Traveling on the Wings of Song

Though I find it deeply disturbing that the left side of our national consciousness is refusing my unshakeable belief that we all belong to each other, nevertheless I persist. Why can an American play in a Balinese gamelan and a Japanese join a bluegrass group? Because we all have that inner gamelan and banjo player inside of us in potential form, alongside the Zen practitioner or Sufi poet or Slovenian basketball player and a thousand more potentials only awaiting the kiss of exposure to a person, place, book, film, recording, culture to awaken it. On that journey, it is worthy work to be aware of historical power imbalances, not as impediments, but as reminders to learn responsibly from our teachers and pay back any unearned privileges. I refuse the ”back to tribe” mentality that insists that you can only explore what your gender/ skin color/ country gave you as a starting point. 

 

And so in the past three days, I’ve been a tour guide with 27 lovely people from 10 different countries and diverse backgrounds traveling through Bavaria, Bolivia, Bali, Bulgaria, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary, Ghana, Uganda, flown to each on the sonic vibrations of songs, of xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels, recorders, voices, drums, bells and more. Each culture a shining beacon showing the extraordinary ingenuity of what human beings can do with the same 5, 6 or 7 notes. No one has complained or asked to see my official papers granting me the authority to lead this trip. 

 

If they did, I would simply share my life story and the names of all who generously shared their culture, music and dance with me and often expressed their delight that I would introduce it to children and other music teachers. When there’s a chance to invite them to teach with me or instead of me or there’s an opportunity to help arrange further work for them or pay them further for their work, I believe I’ve always chosen to do so. I’m always clear with the adult music teachers about what is patently obvious—that I’m not a “culture bearer” of each particular music, but I am the messenger who opens the doors first to kids and then to their music teachers and shows them a larger world then they ever imagined previously. While knowing enough about each style that we feel the power and beauty of the music and feel empowered that we can make such music at an elemental level.

 

Tomorrow it’s the Netherlands, Iceland, Azerbhaijan and Renaissance Western Europe. Wish you could join us!