Critical Review #6 Turino 1989

Using Aymara Peruvian musicians as his case study, Turino seems to be making a claim to "naturalize" the musical tradition and performance practice of these people by showing some interchangeability between social practices and musical practices. One is reflective of the other and vice versa. He invokes C.S. Peirce's definition of "icon" when explaining his concept of "iconicity", that is, "a nonarbitrary sign that signifies something through some kind of actual resemblance between the sign and the thing signified." This is important in that the Aymara music in aesthetic and practice is not arbitrarily "symbolic" of the Aymara culture. Rather, it actually is representative of the culture, and the culture is representative of it. Is this not true for most cultural practices to some extent? Isn't this the case we try to make when analyzing music or literature or art?

Turino describes the Aymara as being viciously distinct as Aymara, yet while this unified identity is important, they can't help but divide up into smaller communities. Turino says this is so that they can avoid conflict altogether and maintain they're consistent Aymara integrity. Can this really last for that long?

Regardless, this unquestioning homogeneity is reflective in the Aymara's music (or rather, Turino would say, the music is reflective of the unquestioning homogeneity?). They value "playing as one". Clearly the communal experience of playing music is what is important in this article and in this study. Turino mentions disconnect when his informants don't understand his practicing by himself.

If social practice and music are so closely intertwined--practically inseparable, is it really music? Is it more clear to contextualize the music as a mere social activity of Aymara men? Or is it a sly outlet to assert one's individuality. Obviously the maestros are the self-selecting group that rise above the rest, despite the culture's practice of affording equal opportunities to all adult men. The dynamic in these ensembles strikes me as the inverse of how I have always perceived bebop jazz. In bebop, I like to imagine the combos as a group of individuals who are fiercely attempting to be distinct and outplay the rest, but to frame themselves, they must work in tandem with other players. Here, the individual players are attempting to make their group sound as unified as possible, with all wind instrumentation and parallel harmonies. Nevertheless, to attain that "ideal sound", groups must have creative, inventive, yet tempered individual players.

Research Notes Part 2

Jordan, the Worship Arts director at Northpointe and my main contact at the church, sent me a .zip file with lyrics (with chord changes!) and mp3s of 3 songs the band typically play at services. This is the file he usually sends to people who are interested in participating in the band. These are pretty clear, clean recordings--taken off of the soundboard at a service. Thanks to close mic-ing and good isolation, I thought this was a studio demo until I heard Jordan (the singer) encouraging people to sing along to the lyrics in the chorus. Take a listen below:


The Highest and Greatest
by: Nick Herbert & Tim Hughes
A/C# - D - E-A - A || A/C# - D - E-A - A

Verse 1:
A/C# D E A A/C# D E A
Wake every heart and every tongue To sing the new eternal song
E D A/C# D E D F#m E/G#
And crown Him King of Glory now Confess Him Lord of all
Chorus:
A E Bm7 A E
You are the highest You are the greatest You are the Lord of all
A E Bm7 A D
Angels will worship Nations will bow down To the Lord of all

Verse 2:
A/C# D E A A/C# D E A
A day will come when all will sing And glorify our matchless King
E D A/C# D E D F#m E/G#
Your name unrivaled stands alone You are the Lord of all

Chorus:
A E Bm7 A E
You are the highest You are the greatest You are the Lord of all
A E Bm7 A D
Angels will worship Nations will bow down To the Lord of all

Bridge:
Bm7 A/C# D
Let every heart let every tongue sing of Your name sing of Your name
Bm7 A/C# D
Let every heart let every tongue sing sing sing
Bm7 A/C# D
Let every heart let every tongue sing of Your name sing of Your name
Bm7 A/C# D
Let every heart let every tongue sing sing sing

Chorus:
A E Bm7 A E
You are the highest You are the greatest You are the Lord of all
A E Bm7 A D
Angels will worship Nations will bow down To the Lord of all
A E Bm7 A E
You are the highest You are the greatest You are the Lord of all
A E Bm7 A D
Angels will worship Nations will bow down To the Lord of all
A E Bm7 A E
You are the highest You are the greatest You are the Lord of all
A E Bm7 A D
Angels will worship Nations will bow down To the Lord of all




