Tennessee Context

key | kē | 

noun (plural keys) 

[…]

4 Music a group of notes based on a particular note and comprising a scale, regarded as forming the tonal basis of a piece or passage of music

• the tone or pitch of someone's voice

• the prevailing tone or tenor of a piece of writing, situation, etc.

• the prevailing range of tones or intensities in a painting 1

Just like a piece of music has a key forming the tonal basis for a piece of music, our conference has a key—perhaps, what could be seen as a context—surrounding it and its location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA. As with any place, Nashville conveys and conducts its own history (past), current events (present), and times to come (future). These past/present/future happenings are not separate from other forces within local, national, and global scales, yet, the key of Nashville plays a particular tune: “A particular key features a tonic note and its corresponding chords, …which provides a subjective sense of arrival and rest, and also has a unique relationship to the other pitches of the same key, their corresponding chords, and pitches and chords outside the key” (“Key [music],” 2023, para. 2, emphasis in original).

We must first understand the key that is being sung in Nashville. Then, we must also understand the key we are bringing with us. How do we stop and listen so as to not create an inharmonious space? It is when you understand what key you are in that you can begin to see and hear the notes and the chords.

Might we ask ourselves, then, how can we be cognizant of our arrival and rest within this key/context? What is (y)our relationship to the pitch(es) of this place? In which key do we/you speak and operate?

We see this tab as a way for our CUFA members to get more acquainted with the current key/context of Nashville—a way to learn about the place (and the key) in which we will be arriving and how we might get better connected to its happenings. Below, please find information, social media postings, etc. about Nashville’s current context, and also, if you know about any context that you think should be added, please reach us via this Google form.

Reference:

Key (music). (2023, February 14). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_(music)

Note:

1.  Dictionary entries are excerpted from the Apple Dictionary tool which pulls from the New Oxford

American Dictionary. Dictionary entries sometimes change or get updated; this definition for “key” was pulled on March 1, 2023.