My project has taken a bit of a different spin than I had been imagining. When I was back in New Hampshire planning this out, I had sort of imagined myself doing hands on field work out in the bushlands of Australia. Notebook and pen in hand, accompanied by my pocket sized digital recorder... I was going to be exploring new lands and making recordings of never before heard music. Haha, well, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I had been planning on at least doing more interviews and such than I am so far. Today, Peter and I sat down in his office, and made a huge pile of the material that I am supposed to go through. This includes lots and lots of books, connected to piles and piles of CDs, accompanied by a small stack of DVD and VHS's. As we set out the stack, it seems somewhat overwhelming to me, and I have a hard time imagining that I will be able to get through all of it while I am here... but luckily, I am not expected to read every word of every book, just mainly get an idea for what most of them are about, and then really get down and read a handful of the most important ones.
This is not to say that I will not be doing any interviewing and hands on field work. In between much of my reading, I have also been hard at work emailing and phoning different people trying to set up meetings and interviews. For instance, I had a meeting on Monday morning over on the main campus with a lady in the Koori Centre. Koori is the Aboriginal word meaning Aboriginal person in this area, New South Wales. The Koori Centre at the university is mainly in place to assist Aboriginal students to enroll in the University, and act as a support center for any help they may need. The Koori Centre also works to help all the departments incorporate Aboriginal studies into their classes, which is now required. From this interview, I was referred to another guy who works at the University with a mentoring group (AIME). This group works with young Aboriginal kids in the area mentoring them in any way needed. I will be meeting with this man next week to chat about the different things they do. I know that these meetings and interview may not necessarily be directly related to my musical interests in this project, but I definitely think it is important to keep the whole culture in mind.
I am also working at getting interviews with the two main Aboriginal Dance Theatre groups in the area. One I will be meeting with later this week, as well as getting a chance to see some of their performances. That should be really good.
As we were going through the books I'm to read, there were a few that Peter put aside meaning I am not actually meant to read those whole books. For a few of them, he said they are the next step beyond what I am doing now... and if I were to stay for say, a year, rather than two months, I would then need to read those books. So I responded, 'so that goes beyond the music, and delves more into the culture?'... to which Peter replied 'Well, really the music is the culture... but these books bring the complexity to the next level.' Right on, well that's what I really needed to hear about my project in general... "the music is the culture"... that's the main aspect of my project that I need to fully grasp and bring back home with me.
Aside from my project going really well, other things here are also quite nice. Sunday, I decided to go with Joey to high mass at St. Mary's, the huge catholic cathedral right down the road from where I live. It was a really nice service, and interesting to see a Catholic service, which I'm not used to. The singing was also very good. (On a side note, the Pope is coming to Sydney in about 3 weeks for world youth day... that'll be funny that I didn't get to see the pope in Italy last summer... but after traveling all the way to Australia, I may see him here.) After church, we went down to one of the main shopping malls, and got lunch at the food court. Later in the afternoon, I went over to the Con to hear that recital I had mentioned before. It was really great. Goetz is quite a violinist, and his wife was great on piano too. The music was beautiful, and sounded especially great in the Verbrugghen Hall.
I will again be going to the Gamelan rehearsal tomorrow night, and I hope to be able to snap some photos of the instruments, and maybe some sound clips too, to share with you all.
In Hyde Park looking over at St. Marys. Notice white sign by the side entrance which is counting down the days until the Pope arrives.
My little work station in Peters office.
My reading materials...
The view from my work desk out into the Botanic Gardens :)
I forgot to mention that the new Apple store just opened in Sydney a few days ago. I've been told that this is the first Apple store in the southern hemisphere, and the second biggest Apple store in the world. It's pretty cool... even the staircases between floors are made out of glass.
Ha! I finished this post, and I still have another 10 minutes or so of 'Music for 18 Musicians' left to listen to and enjoy.
Over and out.
L-Mo (Elmo... get it?)
4 comments:
The music is the culture . . . yes--even in Western classical music, as Burt Feintuch would tell you. The problem is that old nineteenth-century "music is so transcendent" schtick. It has made it increasingly difficult to separate out what is cultural, social about music from that mystique. Even today we have problems with it. And now things are even more complicated with the aftermath of the Culture Wars, and the discovery that high art and low art each are of great interest and the sites of interesting scholarship and observation. The problem is finding the right methodology and questions by which to frame the musical repertory in a manner that's sufficiently rich. Look forward to talking to you next week.
Oh, I also wanted to add that the blog medium allows both of us to keep an ongoing record of our reactions and experiences to your travels. That will make it easy when we report later on how technology helped us--which I know we will want to do.
Luke, I think maybe Peter is a slave driver. That sounds like way too much reading to get through. It does sound like your research is heading in a good direction. What other kind of churches are there in Sydney? Get a picture of the Pope, if you can. Keep up the great letters and pictures.
Luke,
Mate, I have arrived in Oz [last Saturday] and caught up with family etc. Give me a call at my mum and dad's place in Castle Hill - 9634-3109.
I'll try to catch up and get you out here in the West of Sydney for a BBQ or some sort of meal or something.
Chris McCallum
Luke, Grammie is sitting here reading all your posts. She says she is so proud of all you are learning. Here one hope is that you will take all this and write a book someday. She will be the first to read it and brag to everyone about her grandson. She sends her love.
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