Isabel Douglass-Glomas-Final Project

 Exam paper – front page Student's full name: Isabel Douglass Student no.: isdo2012 Line of study: GLOMAS Class/Year (i.e. BA-­‐2): KA-­‐2 Date: 11/05/2015 Title of paper: Vasile and I Subject: Kandidatprojekt Supervisor/teacher: Olga Witte Number of characters: 92,231 Copy e-­‐mailed to library: yes: x Copy e-­‐mailed to archive: yes: x (E-­‐mail to the archive is mandatory) no (tick the relevant) no (tick the relevant) As a main rule, written papers must be submitted to the Student Administration in two copies (inter-­‐
nal censorship)/three copies (external censorship). Furthermore, one copy (PDF file) must be e-­‐mailed to the Student Administration archive (opgaver-­‐
[email protected] – date, subject, and name must appear from the title) and one copy (PDF file) must be e-­‐mailed to the library (projekter-­‐[email protected] – date, subject, and name must appear from the title). Papers e-­‐mailed to the library will be accessible to students and teachers at the academy. Therefore, it is important that papers are anonymised so that personal names do not appear from the paper. Audio files must be submitted to the Student Administration in three copies (internal censor-­‐
ship)/four copies (external censorship). Vasile & I
Master Project by Isabel Douglass Glomas Year 2013 Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium, Århus Supervisor: Olga Witte Number of characters: 92,231 Date of delivery: The 11th of May 2015 1 Table of Content
I. Introduction p. 4 p. 5 II.1 Comparing Background and Experience p. 5 II.2 Musical Frames II. Reflecting With Danish Musicians p. 7 p. 9 III.1 Making Contact p. 9 III.2 Method p. 12 III.3 Singing p. 13 IV. Background – The Music and Us p. 16 IV.1 The Scenes and Sounds of the Music p. 16 IV.2 Before Denmark p. 17 IV.3 Chasing the Music p. 18 IV.4 She’s a She/He p. 21 p. 23 III. Beginnings V. Learning V.1 Bogat în Toate – Rich in All p. 23 V.2 Training p. 25 V.3 Collaboration p. 26 VI. Doing Business p. 27 VI.1 Stages p. 27 VI.2 Loyalty p. 29 2 VII. What Makes A Good Musician? p. 30 VII.1 In the Studio p. 30 VII.2 Aesthetics and Audience p. 32 VIII. Conclusion + Acknowledgements p. 33 IX. References p. 34 X. Abstract p. 35 Project description p. 36 Study Group Report p. 39 p. 40 Attachment 1 (w/ DVD of Audio and Video Samples) 3 I. Introduction For almost two years now I’ve been working musically with clarinetist Vasile Alexandru, a Romanian Roma living in Copenhagen, who specializes in Romanian folk music and Romanian Roma wedding music1. In this thesis I will tell a story about our relationship, looking at the characteristics of our music, business, and social interactions, highlighting how our behavior towards each other has served to illuminate our commonalities or differences, creating closeness or maintaining distance through a musical process. I will draw connections from the social mannerisms that Vasile and I projected and the aesthetic and technical qualities of the music we worked on. The musical objectives at the center of this project have been the study of Romanian Roma wedding music and the formation of an ensemble with Vasile that features this genre. Vasile has been my primary teacher in this style through aural transmission of repertoire and interviews on the history and cultural functions of the music. Here I will narrate what I have learned about the music, both in its technical, aesthetic construction and about the values that are communicated through the music. Included in this analysis will be an investigation of the connection between the values expressed in this music and the behavior of its players. I will also give an account of the collaborative process between Vasile and I as we developed our repertoire and promotional material for our ensemble. The kernel of my research has been my interaction with Vasile, but the scope of this study gradually grew to incorporate interactions with the larger social environment of musicians in Denmark who play Balkan music, a varied group of people who identify, by different degrees, with a Roma heritage and/or Danish cultural background. Through comparing perspectives of people from three different cultures (the third being my own American background) I keep in focus my key intention of gaining deeper understanding of the interplay of our different cultural perspectives within the musical process we are engaged in. Ethnomusicologist Martin Stokes writes, “…music is socially meaningful not entirely but largely because it provides means by which people recognize identities and places, and boundaries which separate them” (Stokes 1994: 5). By observing contrasts between the cultural groups within a specific musical environment, with a view to their larger social implications, I intend to deepen my understanding of the values expressed and cultivated in Romanian Roma music. The following narrative will give a portrayal of myself as well as my interlocutors. I am an American immigrant on Danish soil, studying Roma music, which originates in neither place. With the Roma people I encounter in Denmark, I share a sense of not quite belonging to the place where we encounter each other, while with my Danish colleagues I share a common fascination with something external to our respective cultural backgrounds. 1 See chapter III.1 and III.2 for a description of these styles. 4 II. Reflecting with Danish Musicians This chapter explores the common experiences and perspectives shared between two Danish musicians and myself that have been gained through playing Romanian Roma music. I then compare our way of framing values to that of Vasile’s. II.1 Comparing Background and Experience Since I moved to Denmark I have been playing with different members of a close-­‐
knit community of Danish musicians who play Balkan music of different kinds. This Balkan fascination, however, is not the only thing that we have in common, as I discovered, with pleasant surprise. Like me, many of them were raised by parents with hippie, counterculture inclinations, holding anti-­‐consumerism, anti-­‐capitalist values. Like me, many of them dropped out of school early to live in communal living situations, like squats, seeking to educate themselves by other means than those of traditional enculturation institutions. Like me, their young adult lives were busy with hitchhiking to far away places, making money by playing music on the street, and by spending many many hours learning Balkan melodies from old LPs they found along the way. For this project I interviewed Mads Bendsen, a double bass and keyboard player and Gunni Torp, a vocalist and accordion and saxophone player. The two of them have played Romanian Roma music, with each other, and with a larger band. At the time of the interview I had recently joined their project (Video Track 1). I wanted to interview them about how and why they had come to play Balkan Roma music. I wanted to compare their reasons with my own; as well as to compare the values behind those reasons to those I have learned to be important to Vasile. For the interview I met them at Gunni’s house, a structure made from a shipping container that is placed on a plot of land on the outskirts of Amager in Copenhagen. The location is 2 minutes by bike to a central hub in Copenhagen but feels remote as it hugs the sea that faces Sweden, near the smoke stacks of a power plant and a string of wind turbines. Mads’ house is positioned directly across a narrow path from Gunni’s door. On the property are some 20 such buildings housing many artists of various disciplines with their families. Before meeting for this interview I read Balkan Fascination (2007) by a Bosnian ethnomusicologist Mirjana Lauševic. The book chronicles this author’s research of the music communities in the United States playing Balkan music that are made up of primarily non-­‐Balkan participators. On the cover of the book is a picture of a brass band playing while surrounded by an ecstatic crowd. I recognized some faces in the picture as people I had partied beside at the annual, week long, Mendocino Balkan Music Camp held in a California redwood forest. In the book Lauševic looks into the common background and life values that bring together those that choose to be a part of this counterculture founded around a foreign style of music. I was surprised to learn that much of what brought my friends and I to the music was typical of this community as a whole. 5 Though Lauševic can trace the use of Balkan folk dancing as a community building activity in America through the past two centuries, the best known resurgence of the trend was during the 1960-­‐70’s when some in the hippie community were drawn to the dance and music as a way of creating activities that they felt represented their values. Lauševic writes that, “The fact that Balkan music was not readily available, that it was not presented for consumption through media advertisement, made it additionally attractive to the 1960 and 1970’s counterculture, in which resisting media was, itself, a valued action. This attitude is part of the legacy inherited by the Balkan scene from earlier movements” (Lauševic 2006, 56). She continues by making a pointed statement about American culture at large, “One’s choice of this type of expression can be a statement that is not only personal but political, particularly in a nation whose self-­‐image and national rhetoric is so tied to the ideas of ‘choice’” (Lauševic 2006, 56). Furthermore, This community, as described by Lauševic, placed a particular emphasis on how the community worked with the music and dance. The participants prioritized a participatory performance of the music and dance, inviting all to participate regardless of skill level, seeking to nurture personal expression and to create a sense of connection between the members (Lauševic 2006, 32-­‐33). I began the interview by asking Gunni how she came to play Balkan music. Gunni explained that she had first encountered the music because her parents were involved in a kind of folk dancing club. They would hold folk dancing parties at their house that included dancing to Balkan music. Later, while playing classical saxophone as a teenager she was drawn to the music again and soon after dedicated her time to learning repertoire and writing her own songs in the style. Further down the road she studied Balkan singing. Gunni described how in her early twenties she took a vocal workshop in Roma songs. It was the first time her voice fit anywhere. She found that she could really connect to her emotions directly through this way of singing. She said, “That has been the goal for me. I look for that in all voices when listening… I look for the same in instruments”. Mads told his own story in response to the same question. He was introduced to Balkan music in his early twenties by a group of circus performers that he shared a studio with. He had been training for an audition jazz conservatory audition in Copenhagen but was, much to his surprise, not accepted. With the rejection in hand he turned away from jazz and funk and began learning about Balkan music with his new friends. These musicians had a very different relationship with music than he had been raised with. Mads’ father had trained him extensively in music theory and taught Mads to believe in the power of the intellectual knowledge of music. Mads’ new friends were almost entirely without training and seemed to have no regard to it. The aim of this community was simply to try. Pick up an acoustic folk instrument from the Balkans, listen to old LP’s, and try to copy what you heard -­‐ that was the routine. At times Mads found this approach tiring, but the vigor and determination these musicians put into playing and learning together as a group led him to a strengthened understanding of the value of the actual, however haphazard the process of creating good sound, as distinct from the value of amassing theoretical 6 knowledge about how it has been previously done. He came to believe that making beautiful, and so valuable, music could be done by people of all skill levels. The stories of Gunni and Mads are strikingly similar to the experiences of the protagonists of the Lauševic narrative. The values of the participation, personal expression, and sense of common belonging to an alternative community seem to have been the central driving forces behind enjoying this style of music. My own drive to play Balkan music was not inspired by an ethical vision of participatory performance. My parents are professional jazz musicians, thus like Mads I had also received a sound dose of music education and indoctrination through them. I inherited from them a well-­‐formed sense of aesthetics, work ethic, and critical ear about music. Yet I felt very early that in my time the state of jazz had become quite abstract, intellectual, and alienating for the general public. In Romanian Roma music I found an alternative: its valorization of technical prowess and improvisational ability are yet always mixed with a felt duty to please the listener. Its communal modus operandi is the prism through which I now view the socio-­‐musical phenomena of communities of audiences and communities of musicians turning away from the dominant musical culture, and creating novel communities, in which neither the professionalism of the players, nor the desire of the listener to enjoy, are thwarting each other. II.2 Musical Frames I then asked Gunni and Mads to tell me a bit about what they valued in playing Romanian Roma music. Gunni responded that one element which has driven her to play the music is a particular attitude that this music seems to compel one to develop. She said, “I think it’s like, we’re going to put all our energy into this. We’re not going to give a little, we’re not going to shape it too much, we’re just going to put all the energy and all the emotion also. That’s what I hear in the music. And I think it is not compromising at all. You have to give yourself completely. And I really fell in love with that. And I also used it kind of, in the lifestyle that, if I’m going to do this I’m not going to do this only Tuesday nights, I’m going to do this for real”. Mads added that, “I think it’s the same as Gunni was talking about, that it’s very honest, the music, and that’s very valuable, and very straight up basically. You hear what you hear, it’s pure.” In my conversations with Mads and Gunni I noticed that all three of us used words like “real”, “pure”, and “honest” to describe what the music means to us. These words have the power to give purpose to our work and to bond us together through that purpose. This version of impression management2 (Goffman 1959) is described by ethnomusicologist Martin Stokes in this passage, “…We should see ‘authenticity’ is a discursive trope of great persuasive power. It focuses a way of talking about the music, a way of saying to outsiders alike ‘this is what is really significant about this 2 See chapter III.2 for a definition of impression management. 