Dal Togo alle accademie europee. Influenze, tradizioni e innovazioni, dalla musica Kabiyé alle partiture di Reich, Berio e Ligeti

Abstract

The study of causes and chance events that happened to connect two distant musical traditions may help understand some aspects of both. Certain basic principles, often only implied, become apparent as we look at them from a different standpoint. And it grows clear that sundry meanings are given to the word “influence”, so ubiquitous in discourse on cultural exchange. 

By discussing some specific traits of sub-Saharan music, the Author explores how and why some major 20th-century Western composers came to welcome its influence, thus establishing relationships that reveal (apart from superficial comparison) how such musical concepts as “influence”, “tradition”, and “innovation” developed in Africa and in Western music, and how they were received in academia. This work is rooted in the Author's personal experience in musical analysis, from Togo to European scholarship.