Academic literature on the topic 'Intercultural Music Engagement'

This article explores the potential for music making activities such as jamming, song writing, and performance to act as a medium for intercultural connection and relationship building during service learning programs with Indigenous communities in Australia. To set the context, the paper begins with an overview of current international perspectives on service learning and then moves towards a theoretical and practical discussion of how these processes, politics, and learning outcomes arise when intercultural engagement is used in service learning programs. The paper then extends this discussion to consider the ways in which shared music making can bring a sense of intercultural “proximity” that has the potential to evoke deep learning experiences for all involved in the service learning activity. These learning experiences arise from three different “facings” in the process of making music together: facing others together; facing each other; facing ourselves. In order to flesh out how these theoretical ideas work in practice, the article draws on insights and data from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University’s award winning Winanjjikari Service Learning Program, which has been running in partnership with Barkly Regional Arts and Winanjjikari Music Centre in Tennant Creek since 2009. This program involves annual service learning trips where university music students travel to Central Australia to work alongside Aboriginal and non-Indigenous musicians and artists on a range of community-led projects. By looking at the ways in which shared music making brings participants in this program “face to face”, we explore how this proximity leads to powerful learning experiences that foster mutual appreciation, relationship building, and intercultural reconciliation.

Australia is a culturally diverse nation. The Arts provide a pathway that contributes to the rich tapestry of its people. Tertiary music educators have the responsibility to provide opportunities to effectively prepare and engage pre-service teachers in becoming culturally responsive. The authors discuss the importance and need to include guest music educators as culture bearers when preparing pre-service teachers to teach multicultural music. Drawing on data from student questionnaires, author participant observation and reflective practice in 2014, the findings highlight the experiences and practical engagement of an African music workshop in teacher education courses. Generalisations cannot be made, however, the findings revealed the need, importance and benefits of incorporating guest music educators as culture bearers who have the knowledge, skills and understandings to contribute to multicultural music education. This experience may be similar to other educational settings and it is hoped that the findings may provide a platform for further dialogue in other teaching and learning areas.

This article draws on theories of creative development articulated by Sawyer and Green as well as reflecting upon data from case studies of projects run in Wales with community ensembles Wonderbrass, South Wales Intercultural Community Arts and London-based Kinetica Bloco. It proposes a model of learning for music education in Wales that promotes active creative participation and fosters the speaking of a musical language rather than simply the reading of it. In the context of Welsh Government’s recent education review, the article advocates a music policy of creative engagement, with musical materials that go beyond the pedagogy of imitation. Here I propose a creative engagement method that empowers participants to interact with musical materials by creating their own musical statements within a musical style or language, whether through extemporization, improvisation or composition.

The Imaginary Space: Developing models for an emergent Malaysian/Western electroacoustic music is a Fundamental Research Grant Scheme project funded by the Malaysian government in which intercultural investigation is centred within an electroacoustic performance environment. A unique series of music outcomes and potential models reflecting a symbiosis of Malaysian and Western art music through composition and performance are emerging for instrument(s) and electronics. This paper focuses on the first and second phases of the project investigating Western flute, Malaysian serunai and pensol nose flute with electronics. Multi-stranded investigations of connections are identified within the conception, composition, realisation and reception of these works. Performer perspectives are given through two case studies. Our purpose is to illuminate understandings of intercultural connections, to begin to re-conceptualise cultural research paradigms, and to see what we can discover about performance contexts and engagement with individuals, cultures and traditions. The research is contextualised within the philosophical theories of Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty and Ingold. Investigating the role of technology in this context impels a discussion of how these elements generate a new, multifaceted environment, the space in which intercultural and performative understandings can emerge. This article focuses on how these performance contexts become a place for research and new understandings.

