So, This is been flipping through my mind all week. This week in Symphonic Choir, we're learning Betelehemu, a Nigerian Carol. However, we are learning this music by reading through traditional western notation. We sight sing, we count sing, we pulse. We have lovely, clear, western diction. What's wrong? It doesn't sound like African music. At all. Not only does it not sound authentic, it doesn't sound like anyone cares if it sounds authentic or not, and I think a huge part of the piece is being lost. Today, our conductor came in with a new arrangement of voices on parts to get the piece to sound correct. Having the chords in the correct inversion did help... some. However, the feeling, the meaning behind the music, the history of the piece, the sound and inflection all seem to be missing. I think this is a severe Americanization of an ethnic piece and that we've lost a lot in translation. Let me know what you think. Is it worth doing if we don't do it right?
posted by Mandy St.Pierre @ 4:19 PM
1 Comments:
Mandy, you wrote my exact feelings!
To me, authenticity, especially when performing, is really important. An authentic performance is a way to understand a little bit about the people behind the music.
I was so excited when the conductor said that we would be memorizing the piece and moving with it. I think it will create a more meaningful performance if we can feel the music and know it well enough to sing memorized. However, I saw many faces of disinterest or irritation after the conductor announced this.
I just wonder if people don't care or are not interested because this song isn't one of the "greats" of the Western Cannon?
In my experience, having done this piece before, this was the piece that the audience enjoyed most.
To answer your question: I don't know. How do you define doing it "right"? Is it learning by rote, having percussion and movement from when we first learned the piece? Or is it a performance with feeling? As someone who values authenticity, I think it's important to stay as close as possible to the performance practices of the groups represented in the piece. However, I also think it's important for us to do this piece that, for some, may be outside of the "comfort zone" so that we may learn more about ourselves as musicians.
I don't know if that makes sense to you, but I'm glad you brought this topic up.
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