A couple of links and a couple of questions. Both have to do with Native American storytelling, and both may give you something to think about as you write your final exams on how Native peoples adapt their traditional forms of cultural expression to survive in a mass society with commercialized media.
First, the links: Go to Kathleen Nichols' website Native American Oral Tales and Songs. Follow her links and read her introduction to Native American origin tales and the Hopi creation story (which you will find by scrolling down to the bottom of the page). What kind of a creature is Spider Woman? What does she tell us about human nature? About the Hopi people? Then go back to Dr. Nichols' homepage and follow the link to her "Introduction to Native American Tricksters." Read about Coyote. How is he different from Spider Woman? How is he the same? What does Coyote tell us about human nature?
In the Pacific Northwest, Raven is a trickster god very much like Coyote. The online enclyclopedia Wikipedia has a good summary overview of the Raven stories. Multimedia artist Larry McNeil of Boise State University in Idaho is of Tlingit heritage, and he works Raven into his art. Read his story of how -- and why -- Raven stole the sun so the people could have light. Surf around his website and look at some of his photos and drawings of Raven. Then decide if McNeil is kind of a trickster himself.
Now, a couple of questions.
1. Most peoples have trickster stories. Bugs Bunny is a direct descendent of a trickster Rabbit in West African and southeastern American Indian tales. And he isn't the only one. How many trickster figures can you name in modern American popular culture? What is their appeal?
2. Here's a link to a story about a Navajo Indian and a public relations officer from NASA. It isn't a traditional story. In fact, it appears to originate with late-night TV show host Johnny Carson. But it's remindful of the old stories about Rabbit, Coyote and Raven. What in us does a trickster story appeal to?
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Sunday, April 23, 2006
HUM 221: NW Coast Arts
Native American art in the Pacific Northwest reached a high level of sophistication, especially in the visual arts. One reason is that they didn't have to struggle as much to find food, since they were expert fishermen and the seas were teeming with salmon, halibut and other fish. Thier storytelling was of a high order, too, many of the stories centering on Raven, both a god and a trickster like Coyote in stories from the Southwestern cultural region. The links in this post will give you a cursory overview of the peoples and their art.
The website Alaska: A Nation Within a State has a pretty good overview of the Northwest Coast culture, which was fairly uniform among the different tribes living along the coast from northern California to South Central Alaska. Note especially their expertise in working with wood. Representative of the Nortwest Coast peoples are the Tlingit (pronounced KLINKit) of Southeast Alaska. Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History has an attractive online exhibit with a brief overview of Tlingit history, art and legends. It also mentions the Tlingits' connection with SEAlaska Corp., a regional corporation set up under the Alaska Native Claims Act in which the people are shareholders.
Possibly the best short introduction to the art of the Northwest Coast is on a website put up by Free Spirit Gallerly, an online art gallery that specializes in Canadian First Nations arts and crafts. Be sure to read Clint Leung's "Introduction to Northwest Coast Native American Art" and follow his links to articles on "The Basic Elements of Northwest Indian Art," totem poles and wood carving. The Free Spirit site is lavish with pictures, and most of the pictures are of contemporary professional artists working with traditional designs and motifs.
A historical footnote:One of my favorite examples of U.S. government efforts to acculturate Native Americans to white anglo society is a Report of the Siletz Indian Agency in Benton County, Oregon, dated Aug. 28, 1882. In it, the superintendent says he is making progress in teaching the Siletz how to use a sawmill, even though it "has not been used as much in the year past as heretofore, for lack of funds, a matter of much regret to a large number [of the people], many of whom have lately been induced to come in and take lands, but were unable to erect houses for want of lumber." He adds:
The website Alaska: A Nation Within a State has a pretty good overview of the Northwest Coast culture, which was fairly uniform among the different tribes living along the coast from northern California to South Central Alaska. Note especially their expertise in working with wood. Representative of the Nortwest Coast peoples are the Tlingit (pronounced KLINKit) of Southeast Alaska. Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History has an attractive online exhibit with a brief overview of Tlingit history, art and legends. It also mentions the Tlingits' connection with SEAlaska Corp., a regional corporation set up under the Alaska Native Claims Act in which the people are shareholders.
Possibly the best short introduction to the art of the Northwest Coast is on a website put up by Free Spirit Gallerly, an online art gallery that specializes in Canadian First Nations arts and crafts. Be sure to read Clint Leung's "Introduction to Northwest Coast Native American Art" and follow his links to articles on "The Basic Elements of Northwest Indian Art," totem poles and wood carving. The Free Spirit site is lavish with pictures, and most of the pictures are of contemporary professional artists working with traditional designs and motifs.
A historical footnote:One of my favorite examples of U.S. government efforts to acculturate Native Americans to white anglo society is a Report of the Siletz Indian Agency in Benton County, Oregon, dated Aug. 28, 1882. In it, the superintendent says he is making progress in teaching the Siletz how to use a sawmill, even though it "has not been used as much in the year past as heretofore, for lack of funds, a matter of much regret to a large number [of the people], many of whom have lately been induced to come in and take lands, but were unable to erect houses for want of lumber." He adds:
The labor in the mills is all performed by Indians with a single exception. I am pleased to say that a number of Indians, so far as I know for the first time, cut their timber, drew their logs, and sawed their own lumber without the aid of government, thus proving themselves on the road to self-support and independence, a thing of which they feel a pride.But he neglects to mention (and may not have known) the Siletz had traditionally lived in cedar or sugar pine plank houses 100ft in length before contact. See also the Siletz History by Robert Kentta, tribal cultural resource director, posted to the Confederated Tribes of Siletz website.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
HUM 221: Links on powwows
In class Wednesday, we saw the first part of a video on powwows called "Into the Circle." As I was watching it and observing your reactions, I was reminded of the first powwows I attended 10-12 years ago. I was bewildered at first, bored after a while ... just for a little while ... and then I started to get drawn into it as I got more comfortable with the beat of the drum, the singing, the amplified voice of Master of Ceremonies introducing dancers, explaining what was happening, telling jokes and just moving the event along like a good MC does at any event ... the booths with arts and crafts, recordings, books ... the woodsmoke drifting through the air ... the taste of "Indian tacos" (beans wrapped in fry bread) and buffalo meat sandwiches ... the whole spectacle that's like part county fair, part craft show and part, well, a community event you won't see anywhere else. I think going to a powwow is the best way to experience a little taste of "Indian Country" for just a few hours.
We have several coming up in Illinois in the next few months. I can't make assignments after the semester's over, but I hope you'll consider going to a powwow over the summer ... the Honor the Eagle Powwow sponsored by Midwest SOARRING at Starved Rock State Park the weekend of May 20-21 ... the Return to Pimiteoui Powwow at A.H Sommer Park off I-74 just west of Peoria the weekend of June 10-11 ... or any of the Illinois powwows listed on the 500 Nations powwow website. Please note that all powwows are drug- and alcohol-free. But you won't mind!
Julia C. White, author of a book called The Pow Wow Trail, has an excellent, beginner-friendly page of tips on visiting a powwow, what to expect and how to behave. If your computer has a sound card (as ours don't in the Dawson 220 computer lab), you get an added benefit -- a looped sound track that starts playing as soon as you open the page.
But before summer, there's finals. And there's going to be a question on your final exam about how Native music and dance traditions have adapted and changed over the years. In addition to Julia White's page, here are some links to help you ace the final:
We have several coming up in Illinois in the next few months. I can't make assignments after the semester's over, but I hope you'll consider going to a powwow over the summer ... the Honor the Eagle Powwow sponsored by Midwest SOARRING at Starved Rock State Park the weekend of May 20-21 ... the Return to Pimiteoui Powwow at A.H Sommer Park off I-74 just west of Peoria the weekend of June 10-11 ... or any of the Illinois powwows listed on the 500 Nations powwow website. Please note that all powwows are drug- and alcohol-free. But you won't mind!
Julia C. White, author of a book called The Pow Wow Trail, has an excellent, beginner-friendly page of tips on visiting a powwow, what to expect and how to behave. If your computer has a sound card (as ours don't in the Dawson 220 computer lab), you get an added benefit -- a looped sound track that starts playing as soon as you open the page.
But before summer, there's finals. And there's going to be a question on your final exam about how Native music and dance traditions have adapted and changed over the years. In addition to Julia White's page, here are some links to help you ace the final:
- The American Indian Culture Research Center at Blue Cloud Abbey in South Dakota has a good summary of the history and meaning of powwows, especially in Lakota country, the "powwow trail," the styles of powwow dancing and other basic information.
- A group of Native dancers from Oklahoma has put up an excellent website on Southern Powwows that catches the spirit of the events, gives the history of their development among Southern Plains peoples like the Ponca and Osage, etiquette for visitors and the art form in general.
HUM 221 hints: 'What's on the final?'
I'm posting here an email message I got from a student, whom I won't embarrass by identifying, because her question ... and my answer ... should be of interest to others in Native American Cultural Expressions (Humanities 221). First, the question:
A couple of further hints:
And then my answer:
> Do you have any idea what you are going to have us do for our final in Hum. 221? I am just trying to get an idea of what I will need to do since it is a little over a week away. If we have an A do we have to take the final, is it like Eng 111?? I was just curious! If you could either, email me back or mention this in class Friday I would appreciate it. Thanks
>
Hi _____, thanks for asking. No, you'll need to write a final even if you've got an A ... It'll be a lot like the midterm, a 50-point essay maybe 3-4 pages long and a couple of 25-point brief (2- to 3-page) essays.Next question?
