From Resistance to Diplomacy: Steel Pan & National Anthems

Diplomacy Discourse

David G. Herbert, a professor of music education at the Western Norway University, gives me the definition of cultural diplomacy that will use for this project, which is: Cultural Diplomacy is “generally the use of diverse forms of intercultural exchange in traditional and contemporary arts–for the purpose of fostering enhanced mutual understanding, respect, and reconciliation.” (Herbert, 2022, p.4). Herbert continues to contextualize what I think about when I showcase what cultural diplomacy is. David Machin, a professor at Zhejiang University, situates discourse on the significance of national anthems. He discusses the history of national anthems, common musical phenomena that are in most anthems and discusses authors who have written on the significance of conveying ideas through music. This gives me a solid example of how future academic papers on national anthems, and music in general, can be written to convey information and incorporate theoretical application in layman's terms. 






With these documents I was able to ground my artistic endeavors into the significance of the national anthem. I believe that utilizing my Steel Pan for a national anthem project is cultural diplomacy in both directions as the instrument itself can use the source material of the anthem to create something beautiful. This project ends with me playing national anthems but it will be continued into arranging national anthems, making me dive into the music of that region to further familiarize my myself with that country's sonic identity so that it could be reflected within the instrumentation.

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