Thanks Harry. Music doth calm the savage beast! REH
----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Pollard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Ray Evans Harrell'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'Keith Hudson'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 6:03 AM Subject: RE: [Futurework] Where has music gone? > Ray, > > And what a lovely reply! > > Harry > > ******************************************** > Henry George School of Social Science > of Los Angeles > Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 > Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 > http://haledward.home.comcast.net > ******************************************** > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ray > Evans Harrell > Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 5:01 PM > To: Keith Hudson; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [Futurework] Where has music gone? > > What a lovely post Keith, > > For me it was the Brahm's Requiem and the first time singing with > the > orchestra. We had plenty of first class choruses in Tulsa but > never had I > experienced the orchestra with the descending three part women's > chords with > the resounding D pedal point. It was an important moment but I > will never > forget the absolutely sublime chords as the chorus rose higher > and higher in > Schoenberg's magnificent Friede auf Erde. Peace on Earth or the > first time > I really "got" the Beethoven Ode to Joy which seemed musty the > first time I > heard it. It took many hearings for me to crawl into its > eccentricities. > I will never forget the first singer that I taught that opening > baritone > solo too. I almost cried because it had come to mean so much to > me on the > reservation. Or playing the trombone in the Prelude to Act III > Lohengrin. > On and on. > > That is the place where I experienced community in the non-Indian > world. > Peter Drucker imagined the ideal of the modern corporation as an > orchestra. > If you've never played in one or even sung in a chorus you have > no hope of > knowing what he meant. The closest you can get is the imaginary > "higher > beings" in the old star trek series or ESP. > > Reading your article I agree that we must stress amateur > musicians once > again but it must be secular. It never left our churches over > here for > the concert hall. The Concert Halls have died while the > churches have > flourished. You can experience more music of more variety in > church in > America than any other place. Quite the opposite from Europe. > On the > other hand such live and participatory music has been cut off > from the > non-Christian people who do not have this music available in the > secular > world except in dead recordings. > > Don't get me wrong. I love my Abbado tapes and there are many > singers that > I never would have heard except on recording but it was singing > on stage > with the Richard Tuckers, Cornell McNeil, George London, Anna > Moffo, or > watching the great Cherokee ballerina Yvonne Chouteau from the > stage that > touched my heart and opened my soul. I can put all the missing > parts into > the tapes because I played in orchestras, sang in choruses and > performed on > the stage with the greatest singers in the world from the time I > left the > reservation at 17. On the reservation almost everybody did > some kind of > art. We all sang, played instruments and did the traditional > crafts. > Today many families maintain their ties by doing crafts together > and > traveling around to the Powwow summer festivals to dance and sell > the crafts > that they make during the winter months. > > A Doctor once asked me if there were any great American Indian > operas or > works of art. I mentioned the Deer Dance and the Navajo "sings" > but he > thought that was strange. Opera means "work" and is a > multimedia work of > painting, dance, instruments and of course singing. The Deer > Dance is a > nine day festival filled with all of the above and a Navajo > "sing" is a many > day solo tour de force of design, dance , singing and drama, all > for the > same reason as the original Greek dramas at Epidoris. Healing > the soul and > the community. We have forgotten the reason for the music in > the first > place and forgotten how to feel. We have also forgotten that it > takes > great skill and development to do both in the more advanced > disciplines. > > That is the one place where I disagree with your article. I > find the music > of the composers that he thought failures to be as beautiful and > enriching > as the "old favorites" that he mentions as well. In fact I find > the newer > works indicative of the time from which they are drawn and that > for me is > what a large part of it is all about. I'll never forget an > audience > weeping at a Holocaust minimalist piece at the Guggenheim. It > was > minimal, simple in concept but incredible in execution. The > dancer ran up > and down a ramp as fast as she could for almost thirty minutes. > The ramp > was wood and resounded with her feet as a drum as the history of > the > holocaust was projected on Frank Lloyd Wright's white walls of > the museum. > At first it was annoying, in the end the actual devastating > fatigue of the > dancer as she simply ran up and down, changing directions at each > end was a > inescapable for us as for her. Her task (a part of the > aleatory art form > since it was filled with chance decisions unthought before hand) > and the > reality of the banality of her task along with the inescapable > reality > translated as being trapped, courageous, determined and for a > moment > connected us to the reality of a truly trapped individual with > our being > guards who made her continue to the end. The parallel was > devastating as > the entire audience wept no matter what people they were from. > > What are the physical forms of the theater and their meanings? > The > orchestra is the underworld that feeds the themes of life to the > people on > the stage while the audience is the angels or demons who > determine the > success or failure of actual performance. Something that we > learn about > life and transfer into our own world as humanity. Who has not > enjoyed and > learned from Baron Ochs and the Marshallin in the last act of Der > Rosencavellier as he realizes that she has had a tryst with > Octavian but is > unable to turn it to his own advantage and the heavenly trio that > follows as > the Marshallin gives up her 17 year old lover to his new wife? > What do we > learn about the culture of the Ottoman Empire and the little > turbaned > servant who leaves nothing behind to be used against his mistress > at the > end? > > Last night I went to the "Wagner like" movie "Return of the King" > the third > of the Tolkien trilogy. It was thrilling although more than a > little > stereotypical and racist in the attitudes of Tolkien its author. > The > inferior human races were of course the only turbaned and black > faces in