I haven't made out the exam yet, but I can practically guarantee the 50-point question will deal with how Native American people are adapting their cultural heritage today to art forms like literature (storytelling, poetry, etc.), music and dance, and film. One of the 25-point essays will be be one of those reflective essays I like so much, and one of them will probably be a reader response essay on a poem that I choose. It'll be take-home, open-book and it'll be due at the scheduled time for our final, which is Monday, May 1, at 10:30 a.m.
A couple of further hints:
- Look for commodification (or commercialization) and expropriation to appear somewhere on the final. Here's why: We live in a market economy, for better or worse, and it can be argued that art forms that don't have commercial value won't survive. So the question might read like this: How have Native Americans maintained traditional cultural means of expression -- like storytelling, dance, etc. -- in mass market American society?
- We've been reading stories and poetry, and we watched a video about pow wow dancing this week. Next week I'm almost certain, barring technical difficulties beyond my control, to be screening an indie movie called Kusah Hakwaan that builds on the storytelling tradition of the Tlingit (pronounced KLINK-it) people of Alaska. And I'll also be asking about verbal arts, dance and film.
Monday, April 17, 2006
'Lining Out' 19th-Century Hymns
Written for members of the Charleston-Mattoon Sacred Harp Singers, before the annual Preachin' n' Singing, Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, Lerna, Illinois, Aug. 23, 1998. I "found" it today while cleaning out old files in the SCI campus literary magazine's website.
In the early 1800s, "lining out" the text of a sacred song was the prevailing practice in Illinois. In a 19th-century history of Coles County, it is described like this:
Sunday we will line out the hymn "Amazing Grace" to the tune New Britain (45t) in The Sacred Harp. While we won't sound like we were born to the Old Way, and shouldn't try to, we can suggest some of the sound and flavor of 19th-century lined-out hymnody without violating its spirit.
Much individual freedom was allowed in singing -- to use the technical term, the music was heterophonic in that it allowed "simultaneous variation" of the melody (see Cooke 8: 537). Historian Jack Larkin says, "the pacing was very slow. ... Some singers added their own idiosyncratic quavers and trills on long notes" (252-53). The practice of Old Regular Baptists today is nearly identical. Jeff Todd Tinton of Brown University, who recorded Kentucky congregations in 1992 and 1993, says:
While the Old Way may appear strange at first glance, it isn't wholly unfamiliar to traditional Sacred Harp singers as some of its ornamentation survives to the present -- especially in the South. Buell Cobb says it "help[s] the singer to 'feel out' the melody When traditional tenors slip a la in between the printed sol and fa in the first line of New Britain, they are ornamenting in the Old Way. Country artists from Hank Williams Sr. to Emmy Lou Harris and Ricky Scaggs have used similar ornaments and embellishments.
Best bet: Sing naturally. Don't try to sound like you're from Appalachia. Do what feels most comfortable -- sing in unison, or sing your usual part. Be clear and loud. Put your heart in it. The singing may not always sound pretty, but it'll be good.
Works Cited
Cobb, Buell. The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and its Music. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.
Cooke, Peter. "Heterophony." New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 20 vols. New York: Grove, 1995.
Drummond, Paul. A Portion for the Singers. Atwood, Tenn.: Christian Baptist Library and Publishing Co., 1988.
Hevlin, Jesse, ed. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County. Chicago, 1908.
Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840. New York: HarperCollins, 1989.
Temperley, Nicholas. "The Old Way of Singing: Its Origins and Development." Journal of the American Musicological Society 34 (1981): 511-44.
Titon, Jeff Todd. "Old Regular Baptist Songs." Songs of the Old Regular Baptists: Lined-out Hymnody from Southeastern Kentucky. CD. Washington: Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40106, 1994.
Wilson, Charles Edward, ed. Historical Encyclopedia and History of Coles County. Chicago, 1906.
In the early 1800s, "lining out" the text of a sacred song was the prevailing practice in Illinois. In a 19th-century history of Coles County, it is described like this:
There were not song-books to hand around to the congregation, but the leader would arise with his old "Missouri harmony," containing the music written in "buckwheat" notes, and announce some familiar hymn. He would then read in solemn, monotonous tones the first two lines and lead the congregation in singing them. Then the next two lines would be read followed by singing, and so on until the hymn was finished. (Wilson 627-28)More often a words-only hymn book was used, and tunes came down in oral tradition. Otherwise, the practice as described in Coles County was followed widely. In west central Illinois, a historian drew the word picture of a circuit rider who stands in a Canton church doorway and "reads, or rather recites [a] grand old hymn. ... It is sung by every man and woman present, sung with voices clear and loud" (Hevline 663). Often called the "Old Way," the practice dates back to the 1600s and survives among Old Regular Baptists in Appalachia, as well as some Primitive Baptist congregations (Temperley 511-13). Leaders often line out the text in tones that resemble chant.
Sunday we will line out the hymn "Amazing Grace" to the tune New Britain (45t) in The Sacred Harp. While we won't sound like we were born to the Old Way, and shouldn't try to, we can suggest some of the sound and flavor of 19th-century lined-out hymnody without violating its spirit.
Much individual freedom was allowed in singing -- to use the technical term, the music was heterophonic in that it allowed "simultaneous variation" of the melody (see Cooke 8: 537). Historian Jack Larkin says, "the pacing was very slow. ... Some singers added their own idiosyncratic quavers and trills on long notes" (252-53). The practice of Old Regular Baptists today is nearly identical. Jeff Todd Tinton of Brown University, who recorded Kentucky congregations in 1992 and 1993, says:
The leader sings the very first line [of a song] and the congregation joins in when they recognize the song. After that the song proceeds line by line: the leader chants a line alone, and then the group repats the words but to a tune that is much longer and more elaborate than the leader's chant or lining tune. ... It is very slow and has no regular beat: you can't tap your foot to it. (10-11)Singing in the old way is mostly in unison, but singers are free to improvise harmonies. In fact Paul Drummond says that when Primitive Baptists line out a song, as they do on occasion, they commonly sing it in the four-part harmony of their song books (21). More often, singers embellish or ornament the melody. Says Titon:
Singers learn by following and imitating others, not by reading notes. Melodies are highly elaborated: many syllables have three or more tones, and a great many have at least two. ... Each Old Regular Baptist singer is free to 'curve' the tune a little differently, and those who are able to amke it more alaborate are admired. Outsiders are mistaken if they think the intent is singing with unified precision and that the result falls short ..." (11)To singers who practice the Old Way, as with those who sing the Sacred Harp, music is fundamentally a matter of the spirit rather than aesthetics. Paul Drummond cites Primitive Baptists who believe good singing is not "pretty singing" but singing with "the heart ... in it" (22). Illinoisans of the early 19th century agreed whole-heartedly.
While the Old Way may appear strange at first glance, it isn't wholly unfamiliar to traditional Sacred Harp singers as some of its ornamentation survives to the present -- especially in the South. Buell Cobb says it "help[s] the singer to 'feel out' the melody When traditional tenors slip a la in between the printed sol and fa in the first line of New Britain, they are ornamenting in the Old Way. Country artists from Hank Williams Sr. to Emmy Lou Harris and Ricky Scaggs have used similar ornaments and embellishments.
Best bet: Sing naturally. Don't try to sound like you're from Appalachia. Do what feels most comfortable -- sing in unison, or sing your usual part. Be clear and loud. Put your heart in it. The singing may not always sound pretty, but it'll be good.
Cobb, Buell. The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and its Music. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.
Cooke, Peter. "Heterophony." New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 20 vols. New York: Grove, 1995.
Drummond, Paul. A Portion for the Singers. Atwood, Tenn.: Christian Baptist Library and Publishing Co., 1988.
Hevlin, Jesse, ed. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County. Chicago, 1908.
Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840. New York: HarperCollins, 1989.
Temperley, Nicholas. "The Old Way of Singing: Its Origins and Development." Journal of the American Musicological Society 34 (1981): 511-44.
Titon, Jeff Todd. "Old Regular Baptist Songs." Songs of the Old Regular Baptists: Lined-out Hymnody from Southeastern Kentucky. CD. Washington: Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40106, 1994.
Wilson, Charles Edward, ed. Historical Encyclopedia and History of Coles County. Chicago, 1906.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Western Carolina Dulcimer Week
Editor's Note. I'm pasting in an schedule for the annual Western Carolina University Mountain Dulcimer Week workshop at Cullowhee, N.C., that I got the other day from Mike Anderson. (I'm not going to try to edit out those odd character strings where curly quotes and apostrophes, etc., got converted into ASCII characters in the email -- I figure we're all used to reading them.) Apparently he forwarded it from a Google listserv on dulcimers that I'm not familiar with. May as well leave that in, too. I'll probably want to subscribe to it come summer, when I have time for listservs, and I don't want to lose the address.
I've been attending the Western Carolina workshop since the late 90s, just before it moved to Cullowhee. It's by far one of its kind, and the best dulcimer-playing experience I've had. Bar none.
______________
THE FULL CLASS "BUFFET" - WCU M.D.Week
June 18-23, 2006, Cullowhee, NC
Half of the classes at Cullowhee (Western Carolina Univ. Mountain
Dulcimer Week) take place in the afternoon. They are not in the
catalog, but are listed below.
We invite you to join us and our staff of over 30 instructors for this
outstanding event that focuses with musicians’ love on one instrument -
the Mountain Dulcimer. There are classes to suit everyone’s skills,
goals and musical tastes. Participants register for their morning
course and then for afternoon electives. More details and on-line
registration are available on the WCU website,
http://edoutreach.wcu.edu/dulcimer .
MORNINGS (8:30-11:30) at Cullowhee feature choices of the following
week-long courses:
. Beginner Skills (BETTY SMITH & SARAH BORDERS) (Free loaner dulcimers
available.)
