Encounter 3: the Mbira

Attending Indiana University has been an amazing way of being exposed to other cultures of the world. For my fourth encounter project, I decided to look at a hand-made object that was not familiar to me and describe its appearance and cultural context. Up until this year, I have never even heard of an Mbira. An Mbira is also known in the West as the "African Thumb Piano." It was called this because the white missionaries who ended up in Zimbabwe did not know how else to describe the instrument. The Mbira I was given is basically the size of a snare drum with the same dimensions. The instrument is hollow with two thirds of one side uncovered. Inside the large resonator box is a rectangular block of wood about an inch thick. Wedged between two metal rods on this block are fifteen elongated keys of various lengths. The rule goes that the longer the key, the deeper the pitch. Because of the wedged nature of the keys, they are not permanently stuck on the block of wood, and thus gives the player the option to tune the key if necessary. A thin but wide metal sheet is placed at the base of the block and holds two bottle caps. This serves to create a rattling sound whenever the keys are plucked with the thumb. The instrument is gripped by the block of wood bolted to the resonator and allows for easy playability with the free thumbs. In more traditional Mbiras, the block with the keys is placed inside of a large hollowed out gourd with bottle caps attached all along the rim. Many Mbiras today have moved to the all wood construction however due to the increased durability that it provides. For many years, the Mbira along with percussion instrumentation has been a central part of traditional music in and around Zimbabwe. In my studies, I have discovered that there are tonnes of species of Mbira with a huge variety of styles and amount of keys. There can be as little as eight keys on the Mbira or as many as about fifty. Historically, music of the Mbira has had a variety of subjects, including instructional songs, warning songs, and spiritual songs. There is a certain type of religious ceremony called a "Bira" that employs many Mbira performers playing music that is said to evoke spirits. The type of Mbira commonly used at these type of religious ceremonies is a kind called Mbira Dzvadzimu which translates to "Mbira of the Spirits." The Mbira is very hard to play well at first however. The nature of the metal keys that are played can be painful on the sensitive fingertips and can leave them raw and produce blistering. However, calluses do form and protect the fingertip.

On Performance...

"Living Folklore's" chapter on performance was, I believe, the most important chapter that we have thus read this semester. I feel this way because it takes most of the elements we have discussed so far as well as various genres and has their purpose in a way fulfilled through performance. I agreed with the book when it stated how performances are not mainly thoes events that occur on a stage or an altar but happen most often in every day conversations and occurences in our daily lives. Performance is all around us. A basic way the book said that performances happen is in the saying of proverbs. I really do not agree with this. Well, I can see the point that the book is trying to make here, I guess, but I feel that saying a proverb is more of a recitation. I see performance as a point in time where a situation moves from the ordinary of life such as a conversation and is purposely adjusted to where a performer or performers and an audience are created or emerge from the situation. The most basic example of this I can think of is someone giving their representation of a conversation or situation that they witnessed or were a part of earlier in the day or week. Emergence was another topic that made a whole lot of sense to me. Emergence is the idea that things that are familure such as stories and jokes can be repeated over and over and still have the ability to grow and change to where they still are entertaining or contain new elements. The best example I can think of is my roomate Lucas and his friends telling stories. One of their favorite things to do with each other is tell, or perform, for each other stories of high school. Most of the stories everyone has either heard or witnessed, but they continue to tell them because of their emergence quality that these performances contain. The book did also mention the idea of a texture aspect associated with performances, but it did not make all that much sense to me. They stated that virtually all adjectives associated with describing physical texture can be applied to performance texture. I guess i am just having a hard time picturing what a lumpy performance might be like....

