On An Overgrown Path: 'Colonial attitudes within Western music'

[Titi Robin, French musician and composer]

Bob Shingleton of the influential classical music blog On An Overgrown Path

writes today on a provocative topic:

Bill, today's post on my blog is not about strictly classical music. But it does make an interesting point -

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2010/11/colonial-attitudes-within-western-music.html

Regards,

Bob

The post is introduced in the words of the French musician and composer Titi Robin:

“I have never felt comfortable with the economic, social and cultural order that reigns over the field of ‘world music’, that makes Western artists travel to countries in the East and the South that possess rich musical traditions. They collect music, repertories and musicians from there and return to fructify this godsend in the privileged world of the well-off West, where the art market is structured in a sufficiently rational manner to allow musicians to develop their careers and live off their art. None of us find this strange. The audience in those countries rarely have the opportunity to judge the results of our work as it is almost unavailable to them. Perhaps the time has come to reverse this trend. In any case, I feel the need to do so in order to preserve the coherence and balance of my own journey as an artist and as a human being.”