Friday’s topic is “Cool Stuff!” As we’ve discussed in class, your assignment is to roam the web (or make use of a good scanner) and find interesting items that pertain to the two cultures that we’ve studied this week—Native America and Africa. You’ll need to find at least three separate items to post, and they need to be posted in such a way that others can experience them as fully as you have (i.e. any links must actually link, any downloaded pictures must actually load, any musical selections must actually play, and so forth.) Embedded videos and pictures are always preferable to links that take you elsewhere, unless you have a good reason for wanting us to go to that "elsewhere." Also write up a few sentences about each of your items--why you thought it was interesting, what led you to find it, what relevance it has to our class, or anything else that seems interesting and relevant (obviously, the 400-500 word goal isn't in play here). Feel free to get help from anyone you can if you consider yourself technologically challenged.
I'm tempted to post some Cool Stuff of my own, but I don't want to steal anything that you might find! So post away, and if I come up with anything that no one found, I'll include it in a later post.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Blogs Malfunctioning
Well, I've received several emails explaining that Blogger, at least on campus, seems to be having a few issues living up to its purpose of letting you post blogs. Poop. If you're having trouble, email me your blog writing for proof, and then we'll all try to post tomorrow so that everyone else can read your handiwork, ok? This really does seem to be a wide-spread problem, so fret not. Balance and beauty, right?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Blog Assignment: Music And Religion
Your blog topic for Wednesday, January 5, is “Music and Religion.” As we talk about Native American music this week, we'll frequently find ourselves discussing different ways in which the music and religion of that Music-Culture interact. The music and the religion of Native Americans are closely intertwined—song creation is attributed to the Deities, performers will act out the part of Deities (Yeibichai) when singing some of the songs for various ceremonies, and the songs are a most important means of transmitting religious ideas from generation to generation. We'll also discuss ways in which the stylistic traits of their music can be traced back to their religion—the importance of the cyclic-ness of Nature is reflected in the ubiquitous repetitive format of their songs. These are just a few ways that we'll discuss the intersection of music and religion in the world of Native America.
As we go through our other Music-Cultures, we’ll frequently return to this music-religion link. First, though, I’d like you to think about the way that music and religion intersects in your own culture. You should consider the music-religion link under two rather large umbrellas:
1. Use. How is music actually used in religion in your experience? And what is the purpose of that use? What sort of performing styles are expected, and are there any rules that should be followed? Write about the practical and practicing side of music and religion.
2. Aesthetics. In your experience, do the prevailing religions of your surroundings have an influence on what is found aesthetically pleasing in music? Is there any way in which the values of those religions are inherent in the way music is built or experienced?
Yes, I know, these are pretty huge ideas. I don’t really expect you to exploit every corner of this topic, but I do expect you to think about it at length before you start typing. I also realize that many of you have been linked to more than one religion over the course of your life or have led a mostly-secular existence. That's ok--you can define "religion" as broadly as you need to. Take the topic and run with it, and see what happens. And yes, I know that several of you have already touched on the Music/Religion link in your Musical Autobiography blog entry. What I'm looking for here is not necessarily an evaluation of your personal experiences (although some of that is ok, too) but more of a general evaluation of music issues concerning a religion you're familiar with.
As we go through our other Music-Cultures, we’ll frequently return to this music-religion link. First, though, I’d like you to think about the way that music and religion intersects in your own culture. You should consider the music-religion link under two rather large umbrellas:
1. Use. How is music actually used in religion in your experience? And what is the purpose of that use? What sort of performing styles are expected, and are there any rules that should be followed? Write about the practical and practicing side of music and religion.
2. Aesthetics. In your experience, do the prevailing religions of your surroundings have an influence on what is found aesthetically pleasing in music? Is there any way in which the values of those religions are inherent in the way music is built or experienced?
Yes, I know, these are pretty huge ideas. I don’t really expect you to exploit every corner of this topic, but I do expect you to think about it at length before you start typing. I also realize that many of you have been linked to more than one religion over the course of your life or have led a mostly-secular existence. That's ok--you can define "religion" as broadly as you need to. Take the topic and run with it, and see what happens. And yes, I know that several of you have already touched on the Music/Religion link in your Musical Autobiography blog entry. What I'm looking for here is not necessarily an evaluation of your personal experiences (although some of that is ok, too) but more of a general evaluation of music issues concerning a religion you're familiar with.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Welcome to Diverse Cultures and their Musics! My Blog for this class will serve a few different functions. I'll be elaborating on the Blog topics assigned in your Course Schedule, so that you have a more thorough idea of what I'm expecting of you. I'll also be attempting to write on the topics myself. And I might come up with some more uses as we go along.
