MUSICAL TRANSCULTURATION AND ACCULTURATION

Author: Dharma Deva

Year: 2000

Definitions

In the field of ethnomusicology, the term "transculturation" may encompass various processes concerning how cultural contact between 2 or more cultures, in relation to musical influences, can set processes in motion, either undesirably or as a means of enhancement, so that the music of an effected culture is altered in some way. In this regard, the music of the cultures may merge and result in a single culture (Khartomi). More often, one culture virtually absorbs the musical styles of another through a process of selection and modification. This is referred to as "acculturation" (a term borrowed from anthropology) and can be considered a form of transculturation. Acculturation has mostly occurred because of political or colonial domination, with its accompanying social unrest. The noted ethnomusicologist, Jaap Kunst said the phenomena of musical acculturation involves "the hybridising influence of alien musical elements" (Myers 1992:7).

Any distinguishable phenomenon involving musical cultural interchange and its related sociological aspects can be considered within the ambit of transculturation. Within this broad spectrum several significant processes have been identified as follows: transplantation, acculturation, westernisation, modernisation, syncretism, cultural addition, compartmentalisation and class imposition. In addition, 'transculturation' in a more narrower sense can also be included in the list. Many of these terms do not have specific boundaries and an appropriate description of how a music has been influenced will depend on the context. Other effects such as musical revitalisation, abandonment and impoverishment are also related.

Transplantation and acculturation

Musical acculturation is a process whereby a society's music, or part of it, undergoes changes that are directly attributable to the influence of a foreign culture. There have been many impacts of western music on non western musical cultures. Transplantation of a musical culture (mainly western) is usually the initial phase of acculturation or intercultural musical synthesis, leading to results such as the adoption of a different musical culture, loss of an existing musical culture or cultures coming together.

Generally, acculturation involves intercultural borrowings marked by continuous transmission of traits and elements between 2 or more diverse peoples. For this process to become truly embedded it depends on the compatibility or similarity of the 2 cultures, and on whether the exchange involves essential or non essential musical characteristics. Essential characteristics concern the musical language itself and may include harmony, tonality (tonal or key centre), modality (or scale), rhythm and metre. This may account for the easy spread of folk music across Europe. Non essential characteristics may include instrumentation, tuning, temperament (division of the octave), amplification, notation and the social and behavioural features of musical performance.

Acculturation can occur as a process of antithesis against thesis to produce a new synthesis (as in classical dialectic analysis). There is also usually a dominance of one culture over another subordinate culture, resulting in pressures created by the dominant or donor culture and resistance by the subordinate or recipient culture with a series of compromises being forged between the interacting groups. Ultimately, there is a modification of the host culture resulting from prolonged contact with the donor culture. Over an extended period of time acculturation can also occur as a cyclic process involving reciprocity of musical cultures.

Such reciprocity is evident in the development of American jazz music (Slotkin). The slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean allowed for African music to be introduced into the Americas, where it eventually merged with European (including Hispanic) elements creating syncretised Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean forms. Negro acculturation has been considerable in these regions affecting the music of a wide range of ethnic groups and mixed groups (Hernandez).

Another example is Kroncong music in Indonesia which has crossed the borders of local cultures and is played across the archipelago. It includes western instruments such as flute, mandolin, guitars, violins and cello. The reason for its success is that it was neither music of the courts nor of Dutch residents, but of the racially mixed lower classes of Batavia (now Jakarta). Deriving from Portuguese folk music since at least the 17th century, but making its mark around World War I, it became the music of migrating street musicians and gained the attention of Indonesian nationalists because it was not in Dutch or any local language but in Indonesian (Seebass). It is now a popular music.

Acculturation can also embrace musical changes within a society brought about by economic, technological and political developments. An example is the effect of urbanisation and industrialisation on the rural and agricultural work songs of the Negroes in the USA before or in the course of the development of jazz music (Cray).

Westernisation

Westernisation occurs when a society changes its traditional music by taking what it considers to be essential elements from the western musical system, even though they may be incompatible with that tradition. This involves incorporation of 'foreign' elements into a 'home' style and is a type of acculturation of western elements. A possible result is that similarities of musical structures then tend to unite the various songs of the home region, even though there may be no apparent political, ideological or other generic connection for doing so.

