Autumn into winter, changes in the angles of sunlight, continuing political and social changes of all sorts, the ongoing changes and challenges we each face in our personal lives: that’s just a bit of the way things continue to shift.
Autumn in to winter: a season of change, a season of reflection, a season of preparation.
That reflection might include ways to focus and refocus on what matters, what’s important, what is of value as the next challenges and opportunities present themselves.
In shifting times, it can be helpful to think about community.
Communities can exist in person and at distance, online and face to face. They may be made up of those who are family near and far, work colleagues near and far, people you see in the course of everyday events such as a trip to grocers, a stop at the library, a regular visit to a favorite cafe.
This music could offer you ideas to spark reflection on the ways community works through these shifting times.
Shifting times, indeed.
In the midst of large-picture changes and day to day life events, music can be a way to reflect and to learn, or a method for speaking out in protest.
In these changing times, music can also work to inspire, to connect, to remind of hope.
Through times which continue to shift, there are songs and tunes which suggest connection, which remind of courage and of kindness and trust, even through dark times.
A hand reaching out, a touch on the shoulder, a reminder of connection: there are many ways music can bring these things.
When Ken Burns completed his film about jazz, he said, “I have made a film about jazz that tries to look through jazz to see what it tells us about who we are as a people.” And in his film Country Music, he quotes Merle Haggard saying that country music is “about those things we believe in, but can’t see.…” In these observations, Ken Burns and Merle Haggard capture music’s special impact and role as it touches and enriches all of our lives.
When we talk about “military,” what exactly are we thinking? Or rather, what do we imagine for this word? From my perspective as a visitor who grew up in an authoritarian country, before I travelled to Edinburgh, I thought the “military tattoo” was just a synonym for “military parade.” The latter often uses strict formations, precise marching, and almost mechanical uniformity to demonstrate collective power. However, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (hereafter referred to as REMT) showed me how they are totally different in an incredible way.
January 2024 turns out to be an excellent time to appreciate world-renowned artists and beautiful new productions as we continue the joys of the recent Holiday Season.
It’s a story that began with a song.
It is also a story that began long before the song or the book came to be.
The story began when the first enslaved people came to what is now the United States.
“You brought me here
to build a house...”
Rhiannon Giddens begins the song, and the text of Build a House.
EVERY time the extraordinary musician Russ Hewitt releases a new CD, I am overjoyed at the musical gift he has given the world. His latest CD, Chasing Horizons, is gorgeous, soulful, and utterly addicting. I think you will feel the same, too.
