Musical Instruments and Their Culture

Kevin Dawe's article called, "The Cultural Study of Musical Instruments" is about different cultures of the world, and how they create special instruments and musical styles in order to portray their cultures values, beliefs, and morals. Through out Dawe's article he makes the valid point of saying that there is more to studying instruments than just studying the instruments themselves; it involves looking at where the instrument came from, and studying that culture's society to determine the significance that the instrument plays in telling their culture's story. I very much so agree with Dawe's idea. In order to understand the true meaning of an instrument, and how to use it correctly, a person needs to go back to the beginning and learn the history of that specific instrument and culture as well.

Another point that I found through out Dawe's article was the idea that instruments are created from both personal and social experiences. In other words, each instrument is not made just because of the sounds that they create, but for what they symbolized for the inventors' government, society, and the personal meanings that it holds for the inventor themselves.

I really enjoyed Kevin Dawe's article, "The Cultural Study of Musical Instruments" because it supported everything that we have learned in class thus far. It proves that instruments are in fact more than just to create music; but to represent the culture that it came from, and how each instrument, no matter how similar they may be between cultures may have a very different purpose. Overall, in order to fully understand an instrument and appreciate its beauty both physically and through the sound it produces; one must go one-step further and study the culture and the people who invented the instrument.