Student Presentations

John Dorsch

Thesis: It is easier to enjoy the music when the exoticism is not done well

Operatic works that use exoticism primarily as a tool to create intrigue put less importance upon the representation of a culture than works where cultural representation is the main focus. Thus, the composer’s musical style and the culture’s stylistic influence upon it are more easily separated from the dramatic depiction of an ethnic group’s customs, values and appearances

Piece & exotic elements: Das Land des Lachens

  • B sections starts with parallel fifths & sensual

  • Still serves as a tenor romantic lead and is westernized

  • Doesn’t have a ton of exotic elements

Purpose of Exoticism:

  • Richard Tauber - Aria and operetta created for him

    • Wanted to revise the operetta - the aria studied

  • Popular

  • The exotic elements were meant to boost ticket sales so that people would come and watch Richard sing

  • The elements were used as an intriguing sound not to represent Chinese culture

Sierra Link

Thesis: Sept Haikai is a piece in which Messian attaches himself to the static and noble nature of Japan by evoking Japanese music and taking advantage of its similarities of his own music

Piece and Exotic Elements: Sept Haikai by Messiean

  • Instrumentation

    • Takes eastern instruments and imitates them with western ones

  • Harmony

    • Lack of harmonic function/progression typical of Western music

  • Timber

    • Added resonance: horns and trombones playing a low notes and the higher instruments playing ppp in a high range

  • Religious symbolism

    • the number seven

    • Birds- nature - God

Purpose of Exoticism:

  • This is court music

  • Both have similar compositional styles

  • This creates a seamless synthesis

  • He sees god in everything and made sure to outwardly say that he as catholic

  • He observed other religions so that he could compare it to his own beliefs

Elise Liske

Thesis: The King and I uses romanticized orientalism to displace and American worldview to a ASK SENJA

Piece and Exotic Elements: Getting to Know - From The King and I

  • Emotional depth is still laid and surrounded by humor

  • Cluster Chords

  • Represents the culture Siam - Presented Day Thailand

  • Anna Leonowens’s perspective of this culture

    • She is Anglo Indian but represented as a white woman

Purpose of Exoticism:

  • Siamese Colonization

    • In between France and Britain

    • The king Mongkut brought in European Educators to prove that his country was already sophisticated and did not need to be conquered

  • American values are placed on Eastern people

    • Feminism

    • Romance

    • Southeast Asian Stereotypes

    • Education

  • The undesirable aspects of femininity are placed on the King’s slave wives

  • The 1996 revival tried to correct some of the exotic elements

Olivia- Miss Saigon

Thesis: The musical Miss Saigon exoticizes Vietnam and the United States throughout he lens of the Vietnam war

Piece and elements of exoticism: The Heat is On, Bui Doi, The American Dream Miss Saigon

  • Takes place in s strip club

  • When Kim sings, reed flutes, strings and the song becomes very fluid

  • Kim wants her son to go to America but Chris says no so Kim kills herself in order to ensure her son’s safety

  • Engineer’s I want song that pokes fun at America

  • Sirens in the background symbolizing his descent into madness

  • Based off of Madame Butterfly - follow same storyline

  • Women are hypersexualized

  • Kim is the helpless damsel in distress

  • Musically: marriage scene is a traditional Vietnamese song

  • Mystery

  • Asian men are exoticized by: sleezy, stubborn & moral-less, untrustworthy

Purpose of exoticism:

  • US’s Goal of suppressing communism

  • Kids that were both American and Vietnamese were sent to camps because they couldn’t get into America without a parent and Vietnam didn’t want the children because they were American


Keegan - Mulan

Thesis: Disney’s animated film Mulan, exoticizes and evokes an image of China from the use of Mulan folk story the gender roles in China, and through he use of images that are perceived to be Chinese

Piece and elements of exoticism: Honor to Us All & A Girl Worth Fighting For & Make a Man Out of You

  • Pentatonic scales

  • March settings - only plays when the Chinese military is present

  • The flute is symbolic of femininity

  • The texture switches from a march to the flute when women are mentioned

  • Strength

  • Make a man out of you

    • There aren’t as many pentatonic scales in this section

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Original story: Ballad of Mulan - comes from a collection of folk stories

  • Differences

    • The ballad is bare bones, no social issues

    • Evoking of China: The great wall and Dragon

    • Disney’s version characters like Mushu

    • Mulan is representative of the US

      • She doesn’t conform to rules, she can do anything better than the men

    • The soldiers are the ‘them’ which changes after I’ll make a man out of you

    • The Huns

      • Devious, physically darker in appearance

      • Eyes are yellow


Adam - Super Mario Odyssey
Thesis: In Forgotten Isla he embodies these ideas of uncivilized, strange and taboo culture by exoticizing Southeast Asia via references of Indonesian gamelan music

