that only music fromone’s own culture can be appreciated. For theexperience to be a positive one, the listener must bepredisposed to regard what he is hearing assomething which falls within the realm of what hedefines as music or at the least something hedefines a pleasant sound it before what he hears caninterest him. A listener who comes with a culturalcontext radically different from the one in which themusic was first created would predictably respondnegatively. However, much will depend on the

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degree of distinctiveness and remoteness of eachculture from the other. How far must the listenerstretch to make “sense” out of the music he hears.How much does his cultural predisposition to whathe has heard even allow him to wish to stretchtoward acceptance of it. For any music for whichsomeone declares that he finds in it greatsignificance, some other could be found to declarethat it was all just so much noise.

The old 19th century saw about music being auniversal language was based narrowly upon thepresupposition that the Fine Art Music of WesternEurope was, or perhaps could when presented in itsideal form, be indeed, universally accepted assuperior to all others. Such aesthetic “imperialism”,sad to say, has many proponents even today andalthough not limited exclusively to the West, thereare, however, many there. To believe that thatwhich what one loves and believes to be beautifulmust truly be so is a predictable human predilectionand is something which can be found noted inalmost any culture group world which has come incontact with another one. Such an attitude isunderstandable as an example of the manner inwhich one culture defines out of consideration allthat which lies beyond its own parameters. The ideathat (Western European) music can be a universallanguage may be in itself a definition of music asexpressed in one culture but it does nothing at all todefine the relationship of music to culture in thelarger sense.

Musical Values as Culturally Defined

Rationally, it seems clear that value and meaning,whatever we decide that that may mean, must bedefined within the parameters of the culture aboutwhich we are speaking. Whatever inherent meaningmay be attributed to a particular music compositionor performance is defined by and thus can only beexamined within the context of that culture. Is thereanything inherently meaningful or great aboutMozart’s Symphony No. 40, K. 550 which makes itgreat in and of itself? Western musicians wouldargue that this must be so. But that greatness, must

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be defined as great by the tenets of the tradition ofthe period in which it was composed. Mozart was aproduct of his time and created music within thecontext of his own unique experiences andunderstanding. We accept the greatness of thesymphony because we are a part of that traditionsubscribe to the cultural tenets of the 18th century,as we now understand them and through all of theadditional layers of value and experience which havebeen superimposed on it since then.

Can there be a reasonable basis by which thisparticular symphony of Mozart can be in someabsolute way a “better” example of music, say, thanthe composition Senshuraku of the Japanese Courtrepertoire, or than the Irak Ayin composed by DedeEfendi of the classical Turkish Mevlevi repertory.Each of these works is considered great in thecontext of the aesthetics of the particular time andplace in which it was created and by those whoadhere to those traditions, even today. Eachcontinues to be considered great by many becausethe cultural context supporting those aesthetics hasbeen transmitted and has survived. Each of theseparticular compositions is also considered, within thecontext of the culture, to be better, more successful,more beautiful, whatever value definition might beapplied, than many others in the same tradition. Butwhat happens when we try to compare then acrosscultures. A hard adherence to cultural relativismwould mean that these works that are consider to bemasterpieces in their own cultural context can haveno meaning outside that cultural context and inanother in which the aesthetic tradition is different .Do we believe that what is beautiful is the result of aculture which defines it so or do we believe thatsome things are naturally and innately morebeautiful than others.

At this point it is important to clarify that thisbelaboring of the concept of a basic culturalrelativism is justified and indeed necessary becauseit is possible to think of this in both ways. Amasterpiece by a composer like Mozart, for example,is both something which is a great musicalexpression in and of itself and also is defined only by

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the principles of that culture. The difference hingeson whether one focuses on the idea that what isbeautiful is the result of a culture which defines it soor whether we focus on the observation that somethings are naturally and innately more beautiful thanothers. But can we really have it both ways?

There are factors, such as a high level of congruenceand cohesiveness in the form and structure ofcertain compositions, or even in the works of certainmusicians and composers over others which help toexplain why they are more highly regarded in theirown musical culture than others. In many musicaltraditions there are some efforts which because ofcare, skill and sometimes chance seem to workbetter and are more lasting than others. Since wefind this to be the case in many isolated cultures ofthe world then it might follow that at some level itshould be possible to appreciate values across thebarriers of different cultures. Culture as adeterminant of perception and thus a definer of theparameters of values is, however, so strong a factorthat it is only with great effort and a willingness tobe retrained that this sort of traversal can ever takeplace. Excellence where it is a value to be soughtafter in the culture is something which, in thesecultures is recognized and acclaimed. Hitting it onmark when we enter from outside the culture canpossibly occur when we have had the opportunityand desire to absorb some of the elements of thatculture, or when valued elements in two cultures arefound to overlap. Although this seems to be adefinite possibility from time to time, there is alwaysthe greater danger that we are forcing our ownvalue system on a culture where it is not appropriateto the culture. Ideally, we should not simply acceptthat Mozart or Shakespeare are great examples ofour culture. We should strive to understand forourselves what this greatness that so many haveaccepted might be.

