While Erich von Hornbostel, pioneer of the early Berlin school of comparative musicology, saw no reason to expect a homogenisation of music around the globe, some later ethnomusicologists feared a cultural greying-out, a loss of diversity of the world’s musics under the impact of Westernisation. More in-depth knowledge of many musical cultures and of the processes at work in present-day societies in Asia and Africa, however, seem to paint a different picture. By discussing several case studies of musical idioms from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, this paper corroborates Peter Manuel’s opinion that it is especially in the domain of popular musics where a dynamic process constantly gives rise to ever new local musical styles. Their success as compared to some transnational genres may in part be attributed to the importance of helping to create local identities. Thus, the effects of the decreasing presence of some more traditional musical idioms and of the almost omnipresent Western pop music are counteracted by new, sometimes hybrid popular styles which often draw substantially from local traditional genres. But the impact of globalisation can also be traced in the domain of non-Western traditional musics and of Western contemporary composers. As a case in point, the attitudes of two Western composers, Kevin Volans and György Ligeti, towards traditional music of sub-Saharan Africa are explored by drawing on two well-known examples, namely Volans’ piece Mbira and Ligeti’s piano etude No. 6. In conclusion we may assume that, in spite of a profound Western influence on the musics of the world, at present there seems to be no reason to fear a musical greying-out.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:86152 |
| Date | 23 June 2023 |
| Creators | Grupe, Gerd |
| Contributors | Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst |
| Publisher | PFAU-Verlag |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:bookPart, info:eu-repo/semantics/bookPart, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 03, urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa2-854158, qucosa:85415 |
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