Wednesday, March 20, 2013

beats of the world - really it's just one

So most of you know that I am a classical music fanatic (obviously), and also a rock n roll nut. But you may or may not know that I am also a HUGE sucker for world music.

And I wanted to share with you an experience that I had earlier this week, that had a profound effect on me.

On Monday night, I had one of the most exciting, and EXTREMELY rare opportunity to hear and see two completely unrelated music and dance of two cultures from two completely different parts of the world in one evening! One the Breton, a Celtic culture from a small region of Northwestern France, and the other was Garifuna, a Carribbean culture originally from St. Lucia, but was chased away by the British, and eventually took refuge to countries such as Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras etc, etc, etc.

I said these two cultures have almost nothing in common with each other, but there is one thing they absolutely share. That is, they are both "endangered" cultures, and are at the blink of extinction. Their languages are forgotten and only a handful of people speak them. And with their languages, their music and dance will probably disappear, if we don't do anything about them (which is another reason why I went, so I can contribute in some way - even if it's the smallest donation).

I was gonna go with a friend of mine, but she couldn't make it, so I went all by myself. I didn't care. I wouldn't miss this no matter what.

They started the evening off with poetry written by people from those cultures. These beautiful poems were not only recited in their original languages, but they also made translations of each others poems and recited in their languages. It was symbolic and touching.

Then they started the music and dance! the Bretons went first.

In this particular clip, the music is performed on modern instruments, so you may not get a flavor of the real deal, but at some points during the night they brought out their own bag pipes (that are slightly different from the Scottish version), and some other reed instruments I have no idea what they are called. Most of them had a nasal quality to them. I can talk about why they were nasal (both acoustically and aesthetically), but that's not important enough for me to mention here :) The dance is always a round dance, just like in other Celtic cultures. And by the way, in cultural events like this, no audience member is a spectator. There is no such thing. EVERYONE joins in (whether you know the steps or not)! I shot this clip at the beginning of the night when a few New Yorkers (including myself) were still way too intimidated to join the circle. Don't worry, I joined them later.

Then the Garifuna guys!
Sorry for the shaky video. You know what I was doing...
I'd say, it was fairly typical of the Carribbean beats and sounds. But I just can't get enough of this stuff!!
After these guys started, things just got super wild. There were no more inhibition, no more cultural differences. We became just one group of beings that were simply enjoying ourselves. We no longer knew where we were, or who we were, and those things just didn't even matter. You can see here that even the New Yorkers, and the Bretons were singing along to this song we've never even heard before. We didn't know what we were saying, we didn't even know if we were saying it right. But who cares?

And in the end, you guessed it, the two cultures jammed!


Two groups of people from different parts of the world, who met for the very first time that night, playing and dancing together. It was so heart warming

Throughout the course of the night, I made a couple of friends, who were also there by themselves. One a journalist, the other, an elderly folk dance instructor. Once again, I felt the immense power of music and dance. How they can bring people together - people, whose paths would never have crossed otherwise.

At one point, I felt that if I didn't leave then, I never would. So I suddenly grabbed my jacket and stormed out. It was midnight, and Monday night was turning into Tuesday morning. But I have a feeling that the party went on all night. When I stepped outside, I almost immediately started talking to a passerby, a complete stranger. Then I felt the quietude (compared to what was going on inside), and the cold. I was reminded that I live in a city where boundaries were definite, and most people are strangers, who for the most part, do not recognize your existence. Is this what it means to be civilized? I am not sure.

I thank my parents for letting me do what I love the most. In arts, I don't just appreciate arts. I appreciate life, and people. Even people I have never met, or will never meet. At every event like this, my heart is touched, and every time, I feel that I grow smarter, more mature, and kinder.

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