Piece and elements of exoticism: Forgotten Isle

  • Visually the setting is different - Poison, wild jungle

  • Instrumentation: Bonang Panerus (used in gamelan), Suling (Bamboo flute)

  • Congas, Talking Drum & Djembe (Not apart of southeastern music)

  • Interlocking Patterns: A common style of gamelan music

  • Time signature: 11/16 - not a common time signature in gamelan music

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Metro Kingdom - New Dong City - Represents the empire state building

  • Before getting there, you crash land into the Forgotten Island (South East Asia - Indonesia)

  • All of the new enemies are inspired by insects in Indonesia

  • The metro city is very jazz and is Big Band Jazz

Aidan- Exotica and Les Baxter
Thesis: Les Baxters’ piece Sophisticated Savage is a misguided interpretation of African music that reinforces prejudiced stereotypes and contributes to America’s history of racism, exploitation and cultural domination.

Piece and elements of exoticism:

  • Establishment of the West

    • Jazz influences

    • Complex Harmony

    • Shifting Melody

  • Establishment of Africa

    • No melody

    • Rhythmically complex

    • Sparse instrumentation

    • Distinct tone when compared to the rest of the piece

  • Combination of both images

    • Reintroduction of western theme with accompanied by the same instrumentation and rhythms as the ‘Africa’ section

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Marketing introduces audiences to an exoticized image of different cultures, which reinforces racist stereotypes surrounding such cultures

  • Marketing based on exoticist tropes

    • Primitive, sensuality, rituals, exotic location

  • Conformity & Counter Culture

    • Suburban America, Desire to explore the world, desire to escape

    • People can’t conform and the desire to explore is fueled by social rebellion

  • Racism was at the heart of Baxter’s album

Carli- Frog and the Princess
Thesis: The princess and the Frog exhibits the use of exoticism using orientalism through their music in the film to popularize and bring notice to a different culture that they have not previously displayed, further showcasing how their execution leads to assimilation, cultural appropriation and a misinterpretation of the Africa American Culture via a worldwide scale.

Piece and elements of exoticism: Friends on the Other side & When we’re human & Down in New Orleans

  • Improvisation, spiritual growth and physical liberation

  • Polyrhythms, chant like call and response and tempo fluctuations, constant rhythmic patters that drive the piece

  • Taking away African Jazz sounds to appease Western listeners

  • Instrumentation:

  • Racial masquerade, uses dark magic to take over, voodoo

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Assimilation = turning back into a human

  • Industrialization

  • Song of the South

    • First representation of an African American character- Black face

  • Compared to animals

  • Bayou represents a rural escape

Hunter- The Book of Mormon
Thesis: By establishing a clear cultural textural and musical divide between the Mormon missionaries who represent (a subset of) the American people, and the Ugandan villagers who represent the exoticized toerh of African, the book of Mormon reinforces the African exoticism already present in its largely American audience

Piece and elements of exoticism: All American Prophet & Joesph Smith American Moses & Baptize Me

  • Mormon

    • 4/4 times, rhythmic patterns that are similar to music patterns, recit section, contrapuntal harmony, typical Broadway orchestration

    • Style influence: Joseph’s technicolor dream coat

    • Very factual lyricism

  • Ugandan

    • ‘Exotic; instrumentation/style

    • Instrumentation: Djembe

    • Mixed meter, call and response, harmonies often move in parallel chords

    • Graphic lyrics

  • Mixed Style/‘Colonial’ Music

    • Many ‘Mormon’ musical theater stylistic features but sung by the Nabulungi

    • Being baptized makes her American

    • Exoticized women - escaping Uganda

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Intended to comment on missionaries and poke fun at this religion and the concept of missionaries in general.

  • However, they still need to make the Ugandan culture a caricature so that we don’t identify with them

Ash- Dune
Thesis: The Fremen are removed from their real life cultural inspiration in Herbert’s Dune to further alienation in Zimmer’s score causing their exoticized form to expand into a generic tribal people with no identity beyond the ‘strangeness’ assumed by Zimmer’s musical choices

Piece and elements of exoticism: Water of Life, The Sietch, Harvester Attack & The emperor

  • Steady bassline, wind chimes, metallic sounds, compound 9ths, digitally altered instruments, percussive jabs, glissando

  • Militaristic, mysterious

  • Removed from rhythm and structure

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Fremen - exoticized people

  • Hans wanted women to be the ones to musically represent the fremen

  • Frank Herbert - read the book

  • Franz Zimmer - composer

  • Paul Atredies - Caladan (Scotland)

    • Takes a religious role because of his gift of prophecy

    • Reunites the fremen

  • The Spice - important resource

  • The purpose is to create a people for Paul to use in order to conquer the empire

Margaret Rose: Aladdin
Thesis: The piece ‘Arabian Nights’ from the demonstrates exoticism specifically orientalism through the lyrics and characterization which can be compared through the original film and live action remake.