Encounter Project 3

Being in a class about world cultures has given me to see elements of the world that I haven't really been exposed to in my life. This being so, it has also helped me to question elements of Western Culture that I have not necessarily given to much thought to thus far. Because I have spent so much of my life studying music, I have always been hearing classical music as well as learning about classical music. However, I have never taken the opportunity to see a concert band (a band containing winds and percussion) or an orchestra perform outside of an opera dress rehearsal or high school musical performance. This assignment to experience a cultural performance and having a good friend who is in IU's concert band gave me the extra little nudge I needed to go to an orchestral performance. The concert was held at the Musical Arts Center off Jordan avenue. What an amazing venue. The room is much higher than it is deep. I was told that this construction helps to accomodate for the non-microphoned voices of the professional opera singers that bless the humongous stage. The cues that triggered the beginning of the performance were quite different from anything that I have yet experienced. With the house lights still up, all the musicians take their seats, stay quiet, and almost all of the sudden begin practicing their pieces randomly, creating a beautiful cacophony of sound. Once they have warmed up for about five minutes, the first oboe player plays the tuning note and the band tunes accordingly. The house lights lowered right before the band tuned. Before they began the tuning process, the first clairinet player as well as the conductor was recognized with applause from the audience. The music begins. I felt like I was listening to a movie soundtrack minus the movie. The band was extremely tight and talented. There really was no one instrument that stood out because of how well everthing melted together so well.
Most of the music played contained several movements, but there was no clapping until the complete end of the song. The music played was not exactly what I expected it to be. In my head I was expecting Mozart, but all of the music was created by composers born within the twentith century. This was a pleasant surprise. All in all, this was a great experience. The formal nature of the performance is the only thing that I am not too big a fan of. Maybe this is just because I don't yet fully understand all of the reasons or tradition behind a classical performance. I would be willing to learn though.

On Ritual...

Initially, it was kind of difficult to differentiate between the idea of tradition and ritual. Reading the forth chapter in our "Living Folklore" textbook helped me to understand that the main element that sets ritual aside is the fact that it brings intangible things such as deeply held beliefs and values out into the open in a very concrete and visual way. Ritual is all around us, and we much of the time experience these ritualistic events in a group context. I feel like I always took this for granted, but reading this chapter helped me to open my eyes to the idea of individualistic ritual that most people (including myself) take part in. For example, it is a kind of ritual for an athlete to say a quick prayer before an important event in sports is about to begin, eating the exact same breakfast before taking a test, or wearing the exact same pair of socks just before an important interview. I was trying to think of a ritual I take part in very regularly that doesn't include a predominantly religious base (because that just seemed to easy). As I thought about it, I realized that one of my favorite rituals that I participate in is one that involves our band, Amarye. This only happenes right before we play a show, but I would like to make this an event that happenes every time we are about to play our instruments together. What happens is right before a show, we huddle up together with our heads touching as a way of preparing ourselves to play and create music together. This is a ritual that was invented by all three of us, and is nice because it is slightly different every time it is performed. There really isn't to profound of a beginning behavior or phrase that is spoken to start us off. We huddle up together, but even when this happens, it usually takes one of us to say "OK, lets go" to get up and running. In our ritual, we begin with a moment of silence to get outselves in a receptive mindset, and I then proceed to lead us in a short prayer (probably because I'm the most religious of the group) that moves us into a thankful and humble mindset, and then we take three deep breaths in order to relax us. The short ritual is usually completed whenever Lucas, our drummer, pats us on the shoulder and says, "All right boys." It is an informal saying, but because we have done it so much, it became the tradition. I consider this ritual because this simple action binds and bonds all of us in Amarye together, sepearates us from other people and allows for a shift in mental state to occur. This new state helps us to be as present as we can to the music and each other which allows for the best show possible at that moment.

