Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy

Cultural diplomacy in music presentation and performance is very much an emerging concern among both musicians and musicologists. Musicians are actively re-evaluating their practices, but also their rights and their obligations as custodians of both old and new music. How are they are used as diplomats to promote corporations and nation states? How do they work across borders, how do they mix at global festivals, and how do they negotiate their place within and across cultures? Musicologists and ethnomusicologists are struggling to decolonize their academic discourse, but how can they break Western cultural hegemony, in order to practice diplomacy, to listen to and value diverse voices from around the world? Innovative and impressive, Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy sets out to answer these questions by bringing together different voices and different perspectives. The book’s contributors come from inside and outside the West, and often challenge previous writing. The book contains overviews and discussions of copyright and “soft power,” but will be most valuable for its up-to-date, closely focused ethnographies that range from Nigeria and South Africa to Ethiopia, from China and Japan to Vietnam, from India and Afghanistan to Iran, and from Uzbekistan to Norway.

-- Keith Howard, University of London

This rich and varied collection highlights the subtle but powerful role that music plays in making the world a more hospitable place. The wide-ranging chapters, all written by experts and activists, deal with specific places and processes and enrich our understanding of how cultural exchange and learning happen and come to be transpired. A must read for ethnomusicology and for anyone with an interest in the role of culture in our complex world today.

-- Tia DeNora, University of Ex