Week 1
Exoticism and Nationalism in Western Music
Theoretical Background

Exoticism in Music:
Bacchanale from Act III of Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalilah (1877)—Met 1983
Met Centennial 1983 - Bacchanale from opera Samson et Dalila

Exoticism in Music:
Bell Song from Léo Délibes’s Lakmé (1883)
Joan Sutherland - Bell Song from Lakmé

Theorizing Exoticism: Orientalism
•Edward Said (1935–2003), professor of literature, Columbia University
•Orientalism (1978)
•Orientalism + Exoticism: NOT innocent + objective BUT functions of COLONIALISM (subjugation of
NON-WEST peoples by the WEST)
•Orientalism + Exoticism=colonial discourses=enable colonialism
•Representation of NON-WEST by WEST based on (negative) binary stereotypes
•SELF vs. Other (Wester Self vs. Eastern/Exotic/Oriental Other; colonizer vs. colonized)
•West: advanced, civilized, progressive, rational, masculine, moral, well-ordered, self-controlled,
restrained
•Non-West: backward, primitive (savage), irrational, effeminate, immoral, chaotic, sensual, sexual

Theorizing Exoticism: Critique of Orientalism
•Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), political philosopher inspires later theorists
•Concept of anti-hegemonic thought: normative narratives are always countered from within
•Exotic and orientalist works sometimes undermine orientialist impulses (e.g. creating sympathy for
the colonized)
•Homi Bhabha (born 1949)—Indian post-colonial theorist
•Culture and discourse are contradictory—a single artwork can contain both colonialist and
anti-colonialist elements

Nationalism in Music:
“Hail, King Henry”
from Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin (1848)—34:30
Lohengrin Act 3 (English titles)

Nationalism in Music:
Overture to Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (1866)
Smetana Overture to The Bartered Bride Jansons · Berliner Philharmoniker

Nationalism or Exoticism?
Largo from Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony (1893)
Antonín Dvořák - New World Symphony Op. 95 - Largo

Theorizing Nationalism: Ernest Gellner (1925-1995)
•Czech philosopher and historian
•1983 Nations and Nationalism
•Nations are a modern phenomenon—national identity CONSTRUCTED not INHERENT

Theorizing Nationalism:
Benedict Anderson (1936–2015)
•British historian
•1983, Imagined Communities: Reflections on Origins and Spread of Nationalism
•Nations are CONSTRUCTED
•Thanks to an invented sense of history, culture, language, rituals, traditions
•Constructing the national SELF vs. the foreign OTHER

Theorizing Musical Exoticism:
Ralph Locke
•2009: Musical Exoticism
•Exotic-Sounding Music (“Exotic Style Only”)
•List of Musical Features
•Non-Exotic-Sounding Music That Is Still Exotic (“All the Music in Full Context”)