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much scholarship of the last half-century
Music and empire
DAVID R. M. IRVING
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Music contributes to social cohesion through
collective action and experience; is considered
to improve people through spiritual ritual or
personal reflection; and is used symbolically
to represent many types of power. Music is
therefore one of the most potent cultural
forces involved in the establishment, expan-
sion, and maintenance of empires; it is also
a formidable weapon when used in resistance
to imperialism. Here the term “empire” is
understood loosely as a large polity with its
rulership invested in a centralized power,
and the key characteristic of conquering
and colonizing other societies in order to
expand its dominions. Before c.1950,
empires – whether self-proclaimed or desig-
nated as such by outsiders – were arguably
the largest sociopolitical formations that used
music in deliberate attempts to control, con-
solidate, inculcate, or dominate their popula-
tions. Music was used for propagandistic
purposes to celebrate imperial unity, and to
foster a sense of loyalty within distant sub-
jects; it was used symbolically to solemnize
and adorn ceremonies and festivities that
evoked the presence of the central power at
a geographical distance. Music was also a
key element in struggles against empire.
THE STUDY OF MUSIC AND EMPIRE
Musicologists, historians, archaeologists,
classicists, sociologists, and scholars of lan-
guage and literature have all contributed to
the study of music and empire. Although
The Encyclopedia of Empire, First Edition. Edited by John M. MacKenzie.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe181
has focused on the musical consequences of
European colonial expansion between
c.1500 and c.1950, a growing number of peo-
ple are researching aspects of music and
empire in the Ottoman, Safavid, Qajar,
Mughal, Chinese, Japanese, and other
empires. Additionally, archaeological studies
of music in ancient empires of Asia, the Mid-
dle East, Europe, Africa, and the pre-
Columbian Americas have revealed many
dimensions of music’s role in symbolizing
and consolidating imperial power, its involve-
ment in entertainment and leisure activities,
and its function in religious ritual.
Classicists, historians, and musicologists
have examined music in the Roman Empire
through an emphasis on its absorption of
Hellenistic theory and practice, and the role
of music for ritual and entertainment in ter-
ritories ruled by Rome. Ancient Greek music
theory was studied in the Roman Empire, the
Byzantine Empire, and the Abbasid and
Umayyad caliphates; theoretical knowledge
entered into European university curricula
through old and recent Latin translations of
ancient Greek works, while some elements
were learned from Latin translations of Ara-
bic treatises based on Greek sources. There
was a sharp divide between theory and prac-
tice: the theoretical study of music involved
measurement of pitch ratios and rhythmic
structures which could be expressed in writ-
ing, but the practice of music in medieval
Europe remained largely oral until imperial
processes of standardization sparked the
invention and development of notation sys-
tems for liturgical chant.
The study of the practice and theory of
liturgical chant within large territories unified
by religious creed and political rule or
2
allegiance, such as the Carolingian and Byz-
antine empires, represent a sizable field of
research in historical musicology. In the Car-
olingian Empire, musical chants for the
Christian liturgy existed in diverse forms that
were preserved and transmitted through oral
tradition. The desire for political centraliza-
tion within the empire led to the standardiza-
tion of liturgical music, and the emergence of
an early form of music notation (neumes) in
the 9th century. In c.1000, neumes were suc-
ceeded by the beginnings of Western staff
notation. Significantly, the development of
notation systems, which laid the foundations
for increasingly complex musical forms in
Europe, was a consequence of the centralizing
and standardizing processes of empire. The
composition and performance of music based
on these systems, their spread around the
world in subsequent centuries, their adoption
and adaptation in distant territories, and their
use as a tool for political expansion and
hegemony, are all repercussions of empire.
Broadly speaking, the study of music and
empire has been undertaken within five main
areas:
1 The musical impact of the colonizer on
the subaltern;
2 The transplantation of European music
cultures;
3 The use of music in evangelization;
4 The role of music in consolidating or con-
testing imperial rule;
5 Musical ramifications of imperialism for
the parent state or core culture.
In studies of music and empire, there has
been an overwhelming focus on the Western
impact on the rest of the world. This is prob-
ably due to sheer scale: at the beginning of the
20th century, Europe’s imperial domination
encompassed around four fifths of the Earth’s
surface (Said 1993). Given the preponderance
of literature in this field, the following
discussion focuses mainly on European colo-
nial empires since c.1500; of course, other
empires were subsumed within them. The
United States also assumed the role of an
empire from the Spanish–American War of
1898, when it acquired territories including
Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the
Marianas.