7 music’, ‘this is the music that makes us different from other people’” (Stokes 1994, 7). The value of exposing ones inner self through music as an expression of authentic being and the vocabulary that accompanies it is not something I heard Vasile, and his friends talk about. Concerns about authenticity came up for them more in the context of criticizing non-­‐Roma musicians when performing Roma music, the issue being that the outsiders did not have enough technique to play the music correctly. Vasile would describe a different frame than one that puts authenticity at its core. As will be described in later chapters, his frame puts emphasis on technical ability, adaptability, and stamina, all which is expressed through performances that balance audience pleasing and expression of individual prowess through improvisation (Chapter IV.1). I believe that the impulse for Mads, Gunni, and I to use this vocabulary is inherited from the musical culture that our parents grew up with, the folk music revival of North America and North Europe during the 1960’s and 1970’s (including artists such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell). It creates a frame that we can use to set up our criteria for judging how good each performance is within the genre. In the case of this American and Northern European folk music, authenticity of personal expression has been the main frame used to evaluate the genre. Ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino writes that we use different frames to assess different types of music. He writes about seeing a Bob Dylan concert, “The genre is typically framed by ideologies of personal authenticity; it is expected that the songs are the result of the writer’s own experience…and fans expect to get a sense of the genuine person in performance” (Turino 2008, 14, 63). In my case (and I am inferring that it applies to Gunni and Mads as well) I’ve transferred a part of a frame that belongs to one genre over to another. Furthermore, I believe that, similarly to the ethos of the folk music revival scene, associating authenticity to Romanian Roma music is important to me because it is part of defining my life values as counter to a dominant culture that is so influenced by consumerism. During the interview with Mads and Gunni we also discussed whether or not playing Romanian Roma music had changed us in any way. Mads asserted that through playing the music and traveling to Romania he began to be aware of how much unnecessary luxury he had in his life. “I learned how much I can put into the music to make it better, how much I can put into myself. I think these things are kind of going hand and hand. Because it’s an expression of complete honesty. Because like Gunni says you can not go into the style just on Tuesdays, you have to go completely into this”. Gunni continued that the jazz community she was a part of in younger years was always preoccupied with the quality of the gear, instruments, and reeds, how to get them, who has them, who doesn’t. But when she went to Romania she saw that musicians there often played on the worst instruments with the oldest reeds and they could play better than any of the jazz players she had heard in Denmark. She came home realizing that the gear stuff didn’t matter. It was really just about playing 8 and enjoying, that was the thing. Gunni added that,“It’s very inspiring to see it’s about art and music but it’s also about survival and that brings you down to basics at the same time you are doing something beautiful. In the act of playing but also in the attitude of being a musician…it’s still about survival and being alive in the way you choose.” During these conversations with Gunni and Mads I came to identify like perspectives, which has given me a more detailed understanding of how I connect to, categorize, and value Romanian Roma music. These shared perspectives are related to those I have observed in Vasile but there is definite contrast between what he emphasizes as being important compared to us. By looking at this difference I am able to further appreciate his perspective. This cross-­‐cultural analysis then affects how I approach playing the music, influencing what aspects of the aesthetic values I emphasize. III. Beginnings This chapter is split into three sections that describe the outset of this study. The first is a narrative about how and why Vasile and I came to work together. The second outlines the methods that I have used to document and analyze this process. The third returns to a narrative that depicts how the relationship between Vasile and I developed in the early stages of working together. III.1 Making Contact It was a cold, rainy afternoon in November of 2013. Dressed in all the layers of winter attire, I could barely bend my arms to play my accordion. I sat on a small collapsible chair, the type one might use for gardening. The chair was placed under some scaffolding attached to a building on Købmagergade, one of the main pedestrian roads of central Copenhagen. On my left was a band from Bucharest with Vasile on clarinet, Andreas on cimbalom, Dadi on contrabass, and Gabriel on guitar. We were playing Libertango, the Argentine tango classic by Astor Piazzolla, while a small congregation of families looked on. Though Vasile and I had already interacted a handful of times before, it was only minutes prior to this that he had come to know me as a musician. Now we were really communicating using our common passion and profession of music. It was during this moment that a collaborative working friendship began. A month before I was strolling through downtown Copenhagen with my family when, for the first time, I came across Vasile and his band playing on the street. While I watched them perform, a tune that mixed a French swing style with a Bucharest Roma style, I had the strong feeling that I wanted to study and play with this group of musicians. I had entered the Glomas graduate program with the intention of continuing a study that I had started years earlier in Romanian Roma wedding music, but I did not have a clear plan as to how or with whom I would pursue this interest. There on the streets it seemed that I had run into my potential teachers. However, I was also immediately preoccupied with concerns about how 9 best to ask them for their time and guidance, fearing rejection or ridicule. Because of past experiences of approaching musicians from this culture for help, I believed that I needed to spark a motivation in them for this exchange beyond the meager lesson fee I could offer. My toes made a private dance in my shoes and the hair raised on my arms as I listened to their masterful wielding of a style I am so affectionate for, but I intentionally avoided showing too much enthusiasm. A quiet voice in my head was telling me to approach them slowly. When the song finished I put a few coins in the clarinet case that was set out on the sidewalk. I complimented them and then asked casually where they were from and how long they would be in town. Vasile answered in a short, gruff manner, saying that the rest of the band lived in Romania and would be in Copenhagen for another couple weeks but that he lived here. While he held an irritable impatient look on his face I said goodbye and walked on with my family. I spent the next couple of days in an excited state of consideration. I was itching to play with this band, to learn from them, and to interview them for the Glomas project that would culminate with this thesis. I could have taken my accordion downtown and simply asked to sit in with them, yet I felt that in order to intrigue them musically I would first have to gain a level of respect from them, that I would have to show them that I was a person worthy of being taken seriously. I held a belief that had developed through earlier work with Romanian Roma musicians, one that has only been further supported through these last years of working with Vasile, that within the cultural environment of this music, inspiring respect in others through a show of pride is essential. In other words, over the following month I engaged in what anthropologist Erving Goffman (1959) calls impression management, in my case a deliberate tactic of exhibiting pride through confident and gradual approach. Some Danish musicians and I organize a monthly performance of local world music bands in Copenhagen called Klub Deroute. I called them up and convinced them that we should invite Vasile and his band to play at the next concert. After a series of negotiations both in person and on the phone about schedule and money Vasile agreed that the band would play. For this particular Klub Deroute I chose to take on the job of host. I dressed in a festive feminine sort of way, bringing them plates of my home cooked food, and checking in regularly to see if they had what they needed. Having lived in the Balkans before, I was aware of the esteem in which people from that region typically hold the values of hospitality. By taking on the role of a host I meant to demonstrate both my respect for them and the pride I take in this important job by doing it with grace. The band became relaxed and friendly. Smiles and laughter circled around the dinner table. The reticence of our first meeting and the formality of the booking negotiations had softened. My own role had transitioned from that of street passerby to concert booker to host. After the meal Vasile and band gave an impressive performance, clearly enjoying the admiring, energetic audience who demanded encore after encore (Video Track 2). Now, after this gratifying shared experience, I felt ready to approach them as a musician. 10 A few rainy days after this concert I wandered around the center of Copenhagen, with accordion on back, looking for Vasile his band. Not finding them at their usual busking spot I called Vasile. He picked up immediately as if he had been expecting a call. When he heard my request to meet, Vasile quickly explained that he had no time that day. He was explaining the reason when his voice came into surround sound. He called my name, I looked up, and saw him standing across the road from me. His manner had again become more hurried and gruff. He had to play with the rest of the guys but he invited me to follow him to their spot. One hundred meters farther down the road, under some scaffolding, were the other three band members, Andreas on cimbalom, Gabriel on guitar, and Dadi on bass. One of them asked me if it was an accordion I had on my back. Another asked if I wanted to play something for them. They invited me to sit on one of their stools positioned out of the rain. Vasile sat on the stool I had brought with me, half exposing himself to the drizzle. This was what I had been hoping for, their invitation for me to play. I was excited but also very nervous, hoping that I would perform adequately. My plan was to play something Romanian Roma straight away. I had prepared a fairly modern piece from an accordionist Ionică Minune (Audio Track 3), a player highly admired by musicians. I started the pick-­‐up line to the song and nodded to Andreas on cimbalom to join in. He did immediately. Gabriel, Dadi and Vasile joined in soon afterwards. My hands were shaking from nervousness and excitement, which made it difficult to be relaxed enough to play the ornaments correctly. We went through the form a couple times. Vasile harmonized with my melodies and added fills. The rest of the band was looking at me with huge tender smiles while we all played. Vasile asked for another song. I started the main theme to Libertango, with them immediately joining in. We played a few rounds of the form until Vasile signaled to end the song with a definitive phrase and motion with his clarinet. Afterwards Vasile said that we should start a band together. I replied that I would like this and then asked if I could interview him in a few days. We agreed on a time. Shortly after I packed up and said goodbye. Figure 1 Performing with the band -­ Picture taken at street performance made three months after scene described in this chapter. 