Rich intercultural music engagement (RIME) is an embodied form of engagement whereby individuals immerse themselves in foreign musical practice, for example, by learning a traditional instrument from that culture. The present investigation evaluated whether RIME with Chinese or Middle Eastern music can nurture intercultural understanding. White Australian participants were randomly assigned to one of two plucked-string groups: Chinese pipa (n = 29) or Middle Eastern oud (n = 29). Before and after the RIME intervention, participants completed measures of ethnocultural empathy, tolerance, social connectedness, explicit and implicit attitudes towards ethnocultural groups, and open-ended questions about their experience. Following RIME, White Australian participants reported a significant increase in ethnocultural empathy, tolerance, feelings of social connection, and improved explicit and implicit attitudes towards Chinese and Middle Eastern people. However, these benefits differed between groups. Participants who learned Chinese pipa reported reduced bias and increased social connectedness towards Chinese people, but not towards Middle Eastern people. Conversely, participants who learned Middle Eastern oud reported a significant increase in social connectedness towards Middle Eastern people, but not towards Chinese people. This is the first experimental evidence that participatory RIME is an effective tool for understanding a culture other than one’s own, with the added potential to reduce cultural bias.

How does the local raga-based music setting of Psalm 24:7–10 become associated with Christian identity in an Islamic context? How does Psalm 24 strengthen the faith of the marginalized church and broaden messianic hope? In what ways does Psalm 24:7–10 equip local Christians for missional engagement? This paper focuses on the convergence of the local raga-based musical concept of sur-sangam and the revealed text of Punjabi Psalms/Zabur 24:7–10. It argues that while poetic translated text in Punjabi vernacular remains a vital component of theological pedagogy, local music expresses the emotional voice that (re)assures of the messianic hope and mandates missional engagement in Pakistan. Throughout the convergence, musical, messianic, and missional perspectives are transformed to a local phenomenon and its practice is perceived in a cross-cultural connection. Furthermore, examining the text and tune of Punjabi Zabur (Psalms) 24:7–10 in the Indo-Pak context may stretch the spectrum of religious repertoire in the contemporary intercultural world.

AbstractAfter the Obama administration (2009–17) began authorizing musical exchanges with Cuba in 2009, Havana's music festivals became a primary site for transnational interactions and a public face for US-Cuban engagement while politicians worked towards normalization in secret. This article uses field research from the Havana International Jazz Festival, interviews with festival participants, and media coverage to explore Cuban music festivals as politically liminal spaces where musical and political life commingled to reflect the changing US-Cuban relationship. While diverse lineups attracted international tourists, artists faced bureaucratic challenges to legally traverse the Florida Straits and create music in the context of intercultural dialogue. Despite these difficulties, Havana as a festival space encouraged musicians to defy genre conventions, explore cultural commonalities, and negotiate social differences on stage during the Havana Jazz Plaza Festival. These transnational interactions culminated in Arturo O'Farrill's album Cuba: The Conversation Continues, which was recorded by US and Cuban musicians in Havana during the 2014 jazz festival and is characteristic of festival exchanges in its representation of a more harmonious international relationship.

Abstract Multiculturalism is about co-existence of diverse cultures. Current literature on multiculturalism mostly uses a top-down approach to examine how the governments adopt different policies to manage cultural diversity. However, how the migrants use their own culture including music to enhance integration is often neglected. This paper uses the experience of African migrants in Hong Kong to reveal an alternative account of multiculturalism. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation with African drummers, this paper examines the role of African drum as a means of cultural integration. It raises the concept of “street-level multiculturalism” for analysing how African migrants experience and negotiate cultural difference on the ground. It argues that African drum music promotes intercultural contact by arousing curiosity and creating friendly atmosphere. Africans’ engagement in identity politics is based on their marginal status. Their ability to negotiate their African culture and their Hong Kong experience is a politically conscious process.

