The first culture that I want to talk about is an Aboriginal Australian singer called Fanny Cochrane Smith. She is from Flinders Island which is off the coast of Tasmania (the Australian state off the coast of the Southeast Australian mainland). There was anywhere from 5 to 12 different languages just in Tasmania, but the recordings of her on wax cylinders are the only recordings of any Aboriginal Tasmanian language. Recordings of her were taken in 1899 and in 1903, so the quality is quite horrible, but it is still super interesting to listen to, even if very difficult to understand. Similarly to the cultures we have studied, singing and dancing was a part of story telling to pass down history in their culture as well. The piece I have below is a song that would have been part of a corroboree, which is an Aboriginal rite that includes performances of dances and songs that celebrate aboriginal mythology. This is a dance song sung in honor of a great chief, but this song is interfering since lines of it are improvised, so each time she sings this song it is a little bit different (Traditional, Australia).
Here is a translation of the lyrics:
Next, RAW Taiko (Raging Asian Womxn) is a group of Asian and Southeast Asian women and gender non-conforming drummers from Toronto. Taiko drumming is an ancient Japanese tradition of powerful drumming and martial arts. In Japanese, the term Taiko refers to any type of drum, but outside of Japan it can refer to a specific drum. Like we have talked about in class, Taiko drumming was also traditionally done by men. This form of drumming is used in religious ceremonies and on the battlefield. It is thousands of years old and the drums can produce noise equivalent to the sound produced by jet planes (Japan, Modern).
Going to Iceland, the instrument in its video is a traditional Icelandic instrument called a langspil. This instrument has two drone strings along with a melody string, and it can either be plucked or bowed. It is part of the zither music family and while the instrument dates back to the 18th century, the origin of the instrument is not really known. The instrument is by no means standardized and the music written for it typically reflects traditional folk elements such as culture, history, and nature, and it is often used to accompany voice. This is a video of a langspil being played in a traditional Icelandic folk song, Man ég Þig mey (Iceland, traditional).
The last type of music that I looked at was music from New Zealand, specifically a metal band, Alien Weaponry, that incorporates Māori culture into their music. They sing in Te Reo Māori and incorporate other elements of Māori music such as chanting into their music as well. They do also write tracks in English which are more personal to the band, while their Māori music focuses more on Māori history. The song below, Rū and te Whenua, is specifically about wars in New Zealand that took place in the late 19th century. The song is a story the band members heard from their father about their people protecting their land from the British (New Zealand, modern.)
I decided to interview my dad since he is not a musician and he has a very different perspective regarding music than I do which I thought would be very interesting. My dad grew up in the 80s and 90s which is quite relevant to his answers throughout the interview, and he also grew up in Australia outside of Melbourne which may also be relevant. Here is a picture of both of us!
The first question I decided to ask him was how he would define music, which I thought would be interesting to hear a non-musician’s perspective. He said that it was “sound with some sort of order to it” which was a very musician answer, especially from when we discussed how we would define music in Music History I. He described that his music taste developed when he was in high school and hasn’t changed much since then. He mostly enjoys alternative, heavy rock, and he also described that he used to go to rock concerts pretty often. The first concert he went to was Billy Joel and the most recent concert he went to was an orchestral concert of hard rock music, which he clarified that Thunderstuck was part of and that was his favorite song at that concert (the song below is a cover of Thunderstruck by two cellos that he really enjoys). However, he said his most favorite concert was the Foo Fighters because it lasted for more than 3 hours. He also responded that these concerts were his favorites memories with music.
He said his earliest memory of music was in music class in primary school, which he clarified that he did not enjoy because he does not enjoy singing and everyone else in the class were not good at listening to directions (likely because they were 8 years old). He said that he wishes to erase any and all country music from his brain because he is not a fan and it is one of his least favorite parts of living in the South (once he left a restaurant because they were playing country music too loudly). He said that one of his least favorite country songs is “Achy Breaky Heart”. He has never played an instrument or sung in a choir, and while he does not wish to ever sing, he wishes that he could either play guitar, because they are pretty accessible, or french horn “mindset they’re just weird.”
He said that he does enjoy listening to the music I play, especially coming to my concerts, but he likely would not really listen to classical music on his own if I was not involved. He described that his connection to music is more emotional than intellectual because he doesn’t really think about music intellectually. Due to the time he grew up, he said that he caught the very end of music being on records, but that he mostly used CDs and cassettes until streaming became popular. His parents didn’t give him any musical restrictions growing up content wise, though he mentioned that they did get more upset about the volume level of his music, especially since it wasn’t something they were super interested in. He recalled the time that he first heard Nirvana and he wondered what kind of music that was and when he asked his parents they said they were “glad that he doesn’t listen to that kind of music,” but then just a few years later he would start listening to Nirvana and he still listens to them regularly to this day, and his favorite song Nirvana song is “Come As You Are.” He mentioned that he had two friends in high school where they would all share music together which is how he found lots of the music that he still enjoys.