It may be difficult for some to think of those worksof music which they consider great to have been theresult of collective cultural processes rather than assimply great in and of themselves. Yet the ability toappreciate the greatness of these works comes

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about through gradual inculcation and training andthat usually considerable training was also requiredfor the composer to be able reach a level of skill aswell as experience and judgment which enabled himto create the work. Both of these processes are partof the manner in which cultural traditions aretransmitted and neither the composer nor thelistener could have existed without them. However,to recognize that Mozart was a product as well as areaction to an age is not to say that it was inevitablethat the 18th century should have produced him or agenius like him. He was a unique individual, a resultof a combination of unique individual abilities andexperiences borne out of the context of the times inwhich he lived. The cultural tradition and the periodset the context through which each individual mustthen find his own way.

Just as the aggregate of experiences in our ownculture tends to define what we tolerate aspredictable and acceptable, it also defines the limitsof surprise and deviance we can assimilate. Thedelicate balance between the comfortableacceptance of the familiar and periodic incursion intonew territory is differently defined by eachindividual. How long each of us will remain with thefamiliar before moving away or dropping off to sleepis a very personal matter and the need to vary one’sfare may in itself vary considerably between oneperson and another and even from one point in timeto another for any one individual.

One can imagine, for example, immersing himselfdeeply into the world of the Beethoven Op. 59middle period String Quartets so thoroughly and forsuch a long period of time that listening to Op. 131could come as great but perhaps startlinglyrefreshing change. The degree to which thenlistening to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, orperhaps even Hausa gurumi music from Nigeria,would affect the same listener, and whether thatresponse would be one of rejection or welcomechange, might depend on a great number of factorsbut would certainly be affected both by the length oftime spent with the Op. 59, then exclusivity withwhich those works were heard, as well as the degree

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of previous familiarity with either Stockhausen orHausa music.

he degree of previous exposure has everything to dowith how that particular composition, form or type ofmusic is received. The significant variable is theintensity and duration of any previous familiarity. Itis most likely the nature and degree of this priorexposure which defines for each of us theboundaries of stylistic familiarity beyond which thatwhich is new and different will be perceived asrelated or new and thus, by extension, more readilyaccepted or rejected.

Balancing the Familiar with the New

he potential for acceptance or rejection of musicheard is bound to a host of other factors, physicaland psychological and will affect concentration,receptivity and attitude. These, in turn, have acontrolling effect on the listener and as such domuch toward predisposing him in one direction oranother. That a newly heard music might be definedas falling within the parameters of what should beacceptable does not guarantee that it will beaccepted. It is also possible to have a situation inwhich all conditions of receptivity, concentration andattitude are at the optimum levels, but in whichcultural conditioning will mitigate against thelistener’s acceptance of what he is hearing. A groupof people looking forward to an evening performanceof Heavy Metal would not likely be receptive if in itsplace there were to be an evening of string quartetmusic, or vice-versa.

Considerable economic pressure is exerted on usduring the routine of our daily lives in order to makeus aware that the ideal of modern, and especially,urban humans should be constant consumption ofwhatever is new. The focus is on seeking variety andregarding this variety as a necessary and almostvital element in our lives. We are continuallybesieged with advice to seek change and to replacethe old and familiar with the new and one hopes, theimproved. Variety has become an important elementin many of the world’s societies but it may not be, infact, as necessary as it has been presented to us.

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There is an old Turkish saying which goes, “the bearknows two hundred songs, all of them about honey”,a jibe at both the natural tendency to pursue thefamiliar and the foolishness of the dogged pursuit ofthe familiar. Yet on the other hand, the Shonapeople of Zimbabwe have a saying which goes, “If aman eats the same food every day, he knows what itwas that killed him.” What is too rich and varied adiet for one may be monotonous to another, yetsanity would suggest a balance between stability anda moderate degree of variation. But there can be noagreement on what constitutes stability or variety.