Album Review

Being a Christian has always made me feel a strong connection to thoes associated with the Jewish faith tradition. It is because of this connection I feel that I have to the Jewish people that I was intrigued to discover in a deeper way the ethnic music of that tradition. Searching through the enormous selection of the Smithsonian Folkways Music archive, I stumbled across an album entitled "Jewish Life-'The Old Country'". This album was made up of a collection of songs and poems collected by Ruth Rubin. The song subjects range as far as their content is concerned from lullabys, childhood rhymes, religious songs, and love laments. to name a few. There were a total of 28 tracks on the album with a variety of lengths from 25 seconds to three and a half minutes. Male and female voices can be heard on the tracks, but they were always recorded individually. The sound quality wasn't the greatest due to the year in which it was published- 1964. However, the record-like crackling of the recording gave the album an extremely raw feel, which, in my opinion, made the music seem that much more authentic. It sounded as though the music was recorded within the homes, temples, or workplaces of thoes who were singing and that made the music that much more powerful to me. This album was beautiful to me because of its honesty and simplicity. The men and women singing on the album were not professional singers because of the nature of their seemingly untrained voices and the amount of times that they stray away from the key center. My favorite track on the album was a song entitled "Chassidic Tune." There were no lyrics that were associated with this song, but the story along with the beautiful scale the song was in is what mainly intrigued me about this song. The man in the recording (by the last name of Chassid) was told that the Rabbi who originally sung this song in an ornate, high-back chair was believed to float off the ground as he sang it. Overall, this was a beautiful album, but is not something I could see myself listening to as a means of entertainment. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this a 7.

My experience of religious tradition

The tradition chapter of "Living Folklore" was one that related or connected to me more deeply than the other two chapters that we have read thus far. Tradition is one of the center focuses of my life as a Catholic Christian. So much of our faith is based on the oral and written traditions that have been passed on since the institution of the Church at Pentacost. An interesting thing concerning the traditions of religion is how they permiate the everyday life of its believers. For example, traditions of our family's include going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve, praying a special Catholic prayer before a big Thanksgiving meal, or going as a family to Easter service. What makes religious traditions such as the Catholic Church so interesting is the fact that there is a world wide community of believers, but there are smaller communities within a larger community that have their own special traditions that make each one unique in its own way. At St. Mary's Church in Evansville, Indiana, they perform the Eucharistic Prayer by singing every word in such a way that to me as of yet has not been heard anywhere else. Because this way of singing the Eucharistic Prayer is so unique to this particular parish community, there is no visible sheet music to follow along melodically with the priest. The traditional words are spoken at the proper time, but the melodic responses must be learned by attending mass and listening to the directions of the cantor. Over time, going to this mass on a regular basis really allowed me to feel a part of this particular ceremony and thus have a connection to it. Eventually it got to the point where this became part of my identity. I felt associated with a particular community. As my devotion and love of the Catholic Church grew, I found that when I was to go to another parish, the same words that were familure to me at my home parish were taking on new and deeper meaning. The tradition of the order of the mass was becoming a part of my identity as a Christian. Looking at my own life, I have discovered that most of the prayers and words that we recite at the mass were learned by just being aware of my surroundings at mass growing up. This approach at learning and obtaining certain traditions as part of my identity coinsides with Henry Glassie's idea of inheriting traditions. He stated that basically being in an environment allows us to take in the essence of that environment. This is something I completely agree with. Traditions also grow, change, and disolve as well. They adapt to the environment in which they live. Some examples of traditions that change and disolved with time are ones such as the priest no longer facing away from the congregation to say mass or saying the mass in the countries native language rather than Latin.

Peer Response 2

Jeff's post about the Irishman was a particularly enjoyable post to me. My grandpa Stephen Provost graduated from the University of Notre Dame so his blog brought back a flood of memories to me. It also brought back memories to me because most of the humor my dad inherited came from my Irish grandpa. One joke he always liked to tell involved this guy with what my dad and grandpa called a "hair-lip." I never quite understood what it meant except that the character had a speech impediment that made him sound like he was deaf or something. There were many jokes with this guy in it, but one of my favorite was when he goes on a vacation with his crippled brother and and telling one of his buddies about his trip. The hair-lip's friend asks him, "So where did you go?" Well we went all over Europe. First we stopped in Spain and went running with the bulls." "Thats amazing," the friend replied, "did your brother go with you." "No he didn't, he's a cripple, you know." "What did you do after that?" "Well after that, we went to Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower and went up to the top." "Wow, I've always want to do that. What did your brother think of it?" "Well he didn't go up in the tower, he's a cripple, you know." "What else did you do?" "Well after that we went down to the Vatican and ended up seeing and talking to the pope." "Wow! What did he say to you?" "He didn't say anything to me, but he saw my brother, whispered something in his right ear, and he threw down his right crutch. After that, he whispered something in his left ear and he threw down his left crutch." "Thats unbelievable!" the friend exclaimed, "did he end up walking again?" "Hell no, my brother fell right on his ass, he's a cripple you know."

