I thought that it would be a good idea to start up another blog to document my time in Ghana this summer. This is the space I will use to stay in touch with friends and loved ones while I am away over the next two months. Please contribute with comments and questions... after all this is a worthless endeavour "without a little help from your friends."
What in the #$@& am I doing? I have asked myself this question numerous times over the past few months. Well here's the basics and then we'll get into the hard stuff... after starting my MA program in ethnomusicology here at the University of Alberta I decided that I should base my thesis research upon West African art music. This general category of music peaked my interest last time I traveled to Ghana. After meeting a number of Ghanaian composers based around the University of Ghana in Legon in 2008 I was hooked.
Over the past two years I have learned about the origins of this music. West African art music came out of the Christian church as church leaders (missionaries and Africans) slowly learned that hymns in a European style didn't always work for their congregations and that indigenous music wasn't actually Satan embodied in rhythm. Composers began to integrate their "traditions" within their church compositions and wallah, West African Art Music (WAAM- I claim full responsibility for this acronym) was born. Over the past few months I have continued to look into WAAM and have become more and more interested in what this MUSIC DOES. Despite its undeniable origins in Western colonial missionary work I am intrigued about what it achieves in the context of modern West Africa for those who are involved in its composition and its performance. It is no longer always tied to the church and it has become something completely new. It is doing something today and judging from what I have learned I'm pretty sure that it is playing an important role in the lives of certain composers. All of this comes from a fundamental belief of mine: Music is important in this world of ours for what it DOES in our lives, not for how nice it sounds or how perfectly it is played. How does WAAM function in the lives of modern composers and performers? Where is it going and why?
I am intrigued by how a musical tradition that clearly originated as a Western phenomenon involving aggressive and culturally unconcerned colonial and missionary powers can be reconfigured to serve a specific purpose in the lives of those who were culturally oppressed. Now the tricky part is that nothing in this world of ours is unidirectional. Complex webs exist within issues like this and the road is never straight. There will be contradictions within those whom I speak with I want to map the complexity that surrounds this type of music, to show the ways that it has been used to assert various African (nationalistic, Pan-African and ethnic identities) as well as what is REALLY going on. As many have pointed out to me these boundaries (nations, continents and ethnicities) are often constructed. Do they really exist or do people just build up their worlds to make it seem as if they do? What is really going on here? Sure this music has been used for nationalistic purposes following the tumultuous transition from European to African power over the past century. However, what holds the communities together right now? I suspect that something else is going on here. Something makes this community (which I will probably end up redefining as I go) tick.
Now, all of this said, this blog is NOT going to be academic. And frankly I'm not allowed to share the content of my interviews or details of my interactions with people outside of my thesis. So basically, I am posing a lot of questions that won't be answered in the context of this blog. I recognize that my choice to travel to Ghana over the next two months is motivated by my personal life as much as my academic life. This is a place for me to share more of the personal side of this trip and to stay in touch with those whom I care about.
Music does something and I want to better understand how this happens. To illustrate this I want to share an experience that I had this afternoon. I was walking home from the train bummed out about how much work I have to do tonight and just generally not too happy about life. That's when I heard the bagpipe. (Cheezy I know... keep reading please and try not to laugh too hard). A lone bagpiper was playing Amazing Grace and other tunes on the steps of the Alberta legislature building. Just a random guy, no official event or kilts or anything. Just a guy in jeans walking back and forth next to the giant columns looking out over the pools and legislature grounds. I sat down for a moment along with ten other strangers around the dry fountains and listened until he decided he was done and packed up and walked away. What happened here??? Frankly it was an incredibly profound moment for me. And judging by the number of people with video and digital cameras pointed towards the man, it was profound for others too. I was reminded that music accomplishes something in our lives and that it exists beyond the books and the scores. This lone bagpiper (cliche as it is) and his music DID SOMETHING in the lives of 10 strangers today. I truly believe that music functions in the life of a community in ways that nothing else can. It fulfills a specific purpose. And I am pretty sure that what it does occurs between people, in a community, not just within an individual person. What purpose does it have? This is hard to see in such an individualistic society as our own. But I am convinced that it is still there. It is quite more evident in a place such as Ghana where music IS about the community, PERIOD (well most of the time). Music is a process of being together
I use this example to point out how amazingly excited I am for this project. This experience was a simple reminder of what I am doing and why I am excited about this summer as I try to understand what music does in the context of modern Ghanaian art music. Now, the trick is to keep my mind open, to not place constructs around what people tell me and to get into their world, to understand what is really going on, not what I want to be going on. A tremendously difficult task, but it has been done by many people (scholars and friends) before.
Now, just to keep this interesting I will share all of the little adventures along the way. Consider it a bribe for agreeing to read things like I have shared above. Yes, I will share the contents of my dinner and my latest battles with viruses, parasites, bacteria and all of the other things that North Americans deal with when traveling to Ghana. Please read and comment and ask. Until next time....
Patrick
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