"Visions of Light" gospel presentation
All:
Please read and respond (via "Comments") to at least 3 of the following observations/queries arising from this presentation. Both team members and other class members should comment, and should particularly focus on ways in which insights from this presentation reflect, nuance, or contradict insights from your own fieldwork. Make sure your comments address this latter point.
Website at http://www.taskstream.com/main/?/peacock7/GospelProject/VisionsOfLight.html
Please read and respond (via "Comments") to at least 3 of the following observations/queries arising from this presentation. Both team members and other class members should comment, and should particularly focus on ways in which insights from this presentation reflect, nuance, or contradict insights from your own fieldwork. Make sure your comments address this latter point.
Website at http://www.taskstream.com/main/?/peacock7/GospelProject/VisionsOfLight.html
- Comments/more information about the subjective as well as objective experiences of participation vs observation
- Interesting comment about presence or absence of racial discourse: you mentioned it only in passing, but surely the issue of informants' versus observers ethnicity was a factor? Comments, either about its presence, or strategies for negotiating this?
- Very effective use of camera angles (note unobtrusive placement of camera, but how effectively it captured key interactions)
- Very nice contrast of video-documented situations--the diversity of rehearsal vs repertoire session vs performance gives us a much wider sense of the community
- Team members experienced a range of behavioral interactions (observation versus participation, etc): further to (1) above, can you discuss useful/not-so-useful aspects of each type of interaction?
- We spoke about this in class but I would be glad to have more comments, both from VoL team members and also from members of other teams whose informants might have expressed similar ideas: what is the role of a community's "self-mythology" (about its creation, its history, its makeup, its values)? Can observing, documenting, and analyzing a community's "myths" help us understand the music they make? Conversely, can ethnographic investigation of the music they make help us understand the community's "myths" and sense of collective identity? This question would be a priority for class comments!
- Kinesthetics: there were interesting comments about "body knowledge" and "body learning" in the presentation. Can team members (and members of other teams) unpack the significance of this kind of learning? What are its unique benefits, if any?
- Nice observation about the (stylistically-different but nevertheless very real) virtuosity required of teachers in this idiom; does this resonate with other teams' investigations?
- Good comments from team and class about analysis of song texts (and their selection by members of the community) as tools for understanding community's "constructed identity". Class members: what are the "identity texts" employed by your target subcommunity?
- More about pedagogical approaches: what is the impact of oral/aural learning? How does this particular set of pedagogical tools integrate with the community member's diverse musical backgrounds?
- Comment upon the sense of (historical, autobiographical, sociological) contextualization which informants tend to provide when asked about their experiences. How is music a "tool" for informants to make sense of their lives and experience?
- Good comments on the limited response you received to surveys. It is good, as you did, to report upon total number distributed versus total number received; this “sample-size” is crucial in determined the applicability of the survey results.
- Great use of “conclusions” format; other teams take note.
posted by CJS at 10:50 AM
3 Comments:
2. I did mention ethnicity only in passing because in all actuality, I thought ethnicity was going to be more of a factor. I thought people were going to be more uncomfortable because I was this giant white boy walking into a place where at the time of VOL, it was predominantly black. The interesting thing I found was that my skin color was never really discussed as an issue. Sure I was white, but as C. had told me and the choir, "that boy know how to sang." I may be a white boy who didn't grow up singing Gospel music, but I am a singer and I know how to adapt well.
4. I am glad that we got such a diverse range of different types of documenting. I wanted to get some video of the rehearsals and of the performance so I could see what it might be like to be a temporary fly on the wall. I tried to put the camera in a rather descrete area so that people would forget about it and go about the rehearsal like any other time.
6. I think the role of "self-mythology" is very important to the overall success of VOL. C told me numerous times of how VOL started, how he got into it, why he got into it, and what makes him keep doing it. He has told choir members that sometimes he just wants to stop because he doesn't think people want to do this anymore. He doesn't think people have the heart to do this choir anymore but when he hears a good rehearsal or sees a performance come together, it makes him want to keep doing it. He started this choir because he wanted to have all his friends from different cummunities and churches get together to praise God. This will be the 13th year that VOL has been together and C. helps it stay together. He tells stories about different years and stories about performances and I think it keeps the idea of community together.
2. This made me think about how I would feel If I was in a mostly or all white group and a couple people wanted to come in and observe us. If one person of the three were black, I wouldn’t think anything of it. If all three of them were black, I think there would be more questions happening. It makes me wonder if the members of VoL were asking questions about or too the members of this group. In order not to disrupt the rehearsals/performances, and to get the best honest information from the informants, we should find the similarities in who we are as observers and informants.
10. From my notes, I see that each member is given CD’s of professional choirs. This made me think of all the ‘pop culture’ songs I know just from listening to the radio or my CD’s. I can sing along with a lot of them. From that I usually get crazy ideas like performing some of these songs via karaoke. Not to undermine Karaoke, but that is performing and knowing the song from an oral tradition. I believe when people do this, they have more of an ability to make it their own.
8. The virtuosity required of teachers can also be talked about with Zeniada and her group. She had to learn dances from several different areas of Mexico. She has learned the Aztec Dances. She also had to learn the Male’s role. After dancing for so many years and then becoming the leader of this group, she had to learn all the Male roles and not get confused.
2. It's a very difficult situation when it come to racial issues. The comments and observations that we all make in accordance with race, ethnicity, or religion tend to show that we still have a long way to go for understanding. It is annoying to see that this still goes on. On the opposite spectrum, if these problems did not exist we wouldn't have this wonderfully diverse music that is in the world.
3. Camera placement is very important. We found that out in our observations on the Mi Tierra rehearsal where they actually forgot it was there.
8. This was prevalent in our group. Certain musicians had more knowledge than others, and this was beneficial for the entire group.
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