This joke is particularly funny to our family because we are all pretty devout Irish Catholics, so the angle of the pope strikes us hard in a halarious way. At least it does to me anyway. These are one of the best ways that we keep grandpa's memories alive in our family. Thanks for that post, Jeff.

Jeff's post can be found under the title, "Joke" on the following website: folkmania.blogspot.com

This blog was posted in response to our Peer Response 2 exercise.

Encounter Assignment 2: Verbal Art

I was lucky enough to have grown up in a family where my dad used to be a stand-up comedian. Since I can remember, I have been told countless jokes and been immersed in exaggerated facial and body experessions. As I think about it, that is probably why I am like what I consider myself to be today. Growing up with my father has really taught me the importance of humor and the importance of "performing" it well to an audience, whoever it may be.
One of my favorite jokes that I ever heard my dad tell me was learned by me about three years ago. It involved a hillbilly from the middle of the ruralist of areas in Kentucky and decides to finally take a break from whatever he does in his life and go on a vacation. The joke begins with a Kentuckyian man with an EXTREMELY exaggerated and thick southern accent talking to his buddy. He says, "Man, I'm so excited 'cause I finally saved up enough money to go on my DREEEEEAM vacation. And I decided what I'm gonna do... I'm gonna fly over to Spain. Thing is, I kinda nervous 'cause I dont speak the language, so I don't know what I'm gonna do." His buddy with him replies, "Oh man, thats ok. They speak spanish over there so you just go and talk.....really......slow....... and you'll be fine." So the original guy says, "OK." So the Kentuckyian flies over to Spain, checks into is hotel, goes down to the bar and says, "I.....would.....like....a.........beer." Another man at the bar as well looks over at him and says, "Where......are.....you.......from.......?" He replies, "I......am........from......Kentucky......." The guy sitting claims, "I.....am......from........Kentucky...........too.......!" Puzzled, the original man asks, "Well,.......if........you........are........from......Kentucky..........and.........I........am.........from......Kentucky.......then......why.....are.......we.......speaking.........spanish?"
I have to admit that a great deal of the humor in this joke is conveyed through the acual performance of the joke. One of the elements that makes this joke particularly funny to someone from southern Indiana is the sort of rivalry that Indiana has with Kentucky. I do not however understand it. I assume that the main character's identity could be replaced with a Hoosier, a man from South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, or anywhere where there is a population of people that have a southern draw.
I asked my dad the context in which whis joke was told to him, and he said that he was actually at a business dinner with his wife, a client of his, and her husband at the Velagio in Las Vegas, Nevada. They happened to be talking about traveling at the time, and dad's client told the joke as a result. To me, it seems that a joke would be completely appropriate in this type of environment because although business is being conducted, I feel that it would help the sales person and their client(s) to develop a business relationship on a more personal level. Once you get to know the people you are doing business with, business transactions could be done in a more comfortably for parties on both sides of the sale. The atmosphere when jokes are present is typically more relaxed.
I am not sure as to how old or new the joke is, but I do know that it has to have come about in the past 50 or so years because of the plane aspect of the joke. However, this joke contains many elements that could be modified such as using a plane to travel to Spain rather than a boat. This joke is also not very well known (at least to my knowledge) because for every person I have told it to, and there have been many, nobody has heard it before. I do however feel that it has the potential to be a classic, though.