THE MUSICAL IMPACT OF THE
COLONIZER ON THE SUBALTERN
Numerous studies have highlighted the irrev-
ocable impact of European empires on the
musics of the world (e.g., Nettl 1985; Robert-
son 1992). The reasons for musical losses
(musical extinctions) within colonized socie-
ties are manifold, and include genocide,
forced migration, slavery, religious conver-
sion (voluntary or involuntary), and transcul-
turation. Indigenous musical practices that
were considered incompatible with the super-
imposed imperial framework of religion or
culture were systematically eradicated, offi-
cially discouraged, or deliberately closed
down by practitioners themselves. These vast
cultural losses have inspired studies that
attempt to understand and reconstruct lost
traditions of the performing arts through the
examination of ethnographic texts, iconogra-
phy, material culture, and (later) audio/video
recordings. In one important development,
archival audio and video footage recorded in
Australia since c.1900 has recently been
restored to indigenous communities, where
it has aided in the revival of endangered prac-
tices of music, dance, and ceremony.
In the Americas, the conquest of indige-
nous societies was coupled with the transpor-
tation of slaves from Africa. Between c.1500
and the mid-19th century, over 10 million
Africans who survived the trans-Atlantic
voyage were sold or re-sold as slaves in the
Americas and the Caribbean. The musical

repercussions of this involuntary mass
migration were many and varied. Musical
genres that resided in cultural memory were
reproduced in the slaves’ new localities,
except when these practices were suppressed
by slave owners. Traditional instruments
were constructed and played widely, but
slave owners feared drums for their ability
to communicate and incite rebellion. Many
slaves converted to Christianity, adapting
their genres to Christian contexts as well as
adopting forms of European sacred music.
The mix of cultures and religious influences
led to cultural “cross-fertilization” and “creo-
lization” that resulted in the emergence of
new genres such as the spiritual. Musical
legacies of slavery include both jazz and spiri-
tuals. The global spread of European musical
practices and their interaction with local tra-
ditions gave rise to hybridized practices in
many parts of the world. Some of these prac-
tices were formed within contexts of religious
missions (whether remote or urban) or fully
established ecclesiastical structures, but
others arose in secular contexts as a result
of intercultural contact.
THE TRANSPLANTATION OF
EUROPEAN MUSIC CULTURE
The transplantation, reproduction, and
standardization of social and cultural institu-
tions (including religious institutions) are
characteristic of all empires. Music and cere-
mony played a symbolic role in the claiming
of territory from the beginnings of European
colonial expansion (Seed 1995; Woodfield
1995). Institutions such as schools, universi-
ties, missions, cultural societies, religious
houses, hospitals, and military forces pro-
vided social and cultural frameworks for the
importation and cultivation of music from
the parent state, as well as the development
of new styles and trends. From the 16th
3
century onwards, European music culture
was transplanted to many localities. The
kinds of music disseminated in this way ini-
tially tended to reflect the cultural trends
and biases of specific colonizing nations,
and the individuals and groups that carried
this culture with them. From the 18th cen-
tury, however, the increasingly cosmopolitan
nature of European music led to greater
diversification in the types of European music
transplanted and reproduced within colonial
societies. Italian styles of composition
(including the genre of opera), which were
increasingly influential in Iberia, became
prominent in Spanish and Portuguese colo-
nies. Musical repertoire from the German-
speaking lands circulated widely within Eng-
lish colonial networks, and in the American
colonies it continued to grow in prominence
after the Revolutionary War of 1776: for
instance, the Handel and Haydn Society of
Boston was established in 1815.
Elite members of colonial societies main-
tained their cultural connections to parent
states by performing music that recreated
social and cultural contexts from the imperial
metropolis. At the same time, the increasingly
diverse social and cultural backgrounds of tra-
velers and emigrants from Europe contributed
to the heterogeneity of music being circulated,
in both serious and popular styles, within oral
and literate traditions. All these processes can
be seen in the empires of Spain, Portugal,
France, Britain, and the Netherlands. Portugal
had an extensive impact on world cultures
within and beyond its colonial boundaries,
along its extensive trade network stretching
from Brazil to East Asia. With the move of
the Portuguese royal court to Brazil in 1808,
an entire set of cultural and ceremonial prac-
tices were transplanted from Europe to the
Americas on an unprecedented scale. The
Spanish colonial empire introduced new
musical practices to vast regions of the Amer-
icas and across the Pacific to the Philippines.
