The influence of animals on the development of music

Good news Opera singer boosts cow milk production with music

Numerous scholars have emphasized the influence of the sounds of the natural environment on the development of musical expressions by humans. In his landmark study of the music of the Kaluli of New Guinea, Steven Feld found that before he could begin to understand the Kaluli’s music, he had to first turn his attention to the sounds of their natural environment, particularly the birds whose sounds filled the local forests (see Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli expression. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982, 2nd ed. 1990; based on dissertation). As with so much musical discourse, Kaluli descriptions of musical sounds were filled with natural imagery and the Kaluli created their music in reaction to/in dialogue with the sounds that surrounded and enveloped them. An insightful post from History is made at night: The politics of dancing and musicking brought this all to mind (below). Our relationship with the sounds of our natural environment, including its non-human inhabitants–wild (i.e., birds) and domesticated (i.e., cattle)–have been integral to the development of music. Something it’s all too easy to forget.

Of Cattle and Music (from History is made at night: The politics of dancing and musicking)

How much do the origins of music owe to cattle? I was prompted to think about this when reading ‘The Storr: unfolding landscape’ (edited by Angus Farquhar) a book documenting an ambitious 2005 public art project staged on the Storr mountain on the Isle of Skye by nva (a group with their origins in Test Department).

The event seems to have involved a nightwalk around the mountain with various light and sound happenings – seemingly including the sounds of ancient horns. Hence the book includes an essay by ancient musical instrument expert John Purser, Paths of our Ancestors, which discusses their significance:

‘there were much older instruments belonging to the peoples who herded cattle in Ireland and Scotland – the beautiful curved bronze horns from the Bronze Age itself, of which many still survive. The orginals – some still playable – are derived in form from the horns of cattle and can reproduce the sounds of cattle among other things. They date from three millennia agos and, with their accompanying rattles shaped like a bull’s scrotum, they carry with them a fertile memory of a great herding culture…

Besides being able to imitate the sounds of cattle, bronze horns can also convey a sense of fear or of magic – sounds which relate to the mythology of the cattle, in to which much that is magical is woven. That deeper sound world which is shared by all living things, in which the sounds of warning, or enticement and allure, have some strange commonality beyond analysis, will carry to you the sounds of our ancestors, human and animal, from deep in their throats. Listen in silence and you too may, in imagination, follow those paths where human and animal, reality and myth, meet without embarrassment in natural companionship’.

The notions of the horn section remains at the heart of soul and jazz, even if the instruments no longer resemble their animal ancestors. But the name itself is a reminder that some of the earliest musical instruments were made from cattle (from actual horns, and in the case of drums from the skin of cattle), partly in imitation of the sounds of these creatures. Later bagpipes too were made from animal skin, as well as the belly of some stringed instruments.

I was reminded of some of the primeval power of music last week, and indeed of Test Department, when I came across this lot in Glasgow’s Buchanan Street. Clanadonia are self-styled ‘Tribal Pipes and Drums band’, and they do make a fearsome sound.

Exploring the boundary between sound & music 2:1

Interesting article from Music Think Tank

If a Tree Falls in the Woods Can You Call It Music?

By Keith Andrew

Recently I was reading some material on the controversial yet highly influential experimental composer John Cage –most widely known for his ‘piece’ 4’33” which if you are not familiar with, is 4’33” of silence. A bold statement indeed.

Now, don’t get me wrong- I respect John Cage. In fact I respect most anyone who is willing to explore and push the boundaries of any convention- musical, artistic, philosophical or otherwise. I may think they are wrong; I may think they are foolish or perhaps even dangerous, but I still can find something to respect in their willingness to reach for or beyond something where most are not willing to reach. From these pioneers of exploration we can usually find something of value in their endeavors even if the mission turns up nothing or ends in complete failure and disaster. There is usually some insight to be gained from another’s missteps -however well intentioned they may have been.

Woody Allen said that if you are not making mistakes you are not making progress. So let us indeed be willing to make a mistake as we refuse to play it safe while reaching for something we have not yet seen or achieved.

That being said, and after all due respect being given, on the subject of music, sound and purpose, I could not disagree with John Cage more and I think he is very mistaken. (To read more, click here).

Skindred (“best live band in Britain”) – punk/metal/reggae pop

Thanks to Abdelhalim El Hachimi (of Tales from Bradistan) for turning me on to Skindred, a British band that brings together metal, punk and reggae to create damn good pop music. Below is the first part of his excellent post on Skindred — a lot of info on the band, scads of links, nice photos, and insightful reflections on punk history.

Skindred

Kerrang magazine consistently labels Skindred as the best live band in Britain. I would go further than that and say that they are the best band in Britain full stop. There isn’t much originality or creativity left these days amongst home-grown groups and Skindred stand well apart from the rest of the pack. Their effective fusion of metal, punk and reggae, infused with a pop sensibility, works consistently well and there is literally none like them.

Skindred were formed in 1998 from the ashes of Dub War, the former band of Skindred frontman Benji Webbe. Dub War had a reasonable amount of success but for me the different elements of their sound never came together in the way that Skindred have successfully managed to achieve.

Their first album “Babylon” appeared in 2002 and was subsequently (for the rest, click here…)

UPDATES: more Skindred photos from Tales of Bradistan

Has the Internet created a tyranny of musical choice?

