The Multiculturalism of World Ethnomusicology

The Multiculturalism of World Ethnomusic

The pluralism and multiple origins of Latin American culture share similarities and differences with the multiple origins of Chinese culture. So how multicultural is world ethnomusicology?

Abstract: World Ethnic Music is a brand new program. Its purpose is to introduce the objective existence of the world's rich and colorful multicultural music culture, broaden their horizons, expand their knowledge, and understand a variety of musical phenomena on earth. It also aims to break the wrong phenomenon of substituting one or two musical cultures for those created by mankind as a whole, neglecting other musical cultures, or evaluating other musical cultures according to the aesthetic standard of a certain musical culture, and overcoming the one-sidedness of generalizing and not seeing the forest for the trees. This will enable us to look at the problem from a global perspective, to treat all kinds of national music in the world in an objective, fair and equal manner, and to establish the concept of the plurality of the world's musical cultures.

Keywords: world ethnic music; multiculturalism; Latin American music; black music

There are a variety of ethnic groups and ethnic music in the world. Ethnicity is a relatively stable people **** the same body, is to blood, life, language, religion, customs and habits of the same and the combination of people. There are as many musical cultures as there are nationalities in the world, and nationalities and musical cultures are inextricably linked; a nation creates its own musical culture, and at the same time they enjoy their own musical culture. It is because of these ethnic musical cultures that the world's ethnic music is composed.

The world's ethnic music by region is broadly divided into nine regions: East Asian music and culture, Southeast Asian music and culture, South Asian music and culture, West Asian and North African music and culture, black African music and culture, European music and culture, North American music and culture, Latin American music and culture, Oceania music and culture. Each music culture in the world has its own characteristics, such as a deep historical tradition of culture in India has its own highly developed music system, whether it is the meter, tune, melody, rhythm, song style, genre, hand instruments, orchestra, chanting, timbre, music performance, music, music, functionality, aesthetics and so on with their own special mark. Another example is that after nearly five hundred years of dissolving European, Indian, and black cultures into one, the Latin American music culture has appeared in the world with a brand new, full of vitality.

Whether it is literary magic realism, Latin American dance, Latin American music with its unparalleled charm shocked the international literary and artistic hall of fame, the world's leading. Latin America is a multi-ethnic combination, so Latin music is a diverse blend of music and the fusion of a variety of music. Whether it is the white music of Europe, the black music of Africa or the Indian music of America, or even the Asian music of the East, they have all made different contributions to Latin music. After a long period of precipitation, on the basis of European culture as the main body, and at the same time a large number of absorption of Indian culture and black African culture of various factors, gradually formed a colorful, dynamic, full of dynamic Latin culture.

After more than 300 years of colonial rule, Latin American music culture has undergone tremendous changes. As a result of a large number of European (especially located in the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, Portugal) music culture spread throughout Latin America. At the same time, black slaves from Africa also brought African musical art. The long period of interracial mixing also formed a variety of new mixed ethnic groups.

Latin American culture is precisely European culture, Indian culture and African culture after a long period of collision, conflict, infiltration, absorption and fusion of a unified and diverse `culture. It originated from these three cultures but is different from the original culture, with a new face in the world. From a macro point of view, Latin American music is also a mixture of European, Indian and African music. But because of the different types, levels, components, and degrees of mixing, a very rich and varied musical style has been formed.

Today, Latin American music is rich in color. The rhythm of the unique, melodic, and harmonic rich, attracting the majority of music lovers. Its incomparable enthusiasm, abundant vitality, and magical style have brought the world to its attention. As the great Latin American revolutionary Cuban poet José Martí said: ? As the great Latin American revolutionary Cuban poet José Martí said: ? This is a land of harmony and art, decorated with music and the beauty of nature? The main characteristics of Latin American culture are:

First, the original traditions of the indigenous cultures of the Americas were cut off by the invasion of European colonizers. Due to the conquest and colonization of the Americas by European colonizers at the end of the Middle Ages, the development of Latin American Indian indigenous cultures was interrupted, so that Indian indigenous cultures failed to become the main body of Latin American culture, but rather the transplanted European culture as the main body, and Amerindian indigenous cultures and black African cultures as a secondary component.

