Lift Every Voice

Welcome, readers!

DISCLAIMER: While I'd like to think this post will be musically substantive, you should probably know up front that I'm going to sound kind of like a hippie.  But, since I grew up in Portland and have spent the last decade spending large portions of my time in Boulder, I don't think any of you should really be that surprised.

Last week's Alan Lomax post, in combination with my journey to the OAKE conference a few weeks back, got me thinking about "music of the people" for the past few days.  I tend to get a little shifty about this whole topic, torn between the fairly hard-core opinions of the traditional Kodály camp (the most conservative of whom tend to profess that the only legitimate folk music tradition in North America is that of its indigenous people, and all the English-language stuff is either stolen from Great Britain or composed, and therefore not technically folk music) and a more "progressive" point of view.  I find the former far too restrictive (especially in its more extreme incarnations), but I'm also not entirely comfortable with the inclusion of songs like "Rock around the Clock" on this list assembled by NAofME (formerly MENC) of songs that have a place in the American "canon" of songs everyone should be able to sing.  I think it's a sticky dilemma all around -- on the one hand, we want people to sing, and it stands to reason that they're more likely to sing songs they like.  However, I sort of think of "Rock around the Clock" as the musical equivalent of Cheetos....many will find it appealing, but the song is fundamentally without musical or emotional (nutritional) value.  And, like several other songs they include, it's pretty difficult to sing it well, which means that when people unaccustomed to singing try to sing it, it won't sound good.  Now, one might argue that "it doesn't matter what it sounds like," but I agree with one of my favorite authorities on communal singing, Alice Parker, on this one.  In her book Melodious Accord, Ms. Parker writes:

"...the statement 'I just want the people to enjoy singing; it doesn't matter how they sound' is meaningless. Music is sound, and the better it sounds, the better it is -- and the more people will be caught by it."

So, all of that has me taking a big step back into a more classic Kodály paradigm. But, at the same time, I don't really have a problem with "Edelweiss" or "Over the Rainbow" making the list.  Is that just my personal taste talking?  Maybe.  Can we really consider either one of those pieces folk music?  Nope.  However, I think there's something emotionally honest and compelling about both of them, and I think they have melodies that are made for singing (even though there are some tricky leaps).  I don't believe they're necessarily what we should be teaching kids to sing in kindergarten music classes, but I do think it'd be a great thing if kids grew up singing those songs at home with their families, and I feel that way about maybe 60% of that list, give or take.  And, it should be said that I cut my teeth on the musical equivalent of strychnine in the form of really awful church music from the words-on-the-overhead-I-V-IV-I (no, that's not a typo)-sing-the-chorus-9000-times-Jesus-is-my-boyfriend tradition, and somehow I still came out loving Bach and Josquin, so there you go.  Maybe all those Wee Sing and Simon & Garfunkel tunes (with a little help from the classical station always playing at my grandparents' house) were enough to prevent my permanent descent into the ignoble.

I'm asking all levels to do the same assignment yet again, but as always, I encourage you to regulate your own difficulty level -- if it's too easy, kick it up a notch; if it's too difficult, dial it back.

All Levels:


Read through this article:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/how-communal-singing-disappeared-from-american-life/255094/

And check out this link (the NAofME list mentioned above):

http://www.nafme.org/resources/view/get-america-singing-again

Follow these steps:

1. Take a quick look through the list of songs on the link above.  Without thinking too much about it, mark which ones you think everyone ought to be able to sing.  If you don't know a song, skip it.  If you're feeling conflicted because you LOVE a song, but you fear it might be trashy, include it -- I promise not to judge you.

2. Make a note of how much of NAofME's collection you actually chose to use.  Sort the pieces into genres: true folk songs, patriotic songs, composed traditional songs (I'd put Stephen Foster in this category, but I'll leave John Denver and Joni Mitchell up to you), pop songs, or any other designation you come up with.

3. Dust off your solfa chops and put syllables to a few songs from each genre.  Try to transcribe one from each genre in a key you think is appropriate for communal singing.

4. Analyze your transcriptions informally, but with an eye towards the elements you look for in your song collection analyses.  What elements are easy to find?  What elements are almost non-existent?  What makes a song difficult or easy?  How did you deal with the rhythms in the more syncopated examples?  Did you find that you really didn't want to have to write down the rhythms the way that you actually sing them?

5. If you were to make your own list from the songs you chose, plus others you know, what songs would you include?  Remember, these are songs you think every grownup in North America should know and be able to sing...not necessarily the songs you'd use in your classroom (so, in a sense, I'm asking you to choose with your heart rather than your head). How do your examples differ from the songs you chose to leave off your list?  Do your own examples come from your Kodály song collection, or from another source?  How personal are these songs to you?

6. Just for fun, as you go about your daily life, sing some of your favorite songs -- with others, or just by yourself.  Who knows?  Maybe you'll inspire other grownups to lift up their voices and sing.