Sustainability in China

There were many themes found in the blog entries that discussed actions the Chinese government is taking in order to sustain its music culture. One of the things that really struck me was finding out, in the oldest blog entry, that UNESCO could be playing a role in helping to keep the music of guquin zither alive by declaring it intangible cultural heritage. This declaration pressured China to keep this culture alive because China signed a treaty about this topic. I thought that the comment made by Titon speculating that cultural policy is being put into place in light of the Cultural Revolution was interesting. It made me wonder whether the Chinese government just recently reflected on mistakes made in the past and decided to join an organization like UNESCO as a way to make amends and reassure its citizens, and the world, that nothing like the Cultural Revolution would happen again. I was surprised to see that the Chinese government has been a part of UNESCO since 1946. I could be missing a certain aspect of the story, but I find it difficult to understand how a government that threatens traditional expressive culture can still be a part of an organization like UNESCO. However it may have been, the blog entry shed light on the idea that outside pressure and attention from organizations like UNESCO could have helped spread the popularity of the traditions found in China like guqin zither. It also could have, as Titon mentions, moved China to discover the importance of this tradition through the attention it is receiving. This information helped enrich my understanding of the outside forces that can affect the sustainability of a culture. I feel like there were more internal forms of sustainability mentioned in the book like using notation and looking at essays and books that a composer wrote to understand how to play a piece. It also discusses using standardized tuning and artists making new compositions combining certain aspects of traditional and Western culture. I feel like these actions are things that are being done by individuals close to the culture. This information in the blog helped me to understand that there could be a complex web being weaved in the background of sustaining a music culture.  
Actions taken by UNESCO and the government led to a more concrete realization of sustainability in the form of financial assistance. The orchestra found in the Qujiaying village that plays traditional funeral music received $2 million dollars for its village and culture. This is because, as I mentioned earlier, the Chinese government noticed the attention it was receiving. This money was, theoretically, all used to build a temple, museum, to pay for instruments, and to pay master musicians to teach a future generation. It is in these ways that the big picture Titon painted by mentioning UNESCO and the Cultural Revolution led to sustainability. 
I also thought it was interesting that the blog mentioned the use of notation to help the musicians stay as close to the original form as possible. This is a tool of sustainability that was directly connected to the reading. I also found it interesting that the the blog he wrote later seemed to emphasize the importance of a culture being relatively secluded in order to stay true to its roots. This makes sense but I feel like this idea can be contradictory with the idea mentioned earlier; that big organizations like UNESCO and interest from outside forces could actually help with sustainability. The issue brought up here is that the more attention a music culture receives the more it's being exposed to other cultures and with that changing.  

The UNESCO information: http://en.unesco.org/countries/china 

Titon’s Sustainabiltiy

Sustainability is a term that was a bit difficult for me to get my head around. I know from the blog and a definition I looked up, that it is the endurance of certain entities or processes. ( I was thinking of it more on an individual scale; in terms of making a living, which is connected, but it isn’t the end all of sustainability) I feel like one of the things about sustainability that remained consistent throughout the blog was the emphasis on keeping music (and other things that should be sustained) true to itself and its core.  I also think that he placed an emphasis on deemphasizing the importance of money or goods in relation to sustainability, which in many cases causes entities or processes to change what they were really made for. This idea was characterized in many examples like sustainable development and the notion that things don’t have to grow in order to remain afloat or functional. This was also emphasized when he mentioned "Why [the term] sustainable growth must be abandoned?” He specifically says that it should be abandoned so that people don’t confuse what is meant and essentially justify their continued spending or ecologically destructive patterns. He also mentioned anthropological economics which goes against neoclassical economics in saying that humans aren’t just  fueled by greed and individual desire, they are instead an “actor embedded in social and cultural thought of his society” (“Anthropological economics, Heritage, and musical sustainability”) people are fueled by the things their environments deem important. He continually mentioned caring about things and finding value in them for reasons outside of monetary or self-benefit. Doing things like actively participating in a music culture creates favorable attitudes for true sustainability.

One thing that I noticed changed in the way Titon was thinking about Sustainability is the way that he feels it should be approached. I noticed this in “Sustainability Unbound 2” when he mentions that he had been thinking about political action and sustainability in terms of cultural policy; which involves things like cultural partnership (another theme seen throughout the blog) and working directly with a community. He then says that Melissa Lane opened his eyes to the idea that traditional political action like voting could be used in partnership with sustainability. He realized that no cultural policy is possible without public approval and advocacy. 

Titon's Sustainable Music Blog: http://sustainablemusic.blogspot.com/search/label/sustainability 

Sarasiruha from different perspectives

           In order to better understand Sarasiruha I decided to look into the lyrics, which I found in the book. The lyrics are very devotional and are phrases that I would expect to hear in a song dedicated to worshipping a god. They are however a bit more lyrical and poetic than what I am used to. There is a lot of imagery used to praise Saraswati. I also noticed that this song is primarily focused on praising and describing. In Sarasiruha this is evident with lyrics like; ever merciful, feet as tender as sprouts, face as lovely as the autumn moon, and the only real plea that I read was “Save me who have taken refuge in you!”I also noticed an emphasis placed on praise in Devi Niye Tunai, which is a kriti that I am assuming can also be used in concert just as Sarasiruha was used. It does include a “protect me” at the beginning but most of the song is dedicated to how great Parvati is. I think it would be interesting to know whether there are some songs primarily intended for praise and they are included in the book because they are the most popular or if there are other classes of kriti used especially for pleas.

           I was curious after looking at the lyrics and listening to Ms. Ranganayaki perform this on her veena what the kriti actually sounds like with lyrics because the book makes a point of saying that most people listening to a concert know the lyrics of the song and they know how the song goes. If I didn’t have the book as a guide that informed me when the song began I’m not sure I would know because I have never heard the song before. I decided to look up the kriti on youtube and I found a few videos that demonstrated different things. There was one video of these young women performing this song on stage and counting the tala which was in 4+2+2 but they didn’t count their fingers, instead they tapped their palm on their knee 4 times and for the 2 beats they put the back of their hand and then their palm. After listening to the song it was pretty easy to identify the melody in the recording especially the melody that accompanies the word “Sarasiruha”. The girls were accompanied by a violin, flute, and drums. The flute was the melodic accompaniment and would echo what the girls sang and sometimes played the same melody they were singing.

             I also found a video with two sisters that didn’t appear to be in a concert environment. They had the drone in the background and that was it. They counted the tala the same way. I enjoyed this video because I got to hear what they were saying more clearly, and I got a better sense of the melisma’s and ornamentation on certain words. They sang the song differently than the other girls. It sounded like they added “Om ba” after the main melodic material or what sounds like the refrain or I was just better able to hear theirs.  I was also able to identify that the refrain is sang slightly different depending on the repeat. I thought it was very impressive that they sang all of the ornamentations exactly the same way. They were completely in sync with the swaras and the holding out of certain notes. I enjoyed their performance. I could better understand what Ms. Ranganayaki was doing to the kriti after hearing it sung clearly a few times. I also feel like I got a better idea of the precision described in the book when it comes to learning kriti. It says that although there are slightly different versions students are expected to learn the kriti exactly how the guru teaches it. 

I used: Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples 

The big group of girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pUbCzsxQ1s

The sisters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZG4KwcUnQY