And thanks everyone for being here. Paul, I knew your reputation as an
administrator for many years and a musician and those were both confirmed
during the two summers. I was privileged to work here with you students fa
Northern Air New at Illinois University. And Ren told me about your early
support for the symposium. Um Another helpful individual to me was Jane
Hathaway currently in the School of Music and of course, kudos also to
ring for this initiative and preparing for fruition, but especially
finding special related congratulations or extinguished supposed honorees.
It is an honor to participate in supposed Doctor Har. I met you last
night. Congratulations.
Unlike the other Latino speakers, I am not a world music specialist that
and the fact that I am privileged to speak first led me to decide to
generalize, to attempt to place the world music in some kind of context
and to speculate about an important role that that is world music
participation and pedagogy as a means of bringing together some of the
disparate groups in our world today to harmonize them if you will, it
appears that musical practices have been universal throughout the history
of mankind, most likely all human cultures have practiced music just as
all humans have have spoken, had spoken languages based on the apparent
evolution of brain structure and other circumstantial evidence. It is
reasonable to conclude that music could wealth, a predating planet along
the way, music was probably displaced by language as the primary
communication mechanism. And at that point, music shifted to secondary
communication roles be that as it may, humans are hardwired for both music
and language and what emerges in each culture is at least one spoken
language and at least one performed type of music. This seems to happen
regardless of whether or to what extent different cultures learn from each
other. Anthropologists tell us that there have been many thousands of
cultures and many thousands of languages. And undoubtedly there have been
many thousands of types of music as well in the western hemisphere alone
and relatively late cover in terms of regions of human habitation.
Estimates for the total number of languages over time runs as high as 1000.
There must have been a great many types of music as well today. Only a
few 100 languages survive in the western hemisphere. And many of those are
being capitalized, at least partially through artificial means. In other
words, languages appear to have become less diverse over time. And that is
likely true for music as well. Now in modern times, music seems to be
moving in the direction of war or at least certain musics are being
disseminated widely which results in more people having more access to
more types of music than ever before. Of course, world music is part of
all things in the long, long run, becoming more diverse, may end up being
fortuitous for music in general and for world music in particular,
working against this diversity and types of music in modern times is the
domination. Some say encroachment of Western, largely American based
popular music. The same is serve by the English language. If all this is
true, then why is it that music's unlike languages may be becoming more,
you know, more diverse. One reason is the inherently abstract nature of
music. Another is the explosion and availability of technological delivery
systems over the past century and a quarter related to availability is
increasingly wide range of roles music plays in society today today,
arguably more roles than during the pre electronic age. Undoubtedly,
people today have far more exposure to music than at any time in history
and the extent of that exposure continues to increase. This is true.
Despite concerns about the lack of participation in music today, music is
now such an important part of the larger environment from shopping to
television and film sports, to homes, to bopping down the street that it
is probably safe to predict that music will become even more pervasive in
our society in the future. I will stick my neck out, it will become more
diverse as well for the same reasons, other commodities become more
diverse and, and numerous. Uh over time. In other words, it is likely that
diversity of music will increase while diversity in languages which
function less like the consumable than music will continue to decrease. I
want to focus today on a specific subset of diversity in our world, racial
and ethnic diversity, something that you know a little about and something
we can probably agree is an important aspect of world music. The variable
of race and ethnicity can be
and often are used as proxies for other variables related to diversity so
much. So that what we may say about racial and ethnic issues related to
world music could be said about several other characteristics as well.
Among other things, I will argue that while world music reflects some of
our human diversity and like all music, it could be used to divide people
, it can also help bring us together that is, it can bring harmony to our
world and to us our flawed but diverse inhabitants. So let's back up and
talk about where all this human diversity came from. The best thinking
today is that human species evolved first in Africa, starting about
200,000 years ago. And over the next 100,000 years, groups immigrated from
that continent, some developed in what we call the Middle East Europe and
eventually the east coast of Asia and so forth. By the time those parts of
the world became populated enough. Some of these groups by by then had
been separated from other groups for many thousands of years had developed
what came to be known as racial characteristics. Of course, the
psychological there of the psychological of these physiological
differences among groups were and remain biologically superficial as
evidenced by the fact that humans and all the racial groups can reproduce
with humans in any and all other groups. And today, we have additional
evidence in of the superficially of alleged racial differences in the form
of a molecule called DNA.