Second, pluralism and multiple origins. Latin American culture is ? hybridization? culture or a hybrid? The first one is a hybrid culture. culture. The plurality and multiple origins of Latin American culture have similarities and differences with the multiple origins of Chinese culture. The similarity is that its origins are multiple, and the difference is that Latin American culture is a confluence and fusion of cultures of different origins, such as European Christian culture, Amerindian indigenous culture, and African black culture. Third, openness and originality. Latin American culture is rarely conservative and exclusive, and it is good at introducing and absorbing the latest achievements of other cultures, with great affinity and strong integration, thus creating a Latin American culture with its own distinctive characteristics. Openness and innovation are fundamental to the flourishing of Latin American culture.

Africa is located in the southwestern part of the Eastern Hemisphere, on the equator, east of the Indian Ocean, west of the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar and Europe. Africa has nearly 700 languages, and there are a variety of beliefs, therefore, with its corresponding music style and general cultural characteristics are also diverse. However, the diversity of Black African music in no way detracts from the unity of the region as a whole in music. In terms of the social function of music and its use, the principle of melodic and rhythmic composition, instrument types and other musical characteristics, the black African music cultural region of the musical style of the **** homogeneity is obvious.

Black African music First of all, a strong sense of rhythm is one of the prominent features of black African dance music. Their sensitivity to rhythm is incomparable to the art of dance in any country, and this rhythm can be said to be the vocalization of dance movements,? The ideological basis of any basic music is the congruence of movement and sound motifs, above all the congruence of beat and rhythmic motifs? The rhythms of this music are unusually complex. The most typical rhythms are highly developed forms of alternating beats and alternating rhythms.

In the dances of various ethnic groups in Africa, everyone can see the close interconnectedness of rhythm and movement. For example, in the Nandom of northern Ghana? Sekpere? dance, the music is played by a xylophone, and the rhythm section is played on drums, bells and iron rattles, and by the dancers themselves. However, the transition signals between groups of dances are combined by the rhythmic lines in charge. In the Izorian? Essene? dance, the movements follow the rhythmic line of a song, not the accompanying percussion instruments, and are repeated with the song. The Ghanaian Anlo? Agbequan dance of the Ewes, which consists of a variety of dance steps, each of which is introduced by an appropriate rhythmic pattern struck by the lead drum and continued with that pattern.

Each pattern is repeated several times without interruption, and another set of movements is linked to the next pattern, so that the dancer reaches a new starting point and is ready for the next step. These dances need to be mastered by the performers in the rehearsals before the public performance; there are also dances with more improvisation, where the dancers can process the basic movements differently, but in line with the rhythmic line played by the dance's drummer or other instrumentalists, because the whole dance is governed by this rhythmic line.

It can be seen that the drum plays an important role in leading the rhythm of the dance in black African dance music. It determines the rhythm of the dance, and also determines the stylistic characteristics of the dance. It is not difficult to explain when people in the scene or on TV to see black Africans dancing with their music, we ourselves occasionally can not help but appear to move with the rhythmic movements, that is a strong visual and auditory infection, and both under this infection to bring us the most natural mind and body of the spirit of movement. There are hundreds of drums used in black African dance performance: wooden drums, water drums, war drums, gourd drums and so on. The small drums used in the performance can be held in the hand, and the big drums should be made to stand on the stool and beat. Drums are often decorated with bells and other ornaments around the dance music to enhance the sense of rhythm.

Strong rhythmic movement is another feature of black African dance music. Their movements are rough and powerful, emotionally intense, good at exaggerated physical action to express their feelings, the dancers often violently flinging the head, undulating chest, flexing and stretching the waist, swinging hips, twisting hips, shaking hands and feet, stomping, etc.

On the other hand, the dancers are also very good at making the dance music more rhythmic.

Of course, different regions have different styles of dance, but whichever style expresses their purest and truest emotions. Many dances also have their origins in history, but with the change of time, the dances can only become more diversified and diverse, however, what remains unchanged is that from the beginning to the end, they are all expressing their own emotions.

