Page 13 - Final_Media Coverage Book, nonclassical Songbooks Vol. 1

We should also be alert to people’s motives. If the borrowing is done out of personal
vanity or to make a quick buck by adding a dash of exoticism it should be treated
with the contempt it deserves. Many say Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland is a
classic example of this, though Simon has vigorously denied he exploited the South
African musicians who appeared on the album.

To rescue a cultural borrowing from the charge of appropriation, two things have to
be present: a genuine love and reverence for the other culture, rooted in real
knowledge, and an urge to recreate it rather than simply flaunting it like a decorative
add-on.

Both these qualities are thrillingly evident in Christian Mason’s Songbooks. To
transfer these songs to the quintessentially Western classical medium of the string
quartet, Mason first had to understand how they worked, down to the last detail. In
recreating them he pulled them into the orbit of “modern music”, and yet by some
miracle their original wild spirit shines out, untouched.

Paradoxical though it may seem, Mason has shown his respect for these cultures in
the best possible way, by making their songcraft his own.