World music in Malta : meanings, practices and ethnography

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the World Music phenomenon in Malta, with special attention to how this concept is understood, diffused and put into practice. This work relies on the theories and methodology of ethnomusicology. Central to this work is ethnography and the participation of the present researcher in rehearsals and performances as a way of inquiry. The first chapter seeks to present a survey of meanings associated with the term world music, ranging from nonwestern music in its authentic sense to the fusion of various world wusic cultural traditions and styles. Chapter Two explores the interest of both past and contemporary Maltese composers in the ‘other’ music and how this interest was actually a source of inspiration in their compositions. The third chapter focuses on world music as fusion of different world music traditions among Maltese world music fusion bands. The fourth and final chapter presents an ethnographic investigation of a traditional Irish music ensemble residing in Malta, in an attempt to analyse what happens to an ‘authentic’ music tradition when musicians outside the tradition join in. This dissertation shows how world music is proliferating in Malta’s soundscape—a proliferation that in itself reflects processes of globalisation in a close-knit society like that of Malta.