A few ground rules to get us off and running. All your Blog entries must be in grammatically correct Standard English. Capitalize your "I"s and spell out Y-O-U. They don't charge by the letter here, and I'm not Vanna. There's a spellcheck that comes along with your blog--please make use of it. You might want to consider actually typing out your blog entries in Word, checking through it all, and then pasting your text into your blog. As you type, please remember that Blogs are available for everyone to see--your classmates, your professors, your Grandmother, your preacher, potential dates, and potential employers--and you should conduct your typing accordingly. Your blog entries should be between 400 and 500 words long (again, you can check this by using Word) and are due by 11:00 pm on the days they are assigned. (You can work ahead to a certain extent on some of the topics, but don't attempt to post until I've written about it here on my own blog so that you'll know more of what I'm looking for.) Oh, and email me your Blog address (mine is kmvanemandcm2010.blogspot.com) immediately upon setting up your blog. I'll post links to everyone's blog on my blog so that you can access each other's blogs easily. (Once we get started, you might find it easier to post the class's blog addresses on your own blogs.)
And here's your first Blog Topic: Your Musical Autobiography. Yes, I know most of you fell in love with your instrument/singing when you were a wee tot and have practiced diligently every single day ever since. That's not what I'm looking for. What I want to know is all the ways that you've interacted with music outside of the typical Western Art canon. Perhaps your grandmother used to the sing you songs from her native Ireland, or your third grade class visited a Cherokee reservation. Does your roomate dig all things Bollywood? Or do you really love the background music at the sushi restaurant? Think, think, think, and then type it all up. By 11:00 pm on the first day of class, Monday, January 3, please.
A few ground rules to get us off and running. All your Blog entries must be in grammatically correct Standard English. Capitalize your "I"s and spell out Y-O-U. They don't charge by the letter here, and I'm not Vanna. There's a spellcheck that comes along with your blog--please make use of it. You might want to consider actually typing out your blog entries in Word, checking through it all, and then pasting your text into your blog. As you type, please remember that Blogs are available for everyone to see--your classmates, your professors, your Grandmother, your preacher, potential dates, and potential employers--and you should conduct your typing accordingly. Your blog entries should be between 400 and 500 words long (again, you can check this by using Word) and are due by 11:00 pm on the days they are assigned. (You can work ahead to a certain extent on some of the topics, but don't attempt to post until I've written about it here on my own blog so that you'll know more of what I'm looking for.) Oh, and email me your Blog address (mine is kmvanemandcm2010.blogspot.com) immediately upon setting up your blog. I'll post links to everyone's blog on my blog so that you can access each other's blogs easily. (Once we get started, you might find it easier to post the class's blog addresses on your own blogs.)
And here's your first Blog Topic: Your Musical Autobiography. Yes, I know most of you fell in love with your instrument/singing when you were a wee tot and have practiced diligently every single day ever since. That's not what I'm looking for. What I want to know is all the ways that you've interacted with music outside of the typical Western Art canon. Perhaps your grandmother used to the sing you songs from her native Ireland, or your third grade class visited a Cherokee reservation. Does your roomate dig all things Bollywood? Or do you really love the background music at the sushi restaurant? Think, think, think, and then type it all up. By 11:00 pm on the first day of class, Monday, January 3, please.
I'll post more information about your next blog topic soon. In the meantime, just to get you started, here's my own Music Autobiography:
I’m just a bit older than most of you, and I’ve managed to have many, many run-ins with non-Western Art music. I grew up in West Texas, and my hometown of San Angelo had a sizable Mexican-American population, so we heard a lot of Mariachi music growing up. In fact, several years ago I was having dinner with my parents in a Mexican Food restaurant in Helen, Georgia (truly a deeply weird town if there ever was one—go check it out, if you haven’t already) when a Mariachi band started to play for the diners. They came over to our table and my mom asked them to play a specific tune, since it was my grandfather’s favorite—up until that moment, I had no idea he had liked that sort of music!
