Recontextual

"All art is regional"

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 18:09:00 +0000

In a recent exhibition entitled 'The artist's landscape', Jamtli museum in Sweden explores various modes of being tied to locality, and how 'landscapes' can be expressed through diverse media.

Anders Thorén (1860-1923). Winter scene from Åre, Sweden. Around 1900.

The exhibition cites art historian Carl-Göran Ekerwald, who says that "All art is regional", and that through socialization, artists are "tied to a particular region, geographically, biologically and mentally", which influences what they create.

However, the exhibition distinguishes between two different modes. One type is 'inner landscape', which artists carry within themselves through either memory or imagination, and finally express through their art. The other is inspiration of external landscapes, where one attempts to recreate one's surroundings using a static medium. 'The artist's landscape' shows both, using works from the Jamtli collection and workshops in collaboration with the county art association.

From Sligo to the Big Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 18:07:00 +0000

One hundred years ago, in October 1914, Irish fiddle player Michael Coleman left his native County Sligo to travel to America. He first got work performing at music halls in the Boston area, but eventually moved to New York.

Michael Coleman had a great influence on Irish music - not only because he was a great musician, but also because he was one of the first traditional performers to reach a mass market. During the 1920's and 30's, Coleman made nearly eighty 78rpm records on various labels that got wide distribution in both the USA and back home in Ireland. Many of the tunes Coleman recorded have later become standard repertoire at Irish sessions anywhere around the world.

The Adriatic in Hungary

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 19:54:00 +0000

How does the culture of the Adriatic tie in with the western border of Hungary? Savaria Museum in Szombathely is currently exploring those ties with a series of 8 exhibitions on art, ethnography, history and archeology at their various locations.

Earlier this week, there was lots of media attention for the opening of "Village on the Adriatic ", a collaboration between Savaria Museum and the Ethnographic Museum of Istria, Croatia. The opening on Thursday attracted three television networks, as well as numerous other journalists.

The event was especially successful in engaging the Gradisce Croat national minority, who's ancestors first came to the region in the 1530s as refugees from the Ottoman wars. Gradisce Croats that I spoke with said they appreciated that institutions are now taking an interest in subjects relevant to THEIR history.

Another exhibition in this series will be shown at the Szombathely Keptar gallery until the end of August 2014. It focuses on Hungarians in the Croatian Adriatic seaport of Rijeka before the first world war. Postcards, photos and publications from 100 years ago are the primary elements:

The kora

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 14:17:00 +0000

One of the most famous instruments in West Africa is the kora - a 21 string bridge-harp traditionally played by poet/musicians known as 'griot'. Koras are generally made from large calabash gourd halves, with skin soundboards and nylon strings going over a double bridge then being fastened to a long neck in front. One plays with the thumb and index finger of each hand.

Kora player Solo Cissokho & his son Ibou Cissokho are originally from Senegal, but moved to Oslo, Norway in the 1990's. Solo Cissokho has been active in promoting West African culture to Scandinavians for a generation, and his son is also now involved in concerts, not least through tours for the Norwegian organisation 'Rikskonsertenë́'. Here they are playing a wonderful piece together, recorded at their home.

A great metaphor

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Fri, 16 May 2014 15:35:00 +0000

In May 1814, representatives came from near and far for the national congress to draft a constitution for Norwegian independence from Denmark. On May 16th, delegate Gustav Peter Blom made a diary entry commenting on the marching band performing there: "There was particularly good music played by the Nordenfjeldske Janissary Band, where the virtuoso Hedenstrøm shined with his trumpet, and excited our intellects. If only the trumpet of truth could give such wonderful tone in every misled mans ear. If only the Congress could create music, so free of the dissonance of evil and slander, and the whole area would resonate with the harmonic chords of Norwegian society!"

