Systematic approach in studying ethnic musical culture

The understanding of culture as an integrity considers some problems for scientists, one of them is the analysisof culture's elements as an integral subject of investigation. In this work ethnic culture is analysed from the point of view of the systemapproach. The special signs of the system are the following concepts: "element", "integrity", "structure", "link". "Element" is understoodas one of the components of the system, the totality of them are the original backbone of the system. "Integrity" is defined notonly by causal-effect relationship, where every element is a cause and simultaneously an effect of a condition of the other element of thesystem, but also all the elements have relative independence. The system is formed by the elements, which are combined in a structure.The realization of the system approach for studying ethnic culture supposes defining the definition "ethnic culture", analysis of its structure,determining the factors of its development. "Ethnic culture" is described in scientific works as the lower level of the cultures of anyforms of "ethnic social community". It is the property of culture, which is characterized by integrity of territory, relationship of populationby blood links, dialects, traditions, rites, and common interests. The concrete historical and also the highest form of "ethnic" cultureis "national culture". "Ethnic culture" consists of three basic components: "kernel", "elements", and "protecting belt". The "kernel" ofethnic culture is formed during all the process of ethnos genesis, keeping ethnic culture from disintegration, defining the measure ofalien adoption. The "elements" of ethnic culture can be religion, forms of law, morals, science, philosophy, and arts. The mechanismsof keeping and development of ethnic culture are the traditions of culture elements. The world outlook context is an invariant element,which allows the people to keep their identification under any social-cultural changes. The image of the world is one of the most importantcomponents of the ethnic world outlook at the same time with a hierarchy of needs, interests and values. The social-psychologicallevel of the ethnic world outlook is mentality. Music culture as ethnic culture includes the "kernel", the "elements" and the "protectingbelt" in its structure. The "kernel" of ethnic music culture is mentality. The historically formed steady types of the world outlook aretraced in music of West European and Eastern peoples. In mental understanding intonation is also a member of the structure of the "kernel"of music culture. That is the intonation, which is proclaimed as a consolidate link of all the elements of music culture. The elementsof music culture are musical consciousness, musical image - the basic element of the semiotic system, which is reflected in the definitionof a "music style". The protecting belt of the music culture of a nation consists of the ways of keeping and translation of the musictext (in Eastern traditional cultures inherent in oral form of texts; it demands the skills of variation of intonation and ability of improvisation);the traditions of building and performing of music compositions. The space and time factors of mentality forming are also thefactors of evolution of the music culture of a nation.

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