Themes and Variations on the Creative Process: Tales of Three Cultures

Abstract

At issue here is the description and comparison of the manners and forms of improvisation in three disparate cultures - southern Indian, Sub-Saharan Africa (from the Akan and Ewe of Ghana to the Shona of Zimbabwe), and Vietnam. Culture-specific distinctions as well as crosscultural similarities of improvisation are examined, with the intent of illuminating some of the traits worthy of application in the raising up of young people to be musically expressive and inventive in their creative and re-creative performances. The association of aural skill development with the realization of the individual power of invention is found as a critical commonality across the three cultures, a principal theme among the cultural variations.