How Music Lives
A Musicultural Approach
Culture
A classic definition
 Culture: “that complex
whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, custom, and any
other capabilities and
habits acquired by man
[humankind] as a member
of society”
 (Edward Tylor, 1871)
The guy who wrote it
Sound
Music
Culture
What it sounds like:
What it means:
 A particular sequence of
notes and rhythms
 The song “Mary Had a
Little Lamb”
 A Warao shaman’s song
with a particular melodic
direction (up or down)
 A song with power to
cure vs. one with power
to cause illness
 A particular vocal quality
of singing (e.g., Chinese
opera--Listen: CD 1-5)
 An aesthetic of beauty to
fans of Chinese opera,
but maybe not to others
Identity
The Basics Questions:
 Who am I?
 Who are we?
 Who is s/he?
 Who are they?
 Mongolian khoomii (CD 1-6)
 Rabbit Dance Song (CD 1-8 [start], CD 1-9 [cont.])
 Eagle and Hawk (band) – “Dance” (CD 1-10)
Society
 A group of persons regarded as forming a single
community of related, interdependent individuals
 Usually an “imagined community” (Anderson)
 Defined by social institutions—examples?
 Balinese sekehe gong (gamelan club) as a social
institution (pp. 16-17)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPIZObNdJb0
 Listen: CD 2-12
Culture
(again, but different)
 Defining a specific culture, vs. defining “culture” as a
broader concept
 “A culture is defined mainly by a collective worldview
shared by its members.” (p. 17)
 Society = social institutions, social organization
 Culture = ideas, beliefs, and practices that underscore
social organization
 Read: society vs. culture example re: Balinese gamelan
beleganjur (pp. 17-18)
 Listen: CD 2-14
Other Dimensions of
Music/Identity
 Nation and nation-state
 Diaspora
 Other types of transnational communities (worker
communities, virtual communities, etc.)
 The individual (multidimensional identities)
 Tito Puente (CD 4-7)—Cuban? Puerto Rican? New Yorker?
 Jazz, salsa, Latin jazz, “Cuban music”?
 Religion and spirituality
 Dance
 Ritual (CD 1-12 Zaar—Egyptian/Sudanese healing ritual)
Music, Commodity, and
Patronage
 Who owns music and how?
 Who has the write to sell it, buy it, disseminate it, trade
it (commodification)?
 Ex. Alan Maralung “Ibis” (CD 1-13)
 Aboriginal Australian songman
 Didgeridoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEgXAu30yuY&list=RDGf0RrQ62
jw8&index=7
 Who “owns” this performance?
 Music patronage
 Who supports musicians? Pays them? How and why?
Transmission, Creation Processes
 Music transmission — How music moves between
individuals and communities, locally and/or globally
 Different models of production and reception of music:
notation or not, formal teaching or not, specialized or not?
 Music creation processes
 Composition—prior to performance
 Interpretation—making an existing composition “one’s
own” (performers and listeners)
 Improvisation—in moment of performance
 arranging—transforming existing work
Music in the Process of
Tradition
 Tradition: “a process of creative transformation whose
most remarkable feature is the continuity it nurtures and
sustains
 Paul Pena: Genghis Blues (film) and “Kargyraa Moan”
(CD 1-18)