11 This little musically spontaneous moment, one that was not exactly spontaneously initiated, was thrilling for me. I felt triumphant to have finally played with this band. Within this small musical experience I began to detect a set of values being communicated and cultivated through the performance of the music. Each player expressed a virtuosic ability on their instrument, and a capacity to learn quickly, adapting and contributing to each new moment. During all this they held a demeanor of pride expressed through confidence in their capacity to provide quality music both for their fellow band mates and the audience. As best I could I tried to exhibit these same qualities, maintaining my focus on my own playing while responding to the actions of the other players. Through this common musical milieu I felt that we negated for a moment the differences between us, be they of culture, gender, and class. I felt in the looks we all exchanged a momentary bond created through this language of music. All the while down fell the rain, punctuated by clashes and clangs of the busy goings on of street life. III.2 Method Reflections on the manner in which Vasile and I had begun interacting with each other triggered me to pay special attention to our social behaviors as we would work together. I noticed that both of us had made cautious steps to extend interest and invitation to the other, but that somehow this had inspired a kind of respect and intrigue in the other. I wanted to observe how the style of our conversations and how we approached playing music together was interconnected in developing the tenor of our relationship. This led me to seek literature about analyzing the dynamics of social interaction. I read The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) by anthropologist Erving Goffman, which became highly influential in how I perceived my interactions with Vasile, as well as with the other musicians that I interviewed about playing this Romanian Roma style. A few months after the first musical interaction I had with Vasile we began to meet regularly. I took lessons with him, interviewed him, and eventually we rehearsed a repertoire and recorded a demo for our new band. The method of approaching this whole study has been to both maintain a focus on attaining a thorough understanding of the technical and historical elements of the music while also recording and analyzing that manner in which we interacted. Through this frame I have investigated interdependency between our social dynamics and the progress of our musical understanding and creation. How I led interviews and documented our exchange was influenced by the techniques for analyzing human interaction that are expressed by Goffman in his book. Goffman asserts, in short, that all social interactions are a kind of performance in which individuals in groups are trying to manage the impressions they are giving to others in order to define reality. Our social identity is conditioned by how we present ourselves to others and how others support or defy our presentation. Impression management, as Goffman calls it, goes beyond affirming the identities of those immediately engaged socially. Every social interaction is a performance that 12 involves teams substantiating or weakening one version of reality or another, a negotiation that is quite democratic in nature. Goffman writes: When we allow that the individual projects a definition of the situation when he appears before others, we must also see that the others, however passive their role may seem to be, will themselves effectively project a definition of the situation by virtue of their response to the individual…there is usually a kind of division of definitional labor…Together the participants contribute to a single over-­‐all definition of the situation which involves not so much a real agreement as to what exists but rather a real agreement as to whose claims concerning what issues will be temporarily honored. (Goffman 1959: 20-­‐21) Using this frame while observing our relationship has meant that I not only pay attention to the information I have collected about Vasile and his musical heritage but also to how and when we offer each other information, the underlying assumption being that we are both in a constant state of impression management meant to both create bonds and keep distance between us. This has been useful as a way of further understanding how elements of this cross-­‐cultural exchange affect the musical process. III.3 A Relationship in Blossom The first year of work with Vasile consisted primarily of him teaching me and me interviewing him. Concurrently I was taking lessons with the Serbian Roma accordion player, Buzor Nenic, who has trained extensively in the Romanian Roma wedding style. I can say through experience that in order to develop some competency in making expressive and logical performances of this music, one must devote many hours of playing along with people who can create this sound. Because I am learning a musical language outside of the culture I grew up in I have needed to somehow experience some of the hours that a child growing up in that culture might get passively by being surrounded by the music constantly. Both Buzor and Vasile spent many patient hours playing the same phrases with me over and over until I began to absorb the nuances of the style. The dedication that both of these teachers has put into assisting my musical progression has mirrored both the attitude and aesthetic approach that they have encouraged me to maintain in my musical performance. They repeatedly said to me that I should play with stronger determination and dedication to each note, while also carrying in my posture and expression this same attitude. Learning from them has come in the form of listening to their playing, adopting their advice, and by observing their pedagogical personae. An integral component to lessons with both teachers has been the time spent socially before and after, which allowed us to develop a kinship through sharing personal stories. Both Buzor and Vasile have expressed that they consider this aspect of our meetings as part of my education in learning more about the culture the music comes from. This friendly mood that was established through our 13 conversations, which became progressively longer and more soul-­‐searching, then carried over into the mood of our musical work. The more time I invested into getting to know Buzor and Vasile personally, the more time they allowed for going over musical details with me. With Vasile, that sincerely interested and generous equilibrium was reached after some experimenting with our lesson time as well as its location. We eventually found a mutually comfortable way to work together through the negotiations that are described below. The first two lessons with Vasile took place at my house. These combined work with our instruments and interviews. I found these first meetings to be awkward mainly because it seemed that Vasile was not comfortable in my house or around me. He would arrive well dressed in a suet, decorative scarf, hair greased into an orderly position, and smelling of cologne. It should be said that I’ve never known a Roma musician to arrive anywhere with less than this perfect, careful presentation. This is a mannerism that I have come to match in my own fashion when working with Vasile or Buzor as an expression of respect towards them. Strikingly, on both occasions Vasile came to my house he only took off his winter coat, leaving all else on, looking to me entirely stiff and a bit too warm. This is in contrast with other culturally similar musicians I’ve studied with, like accordionist Ion Șerban in Iași, Romania. He would always come to the lesson in a perfectly ironed cream colored suet and then would slowly take off the jacket, folding it inside out, so that the outside would not touch anything, placing it neatly over a chair. Once Vasile was seated at my dining room table I would then offer him coffee and a snack. He would turn both offers down only taking a glass of water. While we worked his phone would ring regularly and he would always take it, interrupting the flow of our work. While talking about a subject in an interview or while working on a musical task he was using the minimal amount of energy. As soon as he began to feel that I had gotten what I wanted he was done and ready to move on. One disadvantage of being at my house was that I normally do not smoke inside because I have a small child. Vasile is a serious smoker. I imagined that his mood was more impatient because he could not smoke while we worked. At the second lesson, during a break, I suggested that we have a cigarette by an open window. Vasile looked relieved. While by the window, and with my recorder off, we had one of our first personal and freer conversations. We talked about our experiences of both visiting and performing in New York City. We talked about how cheap the food is, how friendly the people, how excellent the musicians. Then he described how people there were shocked that he paid for everything in cash instead of with a card. I talked a bit about how in debt Americans are, having become dependent on unscrupulous moneylenders in the competitive race of sustaining an imaginary lifestyle. I then told him that working with Roma musicians has not only affected how I play music but has also completely changed how I relate to money. I explained how much I admire the way Roma and Balkan people in general still work primarily with cash, a direct representation of how much work they’ve done. I then explained how much I also admired the strong 14 emphasis that Balkan people tend to put on caring for the family. I told him how I had this apartment due to the cash that my Greek husband’s mother put into it, in my mind a beautiful representation of the family and economic values working to help my family flourish. Vasile then went on to tell a story about an important concert he gave as a child with a folkloric youth orchestra in Bucharest. He had worked hard to get there, holding a competitive chair in the orchestra, and this was an exhibition of the level and recognition he had gained. During the performance he looked out into the audience and saw his mother standing towards the back of the room wearing her only dress, in sandals that barely held together, with tears streaming down her face. Vasile had worked himself into a higher economic and social position and his mother was deeply proud. He then told me that his mother had died some years ago and that for a few years after her death he had completely lost his interest in playing music because it made him too sad. He had only begun playing again through the constant encouragement of his wife. Through this conversation I learned a lot about Vasile but I was also aware that we were both engaging in important impression management that was further defining the nature of our relationship. Through bringing forward commonalities and differences as well as offering intimacy by sharing affectionate and sensitive stories, we further developed the structure of our relationship. We are both professional musicians that have played in places we view as important (New York City). We have a common method of using money (cash only). I complimented Vasile and his cultural heritage (economic and family values amongst Roma). Unlike myself, Vasile has raised himself out of poverty through his talent (the concert). Vasile wants to share a tender, intimate story about himself with me (the death of his mother). Through this conversation we established a new version of our relationship. Semantic content was such that we created a more personal dynamic between us which was critical to improving the mentorship process, this along with one other change. For the following rehearsal I invited Vasile to come to my studio, a run down workspace where everything is allowed for the sake of art and fun making. I hadn’t invited him there before, perhaps because of my preconceptions about Roma frequently found in popular presentations of Roma culture, such as that of ethnomusicologist Isabel Fonseca’s book, Bury Me Standing (1995), which states, “Gypsies can be stunned by examples of gadjo [non-­‐Roma] squalor that the gadje aren’t even aware of”(p. 104). I was worried that my studio would offend him. But when we arrived at the studio we immediately used the no rules attitude of the place to chain smoke inside. Every cigarette break was a chance to talk freely without apparent agenda. This completely changed the way Vasile approached our time together. The same easy going and personal approach that he applied to our conversations he then transferred to our lessons. He was willing to take the time to play longer with me, experiment with ideas himself, and answer my questions using various musical and anecdotal methods. 