Musique et intégration à Montréal : le cas de l’Orchestra Rapsodia Româna
This thesis examines the musical productions of Romanian and Moldovan migrants in Montreal. It particulary investigates the reaffirmation of musicians’s ethnic identity through the symbolic production of what we have called « musical romanity ». We are aiming to underline the musical strategies established by migrants in their integration to a new cultural space. The overall objective of our work is to provide an ethnomusicological contribution to the field of inter-ethnic studies. In this perspective and under a qualitative approach we have met and interviewed the members of the Orchestra Rapsodia Română as well as recording and analysing some of their musical productions.     Our research allowed us to identify several elements linked to the observed phenomena. First, it appears that the migrant’s musical productions in the context of integration can be divided in three categories : internal, external and « in between ». We have established that the music of the Orchestra Rapsodia Română is linked to the internal dimension of the integration process. In that specific context we have observed that musicians with different profiles work togheter to musically produce what they judge an « authentic » Romanian ethnicity despite their divergences on how exactly it should be done. Hence, they solidify the links binding them in a « descent community » (Shelemay, 2011), that brings them « recognition » (Taylor, 2010). Based upon our analysis, this situation implies that musician’s appreciation criteria tend to evolve from what Molino (2009) would call technical and objective criteria to cognitive and functional criteria.
Migration cultural evolution romanity music