In addition to physiological differences, all manner of psychological and
social differences between groups also evolve during those long periods of
separation differences that align more with what today we call ethnic
characteristics.
And of course, some of the racial and ethnic characteristics overlapped
all these differences. Notwithstanding we were and remain one species
albeit with racial and ethnic subgroups that evolved during the thousands
of years of separation. Most educated people today understand all of this
, including the series of doubts entertained about the legitimacy of race
as a construct, but it bears repeating because we humans are exceeding
with slow learners where racial and ethnic issues are concerned.
We will return to this theme of slow learn in our quest for harmony among
all this diversity and perceived diversity. It is important to take into
account the substantial recent and ethical life quest
that human history was far more viable than researchers believe even a
generation ago, we are a tribal species and it appears that human tribes
have always competed with each other for food and other resources. Much of
that competition involved violence in or near most surviving prehistoric
human habitation sites that have been studied by anthropologists by piles
of stones that anthropologists believe will gather for throwing it enemies.
And it appears that wolves may have been domesticated as dogs because
they bark to alert their owners to the presence of intruders. According to
one recent estimate, 25% of prehistoric adult males died of wounds
inflicted by other humans. Since that estimate is based on evidence of
skeletal wounds only. And since undoubtedly, some fatal wounds did not
affect skeletons, the death rate from warfare and other violence must have
been higher than that. Such rates of violent death are unheard of in
modern times. By some estimates, the largest modern war world war two
result in the death of the 10% of the population of some of the most
affected countries and an estimated 2.6% of the world's population at the
time. Anthropologists, historians and evolutionary biologists also make it
clear that humanity has improved and measurably not only in reduced tribal
warfare, but in most ways over time for primitive tribes, violence and
other non cooper behavior may have been adapted to their environment and
therefore necessary. But over time, it's becoming increasingly malady in
modern times, most individuals and groups experience more success when
they cooperated more and fight less both within and among groups. Today,
we tend to think of human progress mainly in the realms of medicine and
technology, but we have improved as a species and virtually everywhere.
The critical realm of cooper operation being one of the most notable and
likely one of the most important.
There is a widespread assumption today that invading aliens from outer
space would either enslave or destroy us the human inhabitants of this
earth. This belief is understandable given the history of human group
encounters. But some evolutionary biologists believe that any civilization
can enough to reach earth or outer space would be so involved that
invaders would not want to dominate or destroy us earthly. But instead
would seek to cooper with given that the nearest star of the solar system
is 10.5 light years away. That's 100 trillion kilometers. This is probably
a safe bet, regardless the idea that evolved civilizations fight less and
cooper more is also based on our history Bureau on Earth. In this case,
the evolutionary improvements in relationships are run and within groups
throughout history. The spread of self governance in the form of democracy
, a partial democracy since the late 18th century is a notable
manifestation behavior even given the shortcomings endemic to those
political systems today, with the world's population increasing at a rate
and total number. Well beyond anything in the past as far as we know and
given the destructive power of weapons in the nuclear age, we really don't
have liable choices about whether to co operate or fight. Nevertheless,
the news media and even historians tend to concentrate on a conflict
because it is more interesting than cooperating behavior. Despite all the
negativity of hand wringing over our projects. Today, there is less
warfare and more trade and other types of sharing among groups than ever
before. And there are better social conditions, including less crime
within and among groups as well. We have seen enormous population
increases but also enormous improvements in cooperating behavior even
within our own lifetime. Apparently, we have learned that cooper operation
is adaptive
adapted to the world in which we live. This is important because so far we
lack alternative places to live. We can't very well just decide to vacate
our earthly neighborhood in terms of race relations. The United States is
a nation that was founded on the enlightenment principle of equality. But
its original constitution legalized slavery and and denied the right to
vote to those slaves, to all women and even those non slave males in
recent times, much has been made of the fact that the country elected and
re-elected a mixed race revue, who identified as a member of the
african-american minority. And this truly is an extraordinary achievement
of which Americans can take justifiable.
I don't know an instance in history of a major country electing a member
of it was formerly despised, repressed minorities to such a high office.
President Obama's historic first election took place in November of 2008.
Some 145 years after President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. But only
42 years after my high school admitted its first African American students.
