Music and Movement

Is your music linked to movement, or are they more or less separate entities? Are the music and the movements fundamentally linked in some way? Does one take precedence over or rely on the other? How would the music or the movements change if they were divorced from the other? How does one affect the other? And any other questions that you think are relevant to the topic.

Addressing this issue has been a bit difficult for me since I notice a present dichotomy in my life as to when my personal music is and is not linked with movement. My belief is that music and movement are fundamentally linked. I also propose that when movement is seemingly absent it is, in some way, present.

Firstly I would like to explain my experience with music and movement.

Children automatically place music and action together. As a tiny tot I sang songs with accompanied hand motions, danced around in circles, and made strong connections between music and movement.

After pre-school, I was also placed in dance classes up until High School where I chose performance studies over dance. I participated in jazz, ballet, tap, and hip hop. In High School I participated in Show Choir where we sang and danced to each song. And, as I mentioned in my previous blog, I undertook bellydancing a few years ago.

Yes, these are all very obvious accounts of music and movement. However, I ask you to think about a time where you went to a gym and didn't hear music in the background. Or, I simply point out that in the group classes, like kickboxing and step, all of the exercise movements actually correspond with the music and beats.

So- all of these things and more that I have left unmentioned are my accounts of music and movement connecting in my life. However, I haven't mentioned my classical training at all (which I assume is to where the initial question points).

Many of us, the students in the Music of Diverse Cultures course, have been trained classically and play in an orchestra or wind ensemble. Perhaps, at first glance, many would say that in a performance setting or a recital hall the connection between music and movement are divorced. I thought this to be the case as well, until I thought more about the topic. We have been studying Native American music this week and the study has emphasized the decline in participatory music (when looking at classical music, concerts, and venues). However, I would argue that the participation simply manifests itself in different ways (active listening for the listeners/audience-Even though it is as if an audience member is simply looking in on a performance there is still an exchange and process of sharing that is taking place). And I would also argue that there is still movement.

Personally, when I play the piano or flute I actually move my body (shocking!). As a performer, a sharer of music, I actually feel what I am playing (for the most part) and I try to convey that through movement and expression, both visual and aural, to the listeners and watchers. No, the typical audience doesn't get up and start dancing. Yes, it is a different type of correspondance between music and movement. But- it still exists.

Likewise, in an ensemble I believe the movement of the bows, the director, and the players adds to the experience (although sometimes I admittedly close my eyes to rid myself of any distraction aside from the musical sounds). Even then (some of you may think this a stretch), I believe there is movement in the mind for both performer and listener. I see and experience movement as it relates to the music regardless of whether or not I am dancing or tapping my foot.

I am always awed when I watch a dancer manipulate their body and use it to represent the music to which they dance. I believe this is normal for most people. Perhaps we find this to be extraordinary not only because we have lost our own flexibility to age, but because dance is a tangible and visual way to represent the movement that occurs in each and every one of our minds.

I will probably revise this and expand upon it further once my thoughts are better organized. Also, an interesting question that arises when looking at music and movement: To what degree is our movement restricted by sets of rules and guidelines? And if it is restricted, then to what degree is the movement naturally linked to music? Is it really a bad thing that there are rules and techniques to dance? (For clarification, I do not think that the restrictions found at times in music and movement negate the fact that music and movement are fundamentally linked.)

Also, I found an interesting website. "Music, Living Body, and (E)motion"

Here is the "About" section, in case you are too lazy to open the link. I hope you find the first page as interesting as I did (I have been too lazy to read the whole website). The topic of research at hand corresponds directly with this topic.

AboutIn the realm of our everyday musical experience there are two dimensions, indistinguishable at any particular moment, and yet not reducible to one another: the external reality of conceptualized usical denotations, and the internal unconceptualized world of kinaesthetic gestures. Music research has traditionally tended to ignore the latter in favour of the former, thus placing the mind over the body. This is no surprise, considering the history of this Cartesian order in the whole Western culture. In analytical practises attention tends to focus on the cognitive rather than on the tactile, on the composition rather than on the performance, and on the extrinsic parameters of musical behaviour rather than on genuine musical experiences.

The paradigmatic mode of study concentrates on fixed transcription rather than on the audible music itself, and listening is regarded at best as an aid to analysis by vision. Formal music analysis ignores the potentiality of the corporeal elements of all music, and particularly music where the gesturing body is in the fore. Methodically, what is yet to be fully acknowledged, is the potential of the intuitive and internalized knowledge of practical music-making and dancing.