It is the music that binds us

Identifying with different groups throughout our lives are necessary experiences that allow us to feel as though we belong to something. The different methods of interraction and communication that occurs within these groups are special elements that allow parameters to form and thus, enclose us into whatever groups these walls form around. As I thought about it, I found that one of the groups I attribute myself as being a member to is the hard-rock musician community. My approach to why I feel a part of this particular folk group parallels mostly with Alan Dundes interpretation of what defines folk groups. In Living Folklore, he states that "any group of two or more people who share a common factor are 'folk.'" The factor that hard-rock musicians share together is simply the style of music we play. Using this implication, I feel that it is safe to say that performers within a certain musical genre can consider themselves part of a musical folk group. I take this stance because in my own experience members of different musical folk groups interact within themselves diffently then others. For example, communicating specific musical ideas varies greatly between a group like TLC and one such as Metallica. Because of the special idiosyncracies, interraction and communication within these groups of music, I feel that Dundes view applies well to this argument.
Still, even this folk group that I feel I am affiliated with is an extremely broad group that in itself contains millions of members and many sub-groups. In the rock genre or folk group of music there are other categories such as, Emo, Metal, Black Metal, Christian Metal, Hair Metal, Classic Rock, Grunge, Progressive, and Math Rock just to name a few. As I think about it, being a part of one of these groups is an interesting thing to me. I am very proud to be a musician and to be part of a band and create music, but many times, there is a certain stigma that comes along with being a part of this community that I do not like to be connected with. I like to be a part of the hard rock group because I feel as though with much of it, there is a certain essence of "who cares if you are mainstream? I am going to create with the other members of my band music that is from our hearts, and forget you if you don't like or appreciate it." Now-a-days though, I feel that many of the members of this folk group are putting on fronts and trying to present themselves as a "badass" (as we like to say) by molding themselves into other peoples view of what makes a "rockstar" rather than just being who they are. I feel that many people in the hard rock genre act arrogant, depressed, angry, and indifferent because they think that others think that it looks "cool." To me, this goes against everything that rock and roll stands for. Many are still in the music and right it for the right reasons though, and I feel that it is this factor that binds thoes in the group in which I feel affialated together, even though I may not like the sound of their music or the message they are giving.

This blog was written in conjunction with my F121 World Arts and Cultures class at Indiana University for my chapter 2 reflection question.

Peer Response

Hayley, I really enjoyed this post in particular because I think that the examples you were giving about your family gatherings pretty much permiate everyones get-together experiences. At least thats how it is in my family. To be honest, I have not been to one family gathering of my own or any of my friend's or distant family's "parties" in which there is even a slight shread of formality. Acually, I take that back. During gatherings like Thanksgiving and things of that nature when a substantial amont of family members are in the same place, we usually assign random places for everyone to sit and are formal when it comes to the beginning prayer, but that's about it. I guess when you get to little formalites like that, it becomes more of an issue of tradition than it does a question of being formal.
I especially liked it when you posed the question that made us think about what we are truly celebrating whenever it comes to get togethers on a holiday. As I thought more and more about it, I think to some degree we are celebrating the actual holiday such as 4th of July, Labor Day, or even Christmas, but when we are at a family members house, I feel that we are more celebrating a chance to be together and like you said, stay in close touch with one another. I feel that we really are celebrating the actual holiday like Christmas when we attend a church service, or go watch the fireworks downtown on the fourth of July. But even so, just the fact that we are in each others company (at least to me anyway) whether or not we are all just in the same room watching a Notre Dame game after Thanksgiving, to me is very comforting simply because we are all in the same room together. I really enjoyed this post you made.
P.S. Thanks for commenting on my first reflection question a few weeks ago!