15 From that lesson forward our relationship truly blossomed. Soon I found him regularly treating me like a dear friend, with his suet jacket placed neatly on the back of his chair while he enjoyed a coffee. Even so, I continued asking him to be formally interviewed because I felt a value of hearing how he described himself when asked questions so directly. Vasile also became more relaxed during interviews, expanding on topics with ease. IV. Background – The Music and Us In this chapter I will present a small summary describing Romanian Roma music. Following that I will introduce some historical background for both Vasile and I in relation to playing this music. This will lead to an exploration of my personal experiences of cross-­‐cultural dynamics concerning exotification and gender definitions. IV.1 The Scenes and Sounds of the Music Romanian Roma music is most typically a music played for weddings. A typical wedding band consists of some combination of cimbalom, double bass, guitar, electric keyboard, and drums in the rhythm section and a selection of vocalists, violin, clarinet, saxophone, and accordion performing the lead melodic roles (Audio Track 4) The repertoire will always include Roma and Romanian folkloric3 (Audio Track 5+ 6) music but can also include light classical hits, western pop songs, jazz classics, and folk songs from around Europe. While a band is playing at a wedding the audience may be dancing, singing, eating, and talking. Over the course of a wedding party there are also many specific rituals that the band accompanies such as the first dance between the bride and groom and the presenting of cash gifts from the guests to the newlyweds. The same repertoire used at weddings is also played at concerts and on recordings. In those contexts the arrangements of the music may be more pre-­‐planned but the style and attitude with which the music is presented in those contexts remains rooted to the aim of providing a festive atmosphere for a wedding party. Working weddings requires a specific set of skills that goes beyond just playing music well. The hours are brutally long, a workday on average lasting 12 hours, requiring musicians to have incredible stamina. The primary function of the wedding band is to provide the songs that the audience wants, when they want it. Requests made by guests throughout a wedding are expected to be played by the band. This means that the band has to have a wide repertoire of material from current hits to old classics. In some cases the band may need to change the key of a song to match the needs of a guest who wants to sing a number, or need to learn a request in the moment that only one band member knows. In all, musicians playing 3 Romanian Folklore and Romanian Roma music are two distinctly different repertoires but both genres take aesthetic cues from the other. Though describing the differences between the genres in detail is out of the scope of this thesis, a few differences include the approach to ornamenting melodies, harmony preferences, modal preferences, and methods for arranging ensembles. 16 for this kind of work need to have a great number of skills such as a strong memory, quick ears, adaptability, and sensitivity to the audiences. In one interview Vasile described a scenario that he has experienced repeatedly. A guest of a wedding approaches the band and asks for a song. The band doesn’t know it, so the leader of the band tells the guest, “We’ll take a break now and play your song after the break”. Then the bandleader calls friends on the mobile until he find one that can sing the melody to him over the phone. He memorizes it, sings it to the band in the back room, and they get back on the stage to play it as if they’ve always known it. This of course means that everyone in the band has to have a very good memory and that the accompanists have to have a quick, savvy ability with harmony to be able to spontaneously create something that fits with a new melody. In an interview with George Mihalache, a Romanian Roma cimbalom player that has lived in Denmark for 20 years, he remarked on the relationship between the band and audience at a wedding, “You must be a very good psychologist. You must understand what the customer likes to listen to because if you just play the repertoire you have on the paper, you know you have 20 numbers, then you can have this experience that nobody listens to you…You must be a good actor. And you are, as a musician. You must have this feeling, to understand the people”. Though the role of the musician at a wedding is to please the wedding guests through giving them the repertoire and emotional experience they are seeking, the musicians express themselves through the improvisation done with the repertoire requested. It is an important value of this musical culture that all the musicians, be they playing melody or accompaniment, are constantly improvising and innovating the manner in which they are performing the music. No two performances should be performed the same way twice, but rather should exhibit the player’s ability to vary and invent in the moment. The approach to improvisation can be categorized in the manner that ethnomusicologist Thomas Turino uses, as formulaic variation, meaning that there is a specific style of variations belonging to each instrument which is utilized as desired by the individual players in the moment of performance (Solis, Nettl 2009: 104). Like any kind of improvisation, this approach still requires quick thinking, adaptability, and spontaneous innovation (Audio Track 5). A large component of my education in this musical style has been a constant preoccupation with understanding methods for performing songs that create a balance between the need to provide the audience with something familiar, and a more personal, no less important need to continuously make variations. While listening to or learning repertoire I am always aiming to expand my vocabulary so as to be able to improvise within the strict formulas of the genre. The process of learning this has often been one of trial and error, meaning that I have tried improvising while playing with Vasile and he has given me feedback as to when I am using the vocabulary correctly or straying too far from it. IV.2 Before Denmark – A Musical History of Vasile 17 Vasile was born in Bucharest into a family of musicians going back many generations. His musical education included both training in conservatories as well as learning from his family and community. Vasile described his early education in Romanian Roma wedding music as coming from attending weddings. Because he had little access to recordings he needed to listen carefully to these performances, absorbing as much information as he could in that moment. This meant trying to memorize melodies while listening to them in order to practice them when returning home from a wedding. In his early teens he began working within the wedding band of his father. In this way he continued his education in the style until he was considered a strong enough player to lead his own wedding band. Much of Vasile’s work as an adult has been playing Romanian folk music in Romanian state orchestras. During the communist era, the Romanian state allotted much prestige and funding to the production of Romanian folk music as a way of manufacturing a proud national identity, a form of impression management at a grandiose scale. After the fall of communism, the orchestras gradually lost the state’s financial backing. Vasile worked in the Bucharest state orchestra for much of the late 1980’s and 1990’s. He was eventually invited to be a member of an orchestra that featured Gheorghe Zamfir, probably the most internationally famous Romanian folk musician (Video Track 7). This work regularly included international touring. Alongside the work of playing in these orchestras, Vasile continued playing at Roma weddings, at restaurants, and for recordings of both Romanian folk and Romanian Roma music. Throughout all these stages of his career, Vasile worked side by side with his brother Marian Alexandru, a highly acclaimed violinist still living in Bucharest. The reasons for Vasile’s decision to move to Denmark five years ago are not entirely clear to me. Through our conversations I have understood that he came here partly because of economic strains in Romania, as the support of these state orchestras has nearly disappeared. He has also expressed an admiration for Danish culture in comparison to Romanian culture, believing that the general population here has a more eclectic education in music and so a more open-­‐minded response to new musical approaches. He has repeatedly expressed a wish to create a band in Denmark with whom he could perform his own compositions that would experiment with mixing styles from different parts of the world. Unfortunately, these last years in Denmark have been extremely challenging for Vasile. For the most part, he has been making his income through playing on the street. It is the first time in his life that he has been a street musician. Every time we meet he expresses sadness about still doing this. He describes all the challenges of this work such as the cold, the rain, unpredictable income, confrontations with thieves and police, and loneliness. IV.3 Chasing the Music – Grappling with the Exotic I entered the Glomas program with the intention of making Romanian Roma wedding music the main subject of my study. I have been studying this music off and 18 on for the last 15 years through listening to recordings and making trips to Romania to study with professionals there. It was during the first year of the graduate program that I serendipitously came across Vasile and his band playing on the street and so gained a chance to study both the music and the life in which it is rooted. I was first introduced to the music in my late teens, drawn to it in part because of its technical complexities and improvisational nature. Looking back I would now say that I was also excited by it because it seemed “exotic”, relative to my own cultural background, American of North European decent. Through literature and movies, Gypsies had come to represent a people who embodied a kind of freedom I idealized. Over time I found that there were many non-­‐Roma communities that were formed around a fascination with Roma music and what it represented to these people. An example of such a community is the one created by the fans of the successful self-­‐ described “Gypsy-­‐punk” band, Gogol Bordello. As the violinist from the band Sergey Ryabtsev said, “Who are the Gypsy people? People without borders. It’s what you call a free man, ignoring authorities, trend, movements. Forget the past and future. It’s an absolute autonomous existence” (Gogol Bordello Non-­Stop 2008). Most of the members of Gogol Bordello are not Roma (The singer Eugene Hutz found out as an adult that he has some Roma ancestry). However, the band creates a theatrical musical experience with high intensity, Roma influenced punk, performed with costumes and aggressive, sexual dances. These performances provide a space for their audiences to express the kinds of definitions of freedom that they associate with Roma culture. For myself, over time, the culture and music have shed most of the veneer of that exotic strangeness, instead inspiring a deep respect grown out of my own struggles to learn this highly demanding musical style. I do not find anything about studying or performing the music to be freeing in the sense that I can let go of the boundaries of reality as I know it. Both the musical and social experiences of interacting with this musical culture has been one more of building up structures, definitions, and limits. The music may be constantly filled with improvisations by each band member, but as described before, the rules of these improvisations are extremely strict. All that being said, my interpretation of what freedom is has still remained connected to why I love the style so much. What has changed in this relationship is how I discern what freedom feels like. Freedom has changed from an idea about being able to express oneself in anyway at anytime, to one of training oneself so as to have more control over how one affects the atmosphere of a reality full of limits. This development in my perspective has been strongly influenced by my experiences working with Romanian Roma musicians. As described in Chapter II, during my recent experiences of playing with and interviewing Danish musicians that specialize in playing this Romanian Roma music, I have repeatedly heard stories that mirror my own, showing that we have traversed a similar road of perception transformation. There are stories about coming to the music as a way of releasing ones “authentic” inner self in the context of being part of 19 a community that encourages uninhibited self-­‐exploration and expression. Through the process of learning the music, the characters of these stories find that priorities have been altered and definitions of positive self-­‐expression have shifted. The contradiction between how Roma music is typically advertised and perceived by non-­‐Romas compared to how the music is talked about and played by professionals of the style is quite glaring. Regardless of the personal background and perception that performers of this style in Denmark might have about the music, we are all still linked to the expectations of audience and media, the simplifying definitions of promotion and marketing. From my experience, it continues that in Denmark and America, music that is advertised as being Roma is advertised as being wild, freeing, and exotic. There is a kind of fantasy that is being created by the way the music is framed. Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek talks about the perpetuation of this fantasy in regards to the Balkans as a whole when critiquing Emir Kusturica’s film, Underground, which heavily features Roma style brass band music. If you saw Underground, what image of our Balkan do you get there? A crazy piece of the world, outside of history, where people frankly eat, drink, kill and fuck all the time, a perpetual spiritual orgy. This is what the West wants to see in us. And he [Emir Kusturica] is delivering it to them. I am against him not because he is too primitive Balkan but because he is too westernized…he is staging for the west the spectacle, what they want to see. -­‐ What happened in the first decade of the XXI century? Slavoj Zizek, 2009 Vasile, George, and Buzor have all repeatedly referred to the presence of this myth within Denmark. When speaking about the way a performance by a Roma musician is being advertised they have stated no concerns about being portrayed as exotic. In fact, Vasile and I have clearly articulated in conversation that by playing together we have the potential of being attractively novel to media and audiences. I have the potential of raising curiosity by being a woman playing an instrument in a style that is dominated by men. Vasile is intriguing because he is an authentic member of this culture that has supposedly freed itself from the rules of society. All three men have expressed frustrations about the representation of the music by non-­‐Roma musicians playing it. They make statements that are not directly about the perpetuation of the myth by Danish musicians but more about the profiting off of it. Some examples of comments (paraphrased) that I have heard from them about Danish musicians playing Romanian Roma music include, “That band plays a cheap wanna-­‐be copy of the music”, “They invited me to play with them so their band sounds more Gypsy, then when I left the band they kept my ideas and told everyone that they were theirs”, “They just learn the melodies and then think they know what Gypsy music is, they don’t know anything about the music”, “I’m not going to teach him because he’ll just take my songs and use them to make money”. Part of my own education in this musical culture has thus also been to include looking at the mythology that permeates the environment in which I’m learning it. It 20 is a constant examination of how my colleagues and I are contributing to or disproving the mythology, and where my feelings lie about my complicity with this. Through lessons and interviews with Vasile and other Roma musicians I have come to be persuaded that part of being a professional with this music is to be able to provide the experience that the audience is asking for. The experience that they are usually asking for both in Romania and in Denmark is to be inspired to feel more free and emotionally expressive than they do in their everyday life, whether that also becomes laced with a feeling of being in contact with the exotic is dependent mainly on the perspective of the listener. Through studying to play the music a distinction has become stronger for me between the theater of what musicians can create during a performance for the audience to the attitude of discipline and control that is required to make this performance. This is a work of carefully cultivating techniques for impression management so as to give maximum pleasure to an audience. IV.4 She’s a She/He An aspect to my experience in studying and playing with Romanian Roma musicians has been that I am a foreign woman. I have been told by Vasile and others that in Romania there are no women that play this style proficiently on an instrument (there are many popular women singers). I wouldn’t describe my experience of being a woman in this context as being particularly positive or negative but rather as a dimension that is often present in my mind. Over time I have realized that the definition of my gender role is constantly fluctuating depending on what kind of interaction I am having with this musical culture. When first approaching a group of Romanian Roma male musicians, such as when I first met Vasile and his band on the street, I have experienced reactions towards me of aggression and disregard mixed with sexualized looks at my body. This is probably part of why I felt the need to gain a kind of respect from Vasile through a slow introduction, as I was in some way scared of them. As was in this case, I have usually experienced the gruff attitude towards me soften as the musicians have gotten to know me as a dedicated studier of the music. I have found the whole culture around the music to be very much about being male. Vasile and other musicians from his cultural milieu often describe the values that they believe are essential to the character of the music as connected to how they define what being masculine is. This is done simply by drawing an analogy between a set of core masculine values and the desired sound. This character is strong, determined, able to take control, and able to provide resources for others. I’ve heard this type of maleness expressed to describe not only what the music should sound like but also as to how a person playing it should behave when doing business. I find that because I have received so much of this kind of feedback from my teachers, I have begun to try and project this personality of masculinity while learning and performing the music. I find this fulfilling because I enjoy inhabiting this extreme caricature of a man as a way of developing certain sides of myself. In 21 addition I find it liberating to extend the boundaries in which I find people in my environment still place on the expectations of women. This becomes a conscious, playful exercise in impression management with my audiences. I’ve found that some of my Danish colleagues have also absorbed and enjoy this perspective about the personality of the music. In an interview with a Danish colleague, Mads Bendsen, who specializes in playing this style on double bass and keyboard, I asked, “What character do you feel you inhabit, that is particular to when you are playing Roma music?” He responded by saying, “I have this good feeling of having control over the beat, which is power. It’s a masculine feeling, if being male means being strong and able to decide for you and everyone else. It’s about being here and now with a kind of buffness”. Our similar cross-­‐cultural experiences have led us both to embrace this way of expressing a specific cultural definition of maleness while playing this music. Besides learning to express a male character while performing the music there is also the day-­‐to-­‐day exchange with my Romanian Roma teachers that is in some ways affected by a combination of our gender and cultural differences. For instance, when I have studied in Romania, social situations have included other women only as the servers of food and drink. I have felt uncomfortable with this division of labor because in my own culture this is looked upon as discriminatory. In such circumstances I find myself in an awkward position of privilege because of being a foreign woman, one where I am receiving access and extra care within a social circle that is usually designated for men. I’m have been treated by male musicians both with a sense of camaraderie when in discussions about music and with chivalrous gestures of care concerning matters of my physical comfort. Since Vasile and I have gotten to know each other, I have rarely noticed our gender difference coming up. I never think about this element while working on playing together. Occasionally we have talked about how unusual it is for a woman to be playing accordion in the way I do. As stated earlier, Vasile has emphasized how valuable this could be in matters of marketing our band. Gender differences have come up between us more during conversations about personal issues. In one more recent conversation I was confiding in Vasile about some challenges I was having within my marriage. I shared with him my concern that my lifestyle as a musician was causing conflict with my husband because it was taking time and energy away from giving him attention. Vasile responded by saying that he wanted to give me advice because he is older than me and has been married for many more years. He said something to the affect of, “Listen, in my life I have always loved my wife, but she has to understand that I have to work. I have to be out in the night and I can’t promise her when I’ll be home. I meet other women while I’m working, that’s part of my job, but I never stop loving my wife. She has her role. She has to take care of our kids and our house and that’s just how it is. So your husband has to respect you and your profession”. He was clearly earnest in wanting to offer me advice but I felt completely confused by his statements. I responded by saying, “But I am a 22 woman. So then what should I do? I also want to care for my children and home. How do I do both?” He sighed and simply said that it was complicated. I felt that at that moment we were both confused as to which gender club I belonged to within his cultural frame. I see this as an interesting example of the complexities that occur within a cross-­‐cultural exchange. Definitions of gender are so rooted to cultural frames that are constructed for us through our upbringing that it’s easy to project our definitions onto those around us. In my case, it has been interesting to experience first hand that gender identity is something that can be constantly changing depending on context, being influenced both by the tasks being executed and the cultural environment where they are taking place. V. Learning This chapter will begin with a description of some of the values that Vasile brought into our lessons and how that determined our course plan. Following that will be a description of our lesson routine along with some segments of interviews with Vasile that highlight his teaching methodology. Lastly I will describe how our relationship developed to include collaboration as we prepared material for recording a demo. V.1 Bogat în Toate – Rich in All Vasile has repeatedly expressed that the ability to be able to learn something in every situation is an essential quality that any good musician should have. It is an emphasis that he has the tendency to bring in connection with almost any theme of our conversations. It is a value that I was raised to have by my own musician parents so I see it as a common link I have with Vasile. Even so, the way this value comes up so regularly and in connection with different aspects of music life for Vasile has certainly made an impression on me. Part of the process of learning with him has been getting to know how strong this value is to him. This has in itself taught me to increase my receptivity towards learning during our lessons as well as in any musical situation. In one of our early interviews he described a typical scenario of playing on the streets of Copenhagen as a way of underlining his ability to both provide for an audience and to learn something new in every situation. “I play for example in Nyhavn [a touristic neighborhood of Copenhagen]...I have maybe one and a half hours of songs with my playback4. But it can happen, somebody wants me to play one song but I don’t have this one song in my computer. What can I do? I play alone, no amplifier, no nothing, but I play”. Vasile explained that there are many American tourists in that neighborhood that ask him to play American jazz classics. If he doesn’t know a song, he later asks another musicians to help him by giving him the sheet music for the song. “I meet many musicians in Denmark that play New Orleans 4 Vasile plays alone, projecting the piano accompaniment off of an mp3 player that he links to an amplifier. Playback is his term for the recorded accompaniment. 23 style and I say to them ‘I need this song. Please you help me? I need the notes’…and I take it in my room [the sheet music], practice, and I put it in here [pointing to his head]. It’s good for me. That is important for my age now. Normal, every moment in the life you learn something…I’m 46 but I must learn more because never I stop to learn, it’s that way for me for you for many musician, no?”