There seems to be a basic quasi-epistemological division between knowledge about music and music as knowledge. This has not helped institutionalized music research in finding answers to some seemingly central questions, such as: why do sounds affect? Exactly how does music give rise to emotion? What is the profound relation between music and dance? Music has its' apparent effects in people's lives - but what is the relation of these effects to the music itself? To seek answers to these questions, we propose an approach which has still had few applications in music research, but which presents an opportunity to seize music and dance in an immediate way: in this approach, the analysis begins with bodily informed intuition.

Pictures corresponding with "Musical Autobiography"

Slovakia

(Kibbutz Mizra, Israel)
Japan
(Kibbutz Mizra, Israel)
Spain, Korea, Colombia
(Kibbutz Mizra, Israel)

Nigeria

(Kibbutz Mizra, Israel)

Tanzania
(Kibbutz Mizra, Israel)

Here I am bellydancing for a Moroccan inspired dinner (Spartanburg, SC)

In the Sahara Desert playing music with the Bedouins

The traditional "Fes-y" robe and head-dress meant for the Bride to wear. The Bride actually keeps changing robes and then, at the very end, changes into a Western white wedding gown. In Fes this green and gold robe ad head-dress is traditional and all of the women literally lift the Bride while the men lift and sway with the Groom. The Groom then stands up on top of his platform and leans over to kiss the Bride on

her forehead and everyone claps.

A traditional performance for the Bride and Groom

Dancing at the wedding in Morocco

Musical Autobiography

I would define this entry as a documentation of the many cultural soundbytes I have experienced throughout my years as opposed to a solidified musical autobiography. Is it really possible to document these experiences to their fullest extent? No. Each and every day our ears hear something new- things of which we are unaware consciously. However, subconsciously everything we hear and everything we experience influences our personal experiences thereafter- ultimately, influencing how we understand music, ourselves, and others. I would even go on to say that these cultural soundbytes or experiences, whether it be an African drum circle (more obvious) or the drone of the television mixed with the heater [1](less obvious), influence how we understand other cultures, the world, and each "soundscape"[2] we cross.

Until I sat down to think about the topic at hand, I hadn't realized how many different genres of music I had experienced throughout the years. I was surrounded by music growing up since my Mother is a director of music at a church. She didn't stick with Wesleyan hymns the whole time, either, and so I would say my first main influence was My Church. (My Mother was also a piano teacher, but I feel as if this realm did not give way to outside music to which the topic at hand suggests I remain focused upon.)

My Mother introduced many anthems to the choir that ranged from classical to African to spiritual and even 'pop' (but very occasional if at all regarding the use of pop music).

Secondly, my experience in jazz band as a jazz pianist for seven years expanded my musical training and ear to hear dominant sevenths and encouraged me to swing rhythms. So the next "soundbyte" was derived from my experience in Jazz Band.

Then, in High School I was the Spanish Club President and I was interested in pursuing immigration reform. Therefore, armed with a passion for Latin America and the Spanish language I started listening to the local Hispanic Music Station, bought a "Latin Lounge" CD, frequented the local Mexican restaurant, heard the mariachi band, and went to Las Tapas in D.C. where I saw flamenco dancers and heard flamenco music each year with my Sister. This soundbyte would be entitled Musica Latina.

I was also afforded the opportunity, through an application process and an audition, to join a choral group two Summers in a row called "Voices of Youth" (VoY). We learned a full program of music, traveled somewhere within the US or abroad for one week to do mission work and give concerts, and upon our return to the East Coast we traveled up the East Coast back to VA doing mission work each day and giving up to two concerts a day/night. The first Summer VoY traveled to Louisiana where I was exposed to Cajun culture, Orleans jazz, and a certain tribe's Native American music (we visited a reservation). In the Native American settlement I realized the communal function of the music. The meaning of the costuming was explained to me and while I watched the traditional dances and ate special bread I felt the overwhelming sense of community and fellowship. The net Summer VoY traveled to England. Overall, my VoY experience enabled me to finally see another group of people create music within their cultural tradition first hand.

