Final Reflections

I loved the Native Americans’ thoughts on music. Their viewing music as being their first means of communication learned directly from their gods was fascinating. I try to think of my music as communicating with God, which is a perfect mirror of their thoughts, and what we give to God is only what he first gave to us, as I hear every week during the offertory.

Our culture is very unusual in that we seem to have a huge gap, like the gap between the rich and the poor, only in a musical sense. What I mean is that there are those who have been so highly trained in music that laypeople feel they cannot even approach art music at all. With the Africans, they sing and even make music as they work, and what they were whistling was a hymn tune. Perhaps no one else has had this experience, but I find if I randomly sing church music wandering around campus that it draws comments and stares. While they are not unfriendly and some people are even complimentary, it makes me feel as if I am doing something terribly unusual, but singing to pass the time or make my day smoother should not be that peculiar. Normal everyday people can sing in choirs, I myself have not had any special training in voice, yet I sing well enough for a choir, and other people in my children’s choir were much better at remembering music from week to week than I because my training in music actually impeded my memory.

I am not sure what inspired me, I often felt so lost. Especially during the blues, other people where recognizing names but I do not believe that I had ever heard any before. I feel as if I opened my ears to listen to different music and examine it without judging it, but I am not especially interested in hearing any more. I must say that one of today’s handouts inspires me to want to make baklava when I go home, maybe I will also look up types of eucalyptus; the leaves depicted in the Australia presentation looked nothing like the eucalyptus tree that was next to my house growing up. I know there are different cultivars, ours was one that a koala bear would snub, but I would think that the leaves would at least look similar, but those were a different color and shape.

Cool Stuff #3

Not really what I was expecting, it is supposed to be about playing the citar, but it is still someone who knows about the instrument talking about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GbK5O3A5Fo

Anything involving sparks is definitely cool in my book, or should I say hot? Anyhow these are pictures from the making of a gamelan.

http://www.usd.edu/smm/Gamelan/GamelanManufacture.html

An interesting tidbit about the Irama, or meter used in Java.

http://www.balibeyond.com/gamelanjava.html

This speaks of the gamelan as a living person, not really personification because it does not seem like the writer views the gamelan as an inanimate object.

http://www.ibiblio.org/gamelan/press/newsandobserver_jan18_sweetsound.html

Mixing music and politics

Around 1987 in Haiti, the country had just been through a harsh military dictatorship. This regime ruined the economy, few people want to tour in a harsh environment and productivity is never high when the government is likely to take all the fruits of a person’s labor. All news and music was supposed to be censured, but one radio station from a catholic church, radyo soléy, dared to send uncensored news. After one demonstration, the government retaliated by closing the station. Promptly, Jean-Michel Daudier wrote "Le'm pa we soley" which portrayed the station as an instrument of God, and the populace loved it. Singing it appeared to give them strength and unity to go on. In a way, it was used much like the singing in church, doing something together that everyone learns brings unity to a very diverse set of people, as long as they have enough in common to love the song.
Another instance that I ran across was Gergiev, a native Ossian who normally directed an orchestra in London, returning to his homeland to direct a concert. Apparently, he wanted to see where the Georgians had been driven out like the Soviet soldiers. However, while singing songs to promote unity in a movement might be a worthwhile goal, this, (from what I read), was more a celebration of the fight itself, in the bombed shell of a building. He himself was outspoken against the Georgians and spouted out figures, which were not entirely accurate. While he may have acted from the goodness of his heart, it was perhaps not wise to entangle himself in matters that he did not entirely seem to comprehend.
Music is a powerful tool, and can be very beautifully used in politics. However, politics is something to be very carefully and delicately handled because so many people feel so strongly about it and become unreasonable. Therefore, before anyone should use music in a political context, they should be certain that they fully understand not only the situation but also the consequences.