If one enters deeply into the formal and structuralworld of the Beethoven Op. 59 Quartets, one findsalmost endless variety and depth. The more onelistens, the more subtle treasures one can discover.There are numerous such repertoires and have beenacross time and around the world which have thissame qualities to offer increasing fascination thedeeper one delves. The Repertoire of the ImperialCourt Musicians of Japan, for example, consists ofover one hundred different compositions. Thesecompositions are all set in a very similar formaltexture and performance style, so similar, in fact,that to most inexperienced listeners it is almostimpossible to detect the difference between onecomposition and another. Yet if one has the patienceto listen closely and carefully and to becomethoroughly familiar with the basic style of the musicso much that he can begin to distinguish thesubtleties of form and melodic style of each piece,then gradually each composition begins to reveal itsown clear character and unique subtleties.

This was neatly expressed by Colin McPhee in hisbook, A House in Bali, when he said that theindividual compositions of the Gamelan music of Baliwere like leaves on a tree. All are alike and yet notwo are identical. 4 ( Colin McPhee, A House In Bali.New York: John Day, 1946. p.117.) Clearly, toappreciate the intended purpose of either BalineseGamelan music, the Imperial Court Music of Japan,or the middle period Beethoven quartets, a morehighly powered perceptual microscope will increasethe level of awareness which the listener can bring

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to the task. Without it or the willingness to try to seemore closely the entire body will seem gray anduniform. Repeated listening to a music will heightenfamiliarity and thus better allow the perception ofnuances and of multiple layers of structure. Thisfamiliarity also constitutes a framework againstwhich new musical experiences can be measured.

We perceive the contours and characteristicelements of a musical style only as the result ofconcentrated and focused listening, but it is notalways necessary that positive and conscious effortat gaining familiarity be an absolute requirement.Each of us carries about in his consciousness his ownmusical culture, those musical structures,experiences and associations which togetherconstitute for each of us a unique and inimitablepattern of musical preferences. No two suchindividual patterns of music preference can be foundidentical any more than could two sets offingerprints or voiceprint patterns. And yet, if wecould each examine our own particular musicalculture, we might be very surprised to learn whatmanner of layers and mazes of sound structures weare carrying about with us in our heads throughoutthe days and years of our lives which wait only for acertain stimulus to be again recalled into ourconsciousness. Our individual music culture iscertainly more complex and is larger than we usuallyimagine it to be.

Likes and Dislikes as a Part of Culture Pattern

Our own pattern of personal preferences constitutesa personal value system. It then follows that such asystem must contain referents from which newexperiences can be tested. We must carry referentsaround which let us know when something takes ustoo far from our familiar ground and referents whichhelp us identify sound structures for which we havenegative associations. We all have in our minds, thesound image of musics which we do not enjoy, whichbore us, which may make us laugh, and perhapseven a few about which we can say with genuinerelish that we hate!

A rather peculiar situation arises when we recall

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associations with extra-musical experiences whichdistress us so much that we feel animosity or evenviolence towards that music. Although, in reality, themusic is only an inanimate pattern of consciouslycontrolled vibrating sound waves, we can react tosome of these patterns very strongly, because theyrepresent a set of feelings which we understand tobe communicated and these we wish to reject Worseyet, we may even begin to feel animosity towardsthose individuals responsible for the creation of thismusic.

n order to have an effective value system such asystem must contain both negative as well aspositive referents. Although the development ofnegative referents in our individual musical culturesmay be a result of the regularly occurring changes inour patterns of preference - excessive familiaritymay bring us to a point of disliking some musicswhich earlier had appealed to us - some negativereferents in our personal value systems must havealways been perceived negatively. Such negativelyperceived musics were those which, even at firsthearing, were perceived as falling outside ouralready well established value system.

Many such referent may have come about as theresult of negative extra-musical associationsremember in connection with the particular contextunder which one last heard such music. Forexample, there are many who abhor the musicallanguage and style employed by MUZAK, theproducers of “canned music”. This is a commerciallypackaged and transmitted form of background musicused in different public places, such assupermarkets, or some larger stores and offices.MUZAK is produced in order to create a “pleasant”sound in the background. The melodies aredistinguishable, but generally with few distinguishingperformance qualities. The sound blends into thebackground in order that the listeners do not have toconcentrate on listening to it so that they can dowhatever it is they have entered those premises todo. Some may find MUZAK unacceptable because itfalls beyond their own limits of a good musicalperformance. Yet for others, recalling the sound of

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MUZAK playing softly in the background of theirdentist’s waiting room may be quite enough forthem to decide that, given a choice, they wouldprefer never to listen to this music in any context.Since the pattern of development taken in eachindividual’s own musical value system must be areflection of, and a response to, all of his musicalexperiences, this pattern, to the degree that it canbe made perceivable to any other, often appearsillogical or unusual to anyone else.