Then, after college and exposure to different types of music in a variety of classes and recitals, the biggest alteration in my understanding of music and how it was created and used occurred when I traveled to Morocco, Africa. Although I was traveling to Morocco to learn Arabic at the American Language Institute in Fes, I took my flute with me (and the guards in the Casablanca airport made me play it on the way out of the country to explain exactly what it was). I was placed with a host family- a Mother, Hejja, who only spoke Arabic and French, a Brother, Simo, who spoke Arabic, French and English and a host Sister, Ouiam, who spoke Arabic, French and Spanish. I was just beginning my studies in Arabic and needless to say there were many misunderstandings that led to prolonged moments of laughter. However, I found, when I played my flute (Griffes "Poem" to be exact), my host family listened and we ended up exchanging stories and sounds. I even taught my host Mother how to hold and play the flute! (With out being able to instruct her verbally- you don't exactly learn the words to teach flute in Arabic 101.)

Also, the first time I heard the call to prayer was truly magical. Although I am not Muslim and I could not understand the words that the caller sang out- I was stilled for a moment. The call to prayer served as a marker during the day as to what time it was and although the sound became a normal expectation (I missed it very much when I left Morocco), the calm and focus I found in the melodic proclamation did not cease. Of course I was very lucky in that the local mosque had a talented caller- I have heard some call to prayers do not have such a calming effect.

Furthermore, I was afforded the opportunity to attend a traditional Moroccan wedding and I was able to see and hear some of the traditional wedding and "Fesy" music that corresponds with the wedding 'ceremony' (which is more like a big party with a lot of dancing and lifting of the bride and groom. Yes, literal lifting).

Then, perhaps the most influential experience I had in redefining my idea of music ability was in the middle of the Sahara Desert. My class rode out on camels through the desert and spent the night in a Bedouin camp. That evening we had unidentifiable food by candlelight and spent the evening making music with drums, winds, and chanting (none of which I understood but I sang it out regardless). The next morning, after awaking to something green on my mattress, I gazed across the endless landscape of golden sand and I realized I had tangible proof of something I had suspected beforehand. I realized that music didn't have to be restricted- it didn't have to be taught in offices and practiced in practice rooms. It could just happen. Of course, on an intellectual level I understood this point far before my experience in the Sahara desert, but the experience from that evening has forever shaped my understanding of music making. Also, the music was very different than what I expected. I had heard standard Middle Eastern music but Bedouin music is influenced in different ways and there are unique sounds to each genre.

After I returned from Morocco, I decided to pursue belly dancing and I signed up for a class at Ballet Spartanburg. With my love for Arab culture and the Arabic language I was intrigued, much as I had been before with Latin music, in the music of the region. Bellydancing at Ballet Spartanburg heightened my exposure to Middle Eastern music. Also, my response to the music was quite natural and I attribute it to the different elements of that genre including rhythm, melodic sequence, and instrumentation.

Also, this past year I traveled to Israel and the Palestinian Territories where I once again took my flute and I experienced the communicative powers of music. I was supposed to further my Arabic studies, however the language program was cancelled and I was placed in the Political Science and middle East Studies program at Galillee College in Kibbutz Mizra, Israel. The group of students, mostly graduate students and professors, came from all parts of the world including Colombia, Spain, South Korea, Japan, England, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Not only did I experience music within Israel and the Palestinian territories, but I was able to obtain musical soundbytes from each country represented in our study group as well thanks to a "Culture Night" we had in the kibbutz. The group heard two traditional songs from a Tanzanian delegation that was present, heard and watched two dances from Nigeria, saw the Colombians and Spaniards join together in dance, watched and learned a traditional warrior dance from Japan, listened and learned two songs from South Korea (their costumes were darling as well), and learned a fly (or flea?) song from Slovakia. Not to mention the Moroccan presentation we had from the Moroccan Brit student which turned into a group dance for everyone.

I would like to elaborate further upon my experience in Israel and Palestine while focusing on the communicative powers of music and the ways different Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are utilizing the arts at a later date.

I hope you have enjoyed a chronological journey through the cultural soundbytes I have experienced throughout my life. I hope to expand upon the influence these experiences have had on me in my life as a musician and communicator.

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97apr/toby.htm

[2] We discussed "soundscapes" in the course today. According to Wikipedia (an unreliable source at times but fitting for this) a sound scape is as follows:

A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology. The idea of soundscape refers to both the natural acoustic environment, consisting of natural sounds, including animal vocalizations and, for instance, the sounds of weather and other natural elements; and environmental sounds created by humans, through musical composition, sound design, and other ordinary human activities including conversation, work, and sounds of mechanical origin resulting from use of industrial technology.