Another kind of music that was abundant in my home town was really old time Country Music—think Hank Williams Sr., not Jr. My uncle Al was a member of a group of older folks that got together once a week to eat potluck and sit around and make music. Many years ago I returned to San Angelo to play with my high school orchestra and got invited to one of the Country group’s sing-alongs. I had my oboe along with me, and they insisted that I get it out and play along. Some of those old tunes have trickier chord progressions than you might guess!
Perhaps my biggest experience in this field, though, was playing in a rock band in New York. We lived there for a year after finishing college, living near the very last stop on the A Train (yes, the one that you take “if you want to get to Harlem.”) There was an ad in one of the local papers wanting an oboist and a cellist for a newly-formed lo-fi band, and I called up the lead singer—she went by Ashley Wilkes, which couldn’t possibly have been her real name, but I never did find out what her real name was—and got the gig. We’d get together in our guitarist Artie’s apartment (he also worked as a taxi driver) and work through new songs—they’d strum and sing and I’d improvise a quasi-descant-back-up-singer-like- line along with them. We played in a lot of clubs in Manhattan, especially down in the Village, and at a few area colleges. I was simultaneously working in the music department of St. Patrick’s Cathedral (the really big one across the street from Rockefeller Center), which offered its own variety of music, especially when various Irish groups came over to play.
And then, of course, I’ve been teaching World Music since I was hired here at Converse almost twelve years ago. The first year I just taught two days of World Music within a different course (Introduction to Music Technology and Research, if you must know). Within a couple of years there was a World Music Component in Music History II, and finally the course you’re now taking was created and then required of all music majors. I’ve gotten to know music from all over the world through this course—not only the music from the cultures I’ve taught, but also the music from the cultures that the students have presented in class. It’s been a great ride, and one that I hope to stay on for a good long time to come.
I could go on about World Music I’ve Heard in My Favorite Restaurants or Cool Music Stores in Asheville or even Stuff Heard at the Spartanburg International Festival or World Music in Pop Music, but I’ve already hit 566 words in this Blog, and I want to leave stuff for all of you to write about.
Another kind of music that was abundant in my home town was really old time Country Music—think Hank Williams Sr., not Jr. My uncle Al was a member of a group of older folks that got together once a week to eat potluck and sit around and make music. Many years ago I returned to San Angelo to play with my high school orchestra and got invited to one of the Country group’s sing-alongs. I had my oboe along with me, and they insisted that I get it out and play along. Some of those old tunes have trickier chord progressions than you might guess!
Perhaps my biggest experience in this field, though, was playing in a rock band in New York. We lived there for a year after finishing college, living near the very last stop on the A Train (yes, the one that you take “if you want to get to Harlem.”) There was an ad in one of the local papers wanting an oboist and a cellist for a newly-formed lo-fi band, and I called up the lead singer—she went by Ashley Wilkes, which couldn’t possibly have been her real name, but I never did find out what her real name was—and got the gig. We’d get together in our guitarist Artie’s apartment (he also worked as a taxi driver) and work through new songs—they’d strum and sing and I’d improvise a quasi-descant-back-up-singer-like- line along with them. We played in a lot of clubs in Manhattan, especially down in the Village, and at a few area colleges. I was simultaneously working in the music department of St. Patrick’s Cathedral (the really big one across the street from Rockefeller Center), which offered its own variety of music, especially when various Irish groups came over to play.
And then, of course, I’ve been teaching World Music since I was hired here at Converse almost twelve years ago. The first year I just taught two days of World Music within a different course (Introduction to Music Technology and Research, if you must know). Within a couple of years there was a World Music Component in Music History II, and finally the course you’re now taking was created and then required of all music majors. I’ve gotten to know music from all over the world through this course—not only the music from the cultures I’ve taught, but also the music from the cultures that the students have presented in class. It’s been a great ride, and one that I hope to stay on for a good long time to come.
I could go on about World Music I’ve Heard in My Favorite Restaurants or Cool Music Stores in Asheville or even Stuff Heard at the Spartanburg International Festival or World Music in Pop Music, but I’ve already hit 566 words in this Blog, and I want to leave stuff for all of you to write about.
And here's a video to get you in the mood for the rest of your month. Enjoy!
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