. Beginner-into-Novice Skills (ANNE LOUGH & JEFF SEBENS)
. Novice Skills (BILL TAYLOR & DAVID BEEDE)
. Novice & up course in “TRADITIONAL MUSIC FOR THE MOUNTAIN DULCIMERâ€
(DON PEDI, PHYLLIS GASKINS, RALPH LEE SMITH, & SUSAN BOYER HALEY)
. Novice & Intermediate course in “SINGING WITH THE MOUNTAIN DULCIMER,â€
(MADELINE MacNEIL)
. Novice & up course in “BOWING THE DULCIMER,†(KENNETH BLOOM)
. Intermediate Skills, with LARRY CONGER
. Intermediate thru Advanced course in “MUSICIANSHIP SKILLS, APPLIED
THEORY & ARRANGING,†(JANITA BAKER)
. Intermediate-into-Advanced Skills (KAREN MUELLER)
. Advanced Skills (STEPHEN SEIFERT & AARON O’ROURKE)
. BUILDING A TRADITIONAL MOUNTAIN DULCIMER, (JOHN HURON & HOMER
PHILLIPS) (limited to 10)
2-HR. AFTERNOON ELECTIVE CLASSES (2-4 p.m.). You register for these
after you have chosen your morning course:
Monday afternoon choices:
. Beginner Skills Coaching, Sarah Borders
. Beginner-into-Novice Skills Coaching, Jeff Sebens
. Novice Skills coaching, David Beede
. Meet the Artists: Alan Freeman & Susan Boyer Haley. Everyone welcome.
. Learning to Listen, WAYNE SEYMOUR. Beg.-into-Nov. thru Advanced.
. Christmas in June, Anne Lough. Advancing Novice thru Advanced.
. Creative Back-up Techniques, Aaron O’Rourke. Advancing Novice thru
Advanced.
. Bluegrass on Dulcimer, TERRY LEWIS. Advancing Novice thru Advanced
. Ensembles, Larry Conger. Intermediate.
. How to Hear Your Way Through a Jam Session, Kenneth Bloom,
Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Playing Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer, Stephen Seifert. Intermediate
thru Advanced.
Tuesday afternoon choices:
. Beginner Skills Coaching, Sarah Borders
. Beginner-into-Novice Skills Coaching, Jeff Sebens
. Dulcimer Maintenance, JOE SHELTON. Everyone welcome.
. Introduction to T’ai Chi Ch’uan, Don Pedi. Everyone welcome.
. Easy Rhythmic Strummed Tunes - Appalachian & Cajun, LOIS HORNBOSTEL.
Novice thru Advanced.
. Creating Dynamic Arrangements, Karen Mueller. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Noter Playing - Beyond the Basic!, Phyllis Gaskins. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Ragtime Music, Ken Bloom, ALAN FREEMAN, Janita Baker & Aaron
O’Rourke. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Jazzing up Traditional Tunes, Stephen Seifert. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Dulcimer Teachers’ Forum, Madeline MacNeil. For dulcimer teachers &
aspiring teachers.
. Intro to Writing Tablature on PC Computers (TablEdit), Terry Lewis.
Wednesday afternoon choices:
. Beginner Skills Coaching, Sarah Borders.
. Jamming with Chords for Newer Players, Lois Hornbostel. Advancing
Beginners thru Novice.
. Songs of the Pioneers, Ralph Lee Smith & Madeline MacNeil. Everyone
welcome.
. Clogging Basics (dancing), FLORA MacDONALD GAMMON. Everyone welcome.
. Ballads on Dulcimer, Betty Smith. Novice thru Advanced.
. Gospel Music, Anne Lough. Novice & Intermediate.
. Four Equidistant String Playing, Janita Baker. Novice & Intermediate.
. Using the 1-1/2 Fret, Karen Mueller. Novice thru Advanced.
. Playing with Other Instruments, Wayne Seymour, DREW ANDREWS, JIM
GASKINS. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Whoopin’ & Hollerin’ Fiddle Tunes, Phyllis Gaskins. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Blues & Improvisation, Bill Taylor. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. TablEdit Software for PC Computers -Beyond Basics, Terry Lewis.
(experience with TablEdit).
Thursday afternoon choices:
. Yoga Stretch and Relax, BARBARA GOERGEN. Everyone welcome.
. Old Hymns on the Dulcimer, Betty Smith. All skill levels.
. Rounds & Canons, Janita Baker. All skill levels.
. Indonesian Gamelan Orchestra Playing, WILL PEEBLES. Everyone welcome.
. “On the Trail of the Old Songs†(where to find them), Ralph Lee
Smith. Everyone welcome.
. Mixolydian Mode Music, Wayne Seymour. Novice & Intermediate.
. Slow Fiddle Tunes, Don Pedi. Novice thru Advanced.
. Country Music, Bill Taylor. Novice thru Advanced.
. Celtic Music Sampler, Flora Gammon, Karen Mueller and Phyllis & Jim
Gaskins. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Classical Music, Larry Conger. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Journey thru “Pentatonia,†David Beede. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Performing Skills, MIKE ANDERSON. All playing skill levels.
Besides these classes, the week includes mid-day and evening jam
sessions led by staff for different levels of experience, and lots of
informal jamming. The most beautiful new residence hall you’ve ever
seen. Get-Acquainted supper. Economical tuition. Economical
housing/meals package. Several local campgrounds and lots of hotels.
Three staff concerts. A Participants’ Open Stage. Play in the “WCU
Dulcimer Orchestra.†Shop the Dulcimer Marketplace for dulcimers and
related products. Be a volunteer and earn a free ‘06 WCU Dulcimer tote
bag. Get your dulcimer repaired or fine-tuned by our expert “Dulcimer
Doctor.†Staff “Super Jam.†Chair Massages. Free shuttle bus service
around campus for our participants. Continuing Education Unit credits
for teachers.
The Surroundings: Appalachian Dulcimer Heaven! Western Carolina
University is located in a Smoky Mountains valley, on the lower level
of a relaxed, small country campus. Facilities are modern and clean,
and there is plenty of parking. Cullowhee is right in the middle of one
Southern Appalachia’s favorite outdoor vacation areas, with many
natural and vacation attractions close by. We're 2 hours from
Knoxville, TN, 3 hrs. from Chattanooga, TN. 1 hr. from Asheville, NC. 3
hours from Atlanta, GA.
Come experience lots of fun and friendships as you take advantage of
the best mountain dulcimer classes you can find!
If I can answer any questions or help you, don’t hesitate to contact me
at Loisdulc@verizon.net
Lois Hornbostel, Director
WCU Mountain Dulcimer Week
Cullowhee, NC
http://edoutreach.wcu.edu/dulcimer
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I've been attending the Western Carolina workshop since the late 90s, just before it moved to Cullowhee. It's by far one of its kind, and the best dulcimer-playing experience I've had. Bar none.
______________
THE FULL CLASS "BUFFET" - WCU M.D.Week
June 18-23, 2006, Cullowhee, NC
Half of the classes at Cullowhee (Western Carolina Univ. Mountain
Dulcimer Week) take place in the afternoon. They are not in the
catalog, but are listed below.
We invite you to join us and our staff of over 30 instructors for this
outstanding event that focuses with musicians’ love on one instrument -
the Mountain Dulcimer. There are classes to suit everyone’s skills,
goals and musical tastes. Participants register for their morning
course and then for afternoon electives. More details and on-line
registration are available on the WCU website,
http://edoutreach.wcu.edu/dulcimer .
MORNINGS (8:30-11:30) at Cullowhee feature choices of the following
week-long courses:
. Beginner Skills (BETTY SMITH & SARAH BORDERS) (Free loaner dulcimers
available.)
. Beginner-into-Novice Skills (ANNE LOUGH & JEFF SEBENS)
. Novice Skills (BILL TAYLOR & DAVID BEEDE)
. Novice & up course in “TRADITIONAL MUSIC FOR THE MOUNTAIN DULCIMERâ€
(DON PEDI, PHYLLIS GASKINS, RALPH LEE SMITH, & SUSAN BOYER HALEY)
. Novice & Intermediate course in “SINGING WITH THE MOUNTAIN DULCIMER,â€
(MADELINE MacNEIL)
. Novice & up course in “BOWING THE DULCIMER,†(KENNETH BLOOM)
. Intermediate Skills, with LARRY CONGER
. Intermediate thru Advanced course in “MUSICIANSHIP SKILLS, APPLIED
THEORY & ARRANGING,†(JANITA BAKER)
. Intermediate-into-Advanced Skills (KAREN MUELLER)
. Advanced Skills (STEPHEN SEIFERT & AARON O’ROURKE)
. BUILDING A TRADITIONAL MOUNTAIN DULCIMER, (JOHN HURON & HOMER
PHILLIPS) (limited to 10)
2-HR. AFTERNOON ELECTIVE CLASSES (2-4 p.m.). You register for these
after you have chosen your morning course:
Monday afternoon choices:
. Beginner Skills Coaching, Sarah Borders
. Beginner-into-Novice Skills Coaching, Jeff Sebens
. Novice Skills coaching, David Beede
. Meet the Artists: Alan Freeman & Susan Boyer Haley. Everyone welcome.
. Learning to Listen, WAYNE SEYMOUR. Beg.-into-Nov. thru Advanced.
. Christmas in June, Anne Lough. Advancing Novice thru Advanced.
. Creative Back-up Techniques, Aaron O’Rourke. Advancing Novice thru
Advanced.
. Bluegrass on Dulcimer, TERRY LEWIS. Advancing Novice thru Advanced
. Ensembles, Larry Conger. Intermediate.
. How to Hear Your Way Through a Jam Session, Kenneth Bloom,
Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Playing Chromatic Mountain Dulcimer, Stephen Seifert. Intermediate
thru Advanced.
