Communications assistant professor Sang Nam presented his paper "Cultural Pluralism in Bartok's Dance Suite" at the 2011 International Conference of the College Music Society July 4 in Seoul, South Korea.
From Nam’s abstract: “Bela Bartok’s Dance Suite is often considered as one of the most important body of musical work in early 20th century due to its contextual richness. Dance Suite consists of five movements and finale, and each movement is interconnected with the ritornello and unified in whole movement. Bartok introduces various kinds of folk tune melodies throughout the piece, including his native Hungary to Slovakia, Arab, and Romania. In a sense, Dance Suite is the piece that reflects a “melting pot” in folk music. Also, Dance Suite reflects Bartok’s utopian point of view in terms of music*. This lecture recital will address analysis and comparison of the cultural pluralism in Bartok’s Dance Suite and demonstrate how Arabic melodies, which is considered “Eastern” music, is absorbed in Western music using Piano transcription.”