4
French colonies in the Americas, and later in
Southeast Asia, imported and reproduced
social, religious, and educational institutions
from the parent state, making extensive use
of music in secular and sacred contexts. Dutch
colonial societies in the Americas, South
Africa, and Indonesia also fostered extensive
musical activity, especially in secular contexts;
there was a thriving European music culture
in colonial Batavia in the 19th century.
The transplantation of European culture
throughout the world underwent significant
expansion in the 19th century with the repro-
duction of social and cultural institutions by
British settler societies in North America,
India, Southern Africa, Australia, and New
Zealand. Musical commodities such as piano-
fortes, harmoniums, and sheet music were
produced in increasing numbers specifically
for colonial markets, and the colonies com-
menced local production of these commod-
ities. New ideas about music’s role in
personal improvement and social reform
had a global impact through the “tonic sol-
fa” movement – a means of teaching large
numbers of children and adults to sight-sing
(McGuire 2009). Brass band movements and
the standardization of military music contrib-
uted to the increase of musicians in public
and ceremonial contexts, while public institu-
tions and organizations promoted local con-
cert life and attracted visiting musicians
from around the world.
Some transplantation took place outside
imperial boundaries. Certain states that were
not colonized by Europe adopted Western
cultural practices, systems, and institutions
to compete with these empires, and as a sym-
bol of industrial modernity. This phenome-
non extended to music. In the 19th century,
the Ottoman Empire, Qajar Persia, Siam,
and Meiji Japan established military bands
using Western instruments and playing mili-
tary music in European “common practice
style.” Japan incorporated Western music
within its education system. In Egypt,
ostensibly part of the Ottoman Empire but
gradually falling under the shadow of Euro-
pean imperialism, Khedive Ismā‘īl opened
the Cairo Opera House in 1869, where Verdi’s
Aida was premiered in 1871.
THE USE OF MUSIC IN
EVANGELIZATION
The transplantation of European music
extended to the mission field. Music was a
vital tool in the evangelistic strategies of Euro-
pean empires, especially the Early Modern
empires of Spain and Portugal. Music was
considered a powerful means of attracting
potential converts from indigenous societies,
using non-threatening musical gestures to
arouse the curiosity of local people. Mission-
aries learnt local melodies and used them to
sing the Christian doctrine and catechetical
texts. Converts were brought to live in mis-
sions whose territorial boundaries were set
by the sound of the bells. Non-Europeans’
adoption of European musical practices was
symbolic of their cultural transformation,
and their receptivity to religious doctrine. In
many Catholic missions, particularly Jesuit
missions in the Americas and Asia, indige-
nous musical expressions that were not con-
sidered incompatible with Christian
contexts were accommodated within religious
worship. The rise of large-scale Protestant
missionary societies in the 19th century, par-
ticularly within the British and Dutch
empires, saw the introduction of four-part
hymns and related genres to the Pacific,
Africa, Australia, China, and India.
THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN
CONSOLIDATING OR CONTESTING
IMPERIAL RULE
In most empires, music has played a central
role in state ceremonies (such as corona-
tions), the rituals of established religions,
and public entertainments. For example,

music was a crucial ingredient in state sacri-
fices within Ming China, and loud martial
music contributed to the grandeur of the
1911 durbar in Delhi, when Indian rulers
swore fealty to George V. Music formed an
important part of imperial programs of edu-
cation, and in the emergence of youth move-
ments that used songs for social bonding and
learning, such as the Boy Scouts in the British
Empire. Music was also a powerful mediator
between the subaltern and the hegemonic
rulers of colonial empires. Indigenous musi-
cians could assert a particular kind of agency
through the liminality of their social status as
favored artists. This was particularly the case
when patronized by colonial rulers. By per-
forming their indigeneity and asserting their
identity within the frameworks of imperial
rule, indigenous musicians could subvert
the prevailing power structures that sought
to impose new social and cultural orders
(Baker 2008). Thus protest songs and the
emergence of nationalistic music contributed
to revolutions against empire, inciting and
encouraging mass movement.
MUSICAL RAMIFICATIONS OF
IMPERIALISM FOR THE PARENT STATE
OR CORE CULTURE
The effects of empire on the study and prac-
tice of music in parent states or core cultures
entailed increased knowledge and study of
foreign music cultures, the circulation of
materials and their absorption into local
practices, and exotic and orientalist repre-
sentation within musical works. From the
inception of global networks that girdled
the Earth in the late 16th century, European
observers wrote in lesser or greater detail
about their observations of music encoun-
tered throughout the world. Observations
of other cultures’ instruments, and the
extraction of natural resources around the
world, impacted on the construction and
development of European instruments.