This blog was posted in accordance with my F121 class at Indiana University

September 23, 2007 11:35 PM

Good Lord, That's Some Amazing Flatbread

One of the benefits of living in the United States of America, is the simple fact that our American culture is basically comprised of a mixture of just about every other culture on the planet Earth. One could walk down the streets of most American cities and on the very same road have an authentic Mexican restauraunt in a 25 yard radius of a genuine Thai Cuisine establishment. So, when the opportunity to review an ethnic restauraunt presented itself, I induldged if you will in the opportunity. Newly constructed on the famed Kirkwood Avenue is an authentic Mediterranean-American restauraunt called "Trulli Flatbread." The atmosphere of the restauraunt is very modern, with merlots and earthtones on every location where one rests their eyes. Upon arriving, guests have the option to sit on a beautiful patio overlooking Kirkwood Avenue or in their elegant and open dining room area. Located towards the back of the restaraunt is what I consider the focal piece. A white wood-fired masonry oven sits towards the back of the dining room, and acts as a catalyst that blends the kitchen area with the dining room. In my opinion, this created an atmosphere that reminded me of waiting in the living room while my mother would prepare dinner just across the way in the Kitchen.
While we waited on dinner, we were given a wide selection of beers and wines from all over the world. I had the opportunity to sample an imported beer from Belgium called "Duvel" that was decent, but was a little bitter for my taste. The food was terrific. We sampled two of their specialty flatbreads. One was topped with organinc tomato sauce, chicken, bacon, basil, and mozzerella cheese. The second flatbread presented us with a very complex taste. Ingredients included rosmary, chicken, red onions, dried tomato, and an organic tomato-based sauce created by blending nuts, garlic, various herbs, and chocolate together. A taste that I have never experienced resulted. The overall taste was sweet, and the masonry oven yielded an interesting texture in the crust.
Overall, the experience was very good. The employees were very polite, friendly, and attentive to the customers. The atmosphere was very welcoming and the interior design gave off a very classy vibe without being intimidating. I recommend Trulli Flatbread to anyone looking for food that is not too extravagant and over-the-top different, while at the same time presenting the consumer with new and exotic tastes.

This Blog was created in conjunction with my participation in FOLK 121 "World Arts and Cultures" at I.U., Fall 2007

The Live Musical Performance

It is my opinion that any human being that has ever listened to music and been moved by it in some way has seen, or at least has had the desire to see, the music they love made in front of their own eyes. The live musical performance in its many forms has played an important role in the human condition since we have walked the earth. We see the live musical performance as a form of enteratinment, a worship tool, an outlet of artistic expression, a communication tool, a form of stress relief, etc...
Because of how many situations and aspects of our lives experiencing live musical performances are involved in, I felt that "live music" was an element of our lives that merited its own genre within folklore.
Whenever I mention the live musical performance, I am simply talking about witnessing an event where music is being performed by actual people. There are many places in which this can happen. It occurs at concerts, whenever friends are sitting around on couches playing a few guitars, in coffee shops, on Kirkwook Avenue, whenever a live performance is looked up on Youtube.com, etc... There are countless of ways in which we experience these.
As I mentioned before, I have yet to meet a person who has not witnessed music played live and it is because of this that I feel that live music connects with all people in one way, shape or form. I believe that this happens because there is a certain characteristic of music that easily penetrates our emotions. We allow music to move us. The fact that words are combined artistically with sounds makes music one of the most profound forms of expression. It is because of this that I feel that humans desire to see with their own eyes the production in real-time of the sounds that reach us so deeply. For me, I enjoy going to concerts to make sure that what I am hearing on the CD or on the internet is a real thing or if it is even possible to be created by real people. There is a certain magic or mystery associated with music and we want to see it created first-hand.
However, as I was reading chapter one of "Living Folklore", I questioned whether or not the live musical performance was actually a legitimate "artifact" of folklore because I assumed that live performances were not a part of everyday life, and thus didn't qualify. The more I reflected on it though, I see a live musical performance every day whether it be watching my roomate play the drums, playing my own music live, watching a performance on Youtube.com, or seeing someone perform on the street, I realized just how surrounded we are in this culture by the live musical performace.

This blog was created in response to the Chapeter One reflection question.