Mr. Bones

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 21:51:00 +0000

It was at an Irish bar South of San Francisco one evening in 1978. I had been playing flute for a Step Dancing group, and afterwards started talking to one of the customers. And he looked familiar. Of course! Percy Danforth, better known as Mr. Bones. I had seen him performing the year before in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Percy liked the attention I gave him. He took a set of bones out of his coat pocket, and gave me a lesson:

Percy had worked as an engineer all his life, and was still active in engineering at the age of 78. His engineering knowledge influenced also his musical work. The set of wooden bones that I got from him that evening was a design that he had made out of many different materials - both wood and metal.

The secret of bones playing is in the balance, he said. If you are holding the bones correctly, they will almost play themselves. Then you can play for a whole evening without your wrists wearing out...

In Tune at Trinity

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 20:04:00 +0000

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to visit a Dublin exhibition named "In Tune: A Millennium of Music in Trinity College Library".

The exhibition shows many of the most important preserved manuscripts and printed Irish sheet music from the last four centuries.

Using a combination of posters, original documents, lectures and concerts, In Tune covers a wide range of musical sources. That it has a large number of visitors comes as no surprise, as Trinity College Library's Book of Kells and Ireland's oldest Harp are two of the country's most popular tourist atractions

"In Tune: A Millennium of Music in Trinity College Library" is open until April 2014.

The genesis of a folk revival

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 18:24:00 +0000

David Dunaway said that "The FBI persued Pete Seeger to the point where he couldn't get a job. The only people he could sing for were kids, because they never thought that it would be a problem for Pete Seeger to sing for six year olds. Little did they know. Out of that came not a subversive movement, but instead an American folk music revival that I think we have to give the FBI credit for helping to establish."

Music to work by

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 17:53:00 +0000

Bennett Konesni studied the music and songs of farmers in the Mwanza region of Northern Tanzania in 2005. Here is the video he made after his stay - which also includes zeze fiddle - which I have commented in an earlier blog entry:

Bennett is a farmer and musician himself, and publishes a blog about working songs from many places.

Spike fiddles

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sat, 02 Nov 2013 17:33:00 +0000

The zeze is a spike fiddle from Tanzania - and a member of a fiddle family played all over Africa and Asia. The zeze is composed of a wooden neck that goes like a spike through the gourd body of the instrument, while the bridge rests apon a banjo-like skin mounted over the top of the body.

Maganga Singida Neema demonstrated zeze playing and singing for me earlier today in Trondheim. He is on tour in Norway this month, and will be performing with the Tumaini Group in a couple of days. Maganga Singida's instrument has two strings: one for melody and one used as a drone. Fingers touch the strings to change notes, without pushing down against any fingerboard.

The pols

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 03:04:00 +0000

'Pols' is one of the most prevalent dances in Central Norway. Like the mazurka, a pols is in 3/4 time, with a rhythmic change during the last measure of every 16 measure phrase. I heard several pols tunes during the "Four fiddles - four traditions" concert in Trondheim earlier this week, tied to the 2013 conference of the Norwegian Center for folk music and folk dance.

The last tune of the evening was by one of the musicians present: Sturla Eide from Melhus in South Trøndelag. 'Dimmisjonspols' is the title (meaning 'leaving the military pols'), composed while Sturla finished his conscientious objector service in the mid 90s. Since then, it has become one of the most popular tunes in the area.

Here's Sturla teaching how Dimmisjonspols can be played, both at regular speed and more slowly:

Indescision as creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 14:59:00 +0000

In 2012, the Fryderyk Chopin Museum in Warsaw exhibited "Chopin at his most indecisive", showing how Chopin continually revised his works with new versions and annotations.

The exhition webpage states:

Nowadays, in most instances, the successive stages in a creative process are impossible to distinguish. We work on documents that overwrite changes as we go along, and electronic texts deprive us of any tangible evidence of the effort and time put into our work, which in previous times were documented on paper. And yet the creative process always remains the same. Illumination, idea, chance or trial, then the first attempt, and so a sketch (where one rarely starts from the beginning), a working text, and so real work, and (if al. goes well) a final version, which we still most often want to improve. And that was how Chopin worked.

