Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the competing interests of globalization and internationalization. It focuses on instilling skills of global citizenship through critical studies of intercultural musical encounters. The book discusses the College Music Society’s 2014 call for universities to include diversity as one of the main pillars of a new approach to college music curricula, an approach that aims to “lead organically to essential encounters with the diverse musics of the world.” It examines Bela Bartok’s boundary-crossing musical encounters to highlight the risks of adopting ahistorical frameworks when expanding classes to be more global. The book describes how in Brazil the historically fragile state of music history as a discipline and political developments have constrained the teaching of music history, especially efforts to meaningfully broaden pedagogies to include a more diverse cross-section of Brazilian musics.