Music has always been a big part of my memories for most of my life, even before making music became a large part of my life
1. As I mentioned in my last post, I really love One Direction, but the first person I knew that was obsessed with them was my childhood best friend. I lived in a tiny town in Pennsylvania until I was about 9 and moved to South Carolina, but it was the kind of town where everyone knew everyone and everyone on my street was super close. I probably spent more time at her house than I did at mine and one day, probably soon after the Midnight Memories album came out, she brought me over to play it with her, and I still have such a vivid memory of me trying to sing a song I’d never heard before and my best friend badly playing guitar along with me. I’m sure we both laughed so much after we finally gave up since we never tried again and I have no idea if she remembers this, but I think about it often. Even though we lost contact years ago, every time I listen to this song I think of her.
2. This song is originally by Jason Isbell, but I’ve always listened to the Noah Kahan and Wesley Shultz version. This song was introduced to me and my best friend (shoutout Scout!!) by their ex-boyfriend a couple years ago and even though they broke up ages ago (and he sucks) we always joke that introducing us to this song is one of the few good things he did. I think this song is beautiful and so reflective, and I always remember the first time I ever heard it and how much has changed since that time, but also thinking about the constants that have also been a part of my life.
3. I’ve known this song for most of my life, but I developed a closer relationship with it at a summer camp after my freshman year of high school. The camp was a week long and there was a choir of people from different groups that performed a couple times throughout the week and this was one of the songs that was chosen for that year. I remember one of the music leaders that year was a big U2 fan and after talking to us about what we were going to sing he said “Everyone needs to know at least one U2 song, so I guess this can be y’all’s.” While there’s nothing anywhere close to profound about that statement, it has stuck with me for years since that moment, and even though I am familiar with other U2 songs, this is always the one I come back to. We did more elaborate arrangements that week, but this one had very simple harmonies and at the performance we all just sat on the edge of the stage to sing. Even though we were singing in front of more than 1,000 other people, it really just felt like I was singing with my friends, and it was more special since it was on the last day of camp so it was the last time I saw most of those people. While I do love the U2 version, the Sarah Jarosz version is the one we based our performance off of, so that version feels closer in my memory than the original.
I am Erin Semple- the bassist, not our wonderful classmate Erin not Semple, but here is a picture of us (I’m on the right)!
I’m at Converse for music therapy and I started playing bass right when I was 10 years old, but I played violin for a year beforehand! My family currently lives outside of Charleston, SC, but I’m originally from a very small town in southeast Pennsylvania. Though I’ve always loved music, I never considered pursuing anything music related in college until my junior year of high school, and I was planning to be a performance major. I found out about music therapy my senior year (thank you to my best friend, Scout) and it fascinated me. I’ve been hooked ever since, but music therapy is my other favorite subject!
Outside of school, I love to bake, specifically cookies (specifically chocolate chip oatmeal, ginger snaps, and Russian tea cakes), but I’ll make almost anything. Additionally, I really like embroidery, playing Animal Crossing, and reading. I’ve also grown up traveling with my family since I have extended family all over the world. Here is a picture of me at the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road!
1. Current go-to! Delaney Bailey is one of my favorite smaller artists and I will continue being sad that she has only toured in the Midwest since I started listening to her music until she plays a show close enough I can go to. I love the feel of all of her music, even though her songs can vary in genres, and I think her lyricism is wonderful.
2. Walk-up song! I love High School Musical 2 (and all of the High School Musical movies) and Sharpay is my favoriteeeeee. I watch all of these movies on a regular basis and I love all of the music (especially the singing and dancing with basketballs), the mid/late 2000s vibe, and the characters. This song is fabulous (joke intended) and I think it would be a great walk-up song.
3. Music that isn’t my favorite! There’s not a lot of music that I don’t connect with at all, but Benson Boone fits into that group. I’ve never been a fan of this song, but the fact that it has been so overplayed definitely has not helped. While the song is catchy, I’m not always the biggest fan of pop music and I think some of the lyrics are weird.
4. Bonus! Another thing about me is that I LOVE One Direction! They were my top artist this past year and I still listen to them all the time. Even though I was pretty young when they got together, lots of my friends were obsessed with their music, but I didn’t think it was very good. Even after the band broke up, it took me until high school to really start listening to their music regularly. This is one of my favorite One Direction songs, but I think that each of their albums has fantastic songs and I love listening to the evolution of their music across the 5 albums.