_______________________________________________________________________________________

Great Is The Lord
by: Chris Brown

D - A - F#m - E || D - A - F#m - E

Verse:
A D
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
A F#m E
Great are your works in all the earth
A D
The skies declare the glory of Your name
A F#m E
The heavens tell of Your great worth

PreChorus:
D A E D A E
And now we join and sing Father, we bless Your name

Chorus:
D - A F#m E D - A
You are holy We cry with everything that’s in us
F#m E D - A F#m E D - A
Singing the praises of our glorious Our hearts are bowed before Your majesty
F#m E
We worship You our King
D - A - F#m - E || D - A - F#m - E

Verse:
A D
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
A F#m E
Great are your works in all the earth
A D
The skies declare the glory of Your name
A F#m E
The heavens tell of Your great worth

PreChorus:
D A E D A E
And now we join and sing Father, we bless Your name

Chorus:
D - A F#m E D - A
You are holy We cry with everything that’s in us
F#m E D - A F#m E D - A
Singing the praises of our glorious Our hearts are bowed before Your majesty
F#m E
We worship You our King
D - A - F#m - E || D - A - F#m - E

PreChorus:
D A E D A E
And now we join and sing Father, we bless Your name
D A E D A E
And now we join and sing Father, we bless Your name

Chorus:
D - A F#m E D - A
You are holy We cry with everything that’s in us
F#m E D - A F#m E D - A
Singing the praises of our glorious Our hearts are bowed before Your majesty
F#m E
We worship You
D - A F#m E D - A
You are holy We cry with everything that’s in us
F#m E D - A F#m E D - A
Singing the praises of our glorious Our hearts are bowed before Your majesty
F#m E
We worship You our King
D - A - F#m - E || D - A - F#m - E - D



_______________________________________________________________________________________

Cannons
by: Phil Wickham

G - C - Em7 - Am7 || G - C - Em7 - Am7

Verse 1:
G D Am Em
It’s falling from the clouds A strange and lovely sound
C G D
I hear it in the thunder and the rain
G D Am Em
It’s ringing in the skies Like cannons in the night
C G D
The music of the universe plays

Chorus:
G C
You are holy great and mighty
Em7 D
The moon and the stars declare who You are
G C
I’m so unworthy but still You love me
Em7 D
Forever my heart will sing of how great You are
G - C - Em7 - Am7

Verse 2:
G D Am Em
Beautiful and free Song of galaxies
C G D
It’s reaching far beyond the Milky Way
G D Am Em
Let’s join in with the sound c’mon let’s sing it loud
C G D
As the music of the universe plays

Chorus:
G C
You are holy great and mighty
Em7 D
The moon and the stars declare who You are
G C
I’m so unworthy but still You love me
Em7 D
Forever my heart will sing of You

Bridge:
C G D
All glory, honor, power is Yours, amen
C G D
All glory, honor, power is Yours, amen
Am Em Dsus D
All glory, honor, power is Yours forever, amen

Chorus:
G C
You are holy great and mighty
Em7 D
The moon and the stars declare who You are
G C
I’m so unworthy but still You love me
Em7 D
Forever my heart will sing of You
G C
You are holy great and mighty
Em7 D
The moon and the stars declare who You are
G C
I’m so unworthy but still You love me
Em7 D
Forever my heart will sing of how great You are
G - C - Em7 - Am7 || G - C - Em7 - D - C - G



_______________________________________________________________________________________

It's interesting to think about where these songs come from and how they are getting inducted into the cannon of worship music--or at least at the blossoming community at Northpointe. I looked up some of the writers of these songs to contextualize them a little bit.

One of the writers of "The Highest and Greatest" is Nick Herbert, who is the Worship Pastor at St. Mary's church in London (founded 1997). It seems his role is similar to Jordan's at Northpointe--leading the music during the services. Looking at the St. Mary's website, I found it a little hard to find out where the church was coming from. The website is very nice and has good information of the values of the church and such, but I don't see anywhere where it explicitly states what kind of church it is. It appears to me to be non-denominational. In the "history" section, it references the bishop of London, so I am assuming some sort of heirarchical structure within the non-denominational churches, or maybe amongst a group of churches in the UK--this is something I would like to learn more about. My assumption was that non-denominational congregations are independent churches. The non-denominational churches I have encountered throughout my lifetime are remarkably similar in their worship practice & share some basic beliefs and approaches to Christianity. If there is a formalized, international community of non-denominational churches, or are they linked together by common ideas or practices like, say, Nick Herbert's "The Highest & Greatest" song.

