Non-Western national music and empire in global history: interactions, uniformities, and comparisons

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob van der Linden
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Global History ◽  
State Support ◽  
Formal Similarity ◽  
Equal Temperament ◽  
National Music

AbstractInspired by C. A. Bayly’s notion of global uniformities, this article investigates the different ways in which elitist non-Western music reformers, often with state support, canonized and institutionalized modern national music traditions during the age of liberalism and empire. As these non-Western music reformers reinterpreted liberal and earlier Enlightenment ideas, they envisaged their own musics hierarchically in comparison with Western music. In the context of comparative musicological thinking, they became particularly preoccupied with the systematization of scales, equal temperament tuning, and the origins of their own music. In the process, they often incorporated claims about authenticity and spirituality in music to give strength to burgeoning national, if not anti-imperial, identities. However, beneath the appearance of formal similarity and mutual translatability of non-Western national musics, significant sonic and cultural differences remained. As a contribution to global history scholarship, the article principally attempts to establish these global parallels and comparisons.

scholarly journals Revising the musical equal temperament

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haye Hinrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Frequency Ratio ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Equal Temperament ◽  
Frequency Ratios ◽  
High Degree

Western music is predominantly based on the equal temperament with a constant semitone frequency ratio of 21/12. Although this temperament has been in use since the nineteenth century and in spite of its high degree of symmetry, various musicians have repeatedly expressed their discomfort with the harmonicity of certain intervals. Recently it was suggested that this problem can be overcome by introducing a modified temperament with a constant but slightly increased frequency ratio. In this paper we confirm this conjecture quantitatively. Using entropy as a measure for harmonicity, we show numerically that the harmonic optimum is in fact obtained for frequency ratios slightly larger than 21/12. This suggests that the equal temperament should be replaced by a harmonized stretched temperament as a new standard.

scholarly journals Deconstructing the Local: The Aesthetic Space and Geographic Place of Oskar Morawetz's String Quartet no. 5 "A Tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" (1991)

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedemann Sallis
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Western Music ◽  
National Music ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

The oppositional notions of centre and periphery, mainstream and margin, and universal and local have long been important criteria for the scholarly study of Western music. Indeed they are often taken for granted. This paper will take a critical look at the relationship obtaining between art music the notion of a national music. The object of study is taken from among the works of the Canadian composer (of Czech origin) Oskar Morawetz. The point is not to deny that music can be legitimately associated with a given place but rather to examine how these complex, problematic relationships are created and how they evolve and/or dissolve over time.

scholarly journals Universality vs experience: a cross-cultural pilot study on the consonance effect in music at different altitudes

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9344
Author(s):  
Giulia Prete ◽  
Danilo Bondi ◽  
Vittore Verratti ◽  
Anna Maria Aloisi ◽  
Prabin Rai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Music Preferences ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Italian Sample ◽  
Cultural Rules ◽  
Different Altitudes

Background Previous studies have shown that music preferences are influenced by cultural “rules”, and some others have suggested a universal preference for some features over others. Methods We investigated cultural differences on the “consonance effect”, consisting in higher pleasantness judgments for consonant compared to dissonant chords—according to the Western definition of music: Italian and Himalayan participants were asked to express pleasantness judgments for consonant and dissonant chords. An Italian and a Nepalese sample were tested both at 1,450 m and at 4,750 m of altitude, with the further aim to evaluate the effect of hypoxia on this task. A third sample consisted of two subgroups of Sherpas: lowlanders (1,450 m of altitude), often exposed to Western music, and highlanders (3,427 m of altitude), less exposed to Western music. All Sherpas were tested where they lived. Results Independently from the altitude, results confirmed the consonance effect in the Italian sample, and the absence of such effect in the Nepalese sample. Lowlander Sherpas revealed the consonance effect, but highlander Sherpas did not show this effect. Conclusions Results of this pilot study show that neither hypoxia (altitude), nor demographic features (age, schooling, or playing music), nor ethnicity per se influence the consonance effect. We conclude that music preferences are attributable to music exposure.

scholarly journals 19-Tone Theory and Applications

ICONI ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 81-99
Author(s):  
Hubert Howe ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Microtonal Music ◽  
Equal Temperament ◽  
The Will ◽  
Similarity Relationships

Microtonal music is one of those subjects that has always been around, but few people have ever had the will to investigate it thoroughly. The main reason why more people have not dealt with microtonal music is that there are almost no instruments that allow composers to experiment with it. In spite of all this, the music of many cultures even at the present time employs non-equaltempered scales, and even Western music did until the eighteenth century, when mathematicians worked out the logarithmic basis of equal temperament. In this article, the author explains how he became interested in 19-tone equal temperament and how he explored the possible resources available in such a system. This involves creating a chord grammar based on similarity relationships, similar to what he has used in his music written in 12-tone equal temperament. Through these considerations he discovered a particular set of chords that have special properties in terms of their interval content, number of transpositions, and relationships to other chords. Finally, the author explains how he used these properties in the music he composed in this temperament.

Cultural aspects of music perception: Validation of a Greek version of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusias

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
EVANGELOS PARASKEVOPOULOS ◽  
KYRANA TSAPKINI ◽  
ISABELLE PERETZ
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Original Version ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Greek Version ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Musical Tradition ◽  
Sensitive Tool

AbstractDespite music’s universality, people perceive and interpret music according to their cultural background. The existing music perception batteries, however, do not take into account possible cultural differences. We adapted the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusias (MBEA) into the requirements of Eastern (Greek) music, where rhythm and melody scales are different from the ones used in Western music. We obtained norms for both the original version of MBEA and its Greek adaptation from the same Greek participants because they are exposed to both genres (traditional and Eastern). Results indicate that some parts of the original MBEA such as the meter test would not be suitable for evaluating the musical abilities of populations with a different musical tradition. Instead, our version of the MBEA, the Greek Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (GBEA) should be preferred in assessing music perception in cultures or individuals influenced by Eastern or both traditions. We also report the results of a congenitally amusic individual (B.Z.) evaluated with both batteries showing that GBEA is a more sensitive tool to evaluate her impairment in music perception. (JINS, 2010, 16, 695–704.)

Cognitive gadgets: A provocative but flawed manifesto

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Del Giudice
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Genetic Inheritance ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Cherry Picking ◽  
Dichotomous Thinking

Abstract The argument against innatism at the heart of Cognitive Gadgets is provocative but premature, and is vitiated by dichotomous thinking, interpretive double standards, and evidence cherry-picking. I illustrate my criticism by addressing the heritability of imitation and mindreading, the relevance of twin studies, and the meaning of cross-cultural differences in theory of mind development. Reaching an integrative understanding of genetic inheritance, plasticity, and learning is a formidable task that demands a more nuanced evolutionary approach.

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