Image above: An image from Karl Jenkins music piece called Palladio.
Related links to Spatialworlds
Geogaction
Spatialworlds website
GeogSpace
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
Where am I??
Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'
In some form, music is a popular, constant and fundamentally important aspect of all cultures. The study called ethnomusicology has found that for cultures around the world, music not only provides entertainment and enjoyment but is also important in defining a place and its people. When we listen to any music, our geographical imagination takes us to a place we consider is the origin of the music. When listening to the instruments, voices, structures and rhythms of traditional/indigenous music we are taken to a place we associate with the music, whether Africa, South America, China, Ireland, Australia and so on. With modern music it is somewhat more difficult to associate the music with a place due to the global similarity of instruments and singing style. Even then, it is sometimes possible to pick a Celtic singer, instruments and song structures compared to a European music maker of the same genre. The Eurovision song competition is an interesting test of such a theory. I have even spoken to heavy metal fans who say that they can identify differences in voices, timings and song structure from place to place. Whilst not a music expert, it think it can be safely said that there is a strong link between place and the music of that place as an identifier of place.
The article titled Ethnomusicology and Place supports this view when it says that:
‘The relevance of ‘Place’ is that the environments in which individuals are
subjects condition the formative construction of their and their ‘symbolism of self’. As well as influencing the formation
of identity, an individual’s consumption of music is central to that persons ‘narrativization of Place’ whereby they make sense of the
place in which they are situated. Thus there is reciprocity between individual
and their space where both are defined in a constant process of identity
negotiation and production’.
The article also
provides some fascinating thinking on the changes to the connection of place to
music as a result of technological change, in particular that:
‘The advent of media technologies and their use in
the mass dissemination of commercially produced
music has played a significant role in the way that music is used to articulate
notions of place.’
The article goes on to ask whether the world is becoming a ‘No Place
Space’. Have
the processes of globalisation as a result of technology and the mass
dissemination of commercially produced music resulted
in the ‘intermeshing’ of the local and the global and the blurring of
geographical boundaries, meaning that individuals now exist ‘simultaneously in a local, a regional, and a
global context’. They summise that this has led to the alteration of traditional
conceptions of ‘Place’ as
bounded entities separated in space and time, as often reflected in the difference
of music from place to place. Are the local and the global becoming ‘inextricably bound together making it
harder to see regional differences in fundamental cultural components such as music?' The question is asked, "is it going to
become harder and harder for people to have a sense of place beyond the global?" Music has always played a major role in providing
place identity and meaning for people. Such
questions go beyond the field of music alone (food, clothing etc) but they are certainly
interesting to ponder when one considers the future of music attached to place.
My interest in the
association of place and music was stimulated by the work of Karl Jenkins. His work is an
interesting study in trying to disassociate music from place and to not be a
place identifier. The music Jenkins creates
is often call world music because it comes from no particular place and is an
amalgam of all sorts of music. His music
even goes so far as to not even have a language from any place but a ‘made-up’
vocalisation of sounds. As the commentary on his music says:
'Each Adiemus album is a collection of song-length pieces featuring harmonised vocal melody
against an orchestra background. There are no lyrics as such, instead the
vocalists sing syllables and 'words' invented by Jenkins.
However, rather than creating musical interest from patterns of phonemes. The musical language of Adiemus draws heavily on classical
and world music.'
As a composer, Jenkins
breakthrough came with the musical work Adiemus. The Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary (1995) album topped the
classical album charts.
Interestingly, as you listen to his work you think you have
a purchase on a place for the music but then another place appears in the music.
Although some of the work has definite Celtic overtones, it does transport us
to many places. The connection between place and music has been studied
by cultural geographers for many years and it is an area worth discussing with students
when exploring the concept of place in the Australian Curriculum:
Geography.
Here are just a few examples of the spatial aspect of
music through maps of …
A map depicting
locations that are mentioned in songs or locations of events that are alluded
to in songs.
* GeogSpace: the geography of Rock Festivals
Whilst music differences can be mapped across space, I have
not been able to find such a map at this stage to include in this posting. What
certainly can be said is that music provides a great discussion point on the aesthetics
of place and the sense of and uniqueness of place, all of which adds to the
richness of the ‘Place’ concept in the teaching of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.
In short, music is very important in terms of the ‘meaning-making’ of place for
people and in turn connecting the identity of people to a place. Furthermore this
meaning-making of place through music is changing globally and possible
diminishing in reality as we continue to globalise. The beautiful Adiemus music and
the world music phenomena could just be part of such a change.
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