Blog Post 9: How do you think cosmopolitanism and diasporas can contribute to responding to the challenges that these forms introduce?

The universal definition for cosmopolitanism is that all human beings belong to a single community based on a shared morality. A diaspora is when people who have migrated from one country to another and they find a community with a shared identity of culture and ethnicity. Cosmopolitanism and diasporas go hand and hand, meaning they interwine. For this blog post I focused on the Gooley article mostly. In the section of the article that focuses on opera, it states, the topic of cosmopolitanism is not one that has seriously engaged those of us who study the cultivation of art music in nineteenth-century America. However this is a useful technique to understand the contradictory ways Americans engaged in European culture. During the final decades of the 19th century, the United States gradually became what is considered a full-blown modern, urban, industrial, world power that is multicultural. According to the article, 43 Americans of the time were increasingly interested in how their country fit in with the rest of the world—politically, intellectually, and culturally. This created a huge challenge for fellow Americans and people who are migrating to America. Some Americans started feeling the need to connect to their homeland but they might not have necessarily known what their actual homeland was since their parents were most likely also born in the US and potentially even their grandparents and the culture that was once celebrated was lost through the years. It’s reasons like this that St. Patricks day is celebrated so heavily in the US by every culture because the need for that connection to the homeland is still there and you may not be Irish but that Irish diasporic community helps you feel like you belong for that day. This need for a national identity intrigued musicians. These perceptions fascinated late-century Americans, as they grappled simultaneously with the repercussions of the Civil War and the implications of joining a world community. Music was used by Americans to engage with both of these viewpoints. For example, Opera was almost exclusively seen by the upper class in the US during the 19th century. Opera’s popularity increased tremendously in the 1870’s when the upper class increased dramatically in size. With the upper class increasing, it created a diasporic community between them and the love for Opera. Opera is considered a European style of music and it was very uncommon in the US until the demand for it increased along with the size of the upper class. Because of those 43 Americans that wanted to become multicultural in the 19th century, it allowed for some growth among the people that we still see today. I can’t imagine what this world would be like if we didn’t emerge cultures. Some of my favorite foods, artists, vacation sites, and friends would not exist. Diversity is extremely important to help make the world go round. I believe that is the main reason God created different people.