Tuesday afternoon choices:
. Beginner Skills Coaching, Sarah Borders
. Beginner-into-Novice Skills Coaching, Jeff Sebens
. Dulcimer Maintenance, JOE SHELTON. Everyone welcome.
. Introduction to T’ai Chi Ch’uan, Don Pedi. Everyone welcome.
. Easy Rhythmic Strummed Tunes - Appalachian & Cajun, LOIS HORNBOSTEL.
Novice thru Advanced.
. Creating Dynamic Arrangements, Karen Mueller. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Noter Playing - Beyond the Basic!, Phyllis Gaskins. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Ragtime Music, Ken Bloom, ALAN FREEMAN, Janita Baker & Aaron
O’Rourke. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Jazzing up Traditional Tunes, Stephen Seifert. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Dulcimer Teachers’ Forum, Madeline MacNeil. For dulcimer teachers &
aspiring teachers.
. Intro to Writing Tablature on PC Computers (TablEdit), Terry Lewis.
Wednesday afternoon choices:
. Beginner Skills Coaching, Sarah Borders.
. Jamming with Chords for Newer Players, Lois Hornbostel. Advancing
Beginners thru Novice.
. Songs of the Pioneers, Ralph Lee Smith & Madeline MacNeil. Everyone
welcome.
. Clogging Basics (dancing), FLORA MacDONALD GAMMON. Everyone welcome.
. Ballads on Dulcimer, Betty Smith. Novice thru Advanced.
. Gospel Music, Anne Lough. Novice & Intermediate.
. Four Equidistant String Playing, Janita Baker. Novice & Intermediate.
. Using the 1-1/2 Fret, Karen Mueller. Novice thru Advanced.
. Playing with Other Instruments, Wayne Seymour, DREW ANDREWS, JIM
GASKINS. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Whoopin’ & Hollerin’ Fiddle Tunes, Phyllis Gaskins. Intermediate thru
Advanced.
. Blues & Improvisation, Bill Taylor. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. TablEdit Software for PC Computers -Beyond Basics, Terry Lewis.
(experience with TablEdit).
Thursday afternoon choices:
. Yoga Stretch and Relax, BARBARA GOERGEN. Everyone welcome.
. Old Hymns on the Dulcimer, Betty Smith. All skill levels.
. Rounds & Canons, Janita Baker. All skill levels.
. Indonesian Gamelan Orchestra Playing, WILL PEEBLES. Everyone welcome.
. “On the Trail of the Old Songs†(where to find them), Ralph Lee
Smith. Everyone welcome.
. Mixolydian Mode Music, Wayne Seymour. Novice & Intermediate.
. Slow Fiddle Tunes, Don Pedi. Novice thru Advanced.
. Country Music, Bill Taylor. Novice thru Advanced.
. Celtic Music Sampler, Flora Gammon, Karen Mueller and Phyllis & Jim
Gaskins. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Classical Music, Larry Conger. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Journey thru “Pentatonia,†David Beede. Intermediate thru Advanced.
. Performing Skills, MIKE ANDERSON. All playing skill levels.
Besides these classes, the week includes mid-day and evening jam
sessions led by staff for different levels of experience, and lots of
informal jamming. The most beautiful new residence hall you’ve ever
seen. Get-Acquainted supper. Economical tuition. Economical
housing/meals package. Several local campgrounds and lots of hotels.
Three staff concerts. A Participants’ Open Stage. Play in the “WCU
Dulcimer Orchestra.†Shop the Dulcimer Marketplace for dulcimers and
related products. Be a volunteer and earn a free ‘06 WCU Dulcimer tote
bag. Get your dulcimer repaired or fine-tuned by our expert “Dulcimer
Doctor.†Staff “Super Jam.†Chair Massages. Free shuttle bus service
around campus for our participants. Continuing Education Unit credits
for teachers.
The Surroundings: Appalachian Dulcimer Heaven! Western Carolina
University is located in a Smoky Mountains valley, on the lower level
of a relaxed, small country campus. Facilities are modern and clean,
and there is plenty of parking. Cullowhee is right in the middle of one
Southern Appalachia’s favorite outdoor vacation areas, with many
natural and vacation attractions close by. We're 2 hours from
Knoxville, TN, 3 hrs. from Chattanooga, TN. 1 hr. from Asheville, NC. 3
hours from Atlanta, GA.
Come experience lots of fun and friendships as you take advantage of
the best mountain dulcimer classes you can find!
If I can answer any questions or help you, don’t hesitate to contact me
at Loisdulc@verizon.net
Lois Hornbostel, Director
WCU Mountain Dulcimer Week
Cullowhee, NC
http://edoutreach.wcu.edu/dulcimer
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Friday, April 07, 2006
HUM 221: Tradition, family, 'what we do'
We're been talking about family in Humanities 221 lately, and how cultural values are passed down from father to son, or mother to daughter as in the case of Navajo poet Luci Tapahonso. Now comes a reminder that these values, and the role of families in handing them down aren't limited to Native people. I think they're universal.
In today's issue of The Chicago Sun-Times, there's a column by religion writer Cathleen Falsani that explores how Jewish religious traditions surrounding the Passover resemble American cultural traditions like Thanksgiving. The column is a review of a soon-to-be-released movie called "When Do We Eat?" Falsani says: "It's a classic holiday comedy -- in the vein of 'Home for the Holidays' and 'Christmas Vacation' -- but set around the Seder table at Ira and Peggy Stuckman's tony suburban home during Passover." Falsani explains:
Falsani, Cathleen. "Passover Movie Shares Family's Seder Stories" Chicago Sun-Times April 7, 2006: 30.
In today's issue of The Chicago Sun-Times, there's a column by religion writer Cathleen Falsani that explores how Jewish religious traditions surrounding the Passover resemble American cultural traditions like Thanksgiving. The column is a review of a soon-to-be-released movie called "When Do We Eat?" Falsani says: "It's a classic holiday comedy -- in the vein of 'Home for the Holidays' and 'Christmas Vacation' -- but set around the Seder table at Ira and Peggy Stuckman's tony suburban home during Passover." Falsani explains:
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Passover, or Pesach, here's the 10-cent version: It's an annual eight-day festival that celebrates how God delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.Family gathered around a dinner table. Sound familiar? To Falsani, it does:
The Seder is a special dinner held on the second night of Passover (though it's held on the first night in Israel) where the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt is retold using the Haggadah, a special text that is read aloud during the meal by different members of the family (blood or chosen) around the table.
There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but that's the Judaism 101 version, and you get the picture. Long meal, long stories, lots of wine and prayers.
Like how my family can't officially start Thanksgiving dinner until someone's dislodged the scary, gelatinous log of tinned cranberry "sauce" (preferably with the ridges from the can still visible) onto a saucer, even though no one eats it.Part of the Seder tradition is to invite a goy, a gentile, to share the stories and the history as family members read from the Haggadah around the Seder table. Falsani recalls:
Or how my husband's family will play this toss-the-bean-bag-through-the-hole-in-the-box game on the front lawn for hours -- HOURS! -- at any and all gatherings.
And how our family watches "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" after Christmas dinner, always pausing at the part where Randy Quaid winds up before he kicks kidnapped, pajama-clad Brian Doyle-Murray in the butt as they approach the Griswold family's front door, to rewind. Twice.
It's tradition.
It's what we do.
It's part of our story.
Six or seven years ago, I attended my first Seder. A colleague invited my husband and me to her parents' home in Skokie. We were made to feel part of the family that night as we read the story of the exodus, asked questions, debated the answers, drank wine and ate a lot of food.OK, fine. All right, already. But what does Thanksgiving or Passover have to do with Native Americans? Falsani adds:
There were arguments about reading the Haggadah too fast or too slowly, which parts to skip, which parts to linger over. But what I remember best and most fondly about my first Seder are the family stories told along with the story of the Israelites. Contemporary stories of struggles, deliverance and redemption. Their stories.
My friend's father passed away the next year. I cherish that Passover. I can still taste the gefilte fish and the kishka, still hear the family praying together in Hebrew, and their laughter.
"When Do We Eat?" reminded me of how important it is (or should be) for families to tell and retell their stories. To remember where we've been, what God has brought us through -- big and small, good and bad.In the end, I think, cultural traditions are about home and family, about what we eat and what we do. No matter whether we're Navajo like Luci Tapahonso, Jewish like the characters in "When Do We Eat?" or kind of Brand X generic American like I am, our traditions go a long way to define who we are.
It made me laugh and almost cry. It also made me hungry and homesick.
Falsani, Cathleen. "Passover Movie Shares Family's Seder Stories" Chicago Sun-Times April 7, 2006: 30.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Luci Tapahonso's "In 1864"
An experiment for HUM 221 --
We'll read "In 1864" by Navajo (Dine) poet Luci Tapahonso in class Wednesday. To take full advantage of the internet, you'll want to open two or three windows. First, click here to open the poem. Since the poem is about the "Long Walk" of the Navajo or Dine people, i.e. their forced removal by the U.S. Army from their homeland -- the Dinetah -- you'll want to open a Yahoo! map of New Mexico, too. (Scroll down to New Mexico and open the JPEG file.) The Dinetah is in the northwest corner of the state and stretches far into northeastern Arizona as well. Look for Farmington and Shiprock on the map, and the Chuska Mountains along the state line north of Window Rock, Ariz.
The historical background goes like this. In 1864 the Navajo were rounded up by troops under command of Gen. Kit Carson and marched southeast to Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico, on the edge of the Great Plains. (You can see a label for part of the Great Plains. Look for the Llano Estacado in Texas, to the east of Fort Sumner. Part of the label has been cropped out.) There they tried to farm. But the country was very different from the high desert of the Dinetah, the weather was too dry to raise a decent crop and many people starved. After a few years, they were allow to return to the Dinetah.