It was hard to pick out the Chris Brown I wanted from, you know, Chris Brown. But there was plenty of interweb info on Phil Wickham. Wickham seems to be less involved in a particular ministry and more of a "star" than Nick Herbert. He's got a slick website, myspace (along with all of the other social networking outlets that go along with that), and even a lengthy wikipedia article. He's got tour dates across the world from what looks like huge venues to smaller "chapel" performances, and his myspace has over 6 million listens! The "Cannons live" on his myspace page, as well as link to the "Phil Wickham singalong" available for download from his website tells a lot about this music--the music written for service and worship is meant to be communal art. Accessible, catchy, and based in melody. I'm thinking a modern day kind of hymn. Across the board of these representative examples from my friend at Northpointe, these songs share a pop-rock styled aesthetic and instrumentation. It all sounds as if it has come out of the past 15 or 20 years--it sounds very current, modern, and up to date.

I wonder how genre-preferences and music tastes interact with people's church-going. How music that clearly is based on a rock n' roll form and based around a "lead singer" can break away from the cult of personality that surrounds musicians or rockers in a popular band. It seems as if many of these churches are young and are attempting to attract new members--Northpointe in particular. There is clearly an emphasis on keeping current with musical style. Beyond that, it is clear these churches want to be current and relevant in all aspects of their existence: the websites are very well done and well maintained, if the church has a permanent home, the buildings are often modern in design and architecture, the personalities (e.g. Phil Wickham) have a very polished look:

and keep up to date with all of the latest societal demands (especially online w/ facebook, myspace, twitter, rss feeds, etc.). The role "being new" is playing with this music, and in the bigger picture, this style of church and worship, is a big one. Just some casual thoughts...

Critical Review #5: Agawu 2003 Chp. 5, Waterman 1952

I spent a lot of my reading time trying to discern if I thought Waterman's article was horribly old-fashioned, out of date, and potentially demeaning to "African" music tradition, or if he was making an honest attempt at legitimizing African music amongst the greater realm of world music, European and American folk and art music included. Agawu's claim that "the choice of an appropriate comparative frame is already ideological" is a good one, although I think it could be argued that Waterman's history of acculturation is not a comparative one but a linear one. Agawu has a very powerful position in the world of ethnomusicology in that he is African, yet has mastered (better than most "Western" ethnomusicologists) the Western styled forms of study and research. I feel like he is easily the most "legitimized" writer we have read on African music because of his well informed and educated insider position. Like the very end of his article stated, however, the problems he outlined in his piece, along with the problems evident in Waterman's article, aren't ever going to end (at least in our Western-centric realm of academia) until "the postcolonial African subjects" have been empowered to represent themselves. Until then, are attempts at "translation" necessary? Or are do we risk overwhelming the "subject" culture with our translated constructs?

Research Notes Part 1

First off, apologies for this coming somewhat late. These past few days, I finally settled on a community with whom to study contemporary Christian worship music. I had an idea of the "sounds" I wanted to learn about--stuff I've most heard on the radio or seen on TV--but didn't really know where or in what context to find it in Providence. I tried some basic googling, but it was difficult to discern what each church was like and how they ran their services. I knew the churches, of which there are many, in my immediate are pretty traditional--Catholic, Episcopalian, Unitarian. Since very few of my friends go to church (let's face it, Brown does not have the most church-savvy student population), it took a while to figure out where to look. But after getting word from a friend of a friend and a bit of emailing, I got in touch with the "Worship Arts" director at Northpointe Christian Church, Jordan Plumier.

Jordan and I grabbed some coffee last week, and I got to learn a lot more about Northpointe. Jordan has been extremely helpful and interested which has made this endeavor fun and quickly informative. The drummer from the church band, Nate, came along.

Northpointe Christian Church just started this past October and has been convening at theater 8 of the Cinemaworld in the Lincoln Mall (about a 15 minute drive from Providence proper). They are a non-denominational church based on scripture--the Book of Acts in particular. Jordan tells me that his family, along with two others, started Northpointe in conjunction with Restoration House Ministries, which is a group out of Boston that helps to "plant" new churches in areas that are "un-churched". To some Providence might seem like one of the most church-dense places in America, but as I mentioned earlier, most of these are old and more traditional-styled. Jordan told me that there are very few contemporary-styled churches in the Providence area and that there has not been much of a church scene to attract people looking for something "new".

