Hybridization and its Meanings in the Catalan Musical Tradition

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present some general reflections on the meanings of hybridization through concrete examples from the Catalan musical tradition, focusing on the ethnicity-semantics axis and taking into account those musical streams that have explicitly conferred ethnic value to it.

Abstract: One of the most interesting subjects related to research on hybridization in music is the study of its semantic implications in a given socio-cultural context. It is clear that hybridization, in one way or another, is an inherent process in all kinds of music. For this reason it is important not only to observe the origins and development of this phenomenon, but also to pay due attention to what hybridization refers to on the emic level, i.e. hybridization as a bearer of meanings, elucidating which meanings are associated by social agents to these kinds of processes. This article focuses on this important question and presents some general reflections on the meanings of hybridization through concrete examples from the Catalan musical tradition. Discussion will be restricted to the ethnicity-semantics axis. For this reason, the examples of the Catalan musical tradition that are taken into account belong to those musical streams that have explicitly conferred ethnic value to it.