I grew up on a cotton farm near Memphis, Tennessee. And I, well remember
not only the racially segregated schools, but also segregated restaurants
, hotels, churches, swimming pools, restaurant rooms, funeral homes, water
fountain, park benches, even partition cemeteries. The racial integration
of my high school began during my senior year, 1966 1967
when two seniors from the town's black high school enrolled in our white
school for their final year in graduation. The next school year, the
Regional Army National Guard battalion deployed to Memphis in the
aftermath of the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior,
a unit I later trained and served well for subsequent domestic issues.
What remained of legal segregation in the United States crumbled during
those years after college, I taught at a school in South Mississippi. In
the second year of full integration. We have come a long, long way in a
relatively short period of time.
On the other hand, however much the situation has improved. Racial
prejudice is still pervasive in the US and many other parts of the world
today. 21st century, we still tend to stick together in our respective
tribes as in birds of a feather flock together. Anthropologists tell us
that such tribalism was adaptive behavior in a primitive world when tribes
competed with each other for resources.
But in our densely packed complex modern world, such discrimination of
sameness and otherness has become counterproductive or ma adapting as a
civilization, we are trying to absorb and apply these lessons. But
throughout most of our known history, progress has been a vast and
agonizingly slow. However, the pace has picked up in recent decades, so
much so that despite the revenue of our individual lives relative to
evolutionary history, the fact that all of us have personally witnessed
progress on seeing so many human relationship fronts, demonstrates the
increasing pace of our collective understanding. That's the good news. And
I see what the world music phenomenon as an emerging and potentially
integral part of this increasing positive interaction and collaboration
among groups, racial eth and otherwise, indeed, that world music is
already bringing us together is yet evidenced by the fact that so many of
us traveled so far to participate in this s which is being hosted by a
respecting respected academic institution.
But questions still remain such as why aren't we we humans in a better
place in terms of cooperating and non-discriminatory behavior? And how can
we close the gap between where we are and where we aspire to be? Some of
the answers to these questions are emerging from clues provided by
evolutionary biologists clues that point to reasons for our resistance to
more thorough acceptance and assimilation of different types of people. Uh
Edward O Wilson, one of the world's most renowned biologists explains that
humans are one of only 20 species, including certain types of insects that
are eusocial organizations defined for those that cooperatively reared
their young across multiple generations.
There are these 20 eusocial species are hugely successful among the 8.7
million species that inhabit the earth. The success is measured in terms
of collective body weight in the case of insects and dominance of the
planet in the base of human. Now, Wilson believes that the evolution of
humans as a new social species require social exchanges that expanded from
this year to a meat diet among our humanoid ancestors. About 2 million
years. This in turn resulted in the evolution of a huge brain to store the
knowledge necessary for survival, much of it involving cooper operation.
It also explains the strong urge to be part of a clan or tribe. This means
that humans evolved to become adept at identifying members of their own
clan as opposed to members of other clans. During that period, disability
and strong urge to identify with cooper within groups was adapted.
Researchers believe that while the propensity to distinguish or
discriminate between members of one's own tribe and members of other
tribes is so fundamental to our social and psychological structures that
for practical purposes, it is innate.
In other words, racial prejudice is rooted in the tools people use to
quickly classify people, objects, even ideas into categories of good or
bad. And these characterizations discriminations if you will happen
automatically, such rapid characterization is adapted such as when we
learn to assume that all mushrooms are poisonous and all lions want to eat
us and so far so good. But the troubles so far come when we draw on what
is likely a hard wire co the essentialist style to make those judgments,
cognitive assess the style rests on two problematic assumptions. First,
that everything in a given category shares common essential qualities. And
second that these qualities are unchanging, immutable and therefore
essential. Essentialism is problematic for a racist concern because the
idea of fundamental differences has been round and debunked by scientists
, even person, even people who have some sense of the problems associated
with essentialism, categorize race, gender, age and other self
identification characteristics in the same way, usually instantaneous and
beyond the realm of house.