Culture shock is something which is experiencedwhen we find ourselves immersed in a new culturalenvironment and it is the sense of loss and confusionthat the individual feels when finding himself orherself in a place where everything is different. Weusually think of culture shock as occurring when onetravels to a distant culture where a differentlanguage is spoken. However, some degree ofculture shock occurs even for Americans who spendtime in Great Britain or in Australia for example.Everything is familiar and the language isunderstandable, but even the language is differentenough that after a time a feeling of discomfort orconfusion and disorientation takes place. Somethinglike this can occur when we find ourselves exposedto or immerse d in musics with which we areunfamiliar. Sufficient exposure will get us past theshock and we may never be conscious of havingexperienced a sense of disorientation. However,gradually exposure to new and different kinds ofmusic may in some way also change what we feelabout musics that we had enjoyed previously, whichis one of the classic ways in which culture shockoften works. We sense it more keenly upon ourreturn to that environment which we assumed wasstatic and familiar.

Cultural differences are not always the obvious ones.There is a great cultural difference between having amusician up on the stage and separated from theaudience from the performing musicians beingmixed in and scattered within the group. There is adifference in the culture when musicians are notgiven a special name but are members of the groupwho perform when it is required. There is a

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difference when musicians are paid professionals,when they come only from certain hereditaryfamilies and when musicians are amateurs whodevote the free time to playing music and these aredifferent from cultures in which everyone in thegroup is expected to participate in the performance.

Think about how different it is for a Western classicalmusician to practice for years on his instrument untilhe is good enough to join and orchestra and eventhen when there is a difficult composition to play,taking the music home and practicing his part alone.An African drummer would never imagine taking hispart and practicing it alone without the otherinstruments. What has to be mastered is getting theone part together with all the others and the idea ofdoing it alone simply doesn’t fit it the culture. Thinkabout the traditional audience for Indian classicalmusic. Here, the audience understands that it has aresponsibility to understand and follow the technicalintricacies of the performance. Everyone is theaudience may not be able to do this, but it is theideal for which most Indian concert goers strive,something very different from going and simplyenjoying the music.

Shared Culture and Agreement

Individuals who live in the same cultural context willshare many more common or similar referents andthus find themselves in frequent agreement on agreat many musical experiences. These sharedvalues are what we consider to be our commoncultural heritage. During the past 50 years anintensification of the educational patterns andcultural experiences similar to those of the Westhave made the number of shared personal culturalvalues of many people in Japan and Korea, andmore recently China, similar to our own. Japaneseand Koreans of today have developed a love forMozart and Beethoven which is both sincere andprofound in spite of the fact that it is only relativelyrecent in its development there. With the gradualWesternization which has exerted a growinginfluence in scientific and technological education inthose countries for over one hundred years now,

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that Western music should also have beenintroduced should come as no great surprise.Nonetheless there are vigorous segments in each ofthese societies which remain loyal to their oldertraditions and many individuals in those societieswho do not regard the adoption of the new musicalculture as an unquestionably superior choice.

While it seems that in every culture there is arecognition that certain musical performances orcompositions seem to “work” better than others andthat in many cultures there is some value placed onthe degree of congruence which is manifested incertain works, these values and the judgmentswhich result from them, are defined entirely withinthe context of each culture. Concentrated effort mayallow us to gain insight into and appreciation of thevalues manifested in the musics from other cultures,even some which are culturally very removed fromour own. Yet, there is nothing inherently better,more valuable, in the sound structures we refer toas Beethoven’s Op. 59 Quartets than there is in themusic of Beethoven’s South Indian contemporary,Thyagaraja, or in the Navaho Yeibechai “night”songs. Each has developed out of the particularcultural and historical context of the society in whichit developed and was guided and molded by thecommon perceptions held by the members of thatgroup. That set of shared personal value systemsheld by each individual in the group created in eachculture a support system which patterned thedevelopment of the style, defined its role and thusalso pointed out the path which even the mostoriginal of its innovators were by default required tofollow.

