Howdy!!! Last Friday we went out to eat with a couple from our church and after dinner they treated us with an amusing adventure: they took us to a country show (as they said – “a Hillbilly/head neck experience). I am not the biggest fan of country music (I actually don’t have any on my ipod J), but I usually try to appreciate things out of my mostpleasurable-and-comfortable musical zone with a positive attitude, meaning I try to concentrate on the good aspects of the experience. My husband and I were also informed that we would be the youngest people in the crowd and we were indeed!!!!
Well, we had a lot of fun that night. I have to say that it was a little overdose (it last a little longer than 2 hours!!!!!), but I am glad we did it. Some things caught my attention: first the fact that the people were really good! The violinist – oops, my bad, the fiddle player had such a beautiful sound, and yes, he could play country. Two thumbs up also for the keyboard player. Second, they were so funny… and they seemed to have soooo much fun doing music together. Finally, one thing got stuck on my head; it was the observation of our friends. They, completely aware of us being working on our doctorate degree, said something like: “isn’t it fun, those guys couldn’t care less about going to school, and they have no idea of what to do with a music score, but they could play anything by heart and THEY HAD SO MUCH FUN. It seemed like they were playing just for the sake of it!!!!”
Yes, that made me think if sometimes we don’t get so involved in our ‘academicality’ that we end up losing the fun, the motivation to do music just for the sake of it… I really hope our journey on school serves to increase our joy in doing music, may this be a means of musical-happiness growth!!!!
I believe that by now you are wondering where am I going to fit Musique Concrete to this country experience, aren’t you? Well, I won’t. I just wanted to put some definition in here since Dr. Brunner mentioned it in our last class and I didn’t quite remembered what this is about.
Here it goes:
Grove - Concrete music. Music prepared from recorded sounds, either natural (e.g. birdsong) or man‐made (traffic, instr. etc.). Term originated by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948 to differentiate between music assembled from concrete sound objects and music based on the abstract medium of notation. Strictly, musique concrète should not be modified electronically but the distinction between it and electronically synthesized sound has been increasingly blurred until the term electronic music covers the whole process.
Wickpedia - Musique concrète (French for "concrete music" or "real music"), is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sonorities derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as 'musical' (melody, harmony, rhythm, metre and so on). The theoretical underpinnings of the aesthetic were developed by Pierre Schaeffer, beginning in the late 1940s.
You can also hear this example from Schaeffer at Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9pOq8u6-bA
Have fun y’all!!!!
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I'm glad you talked about how getting into the academy of music can ruin some peoples enjoyment of music. I know for me, I've come to this fork in the road many times. It is hard to find a healthy balance of playing/listening to music for enjoyment and playing/listening to music for enrichment purposes. Lately, I've found it easier to listen to almost everything just because I have been trying to give up the distinction between hating and loving music, and tried to experience music.
ReplyDeleteWhich I find as a funny paradox, because during the school year, I enjoy almost every type of music and every performance, but when I go off and teach during the summer, I have to scrutinize over the smallest things like thumb-placement when someone is playing marimba. It leads me to think that you can't just love music without also being aware of the music, and vise versa, you can't scrutinize everything that's wrong with the music or you'll miss the music itself.
In the end, it's ironic that we've spent too many hours to count, rehearsing and practicing, but now, we are told that every sound is music.....so why practice? Well, unfortunately, when you go for a college job and you play a piece for the audition and you don't hit all the right notes, it's going to be pretty hard to land that gig.
So, I believe that every sound is great, but when you're trying to get a job, you have to play better than the other guy/girl, so keep on practicing.
I've perhaps just recently realized that life itself is both a balancing act and an improvisation. I love that Irailda has brought up the fun in music making (and life), which often gets crowded out when we are too serious. Someone once told me "Life is too important to take too seriously!"
ReplyDeleteWhen someone asked me what I do (with my workshops), I responded "I reteach people how to play."
I hope we are all helping one another to play, to balance, to take the next step and stay on the path (or the tight-rope).
So, work hard and, by all means, HAVE FUN!