Blog #12 -- Sun Ra

I thought that Sun Ra was an unique and enlightening musician. While his philosophical "equations" are definitely something to ponder about, I will focus more on his music.

Sun Ra hoped that his music, his jazz, would fulfill the functions and embody the happiness of pure jazz, the unmanufactured avant-garde. He has described the nature and role of his music in many different ways. I believe that it was closely tied to his aim of "saving humanity."

It seemed like one of the most prominent elements of Sun Ra's music was based on feelings. This agrees with Sun Ra's view that the original, creative music called jazz was a pure music, based on naturalness, spontaneity, sincerity, and feelings. Sun Ra characterized the playing of saxophonist John Gilmore as embodying these aspects: "his mind has expanded. . .outside of what they might call jazz although it is a superior form of jazz because it's built on sincerity, it's based on feelings". Sun Ra also viewed his music as based on "three energy factors", which correspond to the human attributes of mind, body, and spirit. Sun Ra has described his music's base in black culture in an interesting way. When asked if he was performing "black music", he answered, "I would say that it's black from the point of view that it's still got the darkness of myth. And it really pinpoints ancient Egypt in a definite way". 

Sun Ra has used a wide variety of terms to describe the nature of his music. Most of these incorporate some form of outer space imagery. One such word is "intergalactic", which Sun Ra used to characterize his music of the late sixties and early seventies. To Sun Ra, intergalactic music is "really outside the realm of the future on the turning points of the impossible" and "in hieroglyphic-sound: an abstract synthesis and analysis of man's relationship to the universe". He has also applied the term "omniverse" to a later stage of his music, beginning around 1980. Concurrently with "omniversal", he has also called what he is doing "world music". For Sun Ra, world music (and a world musician) would have equal relevance in any country and would incorporate everything "from the traditional. . .to the future". He has also described his music as being from "psychic sphere planes" and from a "celestial plane", both implying something that is beyond planet Earth. Sun Ra has also described his music as simple, and that often it is non-musicians who have an easier time comprehending what he is doing rather than musicians. One of the reasons for this, Sun Ra believes, is that non-musicians base their reactions on feelings and not what they think should be right or wrong.

Sun Ra has also used the term "bridge" to describe his music. This bridge leads to a better, potential future, a future "that's not supposed to be but that is better than is supposed to be". As a bridge it corresponds to the space age, which according to Sun Ra is another symbol of humanity's reach for a better future.

Blog #11 -- Black Orpheus

Here is my review of Black Orpheus.

It interesting that Black Orpheus presents a quintessential love story interwoven with a culture heavily focused on celebration. The majority of the film is filled with singing, guitar playing, dancing. It’s part an amazing showcase of the festival and part tragic love story. Both elements feed off each other in equal measure – so much so that it’s easy to imagine that Eurydice might have not given Orpheus the time of day if it hadn’t been Carnaval. It is filled  with story and character-altering plots taking place in a beautiful setting. From the multi-colored dancers to the clean arpeggios of a rickety acoustic guitar that sings for the right player, Black Orpheus is an experience that engages all the senses. It puts on display an environment in which it easy to fall in love. And that is exactly what occurs. After enough dancing and staring into each other’s eyes, Orpheus and Eurydice create a bond that is simple but destined for eternity.

 There is also another element to focus on, the duality of reality versus mythology. This is a mythic story after all, based on the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. It is interesting to note the dualities made in the movie: a man wearing a skeleton costume is the specter of Death, a staircase is the descent into Hades, a stray dog is Cerberus, and a hoodoo ritual is the chance for Orpheus and Eurydice to reunite.

All of these elements flow perfectly from the exotic nature of Carnaval in Rio. It interesting to see how all the dancing, music, and celebration contribute to the culture and the plot of this provoking story. Black Orpheus simultaneously is a movie about outfits, dance-styles, and bassa nova and an important story about the nature of deep, transcendent emotions.

Blog #10 -- Francisco López

In class, we were given a packet of articles to read that contained some authors with interesting theories regarding sound. One author that I found particularly engaging was Francisco Lopez, so I continued to explore his theory further. 
Francisco López takes exception to many of the standard ways of considering nature sound production, and makes a case for a "profound listening" that is quite separate from contextual references. Influenced by the acousmatic theories of musique concrète, his approach has been to focus on the sound itself rather than its source. In contrast with his own recording “La Selva”, López criticizes the scientific approach of bioacoustics or ‘documentary’ nature recording. “As soon as the call is in the air,” he asserts, “it no longer belongs to the frog that produced it.” He dismisses the tendency of acoustic ecologists to elevate an ideal natural soundscape (preferably pre-industrial in character) over an environment of man-made sound. His suggestion that no recording is ever scientifically ‘objective’ places the emphasis on the shaping, even aesthetic, decisions of the artist or recordist: microphone placement, equipment choice or editing, for example. He disagrees with any claim at locating an objective musicality in environmental sound: “It’s our decision – subjective, intentional, non-universal, not necessarily permanent – that converts nature sounds into music.”

