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Abstract

Missionaries working in cultures around the world daily encounter music systems which to them are incomprehensible. Responses to such music have often been destructive. This article suggests that all missionaries have both the capacity and the responsibility to become bi-musical to some degree. After defining bi-musicality, and presenting musicological and biblical justifications for the importance of music in missions, Schrag lays the basic conceptual groundwork for a cognitive model of becoming bi-musical. The model is based on Serafine's (1983) descriptions of cognitive processes underlying the production of music, which are here applied cross-culturally. These principles may be further used to develop practical tools for field missionaries.

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Becoming Bi-Musical: The Importance and Possibility of Missionary Involvement in Music

Abstract

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References