The curator of the Chopin Museum, Maciej Janicki, believes that this indecision can be a sign of creative strength rather than weakness:

Transcribing Ottoman music

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 05:43:00 +0000

Until the19th century, music in the Ottoman Empire was based primarily on oral tradition. Compositions and playing styles were handed from generation to generation through a master-apprentice system called meşk. The meşk system created thriving performance relationships, but also led to a plethora of variations on popular compositions. Often, the original composer might have been forgotten, and attribution given to a more recent performer instead.

But some music actually DID get written down. The earliest extant collections of Ottoman music are two manuscripts attributed to Wojciech Bobowski, better known as Alī Ufkī, Born in Poland in the early 1600’s, Alī Ufkī was kidnapped as a young adult and later sold as a slave to the sultan’s court. He had been musically trained in Poland, and began recording what he heard at court in western notation. In order to fit better with Ottoman written language, Alī Ufkī notates from right to left rather than left to right. Several hundred compositions are recorded, together with lyrics and comments.

Alī Ufkī’s manuscripts had little effect during his lifetime, however. Both were brought to Europe, and lay neglected in archives until only a generation ago – one manuscript at the British Library, and the draft version at Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. These manuscripts have recently been transcribed, published and sections recorded by Bezmârâ Ensemble, Pera Ensemble and others, providing a unique resource for interpreting Ottoman music of the seventeenth century.

For Connoisseurs and Amateurs

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:10:00 +0000

"This music isn't meant to be played on a stage! It is intimate and personal. Very personal." said clavichordist Ingrid Eriksen in today's concert at Trondheim Art Museum. And then she encouraged the public to break up the concert atmosphere by moving their chairs around in the room.

Ingrid Eriksen is Norway's expert on CPE Bach (1714-1788), who was the son of JS Bach - and a great influence on Mozart and Haydn. CPE Bach composed in what was considered a "sensitive" or "sentimental" style. Ingrid illustrated this style by playing "Sechs Clavier-Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber" (Six Clavier sonatas for Connoisseurs and Amateurs) interspersed with recitation from the 1768 novel "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy" by Laurence Sterne.

The intimacy of the performance was underscored by Ingrid's playing a clavichord - which is very quiet instrument, but also very expressive. In the period before the invention of the piano, the clavichord was the favored instrument of both Connoisseurs and Amateurs alike.

The concert was a collaboration between the Trondheim Centre for Early Music, Trondheim Art Museum and Ringve Music Museum.

Instruments that disappeared

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Fri, 03 May 2013 19:59:00 +0000

What influences the 'life cycle' of musical instruments?

This evening, I attended a concert of music for historical brass sextett entitled "instruments that disappeared", featuring instruments that were commonplace in Norway 100 years ago, but have since gone out of fashion.

Eb cornet with rotary valves is one of these. During the heyday of brass bands in the late 19th century, this instrument would lead the ensemble on melody while the other instruments would alternate on harmony and counter melody. However, improvements in Eb clarinets and boehm system flutes led many bands to abandon the Eb cornet (and 'pure' brass band sound) in favor of woodwinds on melody.

The valve-trombone is another dinosaur instrument. As master of ceremonies Roger Fjeldet mentioned, valve-trombones were popular with composers and band leaders 100 years ago, but not with trombonists. Because of intonation problems with valve-trombones, fewer and fewer musicians were willing to play them, preferring the older, more flexible slide trombone design. Trombonist Hans Andreas Kjølberg remarked that it was hard work to play on his instrument - almost like bicycling with a flat tire.

Are there possibilities for a renaissance in historic brass playing in Norway? Probably not. But I hope that groups such as this one can fill a niche in demonstrating both the material and immaterial culture of not so distant periods in the past.

A cultural icon

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:55:00 +0000

Filmmaker Ken Burns say that Louis Armstrong is to music "what Einstein is to physics, what Freud is to medicine and what the Wright brothers are to travel."

