The East in Western Music

From temple bells to pentatonic scales, how the East entered Western listening.

Related

ImpressionistRomanticFlutePiano

Eighteenth-century courts dressed as Turks. In the nineteenth century composers began to listen to Eastern scales.

The question

Was the East in Western music a real sound or a manufactured image? When a composer borrows pentatonic melody, bells and drums, is he listening or building scenery?

Historical arc

Mozart's Turkish march used a European idea of military music. Colonial exhibitions brought Javanese gamelan and Japanese instruments to Paris. After the 1889 exhibition, Debussy found new harmony in the gamelan's layers; Ravel, Puccini and Rimsky-Korsakov each took what they needed. Puccini's Turandot borrowed Chinese melody but still told a European story of the East. Recording and migration later made exchange more two-way.

The turning point

The shift was from decoration to structure. Early orientalism was colour and title; later, scale, timbre and time entered compositional method. Yet the East was still often defined by the West.

What to listen for

Hear the pentatonic bells in Pagodes, the solo violin of Scheherazade, and the chorus of Turandot.

Related

Eastern influence is concentrated in Impressionist and reaches back into Romantic, using Flute and Piano for colour.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Orientalism" — dates checked, not quoted
• Edward W. Said, Orientalism (Pantheon Books) — framework checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.