Bartok as ethnomusicologist

When it comes to "folk" musics, as opposed to "classical," and their relative difficulty, and the attitudes about these subjects...Bartok has stated that his real work in life was a collector of folk musics; I believe he collected up to 10,000 samples over his 40 years in the field. And, those peasant melodies/rhythms became the backbone of his style, of course. He always spoke very highly of the depth and vitality of folk music...sorta reminds me of the statement by Sam Phillips I posted a while back...when he first heard Howlin Wolf, he said "This is where the soul of man never dies." I believe Bartok would understand that attitude 100%. Blues is one of the folk musics of America, and it still has a lot of places it can go.

Many European classical composers drew on folk melodies/rhythms, from Debussy to Grainger to Stravinsky...nothing unusual there. After all, music is about the expression of the human condition...at the end of a song, all I care about is what it made me feel; did the artist communicate something of depth, or no? It doesn't matter whether or not it's a cat with one guitar, or an 80 piece orchestra. The ability to write a symphonic work is indeed a great gift...but, the real issue is, was it a GOOD symphony? When Hank Williams sang "I'm so lonesome I could cry," that's the shit...he nailed it forever. And I was listening to some Hugh Tracey CD's of African music from the early 1950's...the music is, on the surface again, "simple;" maybe one chord, a few lines. But...is it "difficult?" If you can't sing in the language of those tribes, it would be not difficult, but impossible, to duplicate this music. Perhaps for those that grew up in those cultures, it is not a difficult thing...but for an outsider, not so easy. Same with blues/country...it may appear simple to those who don't live that life, but it isn't really.

But...no biggie...this list is basically not made up of folks who have spent a lot of time playing blues/country/folk, whatever, from what I've seen...so most comments will not be from an informed perspective as to just what these styles of music are all about. Be glad to have a blues contest with any list members ever in the Denver area...lets say the prize for winning would be a guitar in a microtonal tuning (I'm open to discussion on that). And hell, after you get your rear toasted, I'll take you to get lunch at a great Thai place to help you recover...can't beat that, eh? Best from the willage on the prairie...Stickman www.microstick.net

(and sensa humor please)

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On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 1:10 PM, Neil Haverstick <microstick@...> wrote:
>
> But...no biggie...this list is basically not made up of folks who have spent a lot of time playing blues/country/folk, whatever, from what I've seen...so most comments will not be from an informed perspective as to just what these styles of music are all about.

This doesn't apply to all of us.

-Mike