There are
few moments in our lives that connect us to our origins and our long past.
These moments may go by quick and they are sometimes taken for granted. It
might be a subconscious recognition of this event that we at first don’t realize
but after being in the moment for a while and looking back its clear to us that
it was very special. After visiting the
restaurant the Runcible Spoon and listening to an Irish music circle for no
more than an hour I felt one of these moments. My family is very Irish but we
never practice old Irish traditions or instruments are anything of that nature.
We’ve never even made a trip to Ireland to visit our beginnings yet when I hear
the music of my origins I have a deep appreciate and excitement that I can’t really
describe. It felt as if I already was familiar with the tunes and it just felt
right. After observing the music circle at the Spoon I made a few other conclusions
and interesting notes as well.
The music circle at the restaurant consisted
of six men, around their middle aged years with a few exceptions. A couple of
the musicians brought more than one instrument, which I thought was interesting, but the instruments
consisted of guitars, flutes, drums, mandolins, and one accordion. This is not
a spread of instruments that I have seen in a long time which made me particularly
coherent to the musicians as they first started to play and tune there instruments.
It was first surprising to me that the group decided to gather inside the congested
restaurant instead of the porch out front but once they begun to play and the
sound traveled through the house and intervened the few conversations of people
and added to the noises of the kitchen it resembled of what and old tavern
might have sounded like. The musicians, gathered together in the corner, acted
as old friends as they joined in casual conversations just as if they spent
every day together. Along with casual conversations and greetings it was noticeable
that there was no hast or hurry to do the performance. But rather the musicians
had a relaxed, timid mind set to the performance and eased the whole situation.
The circle was very democratic in the sense that no one performer was the
leader and that everyone contributed the same to the performance. It was also interesting
to see that the person that starts each song changed from song to song allowing
each person to feel equal and important.
The songs that were played had easy rhythms
and also sensed as very cheery, like the song were made to reflect happy and
prosperous times. The number of songs played were about 6 and this was due in
part to the length of the songs, as most choruses were repeated for a good
amount, and that there was no hurry to move on and play the next song. The characteristics
of the songs were very dense as there were many instruments all contributing
the same amount, causing a layer affected to the music that made listening to
the music interesting but at the same time also effortless to listen to. It
also intrigued me that if a musician didn’t know the song that the group was
playing at the time, they simply sat out or played an easy tune as he enjoyed
the work of the fellow musicians.
Much more can be taken away from
this observational study than just what was played and who played it. The bond
between these musicians should be taken note as they continue to play every Tuesday
for roughly 4 hours just enjoying music for what it is. The musicians choose to
come every Tuesday because they value and can appreciate what this small time
of bonding over common interest in playing music. In the world we live in it
would be easy for one of the musicians to skip a week at the Runcible Spoon and
get caught up in their work to miss events such as these because our western culture
doesn’t value this form of participatory music or even participatory bonding in
general. It’s been ingrained into the heads of the US population that music is
only seen as plugging into ones iPod and tuning out the world around them. As I
watched the Irish music circle tonight there were times where the group wasn’t always
playing together or they weren’t all in tune together but that’s not what it’s
about. It’s not a rehearsed performance that has been practiced for weeks and
needs to be performed to entertain a set audience. It’s a more democratic environment
that resembles a culture where music is not about making money or gaining fame
but rather the bond that is enjoyed by the participants. I’m not saying that
the other forms of music making don’t have their place or right in the music
world but when I see how participatory music can affect people and be a part of
the musicians I saw today I would have to make the conclusion that
participatory music is special and stands out among the rest. I have been
convinced to believe from this experience that participants in this particular
form of music may benefit the most; socially, emotionally, and even
spiritually. This also reflects the type of country that we are a part of. If
we look around and all we see is the gigantic business of high fidelity music
then that can tell us that our country is about perfection, repeatability, and
not about interaction. On the other hand when we see communities that focus on participatory
music, it can be observed that it’s about interaction and bonding as everyone
grows stronger together.
No comments:
Post a Comment