Recontextualization of Music Cultures: Possible and Impossible

Ethnomusicologists have undergone several types of research of music cultures of the world. These studies had led to myriads of findings that have given shape to the ethnographic study in field of music and allied disciplines. As much as findings revealed various components of music cultures of many ethnic descents, much is yet to be discovered about the determination of how the recontextualization process affects the transfer of various elements of the music cultures. This paper through historical analysis of existing literature assists to investigate and suggest elements of music culture that cannot evade possible transfer and those thoughts of as unnecessary in the process of recontextualization. The discourse also gives explicit definition to music as found in culture as well as music as culture itself. To conclude the discussion, the paper positions the fact that every music culture has critical elements and these if compromised during recontextualization endanger the music culture identity and leads to the chaotic perceptual definition in the original context.