Luci Tapahonso's poem is a story within a story. As it begins, she and her daughter are driving along a freeway -- I think it's Interstate 40 east of Albuquerque, but I'm not sure, and the exact route number doesn't matter anyway -- and they pass the turnoff to Fort Sumner. That reminds Tapahonso of a friend, a Navajo electrician, who took a job near where his people had suffered so much in the 1800s. But he couldn't stand it there, so he quit and returned to the high desert country of the Dinetah. To be among family and friends, he said. But also to get away from the spirits of the people who had died in the eastern plains. After Tapahonso tells her daughter this first story, they stop for a Coke. Then she tells the story of the Long Walk as they drive along. I think the poem ends on a note of optimism and celebration, as Tapahonso talks about the jewelry and cherished foods like frybread they learned to make in those times of sadness. But I don't want to force my interpretation on anybody else.
Some words you may not be familiar with:
We'll read "In 1864" by Navajo (Dine) poet Luci Tapahonso in class Wednesday. To take full advantage of the internet, you'll want to open two or three windows. First, click here to open the poem. Since the poem is about the "Long Walk" of the Navajo or Dine people, i.e. their forced removal by the U.S. Army from their homeland -- the Dinetah -- you'll want to open a Yahoo! map of New Mexico, too. (Scroll down to New Mexico and open the JPEG file.) The Dinetah is in the northwest corner of the state and stretches far into northeastern Arizona as well. Look for Farmington and Shiprock on the map, and the Chuska Mountains along the state line north of Window Rock, Ariz.
The historical background goes like this. In 1864 the Navajo were rounded up by troops under command of Gen. Kit Carson and marched southeast to Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico, on the edge of the Great Plains. (You can see a label for part of the Great Plains. Look for the Llano Estacado in Texas, to the east of Fort Sumner. Part of the label has been cropped out.) There they tried to farm. But the country was very different from the high desert of the Dinetah, the weather was too dry to raise a decent crop and many people starved. After a few years, they were allow to return to the Dinetah.
Luci Tapahonso's poem is a story within a story. As it begins, she and her daughter are driving along a freeway -- I think it's Interstate 40 east of Albuquerque, but I'm not sure, and the exact route number doesn't matter anyway -- and they pass the turnoff to Fort Sumner. That reminds Tapahonso of a friend, a Navajo electrician, who took a job near where his people had suffered so much in the 1800s. But he couldn't stand it there, so he quit and returned to the high desert country of the Dinetah. To be among family and friends, he said. But also to get away from the spirits of the people who had died in the eastern plains. After Tapahonso tells her daughter this first story, they stop for a Coke. Then she tells the story of the Long Walk as they drive along. I think the poem ends on a note of optimism and celebration, as Tapahonso talks about the jewelry and cherished foods like frybread they learned to make in those times of sadness. But I don't want to force my interpretation on anybody else.
Some words you may not be familiar with:
arroyo a dry gully or gulch in the desert.A fascinating article by a Navajo elementary school teacher named Sara Begay in Canku Ota: An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America, discusses a school trip through "Navajoland" (the Dinetah), the Long Walk and many points of Navajo history, language and culture. I recommend it highly.
bilagaana Navajo word for white people.
Kit Carson A fur trapper, "mountain man" and U.S. military leader, hated by the Navajo.
Redshirt A name the Navajo used for Carson.
Canyon de Chelly Pronounced "canyon d'SHAY." An ancient center of Navajo civilization near Chinle in eastern Arizona.
Hwééldi A Navajo word meaning "fortress," applied to Fort Sumter.
Bosque Redondo The countryside around Fort Sumner. An article by the local Chamber of Commerce tells of the plans to teach the Navajo how to farm like white people went tragically wrong.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Story, myth, reader response
HUM 221 student advisory --
This post adds a new persepctive to our thread on reader response. From Ireland, of all places.
It's from a novel called Ireland by Frank Delaney, a broadcaster for the BBC network in Great Britain who has written eight other novels. This one is about an Irish storyteller, or seanchai, and Avon brought it out in paperback in March. (Ever right up to date, I found it on the bookrack at Jewel-Osco about 9 p.m. last night, with three hours to go in the month.) In a little introduction up in the Roman numeral section of the book, Delaney says "to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough; this is a country that reprocesses itself through the mills of its imagination." Of course, he's not just talking about the Irish. And that's where HUM 221 and reader response come in. Delaney adds:
Footnote: I wasn't familiar with the word "seanchai," so I googled it. I found it it's pronounced SHAWn-a-kee, and it's the Gaelic word for a storyteller. I also found a really well written weblog called Blogh An Seanchai. It's by an Irish software developer who said it's "an Irish Gaelic word, to describe old guys who sat by the fire in the evening and told stories that meandered between fact and fantasy." After my own heart!
This post adds a new persepctive to our thread on reader response. From Ireland, of all places.
It's from a novel called Ireland by Frank Delaney, a broadcaster for the BBC network in Great Britain who has written eight other novels. This one is about an Irish storyteller, or seanchai, and Avon brought it out in paperback in March. (Ever right up to date, I found it on the bookrack at Jewel-Osco about 9 p.m. last night, with three hours to go in the month.) In a little introduction up in the Roman numeral section of the book, Delaney says "to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough; this is a country that reprocesses itself through the mills of its imagination." Of course, he's not just talking about the Irish. And that's where HUM 221 and reader response come in. Delaney adds:
[W]e all do that. We merge our myths with our facts according to our feelings, we tell ourselves our own story. And no matter what we are told, we choose what we believe. All "truths" are only our truths, because we bring to the "facts" our feelings, our experiences, our wishes. Thus, storytelling -- from wherever it comes -- forms a layer in the foundation of the world; and glinting on it we can see the trace elements of every tribe on earth. (v)I would only add that by engaging ourselves with another person's story, we can add something to our own tribal elements, modify them and make them our own.
Footnote: I wasn't familiar with the word "seanchai," so I googled it. I found it it's pronounced SHAWn-a-kee, and it's the Gaelic word for a storyteller. I also found a really well written weblog called Blogh An Seanchai. It's by an Irish software developer who said it's "an Irish Gaelic word, to describe old guys who sat by the fire in the evening and told stories that meandered between fact and fantasy." After my own heart!
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
More on reader response
For HUM 221 students who want a better idea how to go about doing Monday's reader response paper --
"Reader response" is a both a literary theory and a way of teaching literature. According to Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs, edtiors of Literature (an imaginatively titled textbook we used to assign in English 112 at SCI), it allows "readers to bring their own personal reactions to literature, but it also aims to increase the discipline and skills of readers" (1967). How can you go wrong with that?
A lot of English teachers like reader response theory because it allows students more creativity than other approaches to literature. In reader response, you don't have to play like you're an expert when you're not and don't want to be. I also like it, especially in a course like Native American Cultural Studies, because it allows us to approach a work of art from a different culture and to examine our own cultural assumptions while we're doing it.
On the tip sheet linked to my faculty page, I've given you three questions to ask yourselves as you do a reader response: (1) What in the work jumps out at me? (2) What in my background makes me respond that way? (3) What passages in the work can I quote (or describe if it's music or visual art) analyze my response? Roberts and Jacobs suggest a similar approach:
One essay I've returned to several times over the years is by David S. Miall of the University of Alberta in Canada. It's entitled "Empowering the Reader: Literary Response and Classroom Learning" (click on "Online Essays," and open the seventh item in the directory). Miall explains how you reader response can help you hang onto some of the enjoyment of literature while writing about it for a class. He has a subsection titled "Which would you prefer: A trip to the dentist or doing some poetry?" (Surveys he did at Alberta might suggest good news for dentists!) Most important, he has some advice for people who are responding to a text in a classroom setting:
"Reader response" is a both a literary theory and a way of teaching literature. According to Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs, edtiors of Literature (an imaginatively titled textbook we used to assign in English 112 at SCI), it allows "readers to bring their own personal reactions to literature, but it also aims to increase the discipline and skills of readers" (1967). How can you go wrong with that?
A lot of English teachers like reader response theory because it allows students more creativity than other approaches to literature. In reader response, you don't have to play like you're an expert when you're not and don't want to be. I also like it, especially in a course like Native American Cultural Studies, because it allows us to approach a work of art from a different culture and to examine our own cultural assumptions while we're doing it.
On the tip sheet linked to my faculty page, I've given you three questions to ask yourselves as you do a reader response: (1) What in the work jumps out at me? (2) What in my background makes me respond that way? (3) What passages in the work can I quote (or describe if it's music or visual art) analyze my response? Roberts and Jacobs suggest a similar approach:
The representative questions of the [reader response] theory are these: What does this work mean to me, in my present intellectual and moral makeup? What particular aspects of my life can help me understand and appreciate the work? How can the work improve my understanding and widen my insights? How can my increasing understanding help me understand the work more deeply? The theory is that the free interchange or transaction that such questions bring about leads toward interest and growth so that readers can assimilate literary works and accept them as part of their lives. (1966-67)There is a lot of good stuff on the internet, too.
