Kay Kaufman Shelemay addresses sounds, settings and significances in The Art of Travel and I can\u2019t help but think about what these words will mean to me after traveling to Paris.<\/p>\n
In Paris, with the help of Shelemay, I see my setting as the front desk of my hotel and the hotel neighborhood. \u00a0I am trying to imagine what sounds I will hear.\u00a0 According to Shelemay, a setting encompasses multiple contexts-\u201ca city, a concert hall, a park, a home-in which music is conceived, created, transmitted, performed and remembered\u201d.\u00a0 She states that \u201cmost communities today are complex environments that include both distinctive local elements and music traditions from elsewhere\u201d.\u00a0 As Shelemay says, \u201csince music is more than just sound, we take into account the broad sweep of history and the events of social life\u201d.\u00a0 Given her description of setting I have to re-think my Paris setting.\u00a0 At this point I can only speculate about the sounds that are heard around and near my hotel and wonder about their origin.<\/p>\n
Alain de Botton found that a setting is not always a house, neighborhood or city.\u00a0 It can sometimes be a mode of transportation like a train or a plane.\u00a0 People used to get a feeling of belonging (de Botton refers to this as fellow-feeling) from being part of a community but nowadays we acquire this feeling from wandering, traveling.\u00a0 \u201cJourneys are the midwives of thought.\u201d\u00a0 Travel causes one to have thoughts that are not usual.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThe furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life.\u201d\u00a0 When we travel we can allow ourselves to reach beyond our familiar habits.<\/p>\n
We know highlife is a sound in Accra, Ghana made from the music that was brought to the country by sailors from other countries.\u00a0 These sea chanteys and folk songs didn\u2019t just spread through Accra, but all of Ghana.\u00a0 Perhaps the exoticism of music from a community far away is part of the reason that Ghanaian music has incorporated such a wide variety of sounds from other cultures.\u00a0 de Botton says; \u201cWhat we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0I imagine that being on the Gold Coast would have been an unusual opportunity to nearly experience travel to foreign countries.<\/p>\n
Maybe, the most common sound heard in Ghana is the language of Twi.\u00a0 This is the language of the Akan peoples who constitute about half of Ghana.\u00a0 Music in Ghana is used as a language to relay a message or to tell a story.\u00a0 The lyrics of some songs change to tell different stories although, non-vocal music also tells a story.<\/p>\n
Drums and their music are shared by different Ghanaian ethnic groups.\u00a0\u00a0 The best known shared drum, the atumpan, is associated with the Akan people.\u00a0 These large, goblet-shaped drums are used by chiefs and for state occasions.\u00a0 They have a single drumhead attached by wire to a flexible round frame made of bamboo and secured to the body of the drum by laces tied to protruding tuning pegs.\u00a0 Even though these drums are probably made from local materials I wouldn\u2019t classify them as idiophones because they are a drum and probably has a stretched membrane.<\/p>\n
The atumpan drum is actually made as a set of two drums but played by one person.\u00a0 The significance of these male and female drums sets is said to reflect the interdependence of men and women in Akan society.<\/p>\n
Highlife, for a time, fell out of style in Ghana but is still popular and important for engagements, weddings, and christenings at nightclubs, and on the radio.\u00a0 This music is so important to Ghana that it is supported by the military.\u00a0 The sound of highlife comes from Accra being part of The Gold Coast.\u00a0 The culturally diverse setting brought together a wide array of musical traditions from Their Gold Coast, Europe and the New World.<\/p>\n
There are many celebrations in Ghana in which the music is central to its meaning.\u00a0 There are celebrations for the successful harvest of the Ga people who survived the famine of the area of Nigeria.\u00a0 Songs tell the story of their migration and harvest.\u00a0 There are other social issues that are expressed through their music, as well.\u00a0 Funerals in Ghana are elaborate and celebrated by most of Ghana.\u00a0 These funerals are supported by associations and are viewed by the public.<\/p>\n
It seems that the people of Ghana have taken sounds they\u2019ve heard from around the world and used them to their liking.\u00a0 I hope that I can feel like I am part of Paris and yet when I return home be able to use what I have experienced in my own environment.\u00a0 de Botton make me consider what I will do after Paris.\u00a0 He said; \u201cTravel twists our curiosity according to a superficial geographical logic, as superficial as if a university course were to prescribe books according to their size rather than subject matter.\u201d\u00a0 This cracks me up.<\/p>\n
From Rai<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kay Kaufman Shelemay addresses sounds, settings and significances in The Art of Travel and I can’t help but think about what these words will mean to me after traveling to Paris. In Paris, with the help of Shelemay, I see… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1065,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[],"tags":[99],"geo":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1065"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}