So it isn't a matter of whether a given individual or group discriminates
or categorizes. In the words of one scholar, the capacity discern us from
them is fundamental to the human brain. Instead what matters is how
strongly these beliefs are held and how long and how and what we do in
response to it. Again, this tendency is reinforced by the strong need to
identify with the group in part because there are safety in numbers. These
tendencies operate even when the criteria for group membership are
arbitrary when the criteria are based on relatively obvious
characteristics, problems often arise and persist to say the least
today. There are two major downsides to this identification behavior. One
is racism, which is a way to distinguish between tribes. Another major
downside is religious bigotry, which stems from the need to adhere to
collective beliefs held by the tribe and to reject individuals who do not
hold some of some of our beliefs. And of course, it is in the realm of
beliefs, religious and otherwise that ethnicity comes in because much of
what can be said about race can also be said about religion and ethnicity
in the way they relate to tribal identification. Finally, although
evolutionary scientists focused on antiquity in the modern era, it is, it
is clear that nationalism as a mechanism and expression of tribal identity
overlaps a great deal with race religion and perhaps especially with
ethnicity, we have seen innumerable, negative consequences of racial and
religious bigotry in the form of tribal rivalry throughout history. And of
course, we have experienced manifold negative consequences of excessive
nationalism. Since nation states evolved, we humans have retained our
highly developed and propensity to discriminate group membership into our
modern age despite being potentially maladapted. And this constitutes a
serious flaw in the modern human species. We can mitigate these tendencies
in ourselves and in society, but we cannot make them disappear completely
and there analyze our flaw of nature. Again, though this law could be
fortuitous to music in general and the world music in particular, because
both can and do brain harmony to groups based on differences of various
times. So long as we can use music and musical activities to help bring
people together and to mitigate against our inherent flaws. We should be
in business for the foreseeable future.
Today, in the most democratic countries and um social structure based on
race is no longer codified by law and it's typically illegal. However,
traditions and unwritten exacerbated by our fundamental propensity for
discrimination still result in stratification and discrimination by race,
ethnicity, religion, nationality. And at this point, we should probably
consider gender and gender identity, social class, age and other
characteristics on which to discriminate for or and of course, these
traits tend to overlap with each other and are frequently used as proxies
for other traits with discrimination based on one trait sometimes used as
a big league to cover or obscure discrimination based on one or more other
traits.
To take a modern day example, there can be various 1000 even socially
acceptable reasons to oppose, oppose immigration to one's country to other
countries. And some of the current opposition immigration may indeed be
based on legitimate concerns. But in North America and in Europe, much of
it is rooted in opposition to the other. Indeed, race has been a millstone
around the neck of the United States since colonial times. Two centuries
later, during the first century nationwide, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman
Melville wrote passionately and greatly about racial issues in the United
States and the country's most destructive war was fought over it. I agree
with those who consider racism. The Achilles heel of the United States of
America throughout our history and extending to the present as for Europe
in modern times, slavery has not been permitted, but Europeans were the
original slave trader between Africa and the western hemisphere. Today. On
the European continent, some of the world's most modern progressive
countries are experiencing considerable unrest over the issue of
immigration. Much of it based on a mismatch of nationalism, ethnicity,
race, religion and race, as well as economic
in Europe, as in North America and many other places, groups of people who
bear visible signs of differences such as skin color or attire which can
signal religion, social class or both seem to draw the most opposition
researchers have identified racial prejudice among doctors treating
patients
in hiring the judicial system and both charging and convicting suspects,
legislators and responding to constituents management and department
leasing and automobile renting professors who are selecting research
assistants and music teachers in evaluating student performance. These
studies span several decades and are overwhelmingly convincing in their
totality. Similar work has been done on gender discrimination and on age
now, racial and other types of prejudice can have negative consequences on
many aspects of people's lives and our society at large, it can direct the
fact one of the things we try to do in music education which is teach or
at least foster creativity. Researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel
developed tests that estimate the extent of people's essentialist thinking
defined as associating racial differences with the capabilities and
personality traits. They found negative correlations between essentialist
thinking and creativity and concluded that the correlations may be causal
that based bias thinking may inhibit creativity.
The good news is that essentialist thinking can be modified at least in
the short term. The same is writing. Researchers had another sample of
students read essays that describe rates as either a fundamental
difference between people which is insane
or as a construct. It reflected nothing more than skin differences, which
is a non essential
subjects who read the e non-essential essay score 32% higher on the
creativity test and then did something to ramp the essentialist essay. The
authors concluded that essentialism appears to exert its negative effects
on creativity, not through what people think but through how they think.
