World Musics

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.

Antes de falar sobre a Coladera ou Koladera (em crioulo cabo verdiano) importa referir que este estilo/género musical, genuíno de cabo-verde, é descendente da Morna e que a Morna foi proclamada Património Cultural Imaterial da Humanidade pela UNESCO a 11 de dezembro de 2019.
Musicalmente falando, a coladeira caracteriza-se por ter um andamento variável entre o allegro e o andante, (o dobro da Morna) e, normalmente, está escrita no compasso binário ou quaternário. A sua estrutura harmónica é baseada no ciclo de quintas (também herança da morna) mas também pode aparecer numa forma simples (tónica/dominante).
Quase sempre monotónica, (composta apenas numa tonalidade) e com uma temática (novamente à semelhança da Morna) que reflete a realidade insular do povo de Cabo Verde, nomeadamente o romantismo dos seus trovadores e o amor à terra (ter de partir e querer ficar).
Música do mundo – Coladera – Cabo-Verde

The cline of Malayness as exhibited in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula extends through tribal-Malay, rakyat-Malay, aristocrat-Malay and modern urban-Malay. As a consequence of the manner in which Malay states came into being, this cline exhibits an increasing elaboration of the cultural expression of transition and transitivity. This is manifested in the different manners of musical performance favoured in the various Malay populations. In turn, these differences are paralleled closely in such other areas of Malay cultural expression as: social personality, cooking & eating, dance, religion, grammar & lexicon. Fifteen illustrative audio examples are available on the Soundcloud.com website through links given in the footnotes, where links to other cited online audio examples are also provided.

Love Nwantiti é uma canção do cantor e compositor nigeriano CKay. Em 2021, a música bateu records e chegou aos Tops nos rankings da Europa, Austrália, América Latina e Nova Zelândia, alcançando também o primeiro lugar na Índia e ganhando uma gigantesta popularidade na rede social Tik Tok.
Com uma harmonia baseada em apenas 4 acordes rotativos o tema acaba por ser viciante. Também o ritmo do tema é contagiante e convida à dança e à criação de coreografias e danças de grupo.
A nível melódico o tema tem notas de duração muito curta e o original está numa tonalidade difícil para a flauta de bisel. Por estes motivos simplifiquei a linha melódica, começando por alterar a tonalidade para Ré menor (apenas uma nota alterada na armação de clave, sib) e também simplifiquei a melodia quer ao nível da altura das notas (retirando algumas) quer ao nível do seu ritmo evitando as figuras rítmicas mais curtas (semicolcheias) e substituindo-as por outras mais longas (colcheias e semínimas).

Shanghai was once the centre of Mandarin popular song and record production in Republican China, as well as a base where local and foreign musicians, singers and songwriters gathered. Through the flourishing entertainment industry and the rising new media, such as gramophone recordings, radio broadcastings and sound films, in the 1930s and 1940s musical products created in this city were distributed not only within this metropolis, but also to various regions of the country. Whereas Mandarin popular songs were rarely covered in their homeland by different singers, a few of those songs actually travelled beyond the border and were re-recorded by other artists in Japan or Taiwan. The cover versions were all reinterpreted quite differently in terms of singing styles and instrumentations from their originals. Viewing a song as a human body, we can see its skeleton formed by the melody and lyrics at the stage of composition, then its flesh added after the work of arrangement and finally its soul gained when performed. This paper takes two well-known Mandarin film songs, 'Wandering Songstress' (Tianya genü) and 'Fisherman's Song' (Yuguang qu), as main examples to explore how Chinese songs would be reborn in Japan or Taiwan with new lyrics, arrangements and performing styles. Furthermore, by tracking the transnational flow of songs, the paper also looks into how record industry in Shanghai and those in Japan and Taiwan were connected through musical expertise and products.