Cloutier, Jean-Pierre. Music and Politics. http://www.cyberie.qc.ca/jpc/haiti/music.html (accessed January 19, 2009)

Averill, Gage. A Day for the Hunter, a Data for the Prey http://books.google.com/books?id=gwEL9mUcVA8C&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=%22Le'm+pa+we+soley%22&source=bl&ots=4amN4Dfm3Y&sig=6UCgFU74JR2-Hl-zK9sJmsv_nM8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA159,M1 (accessed January 19, 2009)

“Haiti” from Encyclopedia Britannica http://search.eb.com/eb/article-217452 (accessed January 19, 2009)

LSO conductor Valery Gergiev leads defiant South Ossetia concert from The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4579829.ece (accessed January 20, 2009)

Cool Stuff

I know we had a lovely introduction to middle eastern instruments today, but this has more information about the instruments origins and meanings of the names. I also find it amusing that anyone would call an 'ud the king of instruments.

http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/700/780/fairuz/legend/instruments.html

From there, I recognized the mijwiz, I think my mother has one, so I wondered what it was actually supposed to sound like. I found it odd the way he seemed to be sliding from one pitch to the other, I would think from the limitations of the instrument that would be impossible.
You can also press the arrow and listen to other instruments.

http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/ensembles/worldmusic/neareast/Mijwiz2.htm

In an attempt to discover why it slid I went and looked for how to play a mijwiz; it was interesting but didn't answer my questions, perhaps just the sound decays very swiftly as on a harpsicord and this makes it sound flat to my ear.

http://www.melissatheloud.com/mijwiz.html

The Importance of Rites

Rites, hmmm, what immediately comes to mind are rite one and two in church, and the argument over which one is better. That, and we sang a rite one Magnificat in a rite two service wondering if the priests would notice, I never heard that they did. For other rites, as in big events in one’s life, those are harder. I do not remember my birth or baptism; I have never married or died, and only vaguely recall a few funerals, I have been very lucky in that respect that no one really close to me has died. I refused confirmation, so the only thing I have left is my high school graduation.
Obviously, at a graduation everyone expects “Pomp and Circumstance.” However, I do not see its charm. After four or five repetitions, it has relatively little meaning beyond, “how long does it take these people to walk to their seats?” While there was music included and seen as very imperative as far as tradition goes, I do not think it was necessary or even good to use music in that portion. The people playing were members of the homeschool band, which makes perfect sense, because usually the school’s band would play, but since in homeschooling you can take an ensemble without being in one related specifically to the school, most of the better players went to ensembles that could challenge them. Which left our school band to be more of a social group than anything else, at least that was my impression, but not being in it I really could not say, although that was the case with the homeschool orchestra and I.
The only other music at the ceremony was graduates playing pieces, but these were more to show of what the class was capable. My basic thought on those was it was a great way to get out of having to make a speech, but they made the ceremony take longer than necessary. Then again, I really was not impressed by the whole idea of a graduating ceremony; after all, I had finished my course work and turned in all my forms several months before the graduation ceremony. In essence, graduation is somewhat like a sacrament, an outward and visible sign of and inward and spiritual grace, and the rite itself does not affect the person, but it is for the people around, to see and to celebrate. What I took away from the ceremony was other peoples’ joy in my playing, and though I did not enjoy having to go through it at the time, what some of those people said warmed my heart and helped me later.

Church music!

In the religions I am familiar with, music is used to praise God. Singing is the primary method and it is usually accompanied by organ, after all, how many other instruments can singly support congregational singing?
Most people can sing, and anyone can make a joyful noise, so congregational singing is a good way to include everyone. I will never forget hearing of one woman who was drawn into church by the hymns, she took quite a while before she would stay to listen to any talking or reading, but she loved singing with the rest of the congregation. Reading about how inclusive the African music is intrigues me, they draw each other in with the same inclusiveness that I think that woman felt. To make music involves some sort of working together, and that in turn leads to a sense of community and bonding. Any singing in church brings you closer to those around you and can help your spiritual growth.
What then of the anthems, solos and instrumental music one often hears in church, they obviously do not fit with the community growth of congregational singing? With the Native Americans I believe that music can heal, though not quite with the physical element that they expect; I think it excels at healing the soul, which is often more complex than physical ailments. While sometimes this healing can be accomplished through congregational singing, it more often happens when one is quiet and waiting for God, who you can hear in the music. It is this attitude of active listening that one needs to attend an evensong.
One other thing about religious music, just because it needs to be accessible to everyone in the congregation, does not mean that it needs to be inane. People learn quickly and it is important for what we give to God to be the best that we have to offer. Additionally, music in church ought to echo the rest of the service, and unless it praises God and offers some tidbit of theology then it is not good for use in church.