The use of the Hawaiian steel guitar, developed from the classic guitar brought there by sailors from the USA, now used in the country and western music genre, is an example of this process. The changes to Tongan dances due to Christian restrictions (Kaeppler), in particular the lakalaka and me'elaufola dances, so that they seemed 'non heathen' was also a western influence.

Another example can be seen in the Meiji era of Japan (1852-1912) with the foreign import of band music. Band music for military purposes had been introduced by the Dutch in Nagasaki during the early 19th century. After Matthew C Perry's arrival from the USA in 1853 marching bands became popular and various Japanese regional and national military leaders quickly added them to their modernised armies.

The emperor of Japan also liked the western musical values displayed by the foreign missions after Perry's arrival and ordered that the gagaku (court) musicians be trained in band music as well. The training of the new ensembles was done by English, French, and German bandmasters, and new music was created by them and their Japanese students to show the spirit of Meiji modernism. The national anthem, "Kimi ga yo" was a successful early attempt at combining western and Japanese traditions through the work of the British bandmaster, William Fenton and his German successor, Franz Eckert, who worked with gagaku musicians one of which, Hayashi Hiromori, is credited with the melody. Written in gagaku notation; and 'corrected' with western harmonisation, the anthem fits into both a gagaku mode (ichikotsu) and western church mode (dorian). Music in schools and popular music was also influenced, with such genres as rappa-bushi ('bugle songs') developing.

Modernisation

Modernisation occurs when a society creates a new, adapted or revitalised version of its traditional music by adopting similar, but not necessarily essential, elements of western music, but at the expense of traditional form and style. Modernisation is comparable to westernisation, and arises today through rapid technological advances in global communications. At one extreme, the concern is that it can lead to the contraction and loss of musical diversity, resulting in what can be described as 'cultural grey-out'. The growth of tourism has had some effect towards this occurring. For instance, certain non western cultures have accommodated western preconceptions by exaggerating or distorting their traditions, or by artificially preserving those elements by which they believe western tourists are attracted to and neglecting those not so compatible.

The process whereby developed forms of Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean music have been conveyed back and reintroduced to Africa by the western commercial recording industry also, most likely, falls within the scope of modernisation. This is because the music has become a modernising influence on Africa's developing urban popular music. It subsequently induced new hybrids of African music in the 1950s and 1960s. These, in turn, were to be vital influences in the development of new Caribbean pop and jazz forms in the 1970s. The process has continued since with African pop music absorbing these new Caribbean styles. The whole process (crossing the Atlantic Ocean in this way), because of its cyclic, reciprocal and regenerative nature, is in a wider sense one of acculturation (Merriam). Or, given any lack of dominance by one culture over another, a process of syncretism.

Syncretism

Musical syncretism occurs when the encounter between two musical systems results in a new hybrid style. This seems to happen most naturally when there are recognisable musical similarities between the two cultures and, in particular, when they share essential characteristics. In comparison to 'directed culture change' (Linton), ie through acculturation, it does not involve conflict between cultures or an obvious dialectical struggle. However, it is rare to find a real case of fusion in which both sides have borrowed equally (Linton). It is arguable that syncretism is evident in today's so called 'world music' as it converges cultures into a universal milieu. It can also be found in some religious music.

A parallel example to world and religious music is Khasidic tunes (Koskoff). These may sometimes be lifted from secular sources (eg Napoleonic march, Ukrainian drinking song, Austro-Hungarian waltz.), but become definitively Jewish, even 'holy', when the melody is used Jewishly, so as to become sacred or redeemed. The Bauls of Bengal, who adopt a non sectarian, tantric spiritual tradition rather than identifying with any hierarchical religious order, may also be considered as having a syncretic musical culture when they sing songs in and from different communities (be it Vaisnava/Hindu or Islam/Muslim) about the same goals and ideals of spiritual salvation (Capwell) or communal peace. There is also a union or reconciliation of diverse tenets and practices and a blending of values.

North American Native Indian tribes of different cultures, when threatened by European colonisation and the presence of a common enemy, banded together and began to think of themselves as ‘Indians’ rather than as Cherokee, Seminoles or members of other tribes. This resulted in the creation of an intertribal Native Indian culture involving shared musical practices in religious, powwow and other gatherings. The late 19th century Ghost Dance religion which arose in the Nevada Great Basin and spread to the Plains tribes is an example of this syncretism.