Cultural Differences and Cultural Change

We tend to think of traditions in terms of nations.The United States is a relatively young society withonly a little more than two hundred years as apolitical entity. Great Britain is much older and Chinacan trace its civilization back for several thousandyears. However, if we think of it in another way,within the United States, although it is a relativelynew country, the individuals that make it up have

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traditions which go back to the British Isles, to otherparts of Europe, Asia, Africa and what is now LatinAmerica and thus, in fact, represent culturaltraditions, learning traditions, which go back muchfurther that those of the particular country in whichthey live. All human societies have had an equalperiod of development on this planet and each havetheir own antecedents. When societies develop overlong periods of time in isolation from each other, thedifferences between them become so immense as tobe perceived as unfathomable. All around we seeunmistakable signs of rapid technologicaldevelopment. However, we need to remember thatbecause our technology becomes more refined, ourculture does not, of itself, get better.

Differences in the rate of technological developmentare not something which can be reflected in thequality of the arts of a society. Mozart was not abetter composer than J. S. Bach because he livedlater. Nor would Mozart have been a bettercomposer had he had the opportunity to use moderncomputer technology for his music. Mozart was greatin his own time and the appreciation of his worklived on after his death. In the same way composerslike Tan Sen of Indian and Lotring of Bali havetranscended their own time in their own culture andare valued even today. Each music is subject to andworks within the parameters set by its own time andculture. Each composer/musician works to expresshimself from the starting point which has beenprovided by his past. Each sets out to do what hebelieves he decides to do, but which is alreadydefined for him by what preceded him. On eachother’s turf, both Mozart and Tan Sen might have adifficult time reaching each other’s audiences. It isperhaps possible that some few might have beenable to bridge the gap, but for most, the cultural andhistorical distance would be too great.

Cultural relativism - Cultural development

Is cultural relativism, viewing each culture on thebasis of its own value system, a good thing to do?Are there cultural practices which are simply notgood by virtue of some absolute standard or do we

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allow each to be judged on its own. In matters of thearts, it is important to note that these systemsarising as they do out of historical traditions arebasically arbitrary. Our very strong opinions aboutwhat is good and beautiful are based on what we arealready accustomed to. Probably many people todayare accustomed to accepting some concept ofcultural relativism as logical and natural. Weunderstand that different people have different waysof doing things and that these people also tend toprefer things other that what we may prefer forourselves. We must remember that culture is thearbitrary result of all those historical, political, andeconomic factors which have played upon it. Weneed to remind ourselves that the use of advancedtechnology in the service of the arts in the West canserve as no indication that the arts themselves haveadvanced. Technological changes in the arts are anatural reflection of those options which arecurrently available within the society. Neither doesthis detract from the value of the music of theWestern world. India also has a great musictradition, one that has developed in wayssignificantly different from those of the West. It hasevolved without, until very recently, thetechnological developments of the West. In spite ofthis, Indian music incorporates certain musicalpractices which are so complex that they arevirtually irreplicable in the Western world.

Comparisons Across Cultures

The theory and practice of rhythm in India, as wellas the scope of melodic variation made possible bythe ability to conceptualize and work with much finerinterval divisions than those used in Western musichave made this music quite different from that of theWest. It is pointless, however, to think that theWestern practice of playing the drums has remainedprimitive because they are still beaten brutally withsticks because the West has not yet discovered thehigher degree of rhythmic control and touchachieved by playing with the bare hands and fingers.Likewise, it would be foolish to say that Indian musicremains primitive because it has not yet developedthe Western usage of harmony. These both, the

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playing of drums with the fingers, and thedevelopment of harmony are the result of nurturedpaths in each of these cultures. The other culturesare unlikely to discover something they are notlooking for.

There are many in Europe and America who enjoythe classical music of India, but how many candistinguish between the performance of an Ali AkbarKhan, a Ravi Shankar, or a Villayat Khan and otherlesser known musicians, or even between what eachof these musicians might regard as their good andoutstanding performances? In India, on the otherhand, there are many who exposed primarily toIndian music, express dismay and pained confusionat listening to Western art music. To many of themthe music seems to wander up and down aimlesslyand without meaning. This sentiment can be heardnot only from India, but from many parts of theworld in which exposure to Western traditions hasbeen limited. Colin McPhee recounts that a Balinesemusician once said, “Your music sounds like a childcrying without knowing what it is crying about.” 1

The very rapid pace at which modern technology hasaided in the development of communication systemsis making it extremely difficult to find societies whichare culturally isolated from each other any longer.Still and in spite of the proximity into which modernmedia has placed us, vast gaps in culturalcommunication exist even within any one society.The desire to learn and imitate is strong. Increasedcontact between societies now made possible withincreased technology means that borrowing andlearning become increasingly possible. The prestigeassociated with the technological growth of the Westhave added incentive to those who would emulatethe culture of the West.