One essay I've returned to several times over the years is by David S. Miall of the University of Alberta in Canada. It's entitled "Empowering the Reader: Literary Response and Classroom Learning" (click on "Online Essays," and open the seventh item in the directory). Miall explains how you reader response can help you hang onto some of the enjoyment of literature while writing about it for a class. He has a subsection titled "Which would you prefer: A trip to the dentist or doing some poetry?" (Surveys he did at Alberta might suggest good news for dentists!) Most important, he has some advice for people who are responding to a text in a classroom setting:
Given a new text, such as a poem, students might start by being asked to notice the most immediately striking aspects of the text: what, for them, stands out, seems interesting or puzzling, or feels different. A class of students undertaking this task will pick out much of the foregrounding [by which he means "stylistic high points" like images, themes, imaginative use of language] in the text, even though they may not recognize what specific features they are responding to, such as alliteration, or a metaphor. Secondly, students can be set to examine how the features they have noticed repeat, contrast, or otherwise relate; they can begin to articulate how the text seems to divide into larger sections, and how the sections as a whole might be characterized. So far, then, students will have picked out significant foregrounding, and begun to build a sense of the form of the text. Both these activities are enhanced by putting students together in small groups where they can compare their findings and discuss agreements and disagreements; at this stage, students often learn more from each other than they would from the instructor.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Ira Hayes, Cowboys, Horses, Dogs
HUM 221 students --
In class the other day, we listened to a cover of "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" by a singer-songwriter from San Antonio named Tom Russell, who has a home page you might want to give a listen to when you're on a computer with a sound card. Here's some more information on Russell and his version of the song, in case it helps you with the "listener response" essays I've assigned for Monday. If you need to see the lyrics again, covers by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan are available on the internet.
Russell's version of Ira Hayes is on his CD "Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs." He introduces the song with a monolog, in which he talks about an Osage Indian chief named Bacon Rind, who was immortalized in a series of give-away drinking glasses during the 1950s, and Chief Seattle, who is known for a famous speech in the mid-19th century.
Bacon Rind lived from 1860 to 1932, and he was principal chief of the Osage Nation during the early 20th century. He was immortalized in a set of Acee glasses given away with a fill-up at Knox Oil Co. gas stations in Oklahoma during the 1950s. You can usually find a picture by looking for Knox Indian Glassware on eBay. Talk about commodification!
Chief Seattle wasn't a chief, and his speech may never have been given. But he was a leader of the Salish Indians around Puget Sound, and the city of Seattle was named for him. Dated in 1854, the speech wasn't written down till it appeared in a newspaper account written in 1887 by a Seattle physician who heard the speech 30 years earlier. Its historical accuracy has been sharply questioned, by an archivist who has studied the available written records, and a heavily romanticized, New Age-y version appeared in the 1960s. So we've got commodification with the Bacon Rind glasses, and expropriation with Chief Seattle's speech. Whatever its origin, both versions have gone into popular culture.
In his song, titled "Bacon Rind-Chief Seattle-Ballad of Ira Hayes," songwriter Russell quotes from the 1887 version of Chief Seattle's speech:
A footnote: Most of the material on the internet identifies Peter LaFarge, who wrote "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," as a "Naragaset" Indian. There are good biographies on a Bob Dylan fan website put up in Germany and Wikipedia online, user-written encyclopedia. But I suspect it's a misspelling of the Naragansett tribe, who lived in what is now Rhode Island during the 1600s. The Encyclopedia of Native Music (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 2005) flatly says he was Naragansett.
In class the other day, we listened to a cover of "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" by a singer-songwriter from San Antonio named Tom Russell, who has a home page you might want to give a listen to when you're on a computer with a sound card. Here's some more information on Russell and his version of the song, in case it helps you with the "listener response" essays I've assigned for Monday. If you need to see the lyrics again, covers by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan are available on the internet.
Russell's version of Ira Hayes is on his CD "Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs." He introduces the song with a monolog, in which he talks about an Osage Indian chief named Bacon Rind, who was immortalized in a series of give-away drinking glasses during the 1950s, and Chief Seattle, who is known for a famous speech in the mid-19th century.
Bacon Rind lived from 1860 to 1932, and he was principal chief of the Osage Nation during the early 20th century. He was immortalized in a set of Acee glasses given away with a fill-up at Knox Oil Co. gas stations in Oklahoma during the 1950s. You can usually find a picture by looking for Knox Indian Glassware on eBay. Talk about commodification!
Chief Seattle wasn't a chief, and his speech may never have been given. But he was a leader of the Salish Indians around Puget Sound, and the city of Seattle was named for him. Dated in 1854, the speech wasn't written down till it appeared in a newspaper account written in 1887 by a Seattle physician who heard the speech 30 years earlier. Its historical accuracy has been sharply questioned, by an archivist who has studied the available written records, and a heavily romanticized, New Age-y version appeared in the 1960s. So we've got commodification with the Bacon Rind glasses, and expropriation with Chief Seattle's speech. Whatever its origin, both versions have gone into popular culture.
In his song, titled "Bacon Rind-Chief Seattle-Ballad of Ira Hayes," songwriter Russell quotes from the 1887 version of Chief Seattle's speech:
To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground. You wander far from the graves of your ancestors and seemingly without regret. Your religion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron finger of your God so that you could not forget. The Red Man could never comprehend or remember it. Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors -- the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.There's also a brief MP3 sound clip available on line.
A footnote: Most of the material on the internet identifies Peter LaFarge, who wrote "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," as a "Naragaset" Indian. There are good biographies on a Bob Dylan fan website put up in Germany and Wikipedia online, user-written encyclopedia. But I suspect it's a misspelling of the Naragansett tribe, who lived in what is now Rhode Island during the 1600s. The Encyclopedia of Native Music (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 2005) flatly says he was Naragansett.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
HUM 221: Health care, cultural issues
A proposed spending cut in President Bush's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year reflects how cultural issues can be overlooked by the U.S. government. Whatever you think about Bush, this kind of thing has been going on since George Washington was president (and our next leader before him, King George III, wasn't too swift on Indian policy either, come to think of it). A story picked up today by The Guardian (U.K.) gives the details.
According to a story by Angie Wagner, a reporter in The Associated Press' bureau in Las Vegas, Bush wants to "zero out the $33 million allocation for urban Indian health clinics." In addition to the politics of the issue, which are (as always) debatable, Wagner touches on cultural issues when she quotes American Indians who say the clinics offer services that are culturally unique. It is this angle that is overlooked by the proposed budget cut. Wagner says:
But Wagner also quotes health care providers who say many Native Americans need types of care that that their culture into account:
According to a story by Angie Wagner, a reporter in The Associated Press' bureau in Las Vegas, Bush wants to "zero out the $33 million allocation for urban Indian health clinics." In addition to the politics of the issue, which are (as always) debatable, Wagner touches on cultural issues when she quotes American Indians who say the clinics offer services that are culturally unique. It is this angle that is overlooked by the proposed budget cut. Wagner says:
In Bush's 2007 budget proposal, it is suggested that urban Indians can go to community health centers instead, since those centers are slated to receive a $181 million increase that would build or expand 300 sites.
Alex Conant, spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, noted the increase and said: ``Urban Indians, like all Americans, continue to benefit from the president's initiatives to make health care more affordable and available.''
But Wagner also quotes health care providers who say many Native Americans need types of care that that their culture into account:
Community health centers are already ``stretched to the limit,'' said Amy Simmons, spokeswoman for the National Association for Community Health Centers. The proposed program expansion isn't designed to meet the needs of urban Indians, Daniel Hawkins, the association's vice president for federal, state and public affairs, said in a recent letter to Bush.Another perspective was provided by Cynthia Jurosek, a patient and temporary employee at the Indian Health Board in Billings, Mont., said:
``My fear is losing our Indian identity,'' said [Susette] Schwartz, the Wichita [Hunter Health C]linic CEO. ``We would be able to stay open, but would lose our Native American programs.''
At the Wichita clinic, which also operates as a community health clinic, urban Indians receive free services and prescriptions. Some 2,700 Indians visited the clinic last year.
If the funding is dropped, urban Indians there could get health care from the community clinic. But they would miss the cultural connection they enjoy now because most Indian workers would lose their jobs, Schwartz said.
``We have so many people who don't know exactly why they're so messed up and out drinking and abusing until they talk to someone who understands Indian history. There's generations of anger that only someone who understands can connect the dots,'' Schwartz said.
``All these urban clinics, they belong to the Indians,'' said Jurosek, a Crow Indian. ``It's where they can go and feel good about themselves. They're treated with respect. And that's what I will lose here.Again, the politics of the issue are debatate. But it's another example the U.S. government hasn't ever known quite what to do about American Indians.
``I will lose people who are truly interested in helping me get well.''
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Writing about the arts
For HUM 221 students --
A draft of a tip sheet I'll post to my faculty webpage on how to write about the humanities. I'll post more suggestions on ways to go about it as we go along, but I wanted to put something up ASAP for people who want to get started now. -- pe
When we’re writing about the humanities, we’re basically writing about works of art created by human beings. Even when we’re dealing with philosophical or religious ideas, they’re apt to be presented in some form of artistic expression -- an essay or story for example. The American Heritage Dictionary has two definitions of art that we’re concerned with here:
The arts are varied. In Humanities 221, we touch on literature, religion, architecture, visual and performing arts in Native American cultures, and we focus on cross-cultural communication processes and culturally determined assumptions and beliefs in diverse cultural settings. In other words, we cover a wide range of artistic and cultural expression.
But there are several things the different forms of artistic expression have in common, and that fact can help us when we go to write about any of them.
For one thing, the humanities are not rocket science. There’s nothing like a “right” answer you can look up in the back of the book. Karen Goslik of the Dartmouth Writing Project explains:
You’ve done something like in high school English classes, right? When you wrote about a poem or a short story, you were analyzing a text. What may be new to you is this idea that a “text” isn’t just words. It can also be a movie, a painting -– or any other form of artistic expression.
Let’s go back to the dictionary. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “text” as the “original words of something written or printed” but also as “[s]omething, such as a literary work or other cultural product, regarded as an object of critical analysis.” It’s with that second meaning of the word that we’re dealing with in HUM 221. A Navajo sand painting can be a text. So can a powwow dance, a squash blossom necklace, a song, a musical composition or a story of how the world was created.
