music; archetype; musicology; symbol; collective unconscious; Carl Gustav Jung; Orient; Orientalism; music culture

The idea of the essence of European (Euro-Atlantic) art music has undergone many changes in the course of its historic development to date. Despite its varied cultural manifestations of musical expression this music culture has obviously never been closed to influences from outside Europe. This text deals with selected variants of the interpretation of European music culture as a complex and dynamic system whose historic as well as present form has been affected by the Orient, and by elements of Oriental music as presented in compositions by Western composers. I follow here general principles and cultural movements contributing to the development of European composers idea of the Orient and its reflection in their music. My methodological basis is the current reflection on Orientalism in musicology, and an application of the theory of archetypes of Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961) and the subsequent Jungian tradition.