But having a career spanning five decades can have its backsides. Burns continues, saying "by the time a nascent militant black movement was started, he [Armstong] looked like an Uncle Tom".

Yugoslav reflections

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:38:00 +0000

In her recently opened exhibition "Refleksije vremena 1945.-1955.", curator Jasmine Bavoljak uses more than 300 art works, everyday objects, films, photos and documents to create an image of post WW-II Yugoslavia. The exhibition covers a wide range of themes through various media: the division of Istria between Italy and Yugoslavia; distancing from the USSR and establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement; the cult of Tito; labor collectives; industrialization; Young Partisans; education; social movements.

While I appreciate the exhibition's monumentality, I also miss expressions from those who had actually lived through this period. Among all the films, posters, sculptures and paintings lie few tales of what this period actually meant for people. No oral histories, diary entries or letters written to relatives abroad. In this way, it is essentially a "top down" view of history rather than one focusing on personal experiences.

Refleksije vremena 1945.-1955. will be shown at museum-gallery Sacred Hearts in Pula, Croatia until May 5th, 2013.

The keyed bugle

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:41:00 +0000

"We don't develop in a box", says Steve Dillon, referring to international music connections during the 19th century.

The keyed bugle was invented in Ireland in 1810, around the same time as valves for brass instruments, and with the same intention: to allow chromatic playing on an instrument that otherwise would be limited to only natural overtones. The keyed bugle - and its big brother, the ophicleide - caught on rapidly all over the world, but innovation in valved instruments developed just as fast. By 1850, very few players were left playing keyed brass instruments.

Brass band fixations

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:41:00 +0000

The first episode of the Norwegian documentary series Korpsfiksert (Band fixated) was shown on NRK TV a few days ago, and is now available on NRK net-tv. The 8 episodes follow members of Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag from 2011 until their participation in the European Brass Band championships in 2012. By focusing on the contexts behind the music for band members, director Anne Marie Kvassheim is making an exotic behind-the-scenes experience available to a wide audience. I look forward to seeing the rest of the episodes in coming weeks.
Bravo, Anne Marie!

Inscribing Intangible Heritage

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:36:00 +0000

Last week, the 2012 session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was held at UNESCO in Paris.

Of the 36 intangible assets nominated to the UNESCO "Representative List", 26 of these were found to fill all criteria for inscription by the evaluation committee. The Fest-Noz phenomenon of Brittany was among them:

Among other things, each nominating country needs to prove that the submitted traditions are grassroot activities supported by community involvement, not 'top down' government projects. As the evaluation committee notes. "the Convention emphasizes that intangible cultural heritage provides communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals with a sense of identity and continuity, without invoking the notion of ‘national’ identity".
Therefore, nomination forms include space for describing community ties. Here is what the French application states:

The practice of Fest-Noz belongs to the participants (mostly dancers, but also simply to visitors, families, children, the elderly ...), the singers and musicians, and organizers. It also depends indirectly on other elements: educational structures, documentation resource centres, luthiers. The thousands of regular dancers come from all generations and all social conditions. Thanks to the Fest-Noz, Brittany is one of the regions of France with the largest number of singers and musicians, both amateur and professional -- some anonymous and some very well-known.
Most of the organizers are small local associations. Although the activist cultural movement was responsible for jump starting the renewal of the Fest-Noz, it quickly surpassed this movement and its subsequent success owes nothing to any centralized structure. There is no form of regional federation of Fest-Noz organizers. However, indirectly, certain regional structures have played and continue to play a special role in the success of the Fest-Noz, including the major federations of Celtic circles War'leur and Kendalc'h for the transmission of the dances, and Dastum for transmitting the compilations of songs and music.

Another nomination was multipart Klapa singing from Dalmatia, along the southern coast of Croatia:

In their decision, the evaluation committee wrote that Klapa singing" brings together different groups of people and serves as a marker of identity for the people of Dalmatia; the practice has been transformed over the years to adapt to changing social circumstances."

