What are we teaching? The translation of exoticism as pedagogy in Schumann and Tchaikovsky

honors thesisCollege of Fine ArtsMusicJane HatterMusical scholars have often studied exoticism-the evocation and representation of cultures outside of one's own-through racial, national, gender, class, and other identities. These studies commonly lead to the taxonomical classification of musical gestures and further questions on the purpose and lasting effects of exoticism. While exoticism in the Western musical canon has been studied in various genres and time periods, there has been very little research conduct ed on the topic of exoticism in pedagogical materials. The influence of childhood education on the development of identity has been studied both inside and outside the field of music. Studying exoticism in materials used to teach children could lead to interesting findings on how musical stereotypes have been used or abused in the formation of identity. Robert Schumann's Album for the Young Op. 68 has been examined both as an influential nationalist project and pedagogical text for young musicians. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Album for the Young Op. 39 was directly inspired by Schumann's collection, but has yet to be examined in an y substantial way. By comparing and contrasting the use of exoticism in these two works, it might be possible to learn about the impulses behind exoticism and its effect on the definition of the self and the other. Overall, this study at tempts to trace the expression of the self and the other in these works, uncover the impact of exoticism inspired by Schumann's Album for the Young Op. 68 on other pedagogical materials, like Tchaikovsky's Op. 39, and question the influence of these two collections on the continued development of cultural stereotypes in musical expression