Blog 12: Musical Experience

My final paper is on the musical experience in relation to its private and shared aspects. I am extremely interested in exploring how people experience music, and what connects them in that experience as compared to what sets them apart. I believe there are private aspects in all musical experiences, but that we have privatized certain types so much that the shared experience might not be present in all experiences, though there might be a single thread of it even in the most private listening. The experience of music is complex and hard to boil down, but I attempt to cover the points I find most important to my specific topic.

Blog 11: Sun Ra

I was intrigued by Sun Ra, to say the least. The music, dress, and views shown in the video are out there, not really to my taste even though I enjoyed parts of the music. His claim that he believes he comes from space and the mythology he has created lead me to doubt him, but listening was certainly interesting, if nothing else. I like the opinions he based his out there stories on. While he seems to be a bit insane, he really does care about the people around him, and I think he wants to be able to help them. Meeting him would probably be scary, but I am open to learning more about him.

Blog 10: Latif Bolat

Latif Bolat was an inspiring and amazing man to listen to, not even mentioning his music, which touched me in a way very similar to the hymns I sing in church. He presented a different view on what has been and is happening in the middle east. We learned about the Sufis in World Civilization, but that was a simple overview that paled in comparison to actually hearing their music and their way of life. Latif is someone I would love to have a conversation with. He seems very intelligent. Talking with him about music and his views on the world would definitely be a learning experience.

Blog 9: Education and Music

Throughout my schooling music has been a part of my life. From the beginning my elementary school had classes that taught us the basics of music, and there was a day each year on which we were allowed to go to the cafeteria and try out different instruments. In fourth grade we were allowed to join the choir, which met three times a week on top of my spanish class. From then until eighth grade I had and took the chance to remain in choir as a class at my school. Funnily enough, when I entered a private school, they had no such class. The only choir at Notre Dame was an after school one that didn't even teach the members how to read music. Then, once I went to Dixie, another public school, it had one of the most vibrant choir programs I have ever seen.
In my experience, public schools have certainly risen to my expectations, while I know in other places they are falling far behind. Then there is Notre Dame, which cut out music almost completely and has little to be proud of in the arts. I've always found that odd.

Blog 13 - Brian Eno (by O'Brian Davis)

Some would consider Brian Eno's creation of music as sound art such as Hamilton, while others like John Cage would consider it music. One thing though is that his musical compositions consists of rhythm and melody. Technology has become a major asset to creating rhythm, though it may lack the intricacies of some instruments. Brian Eno utilizes the most complicated technological instrument to create the simplest of sounds. He is very good at trying to mimic other instruments and also utilizes keys that instruments can't make. His music stimulates a sense of geology - he can create music that stimulate the feeling of being in space, by the sea, in an opened field, etc. Or, maybe these sounds result from being in the media, played in movies when an actor is in these locations, may just be a memory rehash and association.

Blog 12 - Latif Bolat (by O'Brian Davis)

Latif Bolat is a very interesting individual. He is a wealth of information, and can educate any individual about about their country. His influence from Sufi has made him very effective artist. I was very pleased with his capability to incorporate improvisations in his performance. He stated that he could go for hours in a single performance so as to allow an individual to achieve spiritual perfection. I especially like how he allowed the audience to participate in some of his performances. Of importance is the fact that he used music stemming from a negative association - one that has a sad background - and still was able to stimulate a good mood in the audience. This begs the question; can one achieve spiritual perfection from sad music also? This question arise because Sufi mystics should first reach a status of inner peace before they should make a composition, yet Latif Bolat's performance was sad and still could stimulate a trance. Pushing the audience closer to said spiritual perfection.  

Blog 11 - Sun Ra (by O'Brian Davis)

It is fundamentally correct to say that Sun Ra is at one extreme of the musical spectrum. He is a character, inundated by brightly colored outfits, he has the most bizarre perspectives on music. I however, commend him on taking a path that others had reservations on. Some would say that Jimi Hendrix had a radical view of music before they started accepting his approach. Therefore I believe that every artist should have a different perspective on music an thus a different performance. This will give music the room needed to further develop and appeal to a new audience. Hopefully, in so doing there can be, though seemingly impossible, a sort of musical universality developed - universality in terms of audience satisfaction.   

Blog 10 - Black Orpheus (by O'Brian Davis)

The Black Orpheus was a perfect combination of love and music. It also indicated that influence that music has on its audience. In the film music was used as a means of uniting people, as Higgins argued it could. It brought people from various socio-economic backgrounds together for carnival in Brazil. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice showcases the two coming together through music and musical expression - dance. The musical expression of each developed and became more intense as the two became more emotionally entangled. This highlights that the emotional state of the artist, is portrayed in his performance and thus he must maintain emotional balance in his work.  

