EXOTICISM IN MUSIC IN RETROSPECT

Abstract

T HE dictionary tells us that the word exotic signifies something foreign and that it is the opposite of indigenous. The definition is important, for the student of the arts cannot fail to be struck by the strange manner in which customs and ideas are carried from one scene to another. People who travel or emigrate take with them not only their worldly goods, but their habits and religions, and, in many cases, these latter are preserved more jealously by the exile than by him who moves among his own folk. But there is another aspect of exoticism which, if less generally recognised, is equally important. It deals with the adoption of foreign terms on the part of the artist. It is difficult to account for the presence of the desire which has so often manifested itself, to write about people and describe sights which are far removed from us by time and space; but it may, I think, be partly attributed to the fact that the mobility of the imagination far exceeds the mobility of the body, and that, while outwardly the creator often leads the most uneventful of lives and spends his years in a study or studio, his mental existence is full of adventure and surprise, for he fights the battles of his characters and beholds the landscape towards which his pilgrims have turned their eyes.' Or it may arise from a consuming desire to fashion a universe of beauty, an artistic Utopia or El Dorado, a world in which heroes and heroines possess all the virtues and graces. And, as the conquistadores came back to the old world with wonderful tales of the glory and richness of far-off provinces, the recital of such exploits may possibly have given birth to the belief that distance lends enchantment, and have tempted artists to portray the life and manners of semi-legendary states in which Nature enthralls man by her endless blandishments. A proper appreciation of the value of exoticism in music depends upon that artistic cosmopolitanism, upon that urbanity of mind which alone can give us a perception of striking and unusual features. The men who were first attracted by new sights and