Cultural Stratification and Cultural Diversity

There are cultures in which the entire communityconsists of one unified group. All of the members ofthe group do essentially the same work as theothers and most of the work is shared by manymembers of the community working together. Insuch communal societies people are accustomed to

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close cooperation and sharing. The Bushmen ofSouthwest Africa, the Pygmies of Central Africa andmany of the Hill peoples of South East Asia and thePhilippines live in communities like this. Among theTinguian people of Northern Luzon in the Philippinestheir music reflects this social structure. There arebasically two kinds of music, singing, either solo orin groups, and dance music, which is provided by anensemble of gongs. There are some otherinstrumental musics, such as the bamboo tubezither, kolibit, which also plays the dance music inimitation of the gongs. The technique for playing thegongs requires that each player hold a single gong.Each gong has a different pitch or tone and eachplays a special pattern. There are five or six suchgong players and each has his own pattern that heor she plays and on which slight variations can beimposed. The sound of the music when heard blendsall of the individual gong patterns into one singlepattern. In this way the communal structure of thesociety is reflected in the way the music isorganized.

Gong Players in Abra, Northern Luzon

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Kulintang player from Maguindanao, SouthernPhilippines

Further South in the Philippines, among the Muslimsof the Sulu Islands, they also play the gongs, buthere we have a more highly stratified society withspecial roles for Sultans, Immams, or holy men andsoldiers. In these cultures the music is also morecomplex and stratified. Instead of a set of singlegongs, here we have one set of gongs to play themelody, drums to play and ornament the rhythm,larger gongs to punctuate the phrase patterns and asmaller gong to keep the basic beat. The group isdivided up into separate discrete but complimentaryfunctions just as the society itself have differentunique and interdependent strata. Most of thecultures with which we come into contact arestratified cultures and this social stratification isreflected in their music. Societies like those ofWestern Europe had music for the upper classeswhich was used at private functions like dances andconcerts. They also had civic music, like the bandsthat announced the hours from the city towers.There was also the popular music of the city dwellersand the folk music of the countryside. In additionthere was music especially dedicated to religiousceremonies and observations. Like those cultures ofEurope, traditional Japan, Korea and China, for

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example had ceremonial and court music, rarely ifever seen by the common people, classical chambermusic for the upper classes, theater music whichhad its own semi cultured following and then urbanand rural folk music as well as the special music forreligious ceremonies and village festivals.

In addition to social stratification, it is also possibleto have several different cultures within the bordersor boundaries of a single large culture. In the UnitedStates today there exist several distinct and virtuallyunconnected musical cultures. The EuropeanClassical music tradition has within it several areaswhich can certainly be regarded as sub-cultures;orchestral music, opera, chamber music, the“avant-garde”, electronic and computer music, the“minimalists”. But these interest groups are allgenerally on speaking terms with each other. Thereare the larger divisions between popular music, forexample and religious music and the very sharpdivisions within each of those in terms of BlackAmerican and White American popular and religiousmusic. Furthermore there are the many cultures offolk and ethnic musics in American and the separatepopular music traditions, like for example,Country-Western and modern Hawaiian popularmusic, salsa and Norteño music. These are allrelated by virtue of the cultural contact which comesabout from being within a single political boundary.Many also share the use of the same recordingtechnology, for one. Still, the distinctions betweenthese musical cultures are so often vast that theirmusics are uninteresting and sometimesunfathomable to each other.

This kind of cultural diversity is quite common andexists in many cultures. In Turkey, for example,even today there flourishes a strong Gypsysub-culture as well as large numbers of Armenian,Greeks and Jews, all of whom maintain there owncultural traditions while being a part of the largerTurkish cultural ambience. There are large ethnicChinese groups in Indonesia which maintain theirculture and identity there. There is the clear andstrong French cultural presence in Canada and likethis there are numerous examples. Many national

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boundaries have been drawn up only in relativelyrecent times. As a result many nations containwithin their national border numerous diversepeoples. If we look closely at Europe we see vestigesof old cultural and linguistic ties, such as the Flemishand French in Belgium, the Dutch and Frisians inHolland, the French, Italian and German speakers inSwitzerland, the German and French culturalinfluences in Alsace-Lorraine. In Eastern Europethere are pockets of cultural Hungarians, Saxons,Swabians and Slavs living in Romania just as thereare cultural and linguistic Romanians in Bulgaria andin Yugoslavia. In the United States we cannot soclearly notice the Canadian culture which spillsacross the border, however in both the Eastern andMid-Western US the there are clear traces of oldFrench Canadian, Arcadian and Metis culture doestrace back to Canada. This serves to illustrate thatnational borders tend to disguise the historicalcultural divisions that existed before they weredrawn up and to hide the waves of migration thatcontinue afterwards.

