University of Heidelberg

B2 Creative Dissonances

Creative Dissonances: Music in a Global Context

Coordination: Oliver Seibt, Barbara Mittler, Dorothea Redepenning

Abstract

Asian-European crossovers in both popular and art music are among the most
successful experiments within the global music scene. This does not mean
that music is a “universal language,” however: the alleged “harmony” of
“World Music” is a problematic construction, hiding the cultural
consequences of complex historical processes. One of its characteristic
asymmetries is the fact that Western critics have described non-Western
musical cultures in terms of deficiencies. Such evaluations have been
adopted by Asians themselves and have been integrated into their educational
systems. This process again triggered a creative impulse which constitutes
yet another cultural flow, now returning to Western musical culture. This
project aims to identify and to describe the creative dissonances inherent
and engendered in this process of (double) mirroring which has produced
challenging artistic conceptions of global interest.