. Some time passed with Vasile and I meeting regularly at my studio before I understood that, though we naturally shared a belief in the importance of being a learner, we had different perspectives on being a teacher. During various conversations between our lessons Vasile told me how this or that person had asked to take lessons with him. He would explain how he had turned them down because he didn’t have a desire to teach them. I would encouraged him to take the work so as to have another source of income, but he would always declare that he couldn’t teach someone if he didn’t have a good feeling about doing it. It became clear that we assign different levels of importance to the task of teaching. The outlook I bring with me from my culture is that, generally speaking, working as a performer has a higher value and status than teaching. Teaching music is often spoken about in my circles as a job that musicians feel forced to take out of the need for reliable income that gigging is not providing. Through conversations with Vasile I came to realize that for him teaching, or rather giving his knowledge to another, is an act that he does with great consideration for whom he will offer this to. I began to understand some of the reasons behind this when he described his upbringing as a musician. While talking about learning Roma wedding music from family members and family friends, all of whom were working as musicians, he made it clear that his elders were training him to become a part of their business as wedding music providers. They were investing in him for the growth of their business. This became further evident in the perspective Vasile still holds towards the value of his own teaching through comments he made about our lessons. Vasile regularly emphasized how we would use the music he taught me in the band that we would play in together. He would also often complain about how other musicians in Denmark were asking him to teach them, but that he had refused them because he felt they would just use his knowledge to make money without him. This is a sentiment that I have heard expressed by several Roma musicians living in Denmark. As this cultural difference came into focus for me, I realized that by taking lessons with Vasile I was in a way already going into business with him. I came to feel that I owed him not just my hard work to learn the material we worked on in lessons but also my loyalty as a member of his band who would not use this information for economic gain without him. Being a quick learner and a strategic teacher certainly has the potential of being valuable economically but there is another kind of richness that I see coming out of these perspectives. By combining together the views that Vasile has about learning and teaching, I see in him a person who has cultivated a kind of prosperity of knowledge. I believe that the ability to learn in every situation and to be strategic about how to share knowledge creates a sense of strength and well-­‐being for Vasile. 24 I say this because as I have observed him talking about these subjects, his tone of voice and his posture exhibited a great sense of pride. V.2 Training During the first interview of Vasile at my house I played him tracks from a CD he had given me of him and his brother Marian Alexandru on violin playing in a large Gypsy style orchestra 15 years ago. I wanted to ask him about where the music came from and about aesthetic details that defined the style. Instead, it mainly became an opportunity to hear from Vasile how he defined quality in the music and what he wanted to teach me. He said about the first track on the CD, “it’s very clear about the style…You know, I want you to learn this song, to play with me. And I want to change the rhythm. But first you must-­‐-­‐you must, please I want you to learn about the style… Play the techniques and I teach you and then about the improvisation” (Audio Track 8). With this clear early emphasis on the aesthetic priorities of Vasile and how we would proceed with my education, we began some months of lessons mixed with conversations about the world of this music. The lesson routine that we established was as follows. Each time we met Vasile first asked me to play solo, something that he taught me the week before. Following this Vasile usually commented little on my performance other than that I was developing but needed to put more hours into practice. I always agreed with him. Vasile would then tell me that he had a new tune that he would like me to learn. Sometimes this would be the melody of a hora5, other times a series of harmonic variations on how to accompany a piece, or sometimes a melodic pattern meant to be used as a building block for improvisation. Vasile taught me by first performing for me a whole piece. Following that he would play each phrase of the piece slowly and repeatedly until I had learned it before moving on to the next piece. Learning by ear was the most practical way to be taught as Vasile did not have a multitude of recordings or sheet music for me to study from. It also seemed culturally appropriate as it followed in the way he and others of his culture had learned as children. Vasile spent much time repeating the melodic lines of horas. He was quick to critique my rhythmic and dynamic approach to playing the melodies. I was challenged by the speed and quantity of ornaments that are required. My tendency was to accent each down beat in order to tie myself to the pulse, always feeling that I would fall out of time because the speed felt too fast. Vasile emphasized the need to 5 A hora is the name of a dance form in 2/4 meter that makes up the majority of the repertoire of this wedding music. 25 play legato, accenting only the important moments of the melody, creating longer feeling phrases. It’s only recently, through many hours of working with Vasile and Buzor that I have begun to be able to feel that I can find Roma style swing within the phrases without adding too many clumsy accents. V.3 Collaboration After some months of lessons Vasile became more adamant about directing our focus towards putting a band together. We discussed the combined value our different backgrounds brought to our collaboration. I appeared novel on stage because of being a woman on the accordion playing this masculine music and Vasile appeared novel playing on stage with me because of being Roma (an “authentic” player). We felt that we could happily use each other to create a band with strong appeal while enjoying playing music together. We also discussed combining the musical knowledge that we each had to create an engaging, diverse repertoire. We began to focus on developing material specifically aimed to be used for recording a demo that would then be used to seek work giving concerts. We decided that our project would fuse Romanian Roma music, American jazz, and Argentine tango. Vasile suggested several horas to play and I suggested several jazz and tango tunes. For the demo we finally settled on playing Smile by Charlie Chaplin connected with a Romanian hora, Libertango by Astor Piazzolla with a Roma style solo in the middle played by Vasile, ‘Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk connected to Roma song Dragoste De Tigan, and finally a short Romanian hora6. One of the main things I learned about Vasile’s aesthetic values is that he prioritizes creating excitement through building up the energy of a song. For him this often meant creating medleys, stringing together many different songs, regardless of their cultural source. I found his process of arranging songs enlightening and engaging. In the case of Smile, Vasile wanted to start the arrangement with a very simple statement of the main theme, followed by a melodic variation to the theme that he composed, played at a slightly faster tempo, and to end the piece attaching a hora that would accelerate in speed. I suggested ‘Round Midnight by American jazz composer, Thelonious Monk as a medley with a tune I had heard on Vasile’s CD with his brother called Dragoste De Tigan. Both are emotionally intense ballads in their own cultural environment. I wanted to do both songs in the rhythm of the Roma piece, which is in 6/8 with a drag in each measure that almost makes it in 7/8. This song form, defined by this groove is not meant for dancing. I’ve always been fascinated with it as an anomaly from other Romanian Roma styles because it is quite slow and often features 6 Horas often do not have individual titles as the themes can be strung together spontaneously to create long medleys that satisfy the duration desire of a dancing audience. 26 particularly difficult and expressive lead instrumental melodies. Working on this piece was the first time I became the leader of our musical process. First I wanted to ask him about the Roma song and what this kind of song meant emotionally for him. I asked him when this song would be played in Romania and what it communicated. He explained that it would only be played very late, towards the end of a wedding or at a gig at a restaurant. This kind of song was mainly intended to be listened to by other Roma musicians and their friends. He said it was about suffering and described the feeling as one he has when playing outside in the rain, not making any money, and feeling bad about being away from his home. I felt that hearing about this somehow helped me to find better expression in playing Dragoste De Tigan. I experimented with stretching slightly the rhythm of the melody over the groove of the accompaniment to try and communicate this feeling of sadness and longing. Vasile assisted me by pointing out which notes should be given the most weight (Video Track 9). When we began working on ‘Round Midnight we immediately ran into some disagreements about how to phrase the melody. Vasile insisted that we should make a pause in the melody after only three bars. I tried to argue with him that it had to be at the end of the eight bars, thinking that the issue might be that we were not agreeing about which way to change the melody from a 4/4 to the 6/8. During that rehearsal I could not figure out a way to convince him to follow my idea of how the song should be played, so at that time we continued playing the tune in his way. Later I reflected on our disagreement and considered that he might simply not understand where the questions and answers sat in the composition of the melody. This era of jazz was too unfamiliar to him. The following rehearsal I played the melody to him a few times and explained to him my concept of how the “grammar” of the piece was working. This time he understood me and we carried on, putting the pauses in more typical places. After several months of meeting to work through arrangement ideas we had our material ready. The next task was to put together a larger band to play the music with. VI. Doing Business In this chapter I will narrate some of the experiences I had while doing business with Vasile, highlighting the challenges that we faced in forming a larger ensemble. VI.1 Stages The primary obstacle to the process of forming a band with Vasile became finding other band members. We had come to an agreement that ideally we would like to be performing with 4-­‐5 other people. Who those people would be and how we would rehearse with them was and continues to be an ongoing issue. At first the plan was to work with the musicians I had seen Vasile play with initially on the street. Early on I went to play with them on the street and invited a videographer to document it so that I could use the material to find us work (Video Track 10 +11). However, 27 about a month after this Vasile informed me that he was in no way interested in working with them again. I had become quite attached to the idea of working with them both because of their sweet, welcoming dispositions and their musicianship. Vasile explained to me that he couldn’t stand to work with them any longer because they had betrayed him as business partners. Vasile had a routine of playing on the street some of his daily hours with the full band and some of them alone with a recording of piano accompaniment. He did this for financial reasons because he could make more alone but preferred for artistic and social reasons to play with the group. Vasile acted as the leader of this band, though made it clear that he did not act as a boss, calling them his family. His leadership tasks included inviting them from Bucharest to Copenhagen, paying for their bus tickets there, letting them stay in his room, deciding the schedule for playing, and making many of repertoire decisions based on what he believed to be desirable to a Danish audience. Vasile said he would not play with this band again and explained why. He told a story of how he had offered to these musicians a time and location that he usually used to play alone. When he returned from an errand to reclaim his position on the street they continued playing, ignoring him as he waited for them to stop. He explained to me that he could not play with these people, who he had treated like family while they had taken advantage of his kindness. He elaborated further to describe the unwritten rules that he shares with others who play the streets of Copenhagen. There is no official way to determine who will get to play the best spots in the city but most of the regular street performers respect each other by not taking over the time and locations that others usually use. The only musicians that do not follow these manners are new musicians entering into the scene, but they usually come to take on this way of consideration. Vasile could not stand that his own supposed friends had broken the agreements of the street that he so valued. I asked him more questions, wondering if this was the only time they had offended him so, but he quickly cut me off, declaring with finality that he was done working with them. Several weeks later Vasile and I made a plan to meet downtown for a coffee to discuss how to proceed with creating a larger band. When I arrived at our agreed upon location I was surprised to see that he was with George Mihalache, the cimbalom player. They invited me to a coffee to discuss business. George started the conversation by saying that he was interested in starting a project with Vasile and I that played a fun, international repertoire (including Romanian Roma music). I wholeheartedly agreed to this, excited to be asked to play with not one but two master musicians trained in the genre of the music I so love. We decided to meet again to rehearse some ideas. It seemed that we were moving forward towards developing a band. It would perhaps require changing our repertoire to some degree in order to accommodate George’s taste but that seemed worthwhile if it meant we had a working ensemble. 