Screaming at waterfalls : synthesis of culture, voice and purpose: sculpting statement through cross-cultural composition
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2010-12
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[Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [December 2010]
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Abstract
Screaming at Waterfalls is a programmatic instrumental piece that uses cross-cultural instrumentation and composition to address the use of children as soldiers in armed conflict. The aim of the piece is above all to bring awareness to this tragedy.
Screaming at Waterfalls is a single-movement piece. The musical material used in its construction was composed solely with the issue of child soldiering in mind. My use of Korean music and instruments, as well as musical sources from the Bobwe of Northern Congo, the Soga in Uganda, and the Ewe of Ghana, all stems from the central goal of writing music that addresses the use of children in armed conflict. Because Screaming at Waterfalls integrates the music of more than two musical cultures, and does this in a variety of ways, it leaps beyond the cursory issues of cross-cultural interchange, such as Western society's fascination with the "exotic." This creates a much more compelling consideration of interchange across genres and cultures because it is musical integration for a purpose beyond integration: all compositional decisions served a higher artistic goal.
The source materials from Korean and African music were not approached as novelties, but rather as valid resources fundamental to the craftsmanship of the music, just like counterpoint and voice leading. Screaming at Waterfalls integrates material foreign to the native culture of the composer as a compositional technique rather than merely a genre (or sub-genre) of music. It looks to not only re-contextualize the "borrowed" music (non-Western music in this case) but also to re-contextualize cross-cultural music as a whole.
When these resources are looked at in the same light as any other compositional approach, the composer's creative palette is broadened. His or her musical language is likewise augmented so that broader musical ends can be met that may not have been considered otherwise.
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M.Mus. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2010.
Includes bibliographical references.
Includes bibliographical references.
Keywords
music composition, cross-cultural instrumentation
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Theses for the degree of Master of Music (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Music.
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