Jillian's Vie Musicale

  Japan has an excellent relationship with musical theatre. They take it very seriously and there’s a lot put into their shows. Seriously, the production value is insane. And you know what they do that the US is behind on? They film their shows. It’s not always easy to get these videos. For example, we know that the Elisabeth production featuring Yuta Furukawa as Der Tod was filmed, but it hasn’t been released. Typically though, not only are these videos released