Native American music has also, in varying degrees, been acculturated or influenced by the music of the broader USA society (Merriam). Christian influences of hymn like singing, and identification with country and western music and images (cowboy, rodeo, open air life), while avoiding any 'redneck twang', being prominent in this regard. To these there has been added Native Indian stylistic elements such as use of vocables (eg he-ne-yo-wa), non synchronous rhythmic accompaniment and repetitive drumbeats and forms (Sturman).

Cultural addition and compartmentalisation

There are many instances where music has been taken from other cultures, but there has been no wholesale or significant degree of appropriation or suppression involved. The style of one culture is simply superimposed onto another. There may only be a transfer of discrete musical traits. For example, rhythmic motifs from foreign sources. Similarly, antiphony (as an alternation between 2 groups each singing a phrase at a time) was been taken up by the south-eastern Native Indians of North America when the African slaves were transported over. Also, Hispanic folk music styles are played by South American Indians on the panpipe (an indigenous instrument). In Central America the presence of simple xylophone instruments facilitated the introduction of the African marimba.

Aspects of Indian music have been incorporated into the music of jazz masters such as John Coltrane and John McLaughlin whose group, Shakti, used a lot of Indian music as did his other group Mahavisnu Orchestra. Interestingly, jazz has also been assimilated in India where it represents modernisation and progress (Pinckney). Duke Ellington made a significant contribution to this assimilation when he came to Bombay in the early 1960s. Conversely, advancements in blending jazz with Indian music (particularly North Indian classical music) have taken place for the most part in the USA and Europe. In all these areas of the world, what has effectively happened is an increased presence of the music and broadened musical tastes.

This is not really the same as acculturation, but may represent elements of modernisation or westernisation, or indeed easternisation of the local music. In short, a strong cultural addition is evident in certain genres of music. This may also be considered as fusion. In these cases the new music does not dominant the host culture. This type of cultural addition could perhaps be taken back out of the music into which it was transplanted. In this regard, it is not really like acculturation in which the additions cannot be easily (if at all) taken out to get back to the original.

An older historical example of cultural addition is the introduction of Christian and Catholic music into Japan in the mid 16th century with the arrival of Portuguese merchants and Roman Catholic priests. With this importation came western musical instruments such as the double reed shawm (the earlier version of the oboe), then prevalent in Europe. The suppression of Christianity in the 17th century destroyed the bamboo organs, choirs of mass singers and other western musical imitations until the Meiji restoration which allowed for religious freedom in 1872, after which time Protestant missionaries developed collections of hymns with Japanese text and standard Protestant and Catholic musical activities also developed. Again, this has never dominated the Japanese culture but represents an addition to the culture.

In some instances, there may be a compartmentalisation of styles within the one culture. For example, children in the vicinity of both Central and Western Java sing and play music in both styles but not necessarily together. As a generation of children they have both forms accessible for separate playing.

Class imposition

Charles Seeger (1948) talks about acculturation being possible between socio-economic classes in society, ie acculturation through class structures in a single society. Also, in his explanation of cantometrics, Lomax (1970) presents song profiles from the likes of Celtic bardic poets, American Indians, Negro Africans, the Orient, western European choirs, and the contrapuntal hocketing style of the Pygmy and Bushman of Africa (combining 2 or more independent melodies to make up a harmonious texture). These song styles can be viewed as reflecting principal modes of political, class and interpersonal interaction, eg the community values of the Pygmy; dominance-subordination patterns of roles in the West (leader and chorus); despotic organisations of the Orient; and communal interests of the Negro Africans.

The 20th century saw authoritarian regimes, mostly in communist countries, try to create class musical identities as the new national culture. This process involved forging together diverse and often incompatible musical elements sometimes new and sometimes existing in various regions and cultures within the regime's control, without regard to retaining their original identities.