I'll add to this as we go along, but I wanted to get it up on the web for students who want to get started early.
A draft of a tip sheet I'll post to my faculty webpage on how to write about the humanities. I'll post more suggestions on ways to go about it as we go along, but I wanted to put something up ASAP for people who want to get started now. -- pe
When we’re writing about the humanities, we’re basically writing about works of art created by human beings. Even when we’re dealing with philosophical or religious ideas, they’re apt to be presented in some form of artistic expression -- an essay or story for example. The American Heritage Dictionary has two definitions of art that we’re concerned with here:
- Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature; and
- The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
The arts are varied. In Humanities 221, we touch on literature, religion, architecture, visual and performing arts in Native American cultures, and we focus on cross-cultural communication processes and culturally determined assumptions and beliefs in diverse cultural settings. In other words, we cover a wide range of artistic and cultural expression.
But there are several things the different forms of artistic expression have in common, and that fact can help us when we go to write about any of them.
For one thing, the humanities are not rocket science. There’s nothing like a “right” answer you can look up in the back of the book. Karen Goslik of the Dartmouth Writing Project explains:
Humanities as a field of study deals with questions for which there are no definitive answers. Consider the questions that have haunted the humanities for centuries: What is justice? The nature of friendship? The essence of God? The properties of truth? While scholars in this field certainly hope to address these questions in ways that are compelling and authoritative, they don't write first and foremost to establish consensus among their peers. In other words, they do not expect to create in their work a reliable, scientific truth.Keep that in the back of your mind – it’s “not about finding the answer, it's about finding an answer.” Here’s something else to keep in mind. Writing about the humanities is writing about texts. Goslik explains:
Students of the sciences may well find this frustrating. Writing in the humanities is not about finding the answer, it's about finding an answer. The humanities concern themselves with the construction and deconstruction of meaning. They have as their center not the interpretation of hard evidence, but the interpretation of texts.
Evidence in the humanities is textual. In other words, scholars in this field work most often with written documents, though films, paintings, etc. are also understood as "texts." Humanities scholars read texts closely, looking for patterns, examining language, considering what is not present in the text, as well as what is.In other words, says Goslik, you don’t have to wait to discuss your findings under a separate heading at the end of the paper; instead, you discuss them as you go along.
The pattern of discourse in the humanities usually goes like this: a writer makes a claim, supports that claim with textual evidence, and then discusses the significance of the passage he has just quoted. This pattern of claim / textual support / discussion is repeated again and again until the writer feels that her argument has been made. What distinguishes the humanities from the sciences and the social sciences is that each claim is supported and discussed before the next claim is considered.
You’ve done something like in high school English classes, right? When you wrote about a poem or a short story, you were analyzing a text. What may be new to you is this idea that a “text” isn’t just words. It can also be a movie, a painting -– or any other form of artistic expression.
Let’s go back to the dictionary. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “text” as the “original words of something written or printed” but also as “[s]omething, such as a literary work or other cultural product, regarded as an object of critical analysis.” It’s with that second meaning of the word that we’re dealing with in HUM 221. A Navajo sand painting can be a text. So can a powwow dance, a squash blossom necklace, a song, a musical composition or a story of how the world was created.
I'll add to this as we go along, but I wanted to get it up on the web for students who want to get started early.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Antique dulcimer in Illinois
In my last post, headed Historic dulcimer pattern in Carolina, I linked to a photo of a dulcimer on exhibit this month in Boone, N.C. Its pattern traces back to the 1880s in West Virginia.Well, a dulcimer of that same general pattern turned up in west central Illinois in the early 1900s. It was brought here by a family who moved here from the Greenbrier River country in eastern West Virginia and settled across the Mississippi River from Keokuk. In 2002 Leslie Williams of Orlando, who grew up in Hamilton, Ill., e-mailed me:
... I can remember the "dulcimer" being a part of the decor of the house. In due course I heard my Mother play the instrument and was fascinated, but unable to play in her style. She used a "noter" and a piece of very springy steel, although she preferred a turkey quill. The instrument was made by a, now forgotten, luthier in West Virginia for my Grandmother. She was 18 when the luthier presented the instument to her in 1902.Williams sent me the photo you see above. The instrument's shape is very much like those made by Charles Prichard of Huntington, W.Va., who flourished from the 1880s till his death in 1904. Was he the luthier? Perhaps. But the sound holes are different -- Prichard's were the traditional heart shape, and this dulcimer has diamonds. It's a mystery.
Perhaps it was Prichard. He was still alive in 1902. Perhaps it was someone who traced his pattern ... that's how it got to North Carolina. Dulcimer historian Ralph Lee Smith, who is a retired journalist and knows how to spin a good tale, explains in his book Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions how in the 1880s a "Stranger from the West" stayed overnight with Eli Presnell of Beech Mountain, N.C., and allowed him to trace the pattern. It has been handed down in the Presnell and Glenn families since that time.
Related postsI found a hard copy of another email from Les Williams and A historic Carolina dulcimer pattern on March 4.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Historic Carolina dulcimer pattern
There's a picture of one of Clifford or Leonard Glenn's dulcimers in the current (March 2) issue of The Mountain Times, a weekly published in Boone, N.C. It's part of an exhibit "Instrument Builders of the Blue Ridge" in Boone put together by the Watauga County Arts Council and the Mazie Jones Gallery. Also pictured are some gorgeous fiddles.
“Leonard’s son—Clifford Glenn—he is now part of the older generation of instrument makers,” Mark Freed, folklorist for the Watauga County Arts Council, told The Times. "He is one of the last guys around who are making the old-time style of banjo and dulcimer.”
The dulcimer pictured is a pattern that's been in Glenn's family since the 1880s. Ralph Lee Smith, the dulcimer historian, has traced it to a maker named Charles Prichard who flourished in West Virginia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mine, which doesn't have the inlay around the soundholes that shows in the newspaper picture, is dated July 19, 2002. The Glenn family dulcimers' dimensions are exactly the same as one of Prichard's, as Ralph likes to demonstrate in classes at Western Carolina University.
“Leonard’s son—Clifford Glenn—he is now part of the older generation of instrument makers,” Mark Freed, folklorist for the Watauga County Arts Council, told The Times. "He is one of the last guys around who are making the old-time style of banjo and dulcimer.”
The dulcimer pictured is a pattern that's been in Glenn's family since the 1880s. Ralph Lee Smith, the dulcimer historian, has traced it to a maker named Charles Prichard who flourished in West Virginia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mine, which doesn't have the inlay around the soundholes that shows in the newspaper picture, is dated July 19, 2002. The Glenn family dulcimers' dimensions are exactly the same as one of Prichard's, as Ralph likes to demonstrate in classes at Western Carolina University.
A milestone -- we're No. 1,125,742!
I just registered Hogfiddle with Technorati, the search engine that specializes in blogs, and received the following rank: 1,125,742 (0 links from 0 sites). Described sometimes as the Google of the blog world, Technorati tracks the number of blogs that link to each other and, more importantly, the number of people that visit each registered blog page. Hence the pecking order. Technorati explains:
In the world of blogs, hyperlinks are ... significant, since bloggers frequently link to and comment on other blogs, which creates the sense of timeliness and connectedness one would have in a conversation. So Technorati tracks the number of links, and the perceived relevance of blogs, as well as the real-time nature of blogging. Because Technorati automatically receives notification from weblogs as soon as they are updated, it can track the thousands of updates per hour that occur in the blogosphere, and monitor the communities (who's linking to whom) underlying these conversations.So ... it's a start. More important, the Technorati home page is a good place to start surfing the blogosphere.
Monday, February 27, 2006
A shape-note tradition in Decatur
Local Sacred Harp singers did something new Sunday at the end of a singing at Millikin University in Decatur. Well, it wasn't completely new -- instead, we revived and adapted an old tradition we'd been in danger of losing in this part of the country. We sang our usual closing song, Christian's Farewell (No. 347 in The Sacred Harp), but we took the parting hand as we sang it.
The parting hand is an old, old practice in Southern singings, as singers go around the room shaking hands during the last song or "closer." But it sort of fell by the wayside in Midwestern singings, at least the ones I've been to in downstate Illinois, when we stopped using the old William Walker song The Parting Hand (No. 62) as a closer. But as we sang Christian's Farewell, a couple of people started shaking hands around the hollow square. A few more of us joined in, and then more ... and the scene in Millikin's ultra-modern Pilling Chapel carried me back to singings in pine-plank country churches down home in Tennessee. It felt good to be doing it again, and in an adapted form that celebrates both the people I first learned the music from and the people I sing with now. And of course, that's how traditions survive. They adapt.
Sunday's singing (Feb. 26) at Millikin was about handing down traditions. Several members of the university's choir were on hand, and student organizer Ryan Henry said there's quite a bit of enthusiasm for the Sacred Harp tradition among music students on campus. "They've been hearing me talk about it since my first convention in '04," he said. Also instrumental in exposing students to the tradition has been choir director Bradley Holmes, who includes shape-note hymns in the choir's repertoire.
So the singing at Millikin took on some of the atmosphere of a singing school, as Terry Hogg of Decatur, Janet Fraembs and Peggy Brayfield of Charleston, and Berkley Moore of Springfield explained how to sing the shapes, how to lead a song and how to find the intervals in major and minor modes without a key signature.
"We sing in keys of convenience," said Peggy, to appreciative laughter from the music students. "If you have perfect pitch, this may drive you crazy. But don't think we're doing it wrong. We're doing it right [according to the tradition]."
A few minutes later, university choir member Dan Simpson said as far as he's concerned, the tradition does it right. Taking us through a choral arrangement of Windham by 18th-century tunesmith Daniel Read, he said, "This music has a sound that's unrivaled anywhere."
