Narrative Concepts of Music in Intercultural Discourse

In reference to the expressions of musical creation, appropriation, and transformation, what kind of individual or theoretical narratives are connected with the concept of intercultural encounters? How are distinct musical patterns, forms, and structures, musical instruments, and performance practices of the "own" or "the foreign" cross-culturally transferred, imitated or creatively appropriated? On the basis of exemplary discourse linked to intercultural exchanges between musical expressions of Korean and "Western" music styles, the article illustrates how individual composers see and interpret themselves. As an example of this intercultural exchange, the performance artist Dohee explains her composition IlonBiBaek San (The Ritual of the White Mountain, 2011) as a fusion of Korean-shaman vocal tones with electronic sound patterns and the Western-oriented post-classical string quartet Ethel. A rather poly-cultural-Asian approach is articulated by Kim Jin-Ii in her reflection on the transcultural dance-music-drama Dragon Bond Rite (1997) in which Indian, Korean, Japanese and Balinese drums and dances are intertwined. In contrast to this, a type of bi-cultural concept is pursued by the composer Christian Utz (born in Munich) with his intercultural composition together // apart (2001). He intentionally employs Western and Korean musical instruments and elements to express a compositional "alterity" in the context of modern comtemporary music