In large countries there is also the possibility offinding regional diversity. Such regional diversity isnot so strong in the United States any longerbecause of the effective media system we have inplace and the natural level off that occurs withregular and continued contact. Sill, the existence ofHawaiian music in the US is one strong example of aregional form which survives. Country Western whenit was associated as the popular music of the SouthWestern states was another, but one which has nowgrown to popularity throughout the nation and nowfunctions more as a reflection of social stratificationrather than regional. Countries in whichcommunication between regions continued to bedifficult also reflect this kind of regional diversity.Mexico, for example, has strong music traditionsfrom the Northern regions of the country, from theCoastal region of Veracruz, from the Inland region ofVeracruz, from Michoacan and Jalisco from Oaxaca,Tabasco and Chiapas and from Yucatan, to nameonly the most prominent and well known regionalstyles. This does not include all of the traditions ofthe indigenous Mexicans, whose music, might like in

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the US be better considered an example of culturaldiversity, since they represent separate ethnic aswell as cultural traditions.

Culture not only delimits the boundaries within whichwe define music as music, and thereby, relegateeverything else to the category of non-music, ornoise, but also affects and controls the manner inwhich we perceive music once we have accepted itas such, within what limits we can accept what isnew, and where we begin to reject other musics asfalling too far outside these boundaries. Our culturedelineates how we think about music, how we thinkin music and even how we decide who also thinks inand about music in ways which are similar to ourown. We are often drawn to find parallels betweenmusic and language and in the late 19th Centuryand on into this century, many thought of music asthat one language which transcended the problemsof comprehensibility posed by all spoken languages.With the new global popularity of Rock relatedmusical forms, it may be possible that we arecoming close to the old 19th century idea of musicas a global system of communication.

So different are the contexts which each individualbrings to the act of listening to music that it seemscertain even when two people from the same culturehear a piece of music together that they cannot bereceiving the same message from it. The idea thatany music can communicate the same meaningacross cultural lines becomes impossible to defend,even though it seems certain that some sort ofmessage does manage to be communicated acrosscertain, particularly close, cultural barriers. Evenwithin the United States, itself, one does not find thesame audiences enjoying Rap, Jazz, CountryWestern, Soul, Gospel and Classical music. Thespheres of musical preference are sharply dividedeven within our own borders.

Using Music to talk about and Describe Music

Until recently, it was most unusual for a musicperformance to quote another kind of music in themidst of the performance in another style. There area few rare examples of this and gradually as

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awareness of other cultures increases, so does thiskind of cross cultural quotation. Nonetheless, thepractice has remained something noteworthy when itappears and is not used very often.

Mozart in his time was anxious to make wind bandversions of his operas in order to sell them quicklybefore some one else arranged them before him.These popular versions served as another means ofreaching a broader audience. In 19th century Europeand America it was a common practice to transcribeoperas or works for large concert orchestra, for thepiano or for some other medium, in order that themusic could be enjoyed by more people than onlythose who could attend concerts. With today’s easyaccess to recordings of virtually every kind of music,the need for transcriptions as a means of makingmusic more widely available disappears. Instead, wefind that transcriptions are used when one musicianwishes to borrow from another and to makesomething of his own of it and something differentfrom the original. Even so, such adaptations rarelycross over great cultural distances.

Collective attitudes about such borrowings change aswell. When Georg Philip Telemann, was musician tothe Elector of Silesia, he decided to appropriate thefascinating music of the Polish bagpipers he heard atcourt. He added adagio movements before and afterthe pipers tunes and called them “Polish sonatas”.But in his day it was not at all considered plagiarism.

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Georg Philip Telemann

In the late 19th century it became an increasinglyfrequent practice, first by the Russians beginningwith Glinka and then by the French, to borrow exoticelements first from the music of Spain and tocompose music in this foreign style. By the early20th century this practice of borrowing exoticmusical elements had begun reaching across greatcultural distances. We can have no idea today howsuccessful Telemann may have been in his Polishexperiments because the originals have longdisappeared, although what survives in Telemann’smusic does bear a fascinating resemblance to theprecious little Polish bagpipe music which survivestoday. But then from the High Baroque to the rootsof European folk music was not such a great culturalleap.