Now. Why is that? Well, it's because they said stereotyping and creative
stagnation are rooted in a similar tendency to over rely on existing
category attributes again. So it's essentially stinking may have helped
early humans on the Savannah, but it can be counterproductive in today's
world. Researchers have also devised high tech tests to measure
individuals reaction to different types of people and situations. The test
measure reaction time in milliseconds, the photographs of people of
different races and different situations. Some of these tests are now
available free of charge on the internet. Like most people in the US have
taken it. I exhibited a slight tendency to favor my own race. I recommend
taking one if you haven't done. So these results hold pretty much across
the age spectrum with individuals over 65 of A I DS testing slightly more
prejudiced and those in middle age, slightly less prejudiced than people
in other age, get women tested slightly less prejudice than men and
holders of phd degrees exhibited less prejudice than holders of other
degrees or no degrees, holders with empty degrees. Physicians show the
most prejudice of all types, the degree holders, no
other tests which are not available to the public to my knowledge, measure
the propensity of different groups to shoot or not shoot a gun when shown
photographs of young men, some black and some white holding guns in their
hands and some holding wallets. This setup is intended to make a recent
incident in New York when police shot and killed a young black man who was
holding a wallet, not a gun that they thought on these tests, people tend
to make decisions and shoot black subjects more quickly than black
subjects. But regardless of the gun versus the, the researchers attributed
this to the evolutionary tendency to distinguish group membership and to
project situations involving non group members as dangerous. In one study
, these results held true for officers from the Denver, Colorado Police
Department as well as for general volunteers. However, the police officers
were much more accurate in their in in general than the general volunteers
in their discrimination between the gun versus violet conditions. They
were also less affected by the race fair so they were quick to shoot
regardless of race or the weapon, no other condition taken together. We
have historical and anthropological biological evidence. We have
scientific evidence from experimental studies and we have our own personal
experiences and observations. When we synthesize all this evidence, it
appears that the human species is indeed flawed and that everyone is
prejudiced against the other. Now, this pro propes is not caused by genes
but by evolutionary history. So what does all this mean for music
educators who want to teach world music? I think we should consider the
likelihood based on the various kinds of evidence and exposure to world
music and some of its content in educational settings probably help
students become more accepted, less prejudiced and more into that as well
as more knowledge about people and racial and ethnic groups other than
their own group. And let's add different national religious age, gender
and gender identity groups. The goal of increased empathy could become
increasingly important because despite the obvious progress we've made in
some of these areas in many parts of the world. Recent events demonstrated
a need for a great deal more understanding and tolerance. One worrying
contrary trend, we can believe the research on the topic is that
university students in the current millennial generation are testing about
40% lower in measures of empathy than their counterparts from 20 to 30
years ago. One scholar speculates that this is because social media has
replaced face to face encounters that we may be quote, foregoing the whole
body experience of nature or a flat screen version of it unquote, findings
of reduced empathy are frightening given our need locally and worldwide.
For more understanding all these different types of evidence and more
suggest that world music programs in schools and universities could make a
real difference in participants' lives and in society at large. But wait,
if we can accept the premise that world music programs could result in
such changes, then let's think even bigger and hypothesize that world
music could become a driver in a sea change. Move toward a significantly
more harmonious, harmonious world community. Does this sound far fast?
Brandy Oaks for ma? But given that many parts of the world are becoming
more diverse racially and ethnically and in other ways as well, using all
our available available tools used among them is becoming not just
something nice to do but more and more of an inheritance. What should
world music programs for schools and universities look like? Well, most of
you have more experience and insights about this than I. So this morning,
I'll stick to a few observations and caveats related to music education in
American schools, especially high music classes in these schools are
elected by students because there are few if any requirements in music,
this means that world music, like other music operas must compete with all
other classes, both music and nonm music. It is the great dream of some
American music educators to see all secondary school students in
standardized music classes, music for general students and those, but at
only one time in American history, did that occur on a widespread basis?
