“Between Respect and Impertinence”: Cross-Cultural Engagement with Sardinian Cantu A Tenore

Abstract

Here we outline several ways that power and identity are asserted and reconfigured through cross-cultural musical encounters, often distancing the "musical explorer" from complex or uncomfortable interactions with members of the communities they source. We take as a case study the founding and formative experiences of the Tenores de Aterue, a US-based quartet devoted to the study and performance of Sardinian cantu a tenore, in particular their interactions with Sardinian musicians and musical connoisseurs, both via YouTube and in their travels to Sardinia. In Part I we propose that a "musical explorer" can refine their practices of cross-cultural engagement by noting the number and range of culture brokers involved in a music's circulation. Part II addresses the possibilities and limitations of audacity (considered a hallmark characteristic of a tenore singers) as enacted by the Tenores de Aterue—outsiders to Sardinian culture and newcomers to cantu a tenore. Part III animates these issues in an extended narrative, recounting a period of heightened discomfort and disorientation in the group's travels. Through this case study, we move beyond determinations of whether appropriation took place in a musical encounter to consider how specific decisions shift power among a range of social actors.