One Paradox in comtemporary music is that impelled composers of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to create a national music has now become the driving force behind the internationalist movement. in both cases the composer was inspired by the music of the people of the world, no matter how strange their music appeared to be in comparison with the musics the composer already knew. Bartok was the central figure in this transition.
Twentieth century music history is in one sense, the history of blind alley. natural developments were nearly thwarted and artificial ones imposed upon the musical public. One of the reason for this was the peculiar European intellectual habit of separation and distortion. Concepts which should be part of man's natural activities (dance, sex, song) are divorced from their normal settings and dealt with independently ; eventually this leads to artificial environments, gross distortion, and mental illness. Art has both reflected this and itself suffered from it. Oriental music and ways of life, can be instructive even healing for westerners.
Trans Ethnic music is one of these developments so rich in possibility ; it deserves thorough elucidation simply because so little organized writing has been done concerning it.
originally by Dale A. Craig
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