El texto a continuación es el capítulo tercero y sexto del libro "Unos españoles en la Corte del Rey Fado", (ISBN: 978-989-8661-66-1)publicado en la editorial lisboeta DG Edições. La autoría del mismo es de Miguel Á. Fernández Fernández, y el libro tiene, además los siguientes autores: Ángel García Prieto y una colaboración de socios y simpatizantes de la Asociación de Amigos del Fado de Asturias (España). El libro es una revisión y actualización del libro "Lisboa, desde el Fado a la Vida", de la misma editorial y cuyos autores son, Ángel García Prieto, Miguel Á. Fernández Fernández, Carmen Brañanova y Natacha Larchier, que fue el primer libro divulgativo sobre el Fado escrito por autores españoles. En dicho capítulo, se analizan, desde un punto de vista internacional y personal, la importancia del Fado y se analizan algunos aspectos que ayudan a entender y vivir la música de Lisboa.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of motivation on upper-grade elementary students’ preferences for acoustic or tablet-based instruments. The effect of cultural familiarity on musical instrument preference was also investigated.
Participants (N = 138) were classified by motivation levels (low, medium-low, medium-high, and high) and played the guitar, tablet-based guitar, gayageum (Korean string instrument), and tablet-based gayageum. After playing each instrument, participants
rated preferences and provided their reasons. Results of the mixed-model ANOVA revealed two significant main effects for instrumental mode (acoustic vs. tablet-based) and motivation on instrument preference. A significant three-way interaction was
also found: Cultural Familiarity × Mode × Motivation. The two main effects of mode and motivation produced a general pattern in instrument preference: (a) Students generally preferred acoustic instruments to tablet-based instruments, and (b) the
level of motivation was associated with the degree of preference ratings. However, the interaction effect deviated from the general pattern; the low motivation group participants’ preference ratings between acoustic and tablet-based guitars were not significantly different. This deviation from the general pattern appeared only for the culturally familiar instrument (guitar) but not the culturally unfamiliar instrument (gayageum) among the low motivation group.

This chapter was stimulated by the new music (kreasi baru) that the author heard at the 2011 Gawai/Lomba Seni in Tanjungpinang and at later performances and rehearsals on Pulau Penyengat and in Batam Centre, all in Kepulauan Riau (Kepri) province, Indonesia. Through interviews with the composers, the author has sought to uncover their specifically musical background and artistic aims against the background of the more ‘traditional’ Malay music-making still widely followed in the Bentan area. The author’s ten associated video and audio examples are available through links given in the footnotes, where links to other cited online audio examples are also provided.

The specific subject matter for this directed research stems from my passion for bringing current music from around the world to secondary music education in groundbreaking ways through my innovative startup, PlayTheGroove. PlayTheGroove encompasses methodological approaches on the continuum between playing-by-ear (aural learning) and reading music. We created an adaptable framework for addressing the needs and goals of music teachers (classroom and private) and aspiring students. PlayTheGroove's results-driven framework, proven methodologies, and expanding resources for disseminating world music to classrooms, enable the profound cultural transference that can occur through being immersed in music-making. In this way, PlayTheGroove connects discussions about World Music in Music Education with the Influence on Global Cultural Diplomacy component. Cultural diplomacy is the core subject and focus area of this directed research, and I will include a few thoughts on this issue based on my findings and how they relate to PlayTheGroove. All aspects of this research, and my USC schooling, are focused on direct application to PlayTheGroove and further development of a framework to bring world musics into context with music education communities and structures, as well as supporting mutual understanding between peoples of different regions, states, and countries. Thus, PlayTheGroove spans local cultural understanding as well as global. According to Wikipedia, Cultural diplomacy is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the "exchange of ideas, information, art and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding." The purpose of cultural diplomacy is for the people of a foreign nation to develop an understanding of the nation's ideals and institutions in an effort to build broad support for economic and political goals. In essence "cultural diplomacy reveals the soul of a nation," which in turn creates influence. Though often overlooked, cultural diplomacy can and does play an important role in achieving national security aims.

Cet article retrace la trajectoire artistique de l’instrumentiste burkinabè Adama Koeta dans le but d’appréhender les expériences, les rencontres et les acquis qui ont nourri son développement créatif. À travers l’analyse de son cheminement de formation dans la pratique des harpes-luth (kamalengoni, kora), de ses multiples engagements professionnels et des réseaux qu’il mobilise au Burkina Faso, en France et en Suisse, il s’agira d’identifier les ressorts ordinaires et inédits qui meuvent l’activité artistique dans une dynamique translocale. L’approche biographique permettra de relever l’aspect singulier du parcours migratoire d’Adama tout en faisant transparaître les contours des mondes de l’art dans lesquels une bonne partie des musiciens ouest-africains évoluent.

Si on peut certainement qualifier l’apport de la world music à l’industrie musicale comme un enrichissement, il y a tout de même lieu de se questionner sur ce que sa présence révèle sur la vision du monde de ceux qui la produisent et la consomment.

