By Daniar Sancho
Music is a way to express oneself culturally, a way to express different aspects of man by means of sound. That is how Professor Ricardo Canzio, a professor of musicology here at NTU, defines music. He added, though, that defining music in so few words is a difficult thing to do. It was seven years ago when Prof. Canzio first came to Taiwan to join the Musicology department. Before coming here he worked in Paris as a musicologist. After spending several years there he was ready for a change in life, ready to move forward and welcome something new and different and exciting. And an opportunity to come to Taiwan came at just the right time. So he decided to return to Asia, a continent in which he spent many years of his youth and had brought him such good memories. This time his new home was Taiwan; it represented a new experience, new learning, and new cultural contact. After all these years of living and working in Taiwan, Ricardo says that he feels happy and comfortable in this part of the world; he says he has enjoyed Taiwan a lot, and considers Taiwanese people as very friendly and kind. Being in Taiwan is a great experience for him. He considers that living in Asia has allowed him to grow up a bit more as a person, and to become more understanding and tolerant toward other people and cultures. Prof. Canzio says that he feels more comfortable and at home in Asian and Latin American countries. He finds people from these places very friendly, sincere, and kind. That’s how for example he remembers Brazil, where he has also worked. He describes Brazilians as friendly, warm and easy-going people, and notes that Brazil is such an interesting country because of its great racial and cultural mixture – Africans, Aborigines, Europeans, and Asians. In the study of musicology, Prof. Canzio has always stressed critical thinking, self-initiative, research, questioning, and curiosity among his students. He has developed a good relationship with them, and they not only seem to like his classes but they also like him very much as a person. Ricardo has a very interesting background. He has worked all over the world: Brazil, India, France, and now Taiwan. He began his study of music in Argentina, his motherland, the country that gave birth to the tango. Later on, he did a master’s degree in India, where he carried out research on Indian music, religion, and philosophy, and did some music teaching as well. When he first went to India he was a youngster who hadn’t seen much of the world, and his mind was hungry for knowledge and new experiences. India was his first direct cultural contact with Asia, and according to Ricardo, India is probably the place and culture that has impacted him most. Besides being very different from his own culture, Indian culture embraces a very deep and interesting vision of the world, a vision that goes beyond what the eye can see. In a later stage of his life, he did a Ph.D. in London, in the renowned School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he did a research in Tibetology and expanded his knowledge of music. At the end of this program, he translated an ancient Tibetan manuscript about music into English: certainly not an easy task. Ricardo has enjoyed all the places where he has lived and worked. He has made friends all over the world. In general he cherishes qualities such as friendship, loyalty, and honesty very much. He respects friends that are not only with you in good times, but who will also stand beside you and stretch out their hands in support during times of trouble. Ricardo says that if he wouldn’t have chosen musicology as a profession, he’d probably have studied linguistics, a field for which he has a lot of interest (no wonder, since he speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hindi and so on!). But he maintains that he would have studied some music anyway, since music is something that is always been, is, and will continue to be in his heart. In his spare time he also enjoys reading books related to evolution and the natural sciences. Asking Ricardo about what kind of music he enjoys most, he answered that he doesn’t really have a preference. He believes that different kinds of music satisfy different aspects of his personality, and that context, time, and place, are factors that can make certain kinds of music more attractive and enjoyable. For him, music is an element that reinforces our cultural identity. However he appreciates Tango (a sweet reminder of his native country) Jazz and India music. Musical forms that as an interpreter allow him to express himself through them. Ricardo’s life has been dedicated to music, as well as its historical and cultural roots. He is a person with impressive international experience; he has been in direct cultural contact with the West and the East and he’s certainly a person from whom we can learn a lot. Music has always been with us, since the beginning of our civilization; it is a way in which we express our happiness, our madness, our sadness, and ourselves. And thanks to people like Ricardo, we can have a better understanding of its role and its importance in our cultures, our histories, and our everyday lives. a
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May 2024
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