The Exotic in Western Music

by Bellman, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9781555533199
• ISBN10: 1555533191
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-12-23
• Publisher: Northeastern Univ Pr

Summary

Exoticism has flourished in western music since the seventeenth century. A blend of familiar and unfamiliar gestures, this vibrant musical language takes the listener beyond the ordinary by evoking foreign cultures and forbidden desires. In this pioneering collection, distinguished musicologists explore the ways in which western composers have used exotic themes for dramatic and striking effect. Interweaving historical, musical, and cultural perspectives, the contributors examine the compositional use of exotic styles and traditions in the works of artists as diverse as Mozart and George Harrison. The volume sheds new light on a significant yet largely neglected art form, and it makes a valuable contribution to music history and cultural studies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Early Exoticism Revisited	p. 3
"Forreine Conceites and Wandring Devises": The Exotic, the Erotic, and the Feminine	p. 26
The Alla Turca Style in the late Eighteenth Century: Race and Gender in the Symphony and the Seraglio	p. 43
The Hungarian Gypsies and the Poetics of Exclusion	p. 74
Cutthroats and Casbah Dancers, Muezzins and Timeless Sands: Musical Images of the Middle East	p. 104
How Spain Got a Soul	p. 137
"Entoiling the Falconet": Russian Musical Orientalism in Context	p. 194
"I'm an Indian Too": Creating Native American Identities in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Music	p. 218
"The East in the West": Evocations of the Gamelan in Western Music	p. 258
Jazz and Musical Exoticism	p. 281
Indian Resonances in the British Invasion, 1965-1968	p. 292
Notes	p. 307
Contributors	p. 355
Index	p. 359
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