the > film while the elves were gorgeous white faces mostly blond. > Remember > this wasn't historical Europe but the pre-world "Middle Earth." > > Of course it was wonderful to see the little hobbits dreaming of > undiscovered American Indian strawberries and bringing in a huge > pumpkin > also developed by American Indian agricultural scientists not in > the > pre-world but in the historical present. But those are little > things > probably not thought about in Tolkien's English world. But it > was a grand > story with great computer human mixes and all on the huge I Max 5 > story tall > screen. Fairy Liv Tyler speaking Gaelic was gorgeous and the > mountains of > New Zealand are amazing. The orchestra was fun and the fight > scenes were > OK, although nothing of the kind of devastation that I felt > reading them > years ago. The little Epilogue at the end I found over long > and cloying > but the whole film, after the initial enjoyment of the effects, > left me with > both admiration and an uneasy feeling. > > The good Sam and the evil Smeagal whose altar ego is gollum same > sound as > the Golum in Jewish literature. I suspect Tolkien was well > aware of the > Dybbuk and the Golum. Given the other stereotyping and the > obvious > connection of the Ring to power which easily could be material > power > considering "eating the forest" and creating the hellish factory > which > created war machine in film II. The Ring could easily be > connected to > industrialization and economic power and poor Smeagol was taken > in and > destroyed and turned into Gollum by it. Does all of that story > make you as > queasy as it does me? I've heard the story before to describe > Jewish > people. Having worked with a lot of European legends not to > mention > Shakespeare and the stereotypes from The Merchant of Venice to > Beckmesser in > Meistersinger, I felt that Tolkien whether deliberately or > subconsciously > was exercising a cartoon stereotype that I didn't want > particularly in my > own head. I don't mind Beckmesser or Carmen because they are > from another > generation which was more provincial and did not know what we > know today. > But seeing this film come out in the 21st century with these > hidden > characters I found offensive. Instead of discussing it on the > various > sites on the internet dedicated to Tolkien, it is treated as if > it didn't > exist. I spoke today to a Jewish student who had a strong > reaction to the > first of the three films and refused to see the other two. It > took me > three to take offense but sometimes I'm slow. > > So I went home and watched the real thing, Wagner, Lohengrin. > With the > passionate Abbado in the pit and the Spanish Domingo as the > Knight of the > Holy Grail. I listened to all of the blatant stereotyping and > it made me > see our Western ancestors once more, clearly. Wagner's music > was > unbelievable and those amazing preludes conducted with genius by > Abbado. > Even on video it was thrilling. The richness of the score, the > singing and > the commitment of the artists made me see the potential of these > human > characters of Brabant while understanding how such "artistic > souls" could > have decimated my people with impunity and then turned on > themselves in > their racism in the 20th century. More than Tolkien's simple > tale with > a lot of violence and crude subhuman characters and Godlike white > folks, > this complicated story of secrecy and the complexity of what > betrayal meant, > the loss of power through transparency is deceptively "simple." > The power > of secrecy whether benign or evil and the importance of trust in > the same > way that Orpheus "blew it" with Euridice or Coyote did with his > daughter > here our myths. In Lohengrin the Gods of the Forest are the > evil with the > priestess Ortrud standing in as the revenge element against the > more > "modern" Knight Templar Lohengren. That was good religion > versus bad > religion with chauvinistic culture thrown in for spice, but this > "racist > issue awareness" is new. > > What became accepted was the "problem" of the other, the > conquered, the > inferior, the Smeagal the gollum, the evil spirit. Blacks > moved from the > pre-history riders of Mastodons in Tolkien to the little black > turbaned > footboy in Rosencavallier. Rosencavallier is older but the > point is still > the same. He moves from terrorist to controlled child. Racism > then is > diffused. Its just economics and Anti-semitism, racism, > religious > intolerance becomes a tool for politics. > > How easily we complain about racism in politics like David > Brooks, in > today's NYTimes, assigning anti-Semitism to those who see a > connection > between the writers who cut their teeth in the Jewish Commentary > magazine > and who to a man have provided a rational for the war in Iraq. > Calling > them Jewish is true since most of them wrote for a conservative > Jewish > magazine. Calling them Jewish in their cause is not true unless > you have > never heard of Tikkun which is more representitive of American > Jewery > although most Jews in America support Israel. Wrapping > neo-conservative > in Judaism is just as racist as wrapping Tom DeLay and GWB in the > American > flag or worse Christianity. But racism is a real issue and it > goes far > beyond such trivializing. The attitude towards Iraq is > genuinely > culturally chauvinistic since the people advocating the war are > appalling in > their ignorance of Islamic culture or even the Arab languages. > It is one > thing to indiscriminately retaliate against a state or group that > attacks > you as in 9/11, it is quite another just to pick someone and > pronounce them > more evil than the rest in spite of their history and their > relationship to > you. Death is death. If you kill children from the air or > throw them off > buildings they are still dead and in the service of what you want > to > accomplish. Both are evil acts. And I do believe in evil. > But I am a > man of the theater. > > > What has been missed by those who do not know their heritage, and > thus their > ancestors first hand, by participating in the same sounds, > rhythms, words > and feelings from times so long ago? Is self knowledge not > important and > does not such artistic experience bring us idenity and knowledge > of our > history? How poor is value when it is determined solely by pure > monetary > profit? How degrading is it to society when the ancestors are > made > available only to the wealthy? That is the gift of the > communities of > faith to their congregations. But the glue that would cement a > society in > all American communities is missing unless they are Christian and > can hear > and perform the great Western Masterworks in Church. > > Thanks Keith for bringing this Future work of art to the list. > > Ray Evans Harrell > > > > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.558 / Virus Database: 350 - Release Date: 1/2/2004 > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