The characteristics of culture and culture identity of some community can be seen by observing its music tradition (what is perceived as music tradition and which aspects it possess), as well as an attitude toward that tradition, meanings that are ascribed to it, and the context in which it is presented. On the other hand, popular culture is, in some way, a 'contemporary', 'new' culture which modifies or even suppress some segments of traditional culture, but it can also eventually become a part of traditional culture itself. The polarity 'traditional' – 'popular' has gradually lost its clear borders (among other things, traditional has become popular and vice versa), and hence this problematic demands new theoretical approaches nowadays. A complex problematic of the relationship between popular and traditional culture is perceived at the example of music festival Guča (Dragačevo Trumpeters Assembly), held in a small town Guča in the Western part of Serbia. The Guča was launched in the sixties, from the need for preservation of a specific part of traditional folk culture – wind brass folk music, characteristic for some parts of Serbia. A traditional folk nucleus of the Guča has been preserved in its essence until today, but the influences of popular culture have been gradually modified character and content of the festival. Therefore, traditional culture has been transformed into neo-folk culture during the seventies and eighties, while in the nineties the Festival’s programs became under the strong influence of Serbian ‘estrada’. The structure of the audience has been changed, too. While in the sixties the Guča had strongly local character and was appealing only for older inhabitants of villages, in the next 3 decades it became more and more interesting for different kinds of people from all over Yugoslavia. Finally, in the 21st century, Guča has gained wide international popularity and become one of the favorite tourist destinations for young people. Dialogues between traditional and popular culture have been intensified and resulted not only in diverse hybrid cultural and musical phenomena but also in commercialization and internationalization of the Guča.
Keywords: culture, traditional, popular, festival

India, like America, is a country that nourishes creative individuality. Just as Americans have been inspired by the archetype of the Cowboy, who wanders the open spaces in search of a dream, so Indians are inspired by the Yogi, who wanders inner spaces in search of realization. The essential difference between the two cultures is that Americans demand freedom from rules, and India is a country with lots of rules—that everybody breaks. Indians praise obedience to tradition, but when push comes to shove, it is always the inner voice of intuition that wins out—an intuition that, at its best, inspires each individual to preserve the essence of the tradition as he or she changes it.

The remarkable success of Buena Vista Social Club, released by the UK independent label World Circuit, has made it a focus in much of the literature on Cuban popular music of the 1990s and its representation by the world music industry. This article responds to some of the sweeping generalisations in this literature about the kinds of thought processes, strategies and motives that might have led to the production of the album. In those analyses, one voice is conspicuously absent – that of Nick Gold, the owner of World Circuit and the person who made the album happen. Here, in conversation with Lucy Durán, Gold tells the story of Buena Vista in his own words, revealing a tale of collaborative effort, creativity, generosity of spirit and spontaneity. The article questions the methodology of writers who feel they can speak for the views and attitudes of record producers without consulting or interviewing them directly, arguing for more communication between academics and the creative industries. In addition to giving an insider’s view on how one of the best selling world music albums of all time was put together, this article is also a contribution to the budding literature on record production as a ‘new academic field’.

Keywords: world music; Buena Vista Social Club; Nick Gold; Ry Cooder; Cuban popular music; music production

In this article music Oriental studies as a new direction in the Russian humanities is considered from the point of view of specifying the subject of research, new methodology and its interrelation with classical Oriental studies, ethnomusicology, and other disciplines. Besides, the author pays attention to preconditions and reasons for Russian music Oriental studies formation and reveals centers of its development, and problems in the field of education.

В статье рассматривается музыкальное востоковедение как новое направление российской науки с точки зрения уточнения собственного предмета исследования, новой методологии и взаимосвязи с классическим востоковедением, этномузыкознанием и другими дисциплинами. Кроме того, автор останавливается на предпосылках и причинах формирования музыкального востоковедения в России, выявляя центры его развития и проблемы в области образования.

Babatunde Ọlátúnjí’s Drums of Passion (1960) caught the attention of prominent American musicians from John Coltrane to the Grateful Dead and turned on subsequent generations to West African djembe drumming. The inclusion of djembe drum circles in education is alarming because they are “based on the partial appropriation and transformation” of African-based drumming. This article suggests how to get out of drum circles by recognizing and embracing African melody, especially pitched idiophones and ensemble singing. We describe a program at two Historically Black Colleges that combines more equitable and accurate representation of African cultures with technological literacy and a greater range of learning modalities.

Previous studies of Javanese pélog tunings (by Murray Barbour, Manfred Bukofzer, Alexander Ellis, Max Harrell, Mantle Hood, Jaap Kunst, J.P.N. Land, Donald Lentz, and Kathleen Schlesinger) are evaluated. The author's thesis that pélog tunings are closest to a division of the octave into nine equal parts is tested against other theories using data published by Wasisto Surjodiningrat. The nine-tone hypothesis proves to give the best approximation to the tunings. Possible objections to the approach are discussed, as are implications for the analysis of pieces in pélog.