Interculturalism, musical borrowing from multiple cultures, is a burgeoning trend in twentieth-century art music, theatrical music (opera, musicals, Gesamtkunstwerks), film music, and popular music. "World beat," an aesthetic that fuses popular styles from different parts of the world, is one manifestation of interculturalism. Interculturalism creates meaning in musical works, which manifest as political statements, instructional tools, "syntheses of styles, cultures and perspectives," or works that embrace or reject particular cultural values. These extramusical meanings result from various intercultural borrowing techniques, including patchwork, collage, and "suggestive" allusion (stylistic and pertaining to specific works).

Works: Dissidenten: Sahara Electric (190); Toshi Tsuchotoris: score to Mahabharata (192); Bob Telson: score to Sister Suzie Cinema (192-93), score to The Gospel at Colona (193), score to The Warrior Ant (194); Philip Glass: Satyagraha (196), Akhnaten (197-98); John Cage: Truckera (200), Europeras 1 &2 (200-201).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz, Film

Contributed by: Victoria Malawey