Blog 9 - Sounds and the Emotions (by O'Brian Davis)

In class we listened to several different sounds and recorded our emotional response to each. Some of these stimulated different emotional responses also, some of which were happiness, sadness, excitement, confusion, and peaceful. It is very interesting that the emotional responses were relative, when I had a sense of excitement others had a sense of joy or confusion. This discovery shows that each individual perceives music differently and thus have a specific emotional response to musical sounds depending on their interpretation of such sounds. In addition, when these individuals shared their emotional response sometimes I reconsidered my emotional response. I realized how easy one can attribute an emotional response of anxiousness and happiness, interchangeable, to the same musical sound, leading me to rethink my responses and carefully thinking about future responses. Sometimes I would record having both responses if I was unable to differentiate between emotions. 

Blog 8 - Festivals (By O'Brian Davis)

Close scrutiny of two festivals from different eras showcased the journey that music performers took to not be a common artist. The first festival showed artist from the 1960's such as Jimi Hendrix and "The Who," both of which had unique performance that was intended to set them apart from everyone else and create a new style of music. The music style of artists from the 1950's was the other festival portrayed, and was one of a more calm and soothing rhythm. This difference between the two eras show that music is ever changing and there is a higher demand for musicians that are unique. The Hendrix era also showed a development in the abilities of the artists, which gave them more room to experiment with different styles.

Jimi Hendrix' unique style can be viewed below

Blog 7 - Formalism (by O'Brian Davis)

Kathleen Higgins was right in her approach that the performance is imperative to our musical experience., contradicting the Platonist's perspective of musical formalism. Musical formalism believes that the score, noting else, is the most important in music - ignoring the performers contribution, highlighting that the performer adds imperfection to the 'perfect' score. Higgins believes that this is not the case, she believes that the score and performance are of equal importance. She also highlights that when the two are present music can greatly influence one's musical experience, bringing people together. I believe that the performer can influence the composer's intent, whether this is a positive influence depends on the response from the audience. It is important to note that the composer's intent, even if they are the performer, may not be what the audience perceives. John Cage highlighted that, the audience sometimes would have a different response from what he intended.  One should not get entangled with the relative purity of music but with the response that it evokes.

Blog 6 - Vox Arcana (by O'Brian Davis)

The performance by Vox Arcana was a very inspirational one. They proved that the use of improvisation can stimulate a wide array of responses and thus relate to how one perceives music. John Cage postulated that any sound heard was music, that notion may be true in his case but not to all. Vox Arcana's performance - filled with individuals with great musical prowess - can be too much to the ear of some yet pleasing to others. But at some point in the  performance each individual will find a sound that they view pleasing. The performance, at times, I would find very appealing when the volume and pitch was low but was not very attractive when the pitch and volume was high. I however, saw others enjoying themselves at the point when I was not feeling the music - enjoying the music in opposition to me. There is no doubt that Vox Arcana's performance covered the spectrum of each individual's musical preference. It is my belief that improvisation, though viewed by others to be imperfect, is the best means to appeal to a wide variety of individuals.

After viewing Sun Ra's video on music in class, it can be said that he is an artist with a "unique" approach to music. According to Sun Ra, he is a being from outer space and thought he was a being above everybody. He performed a form of improvised music in this video and was dressed in bright, sparkling clothes. I thought this was a rather weird film because he was acting vey strange. However, his music wasn't that bad. It was improvised jazz music in a sense. Though the style of the film was weird, the musical aspect of it was pretty good. However, his spacey approach and manner was pretty out there.

Episode 12

Listening to Latif Bolat play his music was an experience I'd do again given the chance. He was a wise man and had insightful things to indulge us. his story-telling style mixed with Eastern music played on his Ud made for a culturally informative seminar with excellent musical accompaniment. I enjoyed the music so much that I bought one of his CD's. If he visit's TMC again, you'll be sure to see me there.

Episode 11

Okay, I'm gonna be 100% honest here, I can't stand when people try to blame art for certain behaviors. Such "ideas" that video games, film, or music are the reason for violence is so irritatingly idiotic and I wish these "experts" would pick up a book on psychology. But no, it's just easier to put the blame on a scapegoat. No, I don't believe playing a video game, watching a movie, or listening to music is going to send someone on a psychotic, rage-fueled tirade. So many other factors play into whether a person is violent: their biology, psychological health, and the environment they grew up in all must be considered.

Final Paper

When we had to pick a topic for our final paper it was kind of a challenge for me but when I stopped and thought about it I came to a decision. I will be writing one the similarities and differences that today's music has compared to the 90's music (the music we all grew up with). I would like to look at the meaning of certain songs and what the theme of a lot of the songs were; also, I will look at the culture of both today and the 90's and how it reflects on it's music. I just thought this would be interesting to think about how music has changed over the last 20 years.