Although the music of Spain was an exotic elementin the culture of Western Europe, nonetheless, thedevelopment of Spanish music managed to remainintelligibly close enough to the music of the rest ofEurope to allow this borrowing to succeed. Theincorporation of more culturally distant musics,beginning with Gustav Mahler’s use of pentatonic

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scales to suggest Chinese music in Das Lied von derErde and on through the many adaptations of Asianmusic in particular in the 20th century suggests thatthe borrowings occurred with too little understandingof the principles which guided in the creation of theoriginal musics. In fact, however, these were notintended to duplicate the musics of the rest of theworld but rather to provide new colors by which toenrich the current tradition. Telemann could notimprove on the Polish bagpipers short of playing themusic on the bagpipe himself. In the process ofattempting to incorporate new elements into themusic for the enjoyment of his own audiences, whathe and the others did was to create something newbased on what must be regarded, from the culturalperspective of the originating culture, as anincomplete understanding of what they wereborrowing.

Although this practice is something which occurswith more frequency in the West, is has alsooccurred in other places as well. The ancientorchestras of the Chinese courts regularly includedstylized performances of regional folk music and ofthe music of the various nations which theyregarded as under their sway. This practicecontinued in the courts of Korea and Japan. In 17thand 18th Century Japan although not with greatfrequency, in the koto music tradition, elementswhich imitated the style of other music current atthe time, as well as of the court music wereincorporated into some compositions. In theJapanese Kabuki theater, entire sections of theperformance would be done in the music of otherJapanese styles, even to having the musicians fromthose particular traditions right on the stage for theperformance.

The rapidity of change depends on the intensity ofoverall cultural activity. Fifty years ago whenLeopold Stokowski began to present his adaptationsof the music of J. S. Bach, the concert going publicin America was not yet very familiar with much ofthis music. To hear the music of Bach played by alarge 20th Century orchestra was not consideredunusual by many, and likewise Bach played on the

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piano was a much more frequently encounteredmedium of performance than the harpsichord. Inthat context, the music of Bach was somewhat moreremote from the population than it is today andtherefore, re-orchestrated versions of this music formodern orchestra were greeted as quite logical andappropriate. Even a very few years later when somebegan to question the validity of such experiments,it was often replied that, “If Bach were alive todayhe would have written for the large orchestra, piano,etc.”, an answer that was usually intended to settlethe question then and there.

From today’s vantage point the change insophistication of concert goers in the past 50 yearsseems remarkable. Yet the pace of change incultural attitudes is increasing ever more rapidly asthe systems of communication improve in efficiency.During the mid 1970s it came as something of ashock to learn that a new generation was growing upin America and Europe that looked upon the Beatlesas “old, dumb stuff”. By the late 1970s the Beatleshad become well established nostalgia and distinctchanges in popular music trends were becomingclearly visible every three to four years, dependingon how sharply one chooses to define it. Meanwhilethere are many who, either because of deliberatechoice or by simple virtue of having been born toolong before the period of the Beatles and the intensechanges which that development brought about inour popular culture, find it difficult to find their wayabout in that music. Their culture within the largerculture does not provide for the detailed imageryand verbal descriptive mechanisms to enable themto perceive the minute changes in style which aretaking place in popular music even within any singleyear.

But culture, as a reflection of man’s incessant needto communicate with his fellows, must, of necessity,be changing incessantly as well. Whencommunication takes place, then some responsemust follow and from this response changes canthen occur. We perceive cultures further away fromus as more static to a degree that it is too simplejust to say that cultures other than one’s own are

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static and unchanging. Certain societies emphasizethe age of their music traditions, but these traditionsare also constantly changing. They are like matricesby which changes are guided and molded, but solong as communication takes place between peoplewith different experiences, that is, any two people,changes inevitably take place.

At the same time it is clear that the rate of changein a culture can vary greatly in proportion to thedegree of communication which takes place. After along period of time during which the classical musicof Western Europe could only be heard by thosefortunate enough to be able to attend concerts, orwho themselves had studied the music, radio wasintroduced followed by the production anddistribution of records. The pace and scope by whichthe music was disseminated then increased greatly.Today there is a mass distribution system formaking available the same well financed recordsavailable all over the world as well as a system forproviding broadcasts televised globally by satellite.Audiences at live concerts hear the musictransmitted to them from the performers at thespeed of sound. Our rapid system of dissemination isalmost near to making it possible to cover the globeat the speed of sound.

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chapter one part i music in its cultural...

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