Jordan told me that when him and his friends started the church, he intended for the music to be "awesome" and begin to explode some of the norms set for contemporary "Christian Worship Music". The genre seems to mean a variety of different things for different people, so I'm still going to leave the definition of it relatively open-ended: music written within the past 30 or 40 years for worship services that, stylistically, resembles pop-rock songs in instrumentation and form, but with lyrics drawing on Christian themes.

We talked about how there is a big industry for this type of music, mostly based out of Nashville, and how ubiquitous some of this music can be, especially in the South--Nate mentioned the nationally syndicated KLove radio. Jordan claimed there are swaths of "Christian" bands that many music-savvy people will never have heard of but who could probably sell out the Dunkin Donuts Center in a heartbeat. We made the distinction between "Christian" music and music meant to be sung at services. Of course there is crossover between the two types, but there are many quasi-mainstream bands released on what Jordan referred to as "the indie" Christian labels (such as Tooth and Nail). Bands like Reliant K, Lifehouse, Tampa-based Underoath etc. broke into some more mainstream rock acclaim by taking their "Christian" identities out of the spotlight.

As far as the music at Northpointe goes, Jordan wants it to be upbeat and engaging, and described it as very "electric-guitar driven". As the church got up on its feet, they've had a rotating cast of musicians. Some musicians from other Restoration House Ministries churches came for the first few weeks, and then a few different musicians from Berklee. Nate offered some insight into a lifetime of playing in a variety of bands loosely-identified as "Christian", and even spent some time trying to get picked up with a bigger band in Nashville. The worship band has a rehearsal space set up in a studio specifically geared towards these types of worship bands.

All in all, Jordan and Nate were great guys, and I set a date to come to Northpointe's service on Sunday.

Critical Review #4 Wong 2001

Deborah Wong tells the story of her friend whose musical taste shifts as he moves in and out of certain cultures--specifically certain class and racial spheres. The quote she invokes from Martin's "Agency & History"--"To deny what the audience produces in performance is to disavow its capacity to produce its own associations..."--suggests that audience and listening is as important to the cultural impact of music as the music is itself. On page 377, wong claims, as an ethnomusicologist of course:

I don't ever think it is ever 'the music itself' that attracts or compels--music has no agency of its own, people do, and they make choices about what they like or hate; indeed I would venture a guess that all Americans go through changes in taste during their lives for reasons that are always already politicized.

I think that personally, I would like to disagree. As a cultural historian, I can respect the claim to audience's impact in constructing music--in constructing art, but never entirely in composing art. What music communicates as a piece of art cannot always be reduced to an "already politicized" sentiment. That sentiment can be extremely influential, especially in more communal musics, but consider the ingenuity and creativity that goes into some sounds, and I believe that there is some music that can stand for something (the already politicized sentiment) and that music that can transcend its original meaning for something different or even something new. So, I suppose my question for discussion is that newness or transcendence I just mentioned possible?

Critical Review #3 Agawu 2003 Ch. 9

I'm not so sure Agawu's take-away point of the "ethical attitude" helps sort out any of the problems and power disparity of representation. He describes it as "a disposition toward frameworks and styles of reasoning that finally seek--actively, rather than passively--to promote the common good." This reflexive stance is helpful in as much as it admits that we as researchers, insiders or outsiders, are going to do it wrong--at some point in time, our historical or ethnographic product is going to be flawed. I can't say that I am especially critical with Agawu because,insofar as I understand what he's getting at, I think I agree with his reflective tact and, were I writing ethnography would be constantly conscious of my place and my ethnographic constructions and how my own formulation as a person influences those constructions and what sort of perceptions my "subjects" would make of me etc. These types of pieces make me nervous, like stepping into a philosophical house of mirrors. At what point can we draw a line at making research and ethnographic a constant and active "process" for the sake of commodification? At which point does "the line"--or the reflexivity--become the commodification? It seems like Kisliuk's book is a bit more biography than it is a study of the BaAka.