5
First-hand and mediated knowledge of for-
eign music cultures, documented in numer-
ous ethnographic texts and images,
inspired Enlightenment thinkers to speculate
on the origins of human music, the question
of musical universals, and the cultural spec-
ificity of various styles of music, as well as
questioning the power of music to cross cul-
tural boundaries.
The increasing importance placed by 19th-
century anthropologists on the role of music
in human cultures, together with the vast
spectrum of musical difference that was
mapped throughout the world, promoted
the rise of theories of developmental evolu-
tionism (Zon 2007). This hypothesis set in
place a hierarchy of civilizations and cultures
with Western Europe at the pinnacle, thereby
reinforcing and justifying ideologies of impe-
rial domination. Performances of musicians
from around the world at “world fairs” in
Europe and North America exposed the pub-
lic to many different types of music; Claude
Debussy famously heard the Javanese game-
lan at the Paris World’s Fair in 1889, and
responded to this experience in his own com-
positions (Fauser 2005).
The study of non-European musics in the
19th century led gradually to the establish-
ment of comparative musicology (Vergle-
ichende Musikwissenschaft) as an academic
discipline in 1885. The continuing expansion
of European empires and detailed ethnological
study of a growing number of cultures, along
with the use of the phonograph to record the
music and sounds of diverse cultures, contrib-
uted to the growth of this discipline. However,
its academic methods were sharply critici-
zed by some scholars, notably Curt Sachs.
Following World War II, comparative
musicology was superseded by the modern
discipline of ethnomusicology, a term coined
in 1950 by Jaap Kunst. Ethnomusicology, like
anthropology, turned away from comparative
methodologies to engage in relativistic studies
of music cultures; significantly, this shift was
6
concurrent with worldwide trends of decolo-
nization and the dismantling of many empires.
Amongst the most prominent aesthetic lega-
cies of Europe’s encounter with the rest of the
world are the (mis)representation and stereo-
typing of non-European cultures in art, litera-
ture, and music. The production and
reception of these artworks served to shape
and harden attitudes towards other cultures,
reinforcing condescension and justifying impe-
rialist expansion. Exoticism was a major trend
in European art music, involving the evocation
of other cultures and places through sound,
text, and image (Locke 2009). This kind of cre-
ative activity focused especially on Asia: orien-
talist works depicted Asia and North Africa as
luxurious, decadent, and ripe for imperial dom-
ination. There were also more overt expressions
of imperial ideologies: in Britain: for example, a
culture of empire-related music took root in the
late 19th century, and persisted until the mid-
20th (Richards 2001). The cultural legacies of
this music are evident in texts of patriotic vocal
works sung today.
SEE ALSO: Anthropology and empire; Orien-
talism; Religion and empire
REFERENCES
Baker, G. 2008. Imposing Harmony: Music and
Society in Colonial Cuzco. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
Fauser, A. 2005. Musical Encounters at the 1889
Paris World’’s Fair. Rochester, NY: University
of Rochester Press.
Locke, R. P. 2009. Musical Exoticism: Images and
Reflections. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press.
McGuire, C. E. 2009. Music and Victorian Philan-
thropy: The Tonic Sol-Fa Movement. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Nettl, B. 1985. The Western Impact on World
Music: Change, Adaptation, and Survival.
New York/London: Schirmer Books/Collier
Macmillan.
Richards, J. 2001. Imperialism and Music: Britain,
1876–1953. Manchester: Manchester Univer-
sity Press.
Robertson, C. E. (Ed.) 1992. Musical Repercussions
of 1492: Encounters in Text and Performance.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Said, E. W. 1993. Culture and Imperialism. Lon-
don: Chatto & Windus.
Seed, P. 1995. Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s
Conquest of the New World, 1492–1640. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woodfield, I. 1995. English Musicians in
the Age of Exploration. Stuyvesant: Pen-
dragon Press.
Zon, B. 2007. Representing Non-Western Music in
Nineteenth-Century Britain. Rochester, NY:
University of Rochester Press.
FURTHER READING
Baker, G. and T. Knighton (Eds.) 2011. Music and
Urban Society in Colonial Latin America. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bloechl, O. A. 2008. Native American Song at the
Frontiers of Early Modern Music. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Castelo-Branco, S. E . (Ed.) 1997. Portugal and the
World: The Encounter of Cultures in Music. Lis-
bon: Publicações Dom Quixote.
Irving, D. R. M. 2010. Colonial Counterpoint:
Music in Early Modern Manila. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Woodfield, I. 2000. Music of the Raj: A Social and
Economic History of Music in Late Eighteenth-
Century Anglo-Indian Society. New York:
Oxford University Press.