Metaphors of growth and interconnectivity

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 13:49:00 +0000

Last night, I attended a pleasant concert organized by the County of Istria in memory of Sergio Endrigo, an emigrant who gained fame as a singer/songwriter in Italy during the 1960's & 70's. One of the songs in yesterday's concert was ci vuole un fiore, technically a children's song, but containing great metaphors that could be interpreted on various levels. The text is by Gianni Rodari, with music composed by Sergio Endrigo. Here it is sung by Sergio and his daughter in 1974:

Per fare un tavolo ci vuole il legno
Per fare il legno ci vuole l'albero
Per fare l'albero ci vuole il seme
Per fare il seme ci vuole il frutto
Per fare il frutto ci vuole il fiore
Ci vuole un fiore, ci vuole un fiore
Per fare un tavolo ci vuole un fiore

Per fare un fiore ci vuole un ramo
Per fare il ramo ci vuole l'albero
Per fare l'albero ci vuole il bosco
Per fare il bosco ci vuole il monte
Per fare il monte ci vuol la terra
Per far la terra ci vuole un fiore
Per fare tutto ci vuole un fiore

To make a table you need the wood
To make the wood takes the tree
To make the tree takes the seed
To make the seed takes the fruit
To make the fruit takes the flower
It takes a flower, it takes a flower
To make a table you need a flower

To make a flower it takes a branch
To make the branch takes the tree
To make the tree you need the forest
To make the forest takes the mountain
To make a mountain it takes the earth
For the earth, you need a flower
For making everything, you need a flower

Sing us that one...

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:07:00 +0000

What ares the functions of singing in social life, and how how have these changed during recent generations?

Questions like this become poignant when one watches Terence Davies' autobiographic film Distant Voices, Still Lives, which is now available as video on demand through the Guardian and distrify.

Terence Davies' presentation of Liverpool in the 1940's and 50's shows people singing for all kinds of occasions: in pubs; at home; during funerals; to get through desperate situations - or simply to pass the time of day. In the days of radio, people were used to remembering songs and using them actively. How many of us can say the same today?

Mnemonics of the Universal Break

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 15:06:00 +0000

Djembe teacher Bruce Harding suggests that students use language to help remember rhythmic patterns:

Bruce uses the mnemonic phrase "this is a universal break" as a memory aid, but mentions that other teachers suggest "chocolate milk and potato chips".

In improvisational and non-notational based musical styles, mnemonics are the standard method for communicating about music. In an Irish session, for example, one musician might ask another "Do you know the jig that goes dee diddely diddely dey?". Or a Turkish davul-zurna duo might discuss a rhythm like dumtek tekdum tekteke before starting a dance tune in 4/4 time.

Oxfam Education has made a lesson plan for teaching music to 14-16 year olds that focuses on traditional mnemonics as an aid to learning in African and Indian drumming traditions. You can download the lesson plan from their web site.

Tagging Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000

What influences people to engage in their surroundings? One experiment in this field is by the Dublin Design Collective, who mounted signs various places in Dublin this week, and invite people to join a competition in discovering them. They write:

The Dublin Design Collective has created two exhibitions, Dublin Tagged! and Helsinki Tagged!, aimed at encouraging people to rediscover their cities. In Dublin, from the 6-12th November, you will find dotted around on 80 large individually crafted tags, insights into Dublin city. These insights are from a broad range of people, many of whom are actively involved in making Dublin even more dynamic and inspiring.

Music in Contemporary Art

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Winfree Papuga) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 07:51:00 +0000

The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo is now exhibiting "I Wish This Was A Song. Music in Contemporary Art". More than 40 artists filling two floors of the museum with works created within the last generation. The museum quotes trumpeter and visual artist Rob Mazurek, saying "The sound you do not hear but see, and the visual you cannot see but hear, is the work."

One of my favorite pieces is "Bicycle Samba", a short video by Sophie Clements. Here, UK musician John Hendicott playfully discovers that bicycles can be used for more than just bicycling...