1. I've realized that we're not so different. Maybe I've been thinking about biological diversity, Nietzsche, and the characteristics that make someone human all too human, but I think that the study of music shows that we're actually very similar. It's a connect. We all make music (as cultures) and we all enjoy music (collectively). The 7 tone scale (Do-Do) is particularly cross-cultural. We see it in all Western music, but also in the Indian music that we studied. There blues were a great fusion of the 7 tone scale and the more elaborate scales we saw in other cultures. But they're just frameworks, conventions, after all. Music is more than a convention of a culture, thought each culture has musical conventions. Music is one of those thigs we all have in common.
2) particularly intersting bits: the Video on China, studying the Frida artist, the African dance video (you know what I mean), the Django section, Martin Scorsese's the Blues, and Monterey Pop Festival with the sitarist. Yes, I like movies and documentary style movies quite a lot.
3) Questions: why didn't we do much on bluegrass (Documentary on Larry Keel in the library is a good one)? How could we study scales of each culture and apply the characteristics of the scales to characteristics of the cultures. How different do our musical sytles show that we are? Could we model the differences? What happens to forgotten musical traditions? How much effort should we put into preserving these traditions? Is music like language in that respect? Is it even important once it's gone?
- I'd like to study the music (if any) of the crusades and/or of Attic tragedy.