The Soviet Union had a problem of what to do with artistic inheritances. This was a cultural dilemma facing the Bolsheviks in the 1920s. Classical or art music has a rich tradition in Russian history, including strong associations with court rituals and organised religion. The ideological question arose of whether to reject its pre-revolutionary past or to embrace it. Either way, this required control over musical organisations which were placed under the guidance of the 'Glavisskustvo' ('Chief Art Department') which worked to eliminate elitism by exposing workers and peasants to orchestras and musicians, strongly encouraged development of Soviet compositions, and encouraged mass participation in musical performance. Orchestras played at factories and army barracks, trade union clubs and so on. All these places were also encouraged or ordered to form choirs, orchestras and other performance groups of their own within the ambit of censorship rules and tight play lists.

In terms of performance aspects, the Soviet Union's experimental 'Persymphans', a symphonic ensemble of the 1920s, in order to be ideologically correct, had an inward facing arrangement in which the violins and violas sat with their backs to the audience and dispensed with the traditional conductor. Instead it attempted collective decisions regarding tempos, dynamics, balance, and other interpretive factors. In Marxist terms, its workers controlled their (cultural) production directly.

However, the lack of approved classical pieces to play hampered mass musical acculturation towards this nationalistic proletarian slant, and so some famous Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky and Borodin were said to have proletarian ideals. Others, such as Beethoven was supposed to have written music having in mind democracy organised for struggle as a prelude to the coming revolutionary music.

This type of propaganda in music, however, did not succeed. This is even more evident in the failure of the Maoist experiment of the Cultural Revolution of 1957 in China. Mao Zedong preached that there were only 2 schools of art: one capitalist and the other proletarian and thoughts must be rectified so that art served the workers, peasants and soldiers (Yu Run). Music began to be arranged by communist composers with lyrics about Mao Zedong, Stalin and the communist party being common. All remnants of the past had to be obliterated and Beethoven and Debussy and the piano were considered bourgeoisie. Most of this thinking and the suppression associated with it came to end with Mao's death in 1976 with the scars still being healed. Now there is a revival of both ancient Chinese classical and western classical music.

Revivalism, abandonment and impoverishment

Revivalism is a common feature in many societies once the negative effects of various forms of transculturation or acculturation have diminished and the seed of the indigenous musical culture is allowed to spring up again. The revival of Native Indian music of North American and of the aboriginal peoples of Australia are cases in point.

Revivalism can arise in other contexts as well. Post World War II, the folk revival was a form that took off in the United Kingdom as a reaction to the commerciality of music under which a whole generation was perceived as becoming quasi-American. However, folk had already begun to flow into a pop protest culture with its elements of revolt against hierarchy. Accordingly, correct cultural traditions in the folk sound could not be left to its own devices or out of the cultural melting pot.

From this it can be seen that it is not common for a culture, society or generation to be able to completely reject a musical form. Perhaps, the advanced forms of music and its associated cultures, such as gamelan in Indonesia, have done so. It is also rare that a musical form will be completely abandoned, even if a culture that is being subordinated cannot make compromises with the suppressor. Abandonment is only likely in the case of genocide. What is more probable is musical impoverishment due to standardisation and simplification or a reduction of the musical possession of the culture.

Conclusion

While negative effects of musical acculturation and other forms of transculturation have no doubt arisen, even by force, this does not mean that acculturation or transculturation cannot have positive effects. Clearly, from many of the historical examples, there has been an enhancement of music practices, styles and forms through cultural interchange. This is more so where there is a certain degree of fusion between impinging or mixing of cultures. In a narrower sense, the term 'transculturation' has been applied in this positive context alone and in this regard assumes that a process of central traits or compatibility exists. However, this may only be a type of syncretism or fusion falling within the wider umbrella of transculturation.

Positive outcomes have not always been so as there are obvious cases of suppression of musical cultures as well. It should also be noted that rewards at a more cruder level may also be considered important, particularly with the adoption of western traits in music, such as monetary reward and other material advantage through commercialisation, prestige by being part of the dominant culture, as well as need for artistic communication. These may also help musical styles and cultures resolve to a new unity through successive generations.

Nevertheless, there is serious concern that commercial forces are simply another form of negative acculturation and coercive in that they lead to conformance of tastes (Diamond). The remarkable thing, though, is that the world's many musics in one form or another still continue to survive, despite the many hardships a culture has been put through and despite any predominance of commerciality in mainstream society.

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