And that was in the late 19 twenties to the 19 thirties. When required
secondary school classes and music appreciation were required. These
classes utilize radio broadcasts and sets of commercial recordings
produced by photograph companies. Those general appreciation classes were
not popular enough to be sustained. So they disappeared during the World
war two. Meanwhile, elective classes in the form of performing ensembles
expanded during the same period and since have not only survived but
flourished. The curriculum model of music in American high schools today
is still elective and consists mainly of performing ensembles. Why, what
those kids like universities offer performing ensembles for the same
reason? Popularity and to prepare free teacher to lead ensembles in the
school, jazz education in high schools through the existing band programs
and world music programs will probably need to do something similar to
flourish. In this environment, world music will have to appeal to students
and accommodate them in large enough classes to render the programs
efficient. Tombo size groups are not efficient terms, future time and
space utilization.
But the most important important factor of popularity. The main reason we
have music in secondary schools is the popularity of students, parents and
the publics. This may not be true or as true in countries with more
centralized education systems and less local control.
However, regardless of the power structure, I don't know of a country with
substantial widespread music programs in high schools for general students
that is required of all students countries with distributed systems like
the US and the lesser in Canada, Germany and Australia. For example, if
the music program and secondary schools were not popular, they would
largely disappear. Most university music programs prepare students to work
in these popular public school programs. In many universities, music
education is the only music major and even large university music schools
with doctoral program to prepare a professor to teach in smaller and
mid-sized universities, most of which are in the business of preparing
teachers. Thus, one could make the case that the edifice curricular music
education in the United States rests on a foundation of popular support
for public school music programs. If I can be granted, one wish about the
music education profession in this country would be for leaders and would
be leaders come to understand the popularity of the one essential feature
of music education. It is for this reason, the hypothetical compulsory
general music programs, no matter how well intentioned or how well thought
out in terms of philosophy content poli is unlikely to replace popular
elective offerings
until such time as curriculum is dictated completed by some higher
authority. It is astounding to me that the national standards for music
education make no mention whatsoever of students enjoying or even
appreciating their music classes or activities. Not to mention the music
itself.
This is probably because the proponents sense that learning is the
affective domain would not be measurable in what were even over 20 years
ago, the increasing the test oriented industrialized school.
But so far the testing movement is largely bypassed music and this is the
mixed lesson. But let's double down on doing the things we've always done
well, including providing opportunities for kids to enjoy music and music
classes, gain skills and knowledge and grow in ways that research tells
parent value in them social skills of this. All this means that to be
successful in the public school environment, world music offerings will
have to entice students and their parents to elect these classes
realistically, this probably means largely offering larger performance
based classes, world music and the ways it is taught can be very enjoyable
and can enhance skill knowledge and certainly social skills at both the
individual and group levels. Already, we have enough world music
activities in secondary schools and universities to allow us to conduct
research studies on the results. Possible areas of research and world
music might include experimental studies to determine whether and in which
ways subjects exposed to certain kinds of world music would become more
accepting of those of respective cultures or at least less prejudice
against them. Once I prejudice studies mentioned early different forms of
exposure to the to could be performance experiences and learn information
about the respective cultures that produce the musics. After all, the
reading, the story is a fact, certainly performing a couple of reading,
discussing listening and watching videos about world musics, cultures
would increase understanding and empathy. Someday society will get smart
and to the extent possible let high school and university students learn
what they want to learn and how they want to learn from that point on
ideologies about music and music education. Notwithstanding
students will like what they value and want and when our and and when our
and and and when our already popular secondary school music programs will
flourish even more world music program based my performance, but including
other features can become part of that package of offerings on a
widespread basis. I can't think of a better way to bring about genuine
positive mixing among groups and peoples than through exposure to
different kinds of music. After all, we, as we contemplate the potential
positive effects of world music instruction and participation, we could
recall that music is already done more than its share in very different
groups together, modern popular music. Through out the synthesis of music
produced by different groups in the Appalachian mountains and cotton
growing regions of the American South has become arguably the most
important music in the world today. Ultimately, it was the juxtaposition
of these groups and their with both American European and African roots
that grew into the music and worldwide appeal within India, major social
economic and technical forces made modern popular music possible, but they
did not in and of themselves actually produce it
instead, it was produced by people from different groups. And it was the
juxtaposition of these different cultural groups, especially the different
races
that resulted in the creation of these important new styles of popular
music. Much popular music arises from the disenfranchised left side of the
political spectrum. It was not only a major point of that is enhance
contact between the African American and European American people in the
United States. But it has since also cross generational and geographical
lines. We can work to help world music take its place among other popular
music and educational and other settings. Keeping in mind that performing
, teaching, listening to and studying world music could very well make
people more empathetic with each other. Biologist Wilson argues, quote, it
is within the power of humanities and the serious creative arts to within
them to express our existence in ways that began in this at last to
realize the dreams of the enlightenment unquote. I think world music can
and already does serve as a vehicle for bringing different groups together
and closer to each other. And by closer, I mean, it can facilitate better
understanding, empathy and acceptance while reducing fears about the other.