28 VI.2 Loyalty Vasile and I never rehearsed with George. Vasile and I met some weeks after meeting with George to discuss over another coffee. He had just returned from playing a concert in Stockholm, performing Romanian music with George and some Scandinavian musicians that I also work with. Vasile was clearly upset. He declared that he would never play with George again. There had been a disagreement about the money for the gig. Vasile had understood that he would be paid cash for the concert directly after the performance while George said that he would have to wait a month for the accounting to be processed by the event coordinators. Vasile said that as a rule he only worked jobs that paid cash directly afterwards. He elaborated that during the small tour all the musicians and organizers had treated him coarsely. When he had asked about receiving food he was told to just go by himself into the city to buy himself something. He felt that this was disrespectful and unprofessional. They should have arranged that the musicians were provided with food by the venue. To make matters worse he did not have any extra money with him to eat because prior to the tour he had sent all he had to his family in Bucharest. He felt that his only option was to go play on the street before the concert so as to have enough money to eat and drink. I later talked with George about the tour and he also exclaimed that he was done working with Vasile. He claimed that Vasile knew the financial terms of the job beforehand, but that he had pretended not to know. I decided not to take sides in the matter, as it was not really my business to. However I was frustrated that Vasile and I would have to again search for other musicians to play with. Regardless of frustrations, I was learning more about how Vasile viewed business relationships and practices. He was making it clear to me that he needed loyalty and dependability from the people he works with. I could empathize with him as I also want these qualities in my colleagues but I could see that Vasile has a lower threshold for undesirable behavior in collaborators. After describing his difficulties in Sweden, Vasile moved on to another topic that further highlighted some differences between us as to how we do business. On the tour he had been performing with a violinist that I had recently joined, along with Gunni and Mads, in another project playing Romanian Roma music. Vasile commented on this. “I have to be honest with you”, he said, “I was hurt when he told me that you’re playing in band with him”. Vasile explained that he didn’t feel it was right that I play in another project with the same style of music without him. “Why didn’t you at least invite me to be in the band?” he asked. I replied that it was not my band to make those kinds of decisions, that I had been hired to take the place of an accordionist that had left the project. I apologized to him and said that I didn’t mean to disrespect him. I explained that for me it was quite natural to play in several bands at the same time and that this did not mean for me that I was being disloyal to our project together. He replied that there were only so many hours in a day to 29 practice so he felt that I would be taking energy away from our project. He accepted my apology and we went into the studio to begin practicing our repertoire. This small disagreement and resolution did bring Vasile and I closer together. Having a direct conversation about how we felt about each other’s actions opened up a new dimension in our relationship where we could more freely comment about and critique the other. I also felt, however, that this interaction highlighted a difference in our perceptions of what constitutes unprofessional conduct. Part of my internal response to both the story that Vasile told me about the tour in Sweden and his comments about my joining another band was to feel that he requires loyalty and consistency much more strongly than I do. In my case, it feels quite normal and even necessary for me to be able to choose to play in any and as many projects as I like without feeling the need to ask permission from other band mates first. This is part of how I perceive being respected, that those I work with do not require my exclusive participation with them in exchange that I do not expect this of them. Since this conversation took place we have not had another conflict in the same theme but instead we have each in our own way, adjusted to other’s needs. Vasile no longer laments my will to work with other people though I can see that he physically tenses up if it comes up in conversation. In my case I have become committed to not playing songs that Vasile has taught me with other groups as well as not playing in projects with musicians that he feels have wronged him. Soon after this conversation we decided that because time was moving we needed to resolve who we would record with based on what would be easiest. We agreed to ask a Romanian Roma guitarist named Costel Raducan that plays on the Copenhagen streets seasonally. Vasile described him as reliable and with quick ears to find harmony. He emphasized though that we wouldn’t be able to rehearse with him because he couldn’t take extra time from playing on the street. We would have to be ready to show him what to play on the day of the recording. VII. What makes a good musician? This chapter is split into two parts. The first is a narrative about the process of recording a demo with Vasile and guitarist Costel. This includes some descriptions of some of the musical values and approaches of Vasile that became apparent through this work. The second section of the chapter further explores some of the values of Vasile that determine his aesthetic choices. VII.1 In the Studio I met Vasile and Costel at a kiosk the day of the recording to lead them to the studio we would work in. Mads Bendsen was waiting for us there, preparing the mics, as he would be our sound engineer. We were all a bit stiff and introverted at first, it was morning after all. We busied ourselves with small tasks like tuning and cleaning instruments, making coffee, and finding comfortable chairs. Vasile finally came up to me and gave me a big hug, saying, “I want you to be relaxed, I want you to play naturally, to express yourself. That is important”. Us three musicians of the day went 30 to have a smoke by the open bathroom window. Costel and Vasile both quickly whipped out their lighters, ready to light my cigarette. They then made a show of deferring to the other to take over this duty. We all laughed. It was a sweet moment of chivalry that set the mood for the rest of the afternoon. While Mads checked the lines we began rehearsing our first song, ‘Round Midnight. Costel had heard the piece but had never played it. Nonetheless he could immediately put together the harmony with only a few differences arising between what him and I were playing. I was using the harmonic substitutions that Vasile had developed. Costel spoke to Vasile in Romanian, telling him that the harmony Vasile had chosen didn’t work. I watched as Vasile quickly took the advice of Costel and we switched the harmony to a version that was basically what was on the chart I had originally presented to Vasile. I was happy to play the piece with either version of the harmony as long as we played it well together. We went through the form for a third time and then Vasile declared that we were ready to record. The rest of the recording day went much in the same way, all of us becoming more engaged in playing. Costel became more relaxed, increasingly participating in the decision making process with each new song. In general, I felt as the day progressed I could see that we were all enjoying the process of recording quite a bit. When I looked from Vasile to Costel while playing I always saw a happy and loving look in their eyes. This was a situation where it was clear that the language of music was creating closeness between us. Even though Costel and I had never met before, we quickly established a comrade like behavior towards each other. After four hours we were done and the two gentlemen left in a hurry to get back to the streets to play (Video Tracks 12). Mads and I continued by beginning the process of mixing and editing the tracks. During this process we discussed the recording experience. Mads exclaimed that he admired the way that Costel played because of how Costel worked with harmony. It was clear that he had not rehearsed with us before and that he was trying to find his way from moment to moment as to how to fit into the ensemble. But what made his playing so successful is that he had the ability to constantly problem solve into the next moment. Mads observed that at many moments Costel was guessing, taking risks, trying some chord that might not fit exactly with the song, but then he could always get himself from that point to the next through a graceful combination of progressions that ultimately brought the music more to life with it’s obvious spontaneity, crafted by such a fluid understanding of harmony. I agreed with Mads’ observation, and it pointed to our mutual appreciation of some of the core values of the music—adaptability, quick thinking, improvisation, and a full toolbox of musical strategies. A month later Vasile, Mads, and I met again to finish the mixing that Mads and I had started on. The task at hand was equalizing each instrument. Mads had done some of this previously, adding plenty of reverb and delay on the clarinet and accordion, trying to imitate the sound that we had heard so often on recordings coming out of Romania. When Vasile listened to the quality of the mix with us he stated that it 31 clearly needed more reverb and delay. Mads added more and more effects on the instruments until Vasile was satisfied. Both Mads and I were at first skeptical that this approach to the sound could work. We took a break and then listened again to the new sound and both suddenly realized that it was much better than it had been with less affects. In fact, my accordion sounded better than it had ever sounded and I realized that the sound that I had been trying to emulate based on recordings I had learned from was in part created by this artificial treatment to the sound. At that moment I learned that I would have to get an effect box to play this style of music on stage to get the quality that I so enjoy in the modern Romanian Roma style. VII.2 Aesthetics and Audiences Vasile had explained to me in an interview that in his early days of performing it had been important that musicians learn how to play as many styles as they could. He learned Romanian and Roma music from different eras, classical, pop, jazz, and anything else that he could, because the aim was to be adaptable to the needs of any musical situation. He expressed dismay at how his son’s generation prioritized only learning manele, a kind of “oriental”7 pop music that is popular in clubs. Accompanying this transformation of repertoire, the new generation has also prioritized speed and improvisation over having good ears that can be used when joining an unprepared performance of eclectic music. Perhaps his son’s generation is also prioritizing providing for the needs of an audience, but those needs have changed since Vasile’s youth, and so the skills required have also changed. In an interview, Vasile made the following comments about improvisation in ratio with melody. “Ok, improvisation is improvisation, like it, good! But you start here and finish here, only with improvisation, that is nothing because nobody understands what you want…Where is the melody? You repeat about this melody, then improvisation, then come back to the start. That is good performance. You start only with improvisation, no good”. Later Vasile commented about his belief in the importance of having good ears and facility with creating harmonies in the moment. “I ask a musician to come play with me and want good satisfaction for playing at a wedding…No, there is not too much about this [now]…But in other times, there were good accompanists…But many in Romania now in Bucharest, there are good musicians but something happened. About here [pointing to ears] about the accompaniment and it’s not good. Ok, solo, it’s nice but the accompaniment, it’s not very good here [pointing to ears again]”. This connection between providing what the audience wants to hear and the need to be able to constantly learn new music seems to be at the core of how Vasile defines what makes a good musician. As was described in chapters IV.1 and V.1, being able to provide what the audience craves is linked to a style of playing that is always exhibiting ones ability to learn and in turn to innovate. These values affect both the aesthetics of the music as well as the relationship with the audience. 