Piece and elements of exoticism: Arabian Nights

  • Peddler = narrator

  • Lyrics: setting up the other through distance

  • Barbaric but home: Sarcasm indicates that cruelty is a social trait

  • Finger cymbals, upper woodwinds

  • Repetitive melodic line

  • Ornamentation

  • Descending chromatic drones

  • Arabic Hijaz Scale

    • Similar to Phrygian

    • Augmented seconds

    • Tetrachord

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Agrabah - colonist view of the Middle East

  • Physical characteristics of the other

    • dark skin, hair, accent and riding a camel

  • Combining of different Eastern cultures

  • The ‘us’ is Aladdin

    • He’s whitewashed

    • American accent

    • American hero - diamond in the rough

    • Freedom and the genie

  • Jasmine

    • Sensual

    • Seduces Jafar

    • Sneaks out and is disguised

    • Once she loses her status, she has no power to overcome the guards as herself

    • Saved by Aladdin in the end

  • 2019 live action remake

    • Representation and inclusivity of actors

    • Hip hop and bollywood influence

    • Barbaric changed to chaotic

    • Jasmine’s power and freedom

Matt – Aladdin
Thesis: Diseny’s Aladdin reinforces Orientalist stereotypes and exoticizes the Middle East not only through its visual and narrative but through t its musical score as exemplified in the songs, Araian nights, A whole new world and a friend like me which create a type of fantasy image of the Eat for the West’s consumption through exotic musical techniques and lyrical motifs

Piece and elements of exoticism:

Genie - Us - Friend Like Me

  • Big band music

  • Scatting

  • Represents Freedom

  • The east has never had a friend like the west

Agrabah - Them - Arabian Nights

  • Exoticism

  • Lush chords

  • Ornamentation

  • Dum bekt Timber

  • Imitation of Eastern instruments

  • Lyrics - make this place sound uninhabitable

Aladdin and Jasmine - They switch

  • Fantastical sound

  • Some augmented seconds and minor 3rds

  • Classic Disney romantic sound

  • He is the ‘us’ after Genie saves him and they go to defeat Jafar

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Operation Desert Storm (1991)

    • Stereotypes of hate of the middle east

    • Based off of ‘One thousand and One Nights’

      • Aladdin was not apart of the original text and was added later by a French man - Galland

    • Agrabah is a acronym of Baghdad

    • Inhabitants are mean, violent, darker skinned, angular

      • Especially Jafar

    • Sultan is childlike and easily manipulated

Tray- Legend of Zelda
Thesis: The fire temple theme uses of Islamic chanting exemplified how video game sound design inadvertently reinforced musical exoticism to create both a unique aesthetic atmosphere within the game while simultaneously exposing a larger concern about cultural appropriation in video game music

Piece and elements of exoticism: Ocarina of Time

  • Islamic Chants

    • The Basmala

    • The Takbir

    • The Al Ikhlas

    • Represented by electronic choirs

  • Wind sound

    • Represents the volcanic air

    • Hostile and mystic

  • No Tonal center

All the temple themes are digitized and examples of exoticism

Purpose of exoticism:

  • Link uses a magical ocarina to time travel between the child and adult timeline to save the kingdom of

  • The villain is represented as middle eastern

  • Koji Kondo is a Japanese composer who composed the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda series

Jonathan- Partita for 8 Voices
Thesis: Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 voices perpetuates cultural misrepresentation by detaching sonic elements from their original context, silencing the voices and meaning of the cultures being referenced

Piece and elements of exoticism: Partita for 8 Voices - the third movement - Courante

  • Throat singing

  • Structured and form is classical dance styles

  • Throat singing integrated with western harmony

  • Supposed to be representative of angels having sex

Purpose of exoticism:

  • The ‘us’ Canadian academics

  • The ‘them’ sexual, less academic

  • Paid two Inuit vocalist to teach them how to sing in this style

    • Barely any credit given to these artists

  • Inuit vocal games

    • Steeped in the women’s sphere only enjoyed by two competitors

    • Central part of Inuit culture

    • Banned by Christian missionaries

Greta- Stravinsky, Rite of Spring
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Nick- Owen Reed, La Fiesta Mexicana
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Senja- Pocahantas
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RJ- Ravel, Daphnis et Chloe
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Charlie- Ravel, Tzigane

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