The body language is diverse, for example, the Zulu of Southern Africa? Stomping Dance? Diya? Dance, each dancer wears a string of buzzers on the right ankle and holds a sword in the right hand. When singing, the singers stomp the ground with their right foot on the strong beat of the music and give a quick tap with their left foot on the weak beat.

When the right foot stomps the ground, the body leans slightly to the right side, and then the weak beat is swinging to the left. Other dances that show rhythm with leg movements are? Tap dance? The Big Step Dance (Sotho). (Sotho) and others. In Ghana, the Dagomba's? Nyindogu dance of the Dagomba people of Ghana. dance, the abdominal muscles are mainly used, while the Lobi people of Ghana emphasize upper body movements, which can have rotations or up and down movements of the shoulders, or stretching of the forehead with certain arm movements and tightening and relaxing movements of the shoulder blades. There are also dances like that of the Kalabali people of Nigeria where there are various subtle movements of the hips. Thus, the strong sense of rhythm caused by such large body movements has become another feature of black African dance music.

Group and imitation are the common forms of black African dance, reflecting the characteristics of black African dance music with a vernacular flavor. In their dances, the solo form is seldom seen, and the dances reflect the content closely related to the people's lives. Dancers are often surrounded by a semicircle, circle or arranged in rows to perform, the action is mainly imitated farming, hunting, war and other activities.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that in Africa to the people's music and dance, the heritage of history and the habits of life for a long time and the atmosphere played an indelible role. One explorer described the war dance of the Congo thus: ? A thousand heads as if they were one head, at first they look up at the same time, showing a high spirit, then at the same time lowered down, emitting a mournful grunt

The dancers have an important place in the dance music of the black Africans, and they can sometimes determine the length of the dance. There is also an important part of the music that is designed to allow the dancers to develop their feelings, and the prelude song plays such a role.

Musicians often begin their performances with a prelude or a group of such songs for emotional development. Preludes can be sung in a free rhythm and can be accompanied by one or two instruments without a full ensemble, or they can be instrumental preludes without vocal introductions. Where the xylophone is used to accompany dances in northwestern Ghana, a short prelude is often played on the xylophone before the main dance. Similarly, the Jobi people form large xylophone bands that begin with the band's introduction ? Ngodo? dance. A combination of vocal and instrumental introductions may also be used, as in the Akan? Kaitai? dance, the introductory song may be sung by one or two soloists, with flute riffs added alternately, and this alternation of vocals and flutes continues until the leader introduces the chorus.

African music is more socially, politically, and religiously functional, and is often integrated into all aspects of daily life. African music has an important place in various ceremonies, in hunting, farming and other productive activities. Thus, musical activities in black Africa are adapted to a wide variety of needs and cannot exist independently of society. For example, in the healing ceremony of Makamba, the local people sing to the accompaniment of fierce drums to make the patient possess the soul of the ancestors and cure the disease. All these show that music has an inseparable link with the natural environment, history and culture.

The music of black Africans has always been able to unknowingly bring people from different regions into the dance and music they understand. It's not that they do it deliberately, but their dances and music actually give people a sense of beauty that can't be denied. Many people who can't accept or are even bored with their dance and music at first, after living with them for a long time, or even watching and listening to them more, will gradually understand and appreciate them.

I interpret this similar change in emotion as ? Stockholm syndrome in dance and music? Of course, this is not absolute. But I think that people who love dance and music are attracted to this kind of strong infectious force, which may not be related to style or history, but it is so real and beautiful and pure existence. Whenever the music plays, black Africans can dance with it, dancing is a kind of nature, is a kind of emotion, is a kind of return to the nature.

Dance to create the right atmosphere or mood, can inspire the dancers to express the performer's strong desire with expressive movements. And the dance will express the content of the music, the two complement each other, complement each other, and ultimately let a person y feel the unique charm of black African dance music!

References:

Wang Yaohua. World Ethnic Appreciation People's Music Publishing House 2004.

Chen Ziming. Map of World Ethnic Music People's Music Publishing House 2007.

Wang Yaohua. Introduction to World Ethnicity (People's Music Publishing House 1998)

Yu Runyang. A General History of Western Music Shanghai Music Publishing House.