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Course Taken: Junior Year (2021-2023)
Reflection: In this course, we not only developed our skills as musicians but researched the way in which music helped shape cultures, countries, history and individual people. We chose pieces not only based on the emotions they evoked, but more importantly, based on their backstory. One piece in particular, Funtukuru, which was composed by Hawa Diabete, was recalling a dying art of hand-clapping songs in Africa. We chose the piece not only because it was different and had a captivating sound, but because it preserved a tradition that Diabete wished to stay. Through this piece and others, we enriched our knowledge of the music with its story. We then attempted to convey that story through our playing. In enhancing my knowledge of music and culture, I was then able to truly appreciate the global level of all music and how many people it can reach, as it is not just music, it's a story, and usually it has something important to say.
One of the most interesting things I learned in this course was about the way in which music was often a sign of significant wealth and success, particularly for only white males in the recent past. There were very few credited artists that did not fit the criteria of white and male that survived the 17th and 18th-century social unacceptance that we know of today. Even John Sebastian Bach, a now very famous composer, struggled to get into the public eye and share his music because he was a poor orphan who lost his parents quite young. While this seems tragic now and a child would receive far more support in this modern era, at that time, Bach’s orphan background was something he preferred to keep secret, as it was a sign of weakness. There is a new relevance, today, of music that is diverse, either culturally, or non-traditionally, written by a composer of a non-white race, which shapes the way children in schools think about the people around them. Music is a powerful driving force that brings people together, so it is a perfect way to create small social justice simply through the pieces we play.
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