This exploratory study engages with eight case studies of music performances broadcast online to investigate the role of music in facilitating social cohesion, intercultural understanding and community resilience during a time of social distancing and concomitant heightened racial tensions. Using an online ethnographic approach and thematic analysis of video comments, the nature of audience engagement with music performances broadcast via YouTube during COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 is explored through the lens of ritual engagement with media events and models of social capital. The eight case studies featured virtual choirs, orchestras and music collaborations of various genres, including classical, pop and fusion styles drawing from European, Asia Minor, South African, West African, North African, Arabic, South Asian, and East Asian cultural origins. Five overarching themes resulted from thematic analysis of video comments, including Interaction, Unity, Resilience, Identity, and Emotion. The paper contributes important theorisation that ritual engagement and social learning fosters intercultural understanding through engaging with music both cognitively and emotionally, which can in turn shape both individual and collective identity. Online platforms provide scope for both bonding and bridging opportunities. Community resilience is supported through the sharing of knowledge, sustaining music practice during social distancing, as well as emotional support shared among audience participants, with potential wellbeing outcomes.

L’analisi empirica corpus based di questo elaborato si propone di studiare, nel quadro dell’Appraisal framework, due sottogeneri di musica rap: il mainstream, più popolare, e l’alternative, più di nicchia. L’Appraisal framework analizza l’uso della lingua per quanto riguarda le valutazioni, l’espressione personale e la costruzione di rapporti interpersonali. Le linee guida del quadro teorico verranno utilizzate allo scopo di determinare le differenze o i punti in comune per quanto riguarda l’espressione dei sentimenti e dell’atteggiamento, alla luce delle critiche e degli stereotipi che circondano questa forma di espressione culturale riguardo alla violenza e povertà di contenuti che la contraddistinguerebbe.

This presentation advances a case study for an ongoing intercultural animation project which seeks to meaningfully educate New Zealand Tauiwi (the country's diverse groups, including migrants and refugees) on the values, customs and protocols (Tikanga) of Māori (the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand). Ako For Niños (‘education for children’), implemented by a migrant social services organisation and media-design team, introduces Latin American Tauiwi to Tikanga through an animated children’s series, developed with a community short story writing competition and co-design with a kaitiaki (Māori guardian/advisor). Māori are recognised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the founding document of New Zealand) as partners with Pākeha (European New Zealanders), and Māori knowledge and Tikanga are important to society and culture in Aotearoa. Notwithstanding, there has been a historic lack of attention paid to developing meaningful understandings of Māori perspectives for New Zealand Tauiwi. Ako For Niños endeavours to address current shortages of engaging resources on Māori worldviews for Tauiwi communities, create opportunities for Tauiwi to benefit from Māori epistemologies, and foster healthy community relationships between Māori and Latin American Tauiwi. Through the project’s short story competition, Tauiwi were given definitions of Tikanga through a social media campaign, then prompted to write a children’s tale based on one of these in their native language. This encouraged Tauiwi to gain deeper comprehension of Māori values, and interpret Tikanga into their own expressions. Three winning entries were selected, then adapted into stop-motion and 2D animations. By converting the stories into aesthetically pleasing animated episodes, the Tikanga and narratives could be made more captivating for young audiences and families, appealing to the senses and emotions through visual storytelling, sound-design, and music. The media-design team worked closely with a kaitiaki during this process to better understand and communicate the Tikanga, adapting and co-designing the narratives in a culturally safe process. This ensured Māori knowledge, values, and interests were disseminated in correct and respectful ways. We argue for the importance of creative participation of Tauiwi, alongside co-design with Māori to produce educational intercultural design projects on Māori worldviews. Creative participation encourages new cultural knowledge to be imaginatively transliterated into personal interpretations and expressions of Tauiwi, allowing indigenous perspectives to be made more meaningful. This meaningful engagement with Māori values, which are more grounded in relational and human-centred concepts, can empower Tauiwi to feel more cared for and interconnected with their new home and culture. Additionally, co-design with Māori can help to honour Te Tiriti, and create spaces where Tauiwi, Pākeha and Māori interface in genuine partnership with agency (rangatiratanga), enhancing the credibility and value of outcomes. This session unpacks the contexts informing, and methods undertaken to develop the series, presenting current outcomes and expected directions (including a screening and exhibition). We will also highlight potential for the methodology to be applied in new ways in future, such as with other Tauiwi communities, different cultural knowledge, and increased collaborative co-design with Māori.