"The Musical Imagination in the Epoch of Globalization.”
The musical imagination has been an original and crucial aspect of the making and evolution of human culture. Despite the variability of composition, instrumentation, tone, and context, musical performance not only speaks to an inner aesthetic of individuals but also has the potential to travel across communities and societies and, therefore, induce a sense of transcivilizational appreciation and meaning.
The current phase of globalization brings forth a set of new developments that suggest such possibilities as these: (a) the discovery and wide distribution of culturally specific forms of music that enrich aesthetic diversity, (b) co-minglings and cross-fertilization that add to growing hybridities, and (c) instant commodification and the danger of homogenization.
The 2007 International Roundtable will focus on the musical imagination in our time of extraordinary global transformations. Consequently, the broad questions that will guide our conversation will include:
- What is musical imagination?
- What are the relationships between music and cultural diversity?
- Is there a world music emerging?
Submissions from 2007
MUSIC, GLOBALIZATION, AND THE CHINESE SELF, Joseph Lam
GLOBAL (RE)VISION: MUSICAL IMAGINATION IN AFRICAN AMERICA, Ingrid Monson
ON MUSICAL COSMOPOLITANISM, Martin Stokes
