Our musical heritage

Subject: Our musical heritage
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 10:47 PM

Imagine you're in the office of some government bureaucrat and you're trying to explain to him why it is important that our musical heritage (I'm referring here to Appalachian old-time music with Scots-Irish roots) be preserved.

What would you say?

(This is the question I meant to ask in the "Grant for Mountain Music" thread, but I apparently confused people by choosing a misleading heading.) I appreciate all input.

Michael

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: khandu
Date: 28 Feb 02 - 11:02 PM

Why preserve the Mona Lisa? The Sphinx?

Our musical heritage is equally important. The life and the souls of the musicians were imparted in those compositions. We are who we are due in part to who they were and also due in part to the music they composed.

Some of those songs contain historical accounts that cannot be found anywhere else. They also tell a story about the lives of those who wrote them.

I could go on, but I am tired tonight.

khandu

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: JudeL
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 09:20 AM

Folk music contains within it important clues to what concerned the ordinary people of the time and the attitudes which were about, what was strange, what was acceptable, what was common, & not just what but the underlying how and why. It was also a way of remembering things in an age where literacy levels tended to be lower than today and the music could act as a memory jogger.

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: pattyClink
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 09:40 AM

People who feel rootless and worthless tend to have no stake in their society and therefore nothing to gain by participating in it.

If a project would convey to the local children that their people had a long and honorable history of poetry and music all their own, maintained by unbroken generations despite hardship, and therefore gave them a sense of pride and ownership in their people's role in the American drama, then it would be a positive influence in countless lives and communities.

The question is whether this book or documentary would do this or just add to the pile of stuff already on the shelves unused.

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: mack/misophist
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 09:47 AM

"Let me write the songs. I don't care who writes the speeches." The quote isn't quite right but it's still true.

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 01:54 PM

This may or may not be thread creep, but I've been wondering, what with Black History Month going by and all, why certain things are considered heritage and some not. For instance, lots and lots of gospel is sung during our Black Heritage Night - which comes, to my mind, from the WHITE side of the equation, since the slaves from Africa had other religions than Christianity anyway and the Christian part only arose with the mixing of the races and the assimilation of blacks (now no longer Africans) into early American society. They do a lot of "Africa" stuff, which always irritates me as they treat Africa as one big country, and say things like This is the way they dress in Africa (showing something from Senegal which would never be found in Tunisia, for instance), or this is the way houses look in Africa, and other gross generalities. What exactly IS the heritage here? Creep off if it's a creep, thanks.

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: Don Firth
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 02:53 PM

Why bother to preserve old photographs?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 03:04 PM

If you want to read an eloquent speech doing what you describe, please read Stephen Wade's plea he delivered in front of the appropriate committee of the U.S. congress to justify the continuation of federasl support for the Archive Of Folk Culture at the Libraby Of Congress in Washington D.C.

Art

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 03:15 PM

I have a real problem with the phrase: "our musical heritage (I'm referring here to Appalachian old-time music with Scots-Irish roots)" because that stuff is only a part of the American musical heritage--- There is a section of the folk/traditional music community who hold it as a truth that those are the only authentic kinds of folk music, but they can't be taken very seriously--

Any minute now, in fact, a certain GUEST may come by who makes a real strong point that this view is not only narrow-minded and wrong-headed, but actually racist, and, is, unfortunately, an unquestioned position of way to many in this forum--

I can tell you right now that the "our heritage" view is not going to wash with many gov't bureaucrats, or grant givers, because the emphasis has been on "celebrating diversity", and, truth be told, that sort of music has tended to be very well researched. collected, and documented--and it has widely been reflected that that has been to the detriment of other important musical tradtitions--

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: Crunchie
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 03:15 PM

Mrrzy,

Piece of genius, that. Creep or no creep, you get points in my book for noticing the generalities that beaurocracies in our time have come up with. I work as a security guard in a building full of rest-home retirees, and you should see the ridiculous "theme" parties that they throw for these poor old folks. For example, a "Chinese Night" that HAD to have cardbord hangee-things of Buddha and so on. I don't mean that Buddha is not a vital part of Chinese identity for many people, but Buddha is no more a representative of all China than McDonald's is a rep for all food.

As per the ORIGINAL query (sorry for my creep, too):

One of the reasons that the grant would be so important is that such a grant would recognize the diversity in cultures that once made this a great nation... Osama is pissed in part because there was a time when being a Muslim devotee was something to be at least respected... now the "good guys" insist that you can live like you want... as loong as you live like they do. PUSH for such grants... we need to be lights for our place on the map just as everyone else is entitled to represent their place.

Crunchie

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 05:26 PM

Perhaps you'd like me to come along and say it, MTed, but I've given up on the place. And this thread is just one of the many reasons why.

But just to make you feel better, or so you can say "I told you so..."

Who is this "we" there, white man? ;-)

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: michaelr
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 09:58 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: khandu
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 10:12 PM

"Our musical heritage" causes me no problem. None at all. I see the "our" as representative of humanity. "Appalachian old-time music with Scots-Irish roots" is not "my" musical heritage, as much as the music of Mississippi John Hurt or Ernest Tubb. But it is a part of the heritage of humanity. As is blues, country, swing, etc..

I have a fiddle made by my Grandfather. I do not play fiddle. But I treasure this fiddle because of the toil and diligence Granddad put into making it. Part of him is in that fiddle. I honor that. And my son shall honor it. It is a part of our personal heritage.

khandu

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: The Shambles
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 01:28 PM

"The intangible heritage might be defined as embracing all forms of traditional and popular or folk culture, i.e. collective works originating in a given community and based on tradition. These creations are transmitted orally or by gesture, and are modified over a period of time through a process of collective recreation. They include oral traditions, customs, languages, music, dance, rituals, festivities..."

UNESCO Intangible Heritage programme.

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: M.Ted
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 01:40 PM

I think the most important thing is to do what Roger is trying to do, which is to protect music "in the wild"--and the aforementioned bureuacrats seem to be it's greatest enemy--

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: michaelr
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 01:53 PM

M.Ted - who is Roger?

Michael

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 02:12 PM

M Ted - I think Roger = Shambles, who is campaigning against English bureaucracy and the 2 in a bar rule which makes it an offence for more than 2 people to sing or play on any one evening in a venue without a public entertainment licence.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 02:36 PM

Mrzzy, your comments apply to a lot of so-called "heritage" stuff. People generalize and homogenize. I was raised in a part of the States conquered from Mexico; the Mayflower-pilgrim stuff is nonsense to me (Some of my ancestors, both white and native, were here before the Mayflower, others missed the early boats but came later from various places, mostly Ireland and England). You see this generalization with regard to Africa, I see it in the homogenization of America's native groups as well.
Don't misunderstand; I like and respect the heritage of all cultures and support preservation, but I hate it when someone assumes that THEIR heritage is my heritage and tries to impose it (overlap with Crunchies comments here).

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: M.Ted
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 03:04 PM

What Dicho said! Cultures and traditions tend to be very local--nations are political units that exist because of power--the "culture" thing is often spread wider and thinner to give the political unit the appearance of some sort of cultural cohesiveness--

Subject: RE: Our musical heritage
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 03:56 PM

I see on CNN today that the Texas politicos are talking in Spanish (35% hispanic). California was over 30% last time I checked and AZ-NM are also way up there. I believe Chicago is about 12%. Yet some legislators want to ban Spanish and other languages from the schools. Cinco de Mayo should be a national holiday in the US of A. (He, he, he!)