{"id":46540,"date":"2024-08-20T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T08:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/562d0d53-2174-40a2-a16d-c6e8930165af"},"modified":"2024-08-20T11:07:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T09:07:31","slug":"cultural-appropriation-or-evocative-escapism-15-musical-works-inspired-by-the-exotic-east","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/cultural-appropriation-or-evocative-escapism-15-musical-works-inspired-by-the-exotic-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultural appropriation, or evocative escapism? 15 musical works inspired by the ‘exotic’ East"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 20 August 2024 at 08:19 AM<\/p>

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I once introduced a series of concerts in Leighton House, home of the Victorian artist Frederic Leighton, set in a secluded part of Kensington, London.<\/p>

In effect it\u2019s a grand artist\u2019s studio, replete with the kind of images and artefacts to set a creative mind working. At its heart is the stunning Arab Hall, filled with textiles, pottery and images that Leighton collected during his trips to Turkey, Syria, Egypt and Damascus in the 1860s and \u201970s, and furnished with exquisite tiles, mosaics and marbles mostly made in London but closely modelled on the kind of things Leighton had seen during his Middle-Eastern travel.<\/p>