http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=25293801838&topic=10121

nutty flutist from banff, who i dearly like, but have not had a real chance to get to know, posted something on facebook and i had to look. sometimes i read these things. sometimes i dont. i have no idea how i actually decide what/when/where to read posts, but i did.

well, if you arent going to take the effort to go read this post (lazy! just highlight the url, ctrl+c(copy), ctrl+t(opens new tap), ctrl+v(paste), and you will be there)(yep, im still 'hot-key' generation. thanks to good old skull wordprocessors), i will give you a heads up. it's a posting re: el sistema, the current venezuelan effort to bring music to the masses, which eventually gave birth to the controversial and shocking band called simon bolivar orchestra. young youth orchestra. whats the big deal you may say. well, they play well. bloody well. and they engage. makes you listen. or something. you sit. watch. express. react.

The Guardian's classical music writer, Tom Service, said:
"It was fantastic really, such tremendous energy and you could see the connection between Dudamel and the orchestra. There is an absolute connection between everything he does and everything they play which is miraculous. It was a bit rough around the edges but then it was a rehearsal...The biggest thing Dudamel has is that he has been one of them. They've grown up together. They have an understanding of one another."
(the guardian, Thursday 16 April 2009)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/15/dudamel-simon-bolivar-orchestra-southbank-venezuela

mad flutist wanted to see what peeps have to say re: bringing el sistema, or music to the world. and for some bizarre reason, monkey started to write like mad:

i find it amusing that a system, ie. country, always focus on the cost of such program first. from what i have seen (esp. in canada), there has been a mass reduction in education funding, especially in arts. having an elem. music ed degree, i always wondered how one could possibly teach all these children (the ratio of teacher to students is unrealistic) anything quality. these children will grow up to adults. hence not only children, but the entire society is removed from arts, eventually.

evenmore worrying thing is that people, assuming that all arts transmits (which, by proximity, it always does; to have an arts without a context is impossible. by existing and being recognized, it has already interacted in the most primary level with the society), think one could simply expect to understand something of a quality, ie. arts (from what? crap? i suppose). however, it is rarely discussed
1. what is this particular art transmitting?
2. how much of it is understood by the recipient?
3. what does it have to do with anything- art and recipient?

hence we then have a generation that is sensitive to arts, however, are ignorant of arts. and somehow, this primal sensitivity now passes as understanding. let's focus on that major difference: being aware is NOT being comprehensive.

there's no easy way out to see how a public (now even more ignorant of arts; i am not being exclusive on the typical western/eastern but including any form of organized systematic music, ie. classical, jazz, traditional, folk, rock, whatever. think whichever course one is offered at a school), comfortable with its sensitivity, see a reason to pump resources to arts ('ya, i know arts when i see it. everyone does. music is the universal language.')

*that comment absolutely drives me bonkers btw. it's a language, yes, but do you understand it? or are you just 'hearing' it? who is it to say then a bat, with its amazing sonar sensitivity, is not 'listening' to music?

well, unfortunately, though i think often that it's complete bollocks, it is up to the people who are aware of such needs (ie. artists, lets say, whatever that means), to bring up the issue.

"if the mountain won't come to mohammad, mohammad must go to the mountain."
apparently mohammad was extremely glad that the mountain didnt come to him, crashing and burying everything in its path. an awareness, a consciousness, is like a splinter. mohammad prayed and prayed. well, would the mountain come? no way. we (lets say we call ourselves artists), cannot make the mountain come to us (the sense of urgency re: current state of music ed). so then? we must go to the mountain. and why go to the mountain at all? why bother? because- one may find different things in mountain, whatever it may be (as everyone who have been to banff can recall something personal, am sure). but telling mountain to accommodate mohammad would be well, useless.

well, let's all bring 'arts' down from its podium. like the stupid banff vistas table markers, once it's on a higher plane, it's just annoying. and means absolutely nothing, save for the very few. (like the servers who likes to skip the arts table all together). a mountain, unclimbed, inexperienced, is just some rocks. you look at it and say 'i guess that's mountains.' let's take the step. let's experience the mountain. discussing mountains with person who have never been to 'a' mountain will be... well, frustrating. it'll be all in secondary expression. trying to explain what an orange taste like to someone who never had it. M.A.D.

we, fortunately educated and passionate (hopefully still), are able to break 'arts' down. whether it be incorporation of folk, traditional, whatever, orchestra, choir. think of the most basic means of creating/communicating through musical means. but let's not be so crazy about the 'virtue' of music. it's another sunday preach to talk 'virtue' to an individual. virtue? forget it. replace it with... personal involvement. interested and enthusiastic hobbyists are always the most dangerous, haha.

drop the terms, theories. drop the techniques and expenses. music can be quite complicated or primal. music needs not to be a tool of 'improvement' of a society. because. music, like all basic human behavior, already exists in individuals.

but what does it really mean anyhows in practical terms? well, i think that's as far as i can take this note. i could discuss what 'i' do in feeble effort to bring music to my peeps. but that's for a particular group of people in a particular cultural/socio/econo/geographical context. all i could say is start to look really carefully about what's already around you. unless you live in a hole in the middle of the outer space, there is already a pre-existing effort, however dead or alive it may seem. community programs, school programs, volunteer concert experiences, brownies/scouts, religious organization. even in hockey game telecasts, we get music.

make it relevant.

make it count.

let your peep know that they already 'sense' music. they already 'have' music.
bring it out. if one really wants, one could do more than just inspire, but co-spire.
keep your feet on the edge. keep looking. keep hoping.
and take that first step toward the mountain.
and you will get there.

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