{"id":154,"date":"2020-02-24T22:27:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T04:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=154"},"modified":"2020-02-24T22:42:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T04:42:06","slug":"appreciative-appropriation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/02\/24\/appreciative-appropriation\/","title":{"rendered":"Appreciative Appropriation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The most relateable aspect of French debates of national identity is the issue of foreign influences and whether or not they are acceptable in music. This is a conversation we are still having today, manifested in today&#8217;s American society as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/appropriate#h2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">appropriation<\/a> conversation. It is rightfully looked down upon to take musical influences from other cultures without credit. For example, Paul Simon is still being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2012\/apr\/19\/paul-simon-graceland-acclaim-outrage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">criticized<\/a> for his use of South African musical themes on his 1986 album, &#8220;Graceland&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al (Official Video)\" width=\"580\" height=\"435\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uq-gYOrU8bA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Claude Debussy is no stranger to cultural appropriation. After coming into contact with the music of Java at the Exposition Universelle in 1889, Debussy began to incorporate the sounds of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/gamelan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gamelan <\/a>\u00a0(such as whole tone scales and an absence of tonal center) into his music.<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\" name=\"sdfootnote1anc\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a> The most referenced example of this Javanese influence is from Estampes (1903)- 1. Pagodes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Debussy, Estampes (1903) - 1. Pagodes\" width=\"580\" height=\"435\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lswHSnJ0Rlw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Debussy had a deep appreciation for the music of Java, as he writes, &#8220;Their school consists of the eternal rhythm of the sea, the wind in the leaves, and a thousand other tiny noises, which they listen to with great care, without ever having consulted any of those dubious treatises&#8230; Thus Javanese music obeys laws of counterpoint that make Palestrina seem like child&#8217;s play.&#8221;<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote2sym\" name=\"sdfootnote2anc\"><sup>2 <\/sup><\/a>Based on these comments, I believe Debussy was not taking the sounds of Java maliciously. However, we must consider another element of this cultural appropriation, which also happens to be the theme I find least relateable- colonialism.<\/p>\n<p>Countries such as Java had less power on the world stage than France, and therefore they were targets for things such as appropriation and exploitation. Germany, however, had more power on the world stage, having just defeated France in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Franco-German-War\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Franco-Prussian War.<\/a> Post-war sentiment and the need for a French identity detracted composers from wanting to draw on elements of German music. German music was recognizable and established. So, instead, they drew on musical elements of countries with a less threatening world-wide influence, such as Java. Debussy didn&#8217;t give compensation to the Javanese musicians or credit them in any specific manner. In today&#8217;s society, actions like this would not be accepted, regardless of the respect the composer has for the music they are using. This may have been the moral justification behind Debussy&#8217;s borrowing of Javanese music, but in historical hindsight, it is not much of a justification at all.<\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote1\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\" name=\"sdfootnote1sym\">1<\/a>. Simeone, Nigel.\u00a0<i>Paris: A Musical Gazetteer<\/i>. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.<\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote2\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote2anc\" name=\"sdfootnote2sym\">2<\/a>. Strunk, Oliver, and Leo Treitler, eds. \u201cClaude Debussy.\u201d In\u00a0<i>Source Readings in Music History<\/i>, vol. 7 :161\u201364. New York, NY: WW Norton &amp; Company, 1998.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most relateable aspect of French debates of national identity is the issue of foreign influences and whether or not they are acceptable in music. This is a conversation we are still having today, manifested in today&#8217;s American society as the appropriation conversation. It is rightfully looked down upon to take musical influences from other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3482,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}