<p>This dissertation examines the place of traditional songs in the Tibetan Buddhist culture of the former Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh. I look at how Buddhism and pre-Buddhist religion informed the texts and performance contexts of traditional songs, and how Ladakhi songs represent cultural self-images through associated musical, textual, and visual tropes. Many songs of the past, both from the old royal house and the rural Buddhist populations, reflect the socio-political structure of Ladakhi society. Some songs reflect a pan-Tibetan identity, connecting the former Namgyal dynasty to both the legendary King Gesar and Nyatri Tsangpo, the historical founder of the Tibetan Yarlung dynasty. Nevertheless, a distinct Ladakhi identity is consistently asserted. A number of songs contain texts that evoke a mandala or symbolic representation of the world according to Vajrayana Buddhist iconography, ritual and meditative visualization practices. These mandala descriptions depict the social order of the kingdom, descending from the heavens, to the Buddhist clergy, to the king and nobles, to the common folk. </p><p> As the region has become more integrated into modern India, Ladakhi music has moved into modern media space, being variously portrayed through scholarly works, concerts, mass media, and the internet. An examination of contemporary representations of &ldquo;tradition&rdquo; and ethnic identity in traditional music shows how Ladakhis from various walks of life view the music and song texts, both as producers and consumers. </p><p> Situated as it was on the caravan routes between India, Tibet, China, and Central Asia, Ladakhi culture developed distinctive hybrid characteristics, including in its musical styles. Analysis of the performance practices, musical structures, form, and textual content of songs clearly indicates a fusion of characteristics of Middle Eastern, Balti, Central Asian, and Tibetan origin. Looking at songs associated with the Namgyal dynasty court, I have found them to be part of a continuum of Tibetan high literary culture, combined with complex instrumental music practices. As such, I make the argument that these genres should be considered to be art music. </p>

Composers have long been interested in authentic materials from their own national heritage. Many composers favored folk-based melodies and rhythms. Bela Bartok, for example, collected volumes of Hungarian folk and gypsy melodies throughout his life. Igor Stravinsky's three ballets ( Firebird, Petrushka , and The Rite of Spring ) are also famous for their employment of folk melodies and primitive rhythms. American composers such as Charles Ives and Aaron Copland represented 'Americana' through the use of American pop music, jazz, and folk songs in their compositions. Much of the music of composers who emigrated to foreign countries represents strong implications of nationalism. These composers' efforts to remember their origins, as well as nostalgia for their native culture, were expressed in their music. These qualities appear most interestingly in Asian composers such as Toru Takemitsu and Isang Yun. Despite the drastic difference between Asian and Western music, the two contrasting idioms are handled similarly by these two composers. They not only use non-Western musical materials such as folk melodies and rhythms, but also employ Asian titles, concepts, and traditional instruments to represent Asian inspiration in their music. The composition Lily Park consists of three movements, entitled Wind Bell, Goblin Lights , and Rock of Ages . The three movements are based on my personal impressions of the cemetery Lily Park, located near Deagu, Korea, where all my grandparents are buried. In this composition, Western musical idioms are integrated with the composer's Asian musical heritage. The concept of Lily Park , which is purely non-Western in origination, is realized by utilizing compositional techniques and concepts that have been developed by Western composers, such as tone color, tonality, pitch-class set theory, and serialism, with an ensemble that consists of Western instruments. These ideas are combined with Asian materials such as exotic scales, extended performance techniques associated with Asian music, and ideas that are associated with Asian philosophical and religious thought (the sacredness of the number three, use of space, and isolation).