We didn't keep formal minutes, but I jotted down leaders (except a time or two when I got caught up in the music and forgot to take notes). The lesson included:
A footnote. While I remember closing with Walker's Parting Hand at singings in East Tennessee, considerable variation is customary within the various shape-note traditions. Here's a brief explanation from the notes to Jim Carnes' documentary Sweet is the Day about an important traditional singing family in North Alabama:
The parting hand is an old, old practice in Southern singings, as singers go around the room shaking hands during the last song or "closer." But it sort of fell by the wayside in Midwestern singings, at least the ones I've been to in downstate Illinois, when we stopped using the old William Walker song The Parting Hand (No. 62) as a closer. But as we sang Christian's Farewell, a couple of people started shaking hands around the hollow square. A few more of us joined in, and then more ... and the scene in Millikin's ultra-modern Pilling Chapel carried me back to singings in pine-plank country churches down home in Tennessee. It felt good to be doing it again, and in an adapted form that celebrates both the people I first learned the music from and the people I sing with now. And of course, that's how traditions survive. They adapt.
Sunday's singing (Feb. 26) at Millikin was about handing down traditions. Several members of the university's choir were on hand, and student organizer Ryan Henry said there's quite a bit of enthusiasm for the Sacred Harp tradition among music students on campus. "They've been hearing me talk about it since my first convention in '04," he said. Also instrumental in exposing students to the tradition has been choir director Bradley Holmes, who includes shape-note hymns in the choir's repertoire.
So the singing at Millikin took on some of the atmosphere of a singing school, as Terry Hogg of Decatur, Janet Fraembs and Peggy Brayfield of Charleston, and Berkley Moore of Springfield explained how to sing the shapes, how to lead a song and how to find the intervals in major and minor modes without a key signature.
"We sing in keys of convenience," said Peggy, to appreciative laughter from the music students. "If you have perfect pitch, this may drive you crazy. But don't think we're doing it wrong. We're doing it right [according to the tradition]."
A few minutes later, university choir member Dan Simpson said as far as he's concerned, the tradition does it right. Taking us through a choral arrangement of Windham by 18th-century tunesmith Daniel Read, he said, "This music has a sound that's unrivaled anywhere."
We didn't keep formal minutes, but I jotted down leaders (except a time or two when I got caught up in the music and forgot to take notes). The lesson included:
Terry Hogg 49t, Pete Ellertsen 49b, Janet Fraembs 155, Peggy Brayfield 128, Lori Graber 148, Conrad Wetzel 84, Terry Hogg 29, Terry Hogg joined by Dan Simpson 32t, Dan Simpson 38, Lori Graber 163b, Pete Ellertsen 312b, Peggy Brayfield joined by Megan Murray 284, Ryan Henry 282, Peggy Brayfield 335, Terry Hogg 299, Pete Ellertsen 510, Berkley Moore 99, Lamar Schlabach 48t, Peggy Brayfield 268, Janet Fraembs 385. The class was dismissed with prayer by Berkley Moore, and the closing song was 347.In addition to the students from Millikin, 25 to 30 singers from the Charleston-Mattoon area, Champaign and Urbana, Delavan, Ashland, St. Louis, Jacksonville and Springfield were on hand. Decatur is a good central location, and it was wonderful to see so many college students taking an interest in our way of singing.
A footnote. While I remember closing with Walker's Parting Hand at singings in East Tennessee, considerable variation is customary within the various shape-note traditions. Here's a brief explanation from the notes to Jim Carnes' documentary Sweet is the Day about an important traditional singing family in North Alabama:
As is the custom at many Sacred Harp singings, they close with the song "Parting Hand," in this case following immediately with a verse from "Hallelujah" [another song, No. 146]. This parting ritual marks the dispersal of the singing family. It follows the closing prayer, a prayer which implores that singers arrive safely at their various residences. The end of a singing is a time of impending absence — from one's fellow singers and from the vivid spiritual presence that is Sacred Harp.Sweet is the Day is available in VHS and DVD format from the Alabama Folklife Association in Montgomery.
Gospel music shrine burns in Chicago (reposted)
Editor's note. I'm transferring this from my other blog, "The Mackerel Wrapper," where it appeared Saturday, Jan. 7. It fits the subject matter here better, and if the SCI Curriculum Committee approves my proposal for Humanities 223 (roots music), students in that course in the fall will be able to find it by doing a keyword search on HUM 223 in this blog.
In Sunday's early edition of The Chicago Tribune, there's a very good story by Howard Reich, the Trib's arts critic, on the burning of Pilgrim Baptist Church in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. It was at Pilgrim Baptist that Thomas A. Dorsey was music director, and it was there that black gospel music got its start. Reich says the church was "sacred space" in more ways than one:
That man, of course, was Dorsey. Best known as the author of "Precious Lord Take My Hand," his gift was to change black religious music from spirituals to gospel. He started his career as a blues player named "Georgia Tom," backing Ma Rainey, among others. But in the 1920s he turned to the church. He once told the Trib:
The fire was Friday afternoon, and authorities say the building is a total loss. It is a historic loss for Chicago, as well as for America's musical heritage, and the story in Sunday's Trib captures that sense of history.
Source: Howard Reich. "History Burns With Church." Chicago Tribune, online ed. 7 Jan. 2006.
In Sunday's early edition of The Chicago Tribune, there's a very good story by Howard Reich, the Trib's arts critic, on the burning of Pilgrim Baptist Church in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. It was at Pilgrim Baptist that Thomas A. Dorsey was music director, and it was there that black gospel music got its start. Reich says the church was "sacred space" in more ways than one:
Cultural tourists from several continents routinely made pilgrimages to Pilgrim Baptist, to behold the place where a rousing, life-affirming music first came into its own. Celebrated in feature films such as 'The Blues Brothers' and in documentaries such as 'Say Amen, Somebody,' gospel has been as deeply stitched into the fabric of the South Side as jazz and blues, if not more so.
For though the origins of jazz can be traced to 19th Century New Orleans, and though scholars believe that elements of blues have echoed through African music since antiquity, one man and one church are widely considered the progenitors of modern gospel music.
That man, of course, was Dorsey. Best known as the author of "Precious Lord Take My Hand," his gift was to change black religious music from spirituals to gospel. He started his career as a blues player named "Georgia Tom," backing Ma Rainey, among others. But in the 1920s he turned to the church. He once told the Trib:
"Before that, they would sing 'Spiri-tu-al-fellow-ship-of-the-Jor-dan land.' Jubilee songs. Wasn't nothing to them.
"But then I turned those blues moans on, modified some of the stuff from way back in the jazz era, bashed it up and smoothed it in. It had that beat, that rhythm. And people were wild about it."
The fire was Friday afternoon, and authorities say the building is a total loss. It is a historic loss for Chicago, as well as for America's musical heritage, and the story in Sunday's Trib captures that sense of history.
Source: Howard Reich. "History Burns With Church." Chicago Tribune, online ed. 7 Jan. 2006.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Prairieland Dulcimer Strings
We'll hold our regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at Atonement Lutheran Church, 2800 West Jefferson, just past Veterans Parkway on the south side of Ill. 97/125. We're a learning group, mostly novice to intermediate level players who are very open to having beginners join us. There's more information, links and a downloadable flier about the Prairieland Dulcimer Strings you can put up on the bulletin board(s) of your choice linked to my faculty page at Springfield College/Benedictine University.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Mike Anderson at Dickson Mounds
I'm republishing here the latest press release from Dickson Mounds state museum for members of the Prairieland Dulcimer Strings and anyone else who wants to take advantage of Mike Anderson's workshops there. Mike is a valued mentor for all of us who play the Appalachian dulcimer in central Illinois, and one of the few noseflute virtuosos anywhere; read more at his website. Mike's workshops are a great opportunity to learn the basics for beginners, and a welcome refresher and invitation to expand our technique for those of us who have been playing for a while.
March 18, 2006
May 20, 2006
September 2, 2006
November 11, 2006
** The museum coffeeshop no longer serves food. There are vending machines with snacks and drinks. Tables are available for sack lunches or Lewistown and/or Havana (each 10 minutes away) have a selection of restaurants (fast food or sit down).
MOUNTAIN DULCIMER WORKSHOPS AT DICKSON MOUNDS** Mountain Dulcimer Workshop dates for 2006 at Dickson Mounds Museum are:
Lewistown, IL--Beginning and intermediate to advanced workshops on playing mountain dulcimers will be offered on Saturday, March 18, 2006 at the Dickson Mounds Museum. Well-known folk musician, Mike Anderson of Jacksonville, IL will present two workshop sessions, one for beginners and one for intermediate/advanced players.
Beginners will learn basic strumming and songs in a session scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Morning session dulcimers should be tuned to Ionian tuning (DAA). Intermediate and advanced players will meet from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Dulcimers should be tuned to the Mixolydian (DAD). The workshop will include chording, picking, hammer-ons, and pull-offs.
There is a $15.00 registration fee for each workshop. Registration should be made by March 13, 2006. For a registration form and further information call Steven Endsley, Sr. at 309.668.2362.
The Dickson Mounds Branch of the Illinois State Museum is located between Lewistown and Havana off routes 78 and 97. The museum is open free to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day. Tours and special programs are available for groups with reservations. For more information call 309.547.3721 or TDD 217.782.9175 or visit the museum’s web site. Here's a schedule for Mike's workshops at Dicskon Mounds for the rest of the year:
March 18, 2006
May 20, 2006
September 2, 2006
November 11, 2006
** The museum coffeeshop no longer serves food. There are vending machines with snacks and drinks. Tables are available for sack lunches or Lewistown and/or Havana (each 10 minutes away) have a selection of restaurants (fast food or sit down).
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