7 Vasile’s term. 32 Through the process of preparing, recording, and mastering a demo with Vasile I grew closer to understanding his musical values and ways of applying them into performance. VIII. Conclusion In this thesis I have described the development of a relationship between Vasile, one that has expanded to include mentorship, collaboration, business partnership, and friendship. Through the chronicling of our interactions I have underscored the particularities of our perspectives and values, paying particular attention to the contrasts that have influenced how we behave and ultimately play music. By observing the music through the lens of social behaviors that express values, I have deepened my understanding of the aesthetic nuances of Romanian Roma music. This in turn has influenced, in very practical ways, how I practice the music. My aim as I am trying to learn has expanded from being one of increasing technical precision and repertoire, to one of building up a mental approach to playing that prioritizes adaptability, stamina, and formulaic variation. Today Vasile and I continue to work together, facing some of the same challenges that we have had. We are both bounded by economic needs that limit the amount of time we can put towards developing repertoire together. We continue to have difficulty in finding band members that understand the music we play well enough and have the time to rehearse. Never the less, we continue to meet when we can, still enjoying the process of making music together. Acknowledgments: Many many thanks to all that helped with this project! Interviews: Gunni Torp Mads Bendsen Vasile Alexandru Buzor Nenic George Mihalache Costel Raducan Sound Engineer: Mads Bendsen Videographers: Kristoffer Juel Poulsen Morten Rothberg Financial Support: DMF-­‐KBH 33 References Fonseca, Isabel, 1995. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Goffman, Erving, 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, London: Penguin Books. Gogol Bordello Non-­‐Stop, Dir. Margarita Jimeno, Perf. Gogol Bordello, 2008, Film. Lauševic, Mirjana, 2007. Balkan Fascination: Creating an Alternative Culture in America, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Solis, Gabriel and Nettle, Bruno, 2009. Musical Improvisation: Arts, Education, and Society, Urbana and Chicago: University Of Illinois Press Stokes, Martin, 1994. Introduction: Ethnicity, Identity and Music, Bloomsbury: Bloomsbury Academy. Turino, Thomas, 2008. Music as Social Life: Politics Of Participation, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. “What happened in the first decade of the XXI century?.” Slavoj Zizek, 2009, Lecture. 34 Abstract In this thesis I will tell a story about the relationship between Vasile Alexandru, a Romanian Roma living in Denmark, and myself, looking at the characteristics of our music, business, and social interactions, highlighting how our behavior towards each other has served to illuminate our commonalities or differences, creating closeness or maintaining distance through a musical process. I will draw connections from the social mannerisms that Vasile and I projected and the aesthetic and technical qualities of the music we worked on. The musical objectives at the center of this project have been the study of Romanian Roma wedding music and the formation of an ensemble with Vasile that features this genre. Here I will narrate what I have learned about the music, both in its technical, aesthetic construction and about the values that are communicated through the music. Included in this analysis will be an investigation of the connection between the values expressed in this music and the behavior of its players. I will also give an account of the collaborative process between Vasile and I as we developed our repertoire and promotional material for our ensemble. The following narrative will give a portrayal of myself as well as my interlocutors. I am an American immigrant on Danish soil, studying Roma music, which originates in neither place. With the Roma people I encounter in Denmark, I share a sense of not quite belonging to the place where we encounter each other, while with my Danish colleagues I share a common fascination with something external to our respective cultural backgrounds. 35 Project Description Over the course of two years I am making an intimate examination of the development of a relationship between two musicians from two different countries as they prepare repertoire and discuss their perspectives on music and being musicians. One musician is Vasile, a Roma Romanian man highly trained and experienced as a performer of Roma and Romanian folk music, who is now living in Copenhagen. The other musician is myself, American accordionist, mostly self-­‐
taught in a variety of traditions, who is also living in Copenhagen. Our relationship started as one of teacher and student, Vasile teaching me about Roma Romanian repertoire and technique. In addition to learning from him with our instruments I am regularly interviewing him about his musical aesthetic perspective, his experiences as a professional musician, and the cultural contexts where this music is found. After a period of interacting in these two ways, we developed an interest in working together as colleagues. We decided to start a band together that would fuse Romanian, tango, and jazz. Through these various working exchanges, we have also become friends, including offering each other emotional and logistical support as we both face the challenges of being immigrants. What I have described above can be seen as the stage, a plot outline, and the leading characters to a story. All of this together is the locality of which I am studying. The primary subject of study within this locality is Roma Romanian music. Vasile is teaching me many techniques for the performance of the music, about how the music is used culturally, and about the daily lifestyle of professional musicians of this style. To richen my understanding of this subject I am seeking information from additional sources such as literature, Romanian ethnomusicologists, and other Romanian Roma musicians living in Denmark and Romania. This has and will continue to provide a wealth of information that I will share in the final thesis. Few writings exists in English about this subject in such detail so I believe I will be contributing a written resource for others interested in this subject. In addition Vasile and I are preparing a repertoire to perform in Denmark. This repertoire is a selection of songs that both Vasile and I are introducing to each other and then arranging together. I am introducing Argentine tangos and jazz pieces to him, two styles that I have some experience with. Vasile is contributing the Romanian Roma pieces. This process of sharing music with each other brings into focus our cultural commonalities and differences making this collaboration robust with musical lessons which I will also include in the thesis. What will be the important theme or frame through which to examine this locality is the way that the relationship between Vasile and I develops. I am carefully documenting all our interactions, paying close attention to the way we present ourselves musically and socially, and observing how this changes over time. I am doing additional research into methods of observing social behavior through sociological/anthropological literature so as to strengthen my awareness of our methods of negotiating our relationship. I will bring attention in my thesis to the ways in which our social mannerisms around each other influence how we 36 understand the music we are exchanging and how this ultimately affects the way the music we perform together sounds. The title for this project is still to be determined. Time Line Fall Semester 2013-­‐Spring Semester 2014 -­‐
Interviews and lessons with Vasile Alexandru. Summer 2014 -­‐
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Continue with previously stated work Begin research of literature on relevant subjects Apply for funding for expenses of research Fall Semester 2014 -­‐
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Interviews, lessons, band development with Vasile Alexandru. December 16th we made an audio and video demo to use for seeking performance jobs. This was financially supported by DMF Copenhagen. Read articles and books on relevant topics Interview additional people Analyze recordings of interviews, lessons, and rehearsals to determine which material to use for thesis Write outline of thesis and rough draft of first two chapters Spring Semester 2015 January-­‐March -­‐
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Perform one concert with Vasile Alexandru Take 2-­‐3 more interviews with Vasile Alexandru about his impressions of our working experience together 1-­‐2 more follow up interviews with some of those others previously interviewed Complete any reading still planned for research February -­‐
Complete first rough draft of thesis March -­‐
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In beginning of March complete new draft of thesis. Send newest draft to external advisors Complete revisions April 37 -­‐
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Turn in Thesis Prepare presentation for Thesis 38 Study Group Report 9/10/2014: At this meeting, we presented our projects to each other. We divided our projects into 3 parts: Our inspiration for the project (Why we chose our subjects), our method (How we would work with it) and our product (How we would approach the oral exam). 1/11/2014: At this meeting we talked about the challenges Julie has had with her thesis. Julie felt her project was very big and she thought it was difficult to cut down on the amount of information she would like to have included in the thesis. Isabel asked to hear a description of the different subjects in her research that Julie felt were most important. They then made an outline, giving more or less importance to the different subjects. Isabel suggested using footnotes to avoid making the thesis too dense. 22/1/2015: At this meeting we talked about the challenges Isabel has had with her thesis. Isabel had a similar concern about wanting to include more information in the essay than there is room for. She was also having difficulty creating balance in the structure of the thesis between creating narrative and making analysis. Julie read some of the narrative portions of paper that were prepared and gave suggestions on how and where to include analytical explanations of the narrative. 10/3/2015: This was our last meeting. We talked a lot about how “academic” the thesis had to be and how the thesis should be formatted visually. Both Julie and Isabel find that they have a preference to writing about personal musical experiences as experiences that stand alone rather than trying to draw connections from them to theories created previously in the academic milieu. We talk about strategies for supporting our personal conclusions with academic readings while avoiding generalizations that are unnecessary. 39 Attachments 1 (See Accompanying DVD) Video Track 1: Radio Amager, Træerne Har Grønne Blader, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MZpnwyEaKw Video Track 2: Vasile Alexandru, Improvisation, Copenhagen Denmark, November 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldkkr2aS4CI Audio Track 3: Ionica Minune, Hora De Targoviste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qF7u_sPPa8 Audio Track 4: Nicolae Guta, De Cînd Te Cunosc Pe Tine, Innacor, 2010
Audio Track 5: Nelu Ploiesteanu, Lautari Wedding, Bucharest, 1998. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9RxEgFaY1g Audio Track 6: Youtube, Mariana Ionescu Căpitanescu and Nicolae Botgros, 2003 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9GzUQKxs7s Video Track 7: Zamfir, Gheorghe, Excerpt from Concert in Novi Sad, Serbia, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N_Mi8_8Z18 Audio Track 8: Ansambul Stefan Bucur -­‐ Muzica Lautareasca Veche, Hora Lui Oneata, circ. 2000. Video Track 9: Isabel Douglass, Dragoste De Tigan, Copenhagen, Denmark, December 2014. Video Track 10: 40 Vasile Alexandru and the B-­‐Town Boys with Isabel Douglass, Cine-­a Pus Cârciuma-­n Drum, January 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n-­‐aXrefP8k&feature=youtu.be Video Track 11: Vasile Alexandru and the B-­‐Town Boys with Isabel Douglass, Libertango, January 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCWVg7Zp-­‐EE&feature=youtu.be Video Track 12: Isabel Douglass, Vasile Alexandru, and Costel Raducan, December 2014, Smile, Copenhagen, Denmark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29dnZot4ZLo 41