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The panel discussion first focuses on the obvious gap between a relatively optimistic perspective on musical globalisation, mainly in view of non-Western popular musics, as a main trend in today’s ethnomusicology and the description of intercultural musical encounter as a difficult, lengthy and self-challenging process as suggested by Hans Zender and most examples from contemporary art music. Gerd Grupe emphasizes that non-Western popular musics include both forms that even out cultural differences by following Western commercial standards and, contrarily, forms that are highly dependent on local lingual or musical codes and thus cannot be transferred to an international realm. To illustrate the »existential« approach of art music composers, Zender quotes the case of Giacinto Scelsi whose music has received a profound influence from Tibetan music. Zender emphasizes that Scelsi has created – after a long period of crisis – a »Third Way« that can be understood from neither a purely European, nor a purely Tibetan perspective. The discussion then centres on the question of which influence Western concepts of history and the dynamics of »progress« have exerted on different traditional and contemporary forms of the world’s musics and to what extent the post-colonial polarisation of a »dynamic« Western culture and »static« non-Western cultures is still virulent in the discussion of these musics today. While Christian Utz emphasizes that many non-Western traditions that were deemed to have been preserved unchanged for many centuries for example the Japanese court music gagaku – have in fact changed considerably over the centuries and have been highly influenced by political and social changes, Peter Revers traces the idea of »making history« back to Friedrich Schlegel and describes it as very influential on the dynamics of Western music history. Andreas Dorschel raises the question, if early 20th century »national« schools and in particular the music of Béla Bartók and Leoš Janá􀃿ek can be seen as forerunners of trends in non-Western contemporary music that accentuate cultural difference. Christian Utz remarks that despite the fact that the music of Bartók has been a very important model for Asian composers in the process of creating a music independent of Romanticist symphonic clichés, elements of (neo-)nationalism in Bartók’s concept of music make it hard to see it as a model for a new music free of nationalist bias. Responding to a question from the audience, Andreas Dorschel summarizes that turning to music or art of other cultures might indeed be a signal for »weak« moments within a culture, but in turn this »weakness« proves the inner strength to challenge one’s own culture’s fundamental principles whereas discrimination and xenophobia are based on a very different kind of inner weakness where one is merely unable or unwilling to confront the Other.

L’interférence et interaction Europe-Asie sur le plan culturel et artistique qui s’est épanouie durant le XIXe siècle a ouvert une nouvelle réserve de nouveaux matériaux pour la création littéraire et artistique. De cet échange chacun des deux continents a retiré pour lui-même des éléments qui lui étaient bénéfiques aux points de vue littérature, peinture, musique, architecture, et même religion... La thèse intitulée “Influence de la musique asiatique sur la composition chez Claude Debussy” est entreprise dans le but de rechercher les ingrédients exotiques exploités avec grande délicatesse et sensibilité par Debussy – homme progressiste ouvert aux courants nouveaux, symbole de l’Impressionnisme en musique et surtout grande célébrité pour ses nouvelles limites en timbres. L’analyse d’environ 140 œuvres officiellement publiées de Debussy confirme sa grande réussite dans la mise en œuvre des matériaux musicaux Asiatiques. D’autre part, la thèse se propose aussi de montrer cet autre aspect de Debussy, à savoir qu’il était la somme harmonieuse de l’esthéticisme dans l’art Japonais, de la pureté des échelles traditionnelles, et de la témérité dans l’emploi de timbres nouveaux provenant des instruments Asiatiques. / The cultural and artistic interference and interaction that flowered during the 19th century between Europe and Asia brought a new enormous storage of artistic material at the disposal of European artists. Both continents derived from it materials useful to them in terms of literature, paintings, music, architecture and even religion... The present thesis, “Influence of Asian music on Claude Debussy’s composing”, aims at spotting out exotic materials subtly and sensitively brought into play by Debussy – a progressist spirit open to new trends, symbol of Impressionism in music and, above all, top celebrity for his setting of the new limits for timbres. Analysis of 140 Debussy’s officially published works confirms his success in using Asian materials for his music. Moreover, the thesis also manage to bring into light this other aspect of Debussy, as the final and successful product from the blend between Japanese estheticism, purity of the traditional scales and boldness in the use of new timbres from Asian instruments.