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John Jay College of Criminal Justice
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MUS 104-01 Exploring World Music Cultures: Module 1-Music as a Cultural Phenomenon

This course is an introduction to the study of music cultures around the world.

Unit 1 Title

Music as a Cultural Phenomenon

  • Not all people view music in the same way, fitting into a Western view.  There is great diversity in the world's musics.  

          Examples:
                     Music of India              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_R0S0ftugw

                     Music of South Africa  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfPoXIwuWAQ

                     Music of the Andes      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir2sIaMRrpg

                     Music of China             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cXIvBSRmzI

                     Music of Ireland           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoiB1-Ubn2I

  • We must avoid ethnocentric comparisons that place our music as being better,  more evolved, more sophisticated, etc.  We can make musical comparisons based on structure or functions.  Old-fashioned, racist, colonialist terms like "primitive" or "less advanced" are to be avoided. There is no such thing as musical evolution, such that music starts out simple and ends up complex (many think Western music is the most advanced).  Music change as societies change.
  • We can not just listen to musical sounds alone, but must examine how a given society thinks about music and the events in which it occurs.
  • Many people talk about music as "universal language." However, that would imply that meaning would be universal across cultures.  What is universal is that all societies have something that is musical, although they may not call it music per se.

          Examples of how music is not a universal language

  1.  Music may have been one of the misunderstandings leading to conflict between Dutch explorers lead by Abel Tasman and the Ngati Tumatakokiri tribe of Maori in New Zealand in 1642.  Thinking the Dutch were dangerous supernatural beings, the Maori issued challenges with chant called haka.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI851yJUQQw .The Dutch thought they were being greeted, and played music, shot off guns, and waved.  Later, the Maori attacked the Dutch, having interpreted the Dutch response as be acceptance of a battle challenge. 
  2. The very definition of what is music varies.  The following example of Quranic recitation is very specifically not music.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PqP0BCiTlE
  3. Here a very upbeat Dixieland jazz tune, "When the Saints Go Marching In" is played at a New Orleans-style funeral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCM91i0Zlic
  4. There is often a comparison between societies that transmit music orally/aurally and those that transmit it via written notations.  Oral traditions do not always lead to change in the music, as memory devices can be very effective.  Music notations do not mean that music stays the same, as there are many things that notations do not show.  For example, Vedic Chant from India is orally transmitted.  Through rigorous memory techniques, the texts and melodies have been faithfully transmitted for almost 3000 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPcasmn0cRU
  5. Music can be separated along societal divisions, such as class and gender. In the case of gender divisions, there are often very different repertoires and ways of using the voice.

              Low-caste singers in North India     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFxbaDgMvE4

            Classical singing from North India     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7QaLZc-xFw

  • Music is a way of expressing things that may be difficult to express in words.  This is especially true in political societies where saying things in words may be risky.

Example:  Tibetan song “Aku Pema” (Uncle Lotus) symbolizes the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, but is supposedly about a friend of the composer Palgon who was leaving town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-yRZiBgAxo

  • Musicians are made, not born. With effort and motivation, anyone can learn a given music system. 

 

Universals of Music

  • All societies have music.
  • All people sing.
  • Music is used in religious rituals to experience the supernatural.
  • Musical genres occur in all societies (such as songs associated with the seasons; children’s songs;
  • work songs).
  • Songs or pieces are identified and distinguished from each others as a common musical unit.

The Three-Part Model

In his 1964 book, The Anthropology of Music, Alan P. Merriam points out that

"Music sound cannot be produced except by people for other people, and although we can separate the two aspects conceptually, one is not really complete without the other. Human behavior produces music, but the process is one of continuity; the behavior itself is shaped to produce music sound, and thus the study of one flows into the other". 

In other words, culture shapes music, and music shapes culture.  According to Merriam, music is culture.

According Merriam’s approach, when we look at people and music—anywhere in the world, including our own musics—we have to look at it from three difference aspects:

 Sound—the structures, forms instruments of the actual music

Behavior—how, when, where, and why specific music is performed. By and for whom.is specific music performed?

Ideas—what do people say and think about specific music, about musicians?  Is there an actual word for music as opposed to musical behavior that a specific culture may not call music?  Are there descriptions of the music and how, when, why, and for whom it is constructed or performed?

As you learn about different music cultures, you will be called upon to analyze musical performances from all three aspects. 

The Classification of Musical Instruments

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornbostel%E2%80%93Sachs

Aerophones (wind instruments or instruments where air vibrates)

Musical Change, Transmission, and History

  • All musics have a history and all of them change.
  • A culture’s music is affected when brought in contact with another musical culture.
  • In many societies, music is often transmitted aurally (by being heard).
  • Western music has spread throughout the world in the 20th century and affected local musics.

            (1) Western colonization of much of the world; and after 1945, the political and economic dependency of former colonies

            (2) Advances in communication through mass media, airlines, and computer networks

            (3) The diffusion of Western and Islamic cultures throughout history