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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: May 2, 2004
Latest Update: May 2, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Musical Styles as Voices

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, May 2004.
"Fair use" encouraged.

Tonya Pinkins as Caroline Thibodeaux

in the new musical "Caroline, or Change."

We often speak of music and art as aiding us in the expression of what cannot be said in words. Here, we see that different types of music offer different perspectives, different dialogues that may help us find ways to communicate. On Sunday, May 2, 2004, in the New York Times Arts and Leisure Section, on p. 1, Jesse Green wrote: The Trials of Tonya Pinkins . . . Backup

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Tonya Pinkins as Caroline Thibodeaux in the new musical "Caroline, or Change."

See especially the brief discussion of Jeanine Tesori's music as it fits into the piece as a whole.

"Jeanine Tesori's music (which was written with Ms. Pinkins's voice in mind) synthesizes field hollers, R & B, juke-joint swing, Delta blues, klezmer, Mozart and gospel, among other styles, as a demonstration of the way disparate lives come smashing together. And Caroline is where all those sounds intersect."

"He Was to Be the Next Yo-Yo-Ma.

Why Is He Playing Local Dives?"

Along these same lines, see The Pizza Parlor Prodigy, also in the NY Times on Sunday, May 2, 2004, in an article by Jeremy Eichler on p. 1 of the Arts & Leisure Section. Backup. See especially the section below, as it fits into the article.

Photo for NY Times by Matt Anderson
Matt Haimovitz and his 18th-century Venetian cello at Soulshine Pizza in Jackson, Miss.

"It was just one of many recent curious moments for Mr. Haimovitz, who was once a major cello prodigy accustomed to playing in the elite halls of Europe and America. Now 33, he has chosen an alternative world, traveling the nation to perform in country and folk cafes, jazz spots and nightclubs: places where Budweiser flows freely and Beethoven does not, including the legendary punk club CBGB in New York, where Mr. Haimovitz will perform on May 15.

"This is not another marketing gimmick, nor a strained attempt to make classical music hip. It is one man's unlikely quest to find meaning and connection in an art form that for years set him apart from the world. It is also an experiment that may be shedding light on how classical music can renew itself with audiences of the future."

Discussion Questions

1. Have we made terrible mistakes in pairing audiences and performances?

   Consider that we expect text books to be written in linear boring ways. Consider that we expect to be able to kick up our feet and relax, and talk like down home folks. Consider that, especially in the U.S., we have very little experience of each other's language, as it is spoken. Then think back to theory like Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.

2. Have we made unstated assumptions that certain groups only speak with certain voices?

   We give very little opportunity for other "languages" to be heard. Does that not add to the dominant discourse normative expectation that only certain personae will have roles in certain spaces? Consider the difficulty of using "down home language" that typically belongs in a safe place with people one identifies with to teach? Such a paradigm shift in language might permit more comfort, more ability to get down to deeper thoughts and concepts, but our social rules dictate against its acceptance.

3. Time to challenge these assumptions in the interest of a whole chorus of voices?

   Consider that if we accept knowledge as acceptable from many sources and from many types of people (such as elders in tribes of indigenous peoples) that we might be less willing to enforce the rigidity of the upper middle class language code of learning institutions. And consisder that in that process we might cease to inhibit some people.

4. Did Tonya Pinkins include classical in the mixture of music she used in Caroline or Change?

   Yes. See if you can imagine what such a mixture would be like. Do you think it would allow more people to be comfortable to styles they weren't used to down home?

5. Note the strangeness of having two articles on the same page on the same day in the New York Times on this same issue. Maybe we are developing some answerability?