In this topic we will consider various aspects of the use of ‘non-western’ music in contemporary composition. Aspects of ‘exoticisim’, musical appropriation, cultural context and commodification will be examined through a consideration of three case studies: Colin McPhee’s orchestral rendering of the Balinese Gamelan,\u00a0Tabuh-Tabuhan; David Fanshawe’s pan-world fusion of the\u00a0indigenous music of Africa into the western classical sacred choral tradition, African Sanctus; and the emergence of polyglot ‘world music’ signifiers in certain examples of\u00a0popular and commercial music as exemplified in Karl Jenkins’ Adiemus. Discussion will be framed through a consideration of Edward Said’s 1978 book, Orientalism.<\/p>\n