Stuff, stuff and nonsense

I have to say, this is the worst assignment ever, if I want to actually accomplish anything on a computer I have to disconnect from the internet because otherwise it is too distracting. So now that I have wasted several hours here is the grand product, (or else not).



http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/hatssite/nonflash/hats.htm



Since actually connecting to music was not required I thought I would go look at weird stuff, these hats are a variety from different places in africa, the first page it talks about how a hat could show standing or even political affiliations and adorning the head was important because of the head being the control center for the entire person, but if you click on objects over to the left it shows you pictures of the hats which you can click and see in color.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2007/09/05/african_anglicans_try_to_transform_us_church/

Probably no one else would, but I think it is interesting, though in a sad way, that Africans, who were originally converted to Christianity by the Anglican community now feel a need to turn around and send missionaries to us.

http://www.kalimba.co.za/african%20instruments.htm

This is pictures of instruments with a little bit about each.

Moving with Music

At the most fundamental level, one cannot play an instrument or even sing without some movement. However, whether or not music and movement are dependent or severable is more involved than that.
Generally, I listen to so much music on my iPod that I am accustomed to not having a visual side of the music. Required to attend so many live concerts last term I came to realize that I was indeed missing something when all I had was the audio portion of the music. Watching performers, even if they are not acting the way singers often do, affects the way one hears the music, how involved they are, and how they respond to their own music. While it hardly qualifies as dance, the movements that musicians make are related to the way that they play, and usually musicians that move more tend to play better. Yet if you were to take away the music, some of the movements musicians make are rather strange but perhaps no stranger than normal motions when conversing.
In comparison with the Native American cultures, our music does not demand so high a level of movement as it is not as integral a part of it. Still movement is a vital element and splitting music from movement, even though movement is not necessary, in our culture leaves something missing. While in my own playing, I definitely do not think about moving, it is always evident, and I would not for the world try to abstain from movement. After all, one of my teachers was very adamant that I should always lift my hands at least a foot away from the keyboard when I finished a piece. So even for those of us who cannot even walk without tripping over our own feet, movement is an essential part of music.

I have had a very limited experience with anything out of the western art music, at least so far as I was paying attention. I suppose my greatest outside experience is at church although that might be the last place one would expect, but I can’t tune out music that I am singing. Every year we have an annual Jazz Mass, which excites the members of the congregation no end but for me it is very challenging. Learning something in jazz is no easy task for someone with no experience with that style of music. I could sit down and painstakingly learn the rhythms but then they are not even precisely what is sung, although singing as a group made it difficult for us to improvise. Added to that was the different places for emphasis that are absolutely contrary to anything in chant or something more customary like Tallis.
Occasionally I have listened to what friends deemed important music but I never liked the breathy style of singing such songs tended to exhibit nor the words. Once, listening to the soundtrack to a movie with someone describing and explaining everything the whole way I thought it was captivating the way that the music fit with the story; there was even throbbing in the background that was intended to simulate a heartbeat in one’s ears.
I have also listened a fair amount to a CD with a collection of Mexican music, affectionately labeled “Taco music” at home. It is still based on the standard western scale and sounds tonal to my ears but it has different rhythms and instrumentation than that to which I am accustomed.
This may fall under the wrong category but I have also done Scottish dancing which involves listening to some of their music. Although you might instantaneously think of bagpipes, dance music does not generally involve as much of them but mostly features strings with merely a different performance practice.