In a thoughtful and thought-provoking follow-up to his article “The Barriers Of Music Consumption” Hypebot Associate Editor Kyle Bylin discusses whether the plethora of choices that have occurred with the shift in the music industry from the top-down major label model to the bottom-up “participatory culture  of the Internet. Has an overload of choices caused an overload that actually diminishes the agency of music consumers. Read and ponder:

The Paradox of Music: Is More, Really Less? (reposted from Hypebot)

I. New Choices

Often times, in discussions about how our culture has become abundant with music and the potential that it has to cause choice overload in the minds of fans, it does not take long for someone to recall the amazing lecture that psychologist Barry Schwartz gave at TED back in 2005, where he explores the central thesis to his book The Paradox of Choice.  Let us use his talk as a starting point for this conversation and try to figure out if the effects of the culture of abundance that he outlines in it also relate with the perils that we suspect fans experience in the digital age.  In doing so, we will get a better idea if fans may fare worse and be robbed of satisfaction in a culture abundant with music. (to read the rest click here)

And for more stimulating reading on a related subject, check out the guest post on Hypebot by Robbert van Ooijen on how music collecting has been affected by the advent of the age of streaming music.

Collecting In The Age Of Streaming Music

The guest essay comes from Robbert van Ooijen, a graduating master student New Media & Digital Culture at the Dutch University of Utrecht. It’s based on a research paper he wrote at the wonderful Dutch start-up Twones and asks what remains of the intimate relationship between collector and collection in the age of streaming music. van Ooijen also blogs @ HaveYouHeard.It.

image from farm4.static.flickr.com
The world is about to embrace streaming music and and a lot has been written about the technical specifications of several streaming music services already. What is often still underexposed however, is the way this new era of consuming music is affecting the way we listen, organize and collect music. The music lover is standing on the threshold of a collection that consists only of links to streams. In the era of streaming music, what is left of the relationship between the collector and his collection? (
to read the rest click here)

The Barriers Of Music Consumption (@ Hypebot.com)

“The Barriers Of Music Consumption” by Hypebot Associate Editor Kyle Bylin raises some important questions about how the digital age has changed our relationship with music. A must read, Bylin puts forth a provocative examination of how changes in the modalities of music consumption have affected the nature of individuals’ experience of the music they choose to “own” and collect. With the shift from album-based collections of music to downloaded songs, often shared through social networks, individuals’

….emotional experience relates not to being in the presence of unique works of art, but solely of the moment of social connection and identification with the other person. This understated difference — in how works of art are experienced — relates to yet another shift in music culture that separates those who were born digital from those of previous generations.

Read the entire article @ Hypebot — here’s a taste of the section on how the I-Pod has fundamentally changed our relationships with our music collection (and with music):

Fractured Collections

With the barriers to the act of collecting music set so low, if not nonexistent, another subtle but significant shift occurred: the psychology behind the acquisition of music changed. For those of previous generations, they collected music with the notion of longevity in mind, as it best reflected their taste in music at that moment. In contrast, for those who engaged in the act of acquiring music through other means, like file-sharing, their taste encompassed past, present, and future interests. Their collections reflected not only their inherent taste and disposition towards certain types of music, but that of their peer group and those whom they surrounded themselves with. Thus, distinct differences between the music that they liked and the artists that they didn’t care for at all became increasingly blurred, and so did the contents of their music collections. In a sense, though, the collections of those who were born digital are not complete. They’re fractured, consisting of bits and pieces of everything, of songs divorced from their origins and physical packaging. These songs stand alone — void of everything but the artist’s name, the album’s title, and the digital cover art. Where the jewel case, booklet, and liner notes served to embody culture, to communicate its identity, and to mirror the taste of its owner — the iPod is merely a container for culture. Its contents reveal the personality of the owner, but say little about the soul of the music.

Long overdue attention to Appalachian blues

SFW40198.jpg

Classic Appalachian Blues from Smithsonian Folkways

Various Artists SFW40198

The “mountain cousin” of the Delta blues, Appalachian blues bears the stamp of a distinctive regional blend of European and African styles and sounds born at the cultural crossroads of railroad camps, mines, and rural settlements. Drawn from deep within the Folkways collection and from historic live recordings at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the music of bedrock blues performers such as Pink Anderson, Lesley Riddle, Etta Baker, John Jackson, and Doc Watson shines bright, claiming Appalachia as a key cradle of American acoustic blues. 21 tracks, 66 minutes, 40-page booklet.

And a review from NPR:

New Collection Explores ‘Classic Appalachian Blues’

by NPR STAFF

May 15, 2010

Josh White

Blues fans have long looked to the Mississippi Delta or Chicago for a taste of authentic Americana, but a new compilation draws attention to another region: Appalachia. Classic Appalachian Blues, from Smithsonian Folkways, features acoustic finger-style blues assembled by music professor Barry Lee Pearson and archivist Jeff Place.

Place says that Appalachian blues is distinct from Mississippi blues because it’s more melodic. It’s dominated by fingerstyle guitar, rather than the percussive playing of Delta blues, and is heavily influenced by ragtime. Also notable is Appalachian music’s mixed racial influences: In mining towns, black and white workers lived in segregated housing, but they played music together.

“You could listen to some 78s of music from there and not know if it was a white or black [musician] playing it,” (to read more click here).

Elevator Music?

JCB lift at Royal Festival Hall

Interesting edition of GompArts, Will Gompertz’s column for the BBC, on a recreation of Martin Creed’s Work No 409 at the Southbank Center in London. The setting is an elevator and the work is a piece for vocalists whose voices rise as the elevator ascends and descends as it falls.

Creed became well-known after winning the Turner Prize in 2001 for his Work No 227: The Lights Going on and Off. He says his art is a way of countering our visually overloaded, choice-saturated culture. I like Creed’s work. I asked him for a line on this piece and got this: “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know which notes are best. I don’t know if I’m coming or going.” Up and down maybe, Martin?

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