I love this so much. Two more things; A reason it’s hard for contemporary minds to imagine this musical past is because of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment where for very good reasons people were desperate to leave religion in their rear view mirror. There had been centuries of religious wars and bloody conflicts that arose from the Reformation schisms(1500-1600’s). People were so happy to find a new way to make sense of reality through science and jettison all the bloodshed religion had come to represent. As they embraced science they left behind the magic and mystery of spirituality that is so closely connected to faith.
In our world today the single greatest connection we have to the culture and ways of that older world is religion. And in religion music still holds its prime position of importance. As you sing in harmony with those all around you one easily enters into a spiritual experience of worship-connection with one’s God and there Is communion...communication! Just as you describe the ancients receiving ideas from their Gods. It happens every week still...and for anyone who has any regular dose of that, it’s very easy to accept and understand what you’re saying here. Not so much for the science types who may never have sung with their own throat and felt those guttural vibrations.
This is an amazing piece of an amazing work. I'm reading this while the morning coffee is going down and then I'll go mixing my songs with a higher spirit!
This is fundamental work that will be trad in conservatories and schools in general in the future. Because of its uplifting nature, contributing in giving back music it's real purpose. Entertainment is the first layer, but if you want you can go down (actually, up) all the way.
“In contrast, a vibrant musical and oral tradition can’t be eliminated quite so easily. So it makes perfect sense that a law preserved in song would have more impact and permanence than a written one—and especially so in societies where few people read or write.”
Exactly. The memory of a melody is almost everlasting.
Yes, makes total sense. How far removed we are from soundness.
I have been writing on a novel these last five years that revolves around the idea that festival - the celebration of song and dance as the manifestation of natural law - is the actual heart of human culture. Many of of the arguments you give here I intuited (love the term shaman-philosopher because that’s how I feel/function) Telling a story is not argument based from my view, as soon as my research peaks through I loose the narrative (the melody). Music does not follow arguments it sings how it is. I follow the law. The actual one.
I haven’t read your whole book yet but I hope you really get across how shocking a truth this contains. You made me realise the scope of our demise even better and the utter importance of singing true songs.
From September on my story will be sung here on Substack....I hope one of many ‘new’ songs.
I was reading this and it occurred to me why, for better or worse, Islamic (and Hindu) cultures are so resistant to change.
It's not because what is written is immutable, but because so much of the code *isn't* written down anywhere, it's tradition and social pressure, it is networked common knowledge, and therefore it is resistant both to amendment and to lawyering.
Take the hijab - WEIRD feminists correctly point out that head coverings for women is not specifically mandated anywhere in the Koran or Hadiths, but the folks in Pakistan could give a shit. If a girl from a decent family were to go out without a headcovering, the results would be pretty predictable, and no amount of "show me the exact Sura!" would change that. Nor would it matter what that girl thought, what "her Islam" meant or even whether she or anyone in her family believed a word of it.
Everybody in a traditional society knows what their rights and obligations are, there is no making it up as you go along, and if you do otherwise ("I gotta be me!"), you will be brought back to earth in no uncertain terms, and I don't even necessarily mean violence.
Or, to paraphrase Ted, you can change the wording of the Constitution, you can get the Supreme Court to agree that the text doesn't mean what it plainly says, you can conjure new rights out of thin air, but you can't change the lyrics to "American Pie" by popular vote or anything else. If Congress were to pass a law stating that, from this day forward, "American Pie" would reference good old girls as well as good old boys, and even if Don McLean were to concur, well, that song is now part of our *collective consciousness*, and good luck getting people to sing it differently.
Ted, how do you reckon for the fact that musicians invented the law but were also, as you convincingly have written elsewhere, most often responsible for violating it? Music's ability to maximize human expression and then, via law, to limit it, seem naturally in conflict.
Well put, Mr. Gioia! Totally reinforces the late Amiri Baraka's observation in his book, *Blues People* of how the use of music differs between "literate" and "illiterate" cultures along with Lewis Porter's of how so-called "oral traditions" in performance practice are far more enduring than "book-learned" ones.
These have been fascinating chapters—thank you for sharing them, Ted.
Your chapters resonate with philosopher-psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist in *The Master & His Emissary*, where he provides an account of the origins of language in music, and the similarly surprising origins of prose in poetry.