I think we should start promoting world music education programs. Partly
on that basis, bringing research findings to bear on prejudicial behavior
and into the public consciousness is a hot topic, right? Much more so than
that even a year ago when, right, she asked me to prepare this address.
Interest has really taken off since the police shooting of an unarmed
black teenager in Missouri in August of 2014.
And just two months ago, the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the FBI made comments that seem to reflect his awareness of
recent research on prejudice. Yes, it has been a long wait, but it appears
that finally some are using the media to open up about this issue. So I'm
betting this is a tipping point much like we've had tipping points in the
area in the areas of civil rights, women's issues, child abuse, gay and
lesbian rights and others. We should apply the lessons to all forms of
prejudice against groups of people and take advantage of the general mood
to help secure a place for world music in our schools, universities and
communities.
Just last month, it was I witnessed at large long standing community music
group in Bursa Turk while they were working with my friend, Professor
Suzanne Suzanne, the player's identity characteristics were highly similar.
All were males ranging in age from 50 to 85 years and apparently the
single nationality and ethnicity, except that is for violence and a
clarinetist both highly skilled in the Ottoman Turkish classical music
style. When I remarked on their ability, Suzanne informed me that they
were Roma Gypsies brought in his ringers to help the group use them. We
ignore this. I salute those of you who are working in this wonderful field
of world music. You deserve our support. Thank you
and moderate. So anybody have any comments or questions before we take our
break?
Why you presented this idea, bigotry almost like an allergy and music is
kind of like a prey for it. And I thought that's just a really cool idea,
necessarily thought of it that way as far as at least. And, um, and the
automatic response in our system. Um But these are conscious things that
we can use our all.
I appreciate that. Thank you. We need to get, we need to all get used to
the idea that it's pretty close to the date and it's not just something
that happened 200 years ago or in someone else's country, it's, it's
something that we deal with all the time and, and I think it's coming
consciousness like other things have come into conscious and I think now
is the time. Um I also want to stress that I didn't stress enough in the,
in the talk that I understand very well, that music does think this is
something external to music. I mean, it's not an aesthetic kind of thing.
Um, for those of us who group who said the education here, uh This is
something else, but I don't really like theology.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
A bit more about it is becoming more diverse.
Uh, afraid somebody might ask, I can't prove it. And I understand that
that there is yet. Uh, but I do understand that there's a, there's a
feeling that it's becoming less diverse because of the dominance of the
media and, and a few media companies, uh, worldwide and other music out.
Um, but I also believe that, I guess what I mean, I'm not sure there's a,
in the, to, there's a total,
but I think more people have more access, more different times than they
ever did before that you can go on Spotify, get all kinds of music, uh,
that people didn't have. Um, and, you know, when I was growing up there
were only in, there were only three television set, two or three networks
and, and, uh, and that's all we had. And now I have, I don't know, my wife
gets several 100 channels and so we have, I have access to a lot more than
than, and I have access to a lot more. So, I don't know, in an absolute
sense that there are more music than ever. I don't know how we would
determine that. But I think for practical purposes, people have a lot more
access to what extent people are diverse in their, in their, uh,
preferences. I'm not sure. Uh, it seems to me that most people are fairly
narrow in their preferences for music, um, including some trained
musicians. Unfortunately, you know, there's a feeling that our musical
training is limited as I ha, I personally like as a wife, but most people
don't, I can't prove it. I just believe that more people have more access
than ever. And some of them anyway, are at least aware of it. And I can
tell that by this conversation
and maybe we can do, maybe we can bring them if that's our job. Yes, sir.
Digitalization isolates people and teaching world musics, brings them
together. How does teaching world musics online come out? And that's, you
, you have to answer that question. I didn't, I didn't question with all
of my. No. But you, you said that, uh,
looking at a screen is becoming more common than looking at a human and.