tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post6155885279266656483..comments2024-03-26T07:00:11.620-05:00Comments on Wisdom of the Hands: the willing handDoug Stowehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13003845322415622289noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011427.post-88985460541440690842015-06-02T00:08:32.293-05:002015-06-02T00:08:32.293-05:00Jørund Telnes (1845 – 1892) was a Norwegian farmer...Jørund Telnes (1845 – 1892) was a Norwegian farmer, teacher, writer and politician. He wrote a poem that some Scandinavian artists have recorded, called "Folkesongen."<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elglyvj6LBY<br /><br />(translated)<br />"Like flowers rising from the ground,<br />Like apples growing from the branch<br />Is the folk song for man and maid,<br />And folk-wisdom, never will it die.<br /><br />So let the tones from our hearts stream,<br />And let us sing and let us dream,<br />There is so much to bog us down and<br />The darkness is banished as soon as we sing.<br /><br />So give me the songs of the homeland,<br />And let us sing in the ancient way<br />And let us sing without books<br />That *notebook* thinks it's so wise!"<br /><br />Interesting that the term used in that last line is "notesongen". More accurately translated, it's referring to sheet music/notation. It does make me wonder about something I've noticed, being that I'm a musician: the Wisdom of the Hands is lost when people recite music from notation. All the stylings, tonal color, idiosyncrasies are lost by players who learn tunes through the vehicle of notation -- and primarily because you really can't do 100% justice notationally to all that is happening in a fiddle tune. ...And to even get anywhere close is so exhausting and time consuming. There is little doubt in my mind that Mr. Telnes was writing about a "loss" that occurs in music that I see to this day.<br /><br />Scandinavia, like a lot of folk musics around the world, has a strong oral tradition of learning tunes. Most good teachers in this tradition will not "dumb" a tune down to "the basic notes"; instead, they teach you the articulations as an inherent part of the tune. The articulations are 50% of the emotional value of any tune, and it is often this which is lost when being reduced to sheet music.<br /><br />One of the things that has kept me out of playing in American circles of others who've learned Scandinavian tunes is the lack of utilization of techniques & articulations that are inherent in the tradition: slurs, mordants, microtonality, dynamics, a strong sense of the various syncopations, ghost-notes, etc. A number of US-born musicians -- many, no matter how long they've been involved with the tradition -- don't play the tunes as they were played by the people who had taught them. American musicians who often attend folk music camps will learn the song (as part of a whole block of tunes) quickly, are given (or make) a sheet-music version of the tune, and that's pretty much it. The result is an immense loss of the true nature of the music. Something so very complicated and best learned through metaphors, analogies, allegory, is reduced and made a simplified map of tones out of it -- a caricature. There are many intricate syncopations and styles to this folk genre, but many non-native players of Scandinavian music perform the tunes as if they're little different from waltzes.<br /><br />The folk traditions and folk arts were meant to bring people together, and allow them to develop their own creative voice. A lot of our traditions got lost by our desire to codify (and thus generalize) methods. I believe we were better off with guru systems.John Jacobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16418671909940134448noreply@blogger.com