I believe there’s a deeper significance to witnesses swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. This is popularly understood to mean something like “may God strike me down if I lie.” But I read years ago (though I can’t find the reference now) that in ancient Scandinavia, witnesses would sacrifice a bull to Odin or Thor or whoever to ask the god to speak truth through their testimony rather than relying on the fallibility of human memory. So is even the present-day watered down oath a faint echo of that? It would imply there may be a potential area of investigation involving both oaths and sacrifices as ways of ritually invoking the gods to manifest their presence in human affairs, with law-giving as just one small corner of that.
Brilliant. I'd say mindblowing, but it seems obvious, despite the protestations of some of those "scholars." Seen in it plenty of fields where the academics don't seem interested in upsetting the status quo, but in maintaining it. Speaking of which, I'm reading a book I snatched from the library shelves, "Zealot" by Reza Aslan. He writes of the chasm between the historical Jesus and what came after, or what we think actually happened versus what later writers claimed. Every culture does it, that's why their myths always with a kernel of truth. Anyway he claims that only 2 or 3 percent of the Jews that Jesus preached to were literate, and that culture was supposed to be known for that. Supposedly no gulf between the learned priests and rabbis and the laypeople, everyone should be able to read the Torah. More revisionism, that probably came much later after the temple was destroyed and the Jews scattered and exiled and the religion became centered on the synagogue and Torah rather than the Temple pilgrimages. So when most folks are illiterate, of course almost everything is oral. And songs work much better for memorization. Try and recite a bunch of poems, or paragraphs from books whether fiction or a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Then think of how many songs you can sing the lyrics to, often easier when you actually hear the music and one line of lyrics seems to automatically jog the memory to the next. And that's now, when the vast majority can read and write!
The songs workers sing in the fields, the traditional songs in the local pub.
Yet another eye opening, or should I say ear opening, masterpiece from Ted.
I love this so much. Two more things; A reason it’s hard for contemporary minds to imagine this musical past is because of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment where for very good reasons people were desperate to leave religion in their rear view mirror. There had been centuries of religious wars and bloody conflicts that arose from the Reformation schisms(1500-1600’s). People were so happy to find a new way to make sense of reality through science and jettison all the bloodshed religion had come to represent. As they embraced science they left behind the magic and mystery of spirituality that is so closely connected to faith.
In our world today the single greatest connection we have to the culture and ways of that older world is religion. And in religion music still holds its prime position of importance. As you sing in harmony with those all around you one easily enters into a spiritual experience of worship-connection with one’s God and there Is communion...communication! Just as you describe the ancients receiving ideas from their Gods. It happens every week still...and for anyone who has any regular dose of that, it’s very easy to accept and understand what you’re saying here. Not so much for the science types who may never have sung with their own throat and felt those guttural vibrations.
This is an amazing piece of an amazing work. I'm reading this while the morning coffee is going down and then I'll go mixing my songs with a higher spirit!
This is fundamental work that will be trad in conservatories and schools in general in the future. Because of its uplifting nature, contributing in giving back music it's real purpose. Entertainment is the first layer, but if you want you can go down (actually, up) all the way.
“In contrast, a vibrant musical and oral tradition can’t be eliminated quite so easily. So it makes perfect sense that a law preserved in song would have more impact and permanence than a written one—and especially so in societies where few people read or write.”
Exactly. The memory of a melody is almost everlasting.
Yes, makes total sense. How far removed we are from soundness.
I have been writing on a novel these last five years that revolves around the idea that festival - the celebration of song and dance as the manifestation of natural law - is the actual heart of human culture. Many of of the arguments you give here I intuited (love the term shaman-philosopher because that’s how I feel/function) Telling a story is not argument based from my view, as soon as my research peaks through I loose the narrative (the melody). Music does not follow arguments it sings how it is. I follow the law. The actual one.
I haven’t read your whole book yet but I hope you really get across how shocking a truth this contains. You made me realise the scope of our demise even better and the utter importance of singing true songs.
From September on my story will be sung here on Substack....I hope one of many ‘new’ songs.
awesome! I will have to start at the beginning ( very good place to start)...will need some time to mull this over.
I was reading this and it occurred to me why, for better or worse, Islamic (and Hindu) cultures are so resistant to change.
It's not because what is written is immutable, but because so much of the code *isn't* written down anywhere, it's tradition and social pressure, it is networked common knowledge, and therefore it is resistant both to amendment and to lawyering.
Take the hijab - WEIRD feminists correctly point out that head coverings for women is not specifically mandated anywhere in the Koran or Hadiths, but the folks in Pakistan could give a shit. If a girl from a decent family were to go out without a headcovering, the results would be pretty predictable, and no amount of "show me the exact Sura!" would change that. Nor would it matter what that girl thought, what "her Islam" meant or even whether she or anyone in her family believed a word of it.
Everybody in a traditional society knows what their rights and obligations are, there is no making it up as you go along, and if you do otherwise ("I gotta be me!"), you will be brought back to earth in no uncertain terms, and I don't even necessarily mean violence.
Or, to paraphrase Ted, you can change the wording of the Constitution, you can get the Supreme Court to agree that the text doesn't mean what it plainly says, you can conjure new rights out of thin air, but you can't change the lyrics to "American Pie" by popular vote or anything else. If Congress were to pass a law stating that, from this day forward, "American Pie" would reference good old girls as well as good old boys, and even if Don McLean were to concur, well, that song is now part of our *collective consciousness*, and good luck getting people to sing it differently.
Absolutely fascinating.
Ted, how do you reckon for the fact that musicians invented the law but were also, as you convincingly have written elsewhere, most often responsible for violating it? Music's ability to maximize human expression and then, via law, to limit it, seem naturally in conflict.
I suspect you might already have read this book:
The Alphabet Versus The Goddess by Leonard Shlain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alphabet_Versus_the_Goddess?wprov=sfla1
If you haven't, I hope you'll find it to be of interest. I can see many connections to your current project.
You selling this book anywhere? I’m a musician myself and find your article interesting
Well put, Mr. Gioia! Totally reinforces the late Amiri Baraka's observation in his book, *Blues People* of how the use of music differs between "literate" and "illiterate" cultures along with Lewis Porter's of how so-called "oral traditions" in performance practice are far more enduring than "book-learned" ones.
Bobby Fuller invented the law, and the law won!
These have been fascinating chapters—thank you for sharing them, Ted.
Your chapters resonate with philosopher-psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist in *The Master & His Emissary*, where he provides an account of the origins of language in music, and the similarly surprising origins of prose in poetry.
I believe there’s a deeper significance to witnesses swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. This is popularly understood to mean something like “may God strike me down if I lie.” But I read years ago (though I can’t find the reference now) that in ancient Scandinavia, witnesses would sacrifice a bull to Odin or Thor or whoever to ask the god to speak truth through their testimony rather than relying on the fallibility of human memory. So is even the present-day watered down oath a faint echo of that? It would imply there may be a potential area of investigation involving both oaths and sacrifices as ways of ritually invoking the gods to manifest their presence in human affairs, with law-giving as just one small corner of that.
Brilliant. I'd say mindblowing, but it seems obvious, despite the protestations of some of those "scholars." Seen in it plenty of fields where the academics don't seem interested in upsetting the status quo, but in maintaining it. Speaking of which, I'm reading a book I snatched from the library shelves, "Zealot" by Reza Aslan. He writes of the chasm between the historical Jesus and what came after, or what we think actually happened versus what later writers claimed. Every culture does it, that's why their myths always with a kernel of truth. Anyway he claims that only 2 or 3 percent of the Jews that Jesus preached to were literate, and that culture was supposed to be known for that. Supposedly no gulf between the learned priests and rabbis and the laypeople, everyone should be able to read the Torah. More revisionism, that probably came much later after the temple was destroyed and the Jews scattered and exiled and the religion became centered on the synagogue and Torah rather than the Temple pilgrimages. So when most folks are illiterate, of course almost everything is oral. And songs work much better for memorization. Try and recite a bunch of poems, or paragraphs from books whether fiction or a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Then think of how many songs you can sing the lyrics to, often easier when you actually hear the music and one line of lyrics seems to automatically jog the memory to the next. And that's now, when the vast majority can read and write!
The songs workers sing in the fields, the traditional songs in the local pub.
Yet another eye opening, or should I say ear opening, masterpiece from Ted.
Wow, wow, wow!
The hymns are easier to remember than the sermon!
Wow, wow, wow!
The melody lasts forever
This chapter is for the ages. Who is writing the music!
Thanks, thanks, thanks!
Then there was The Master Singers, a British group who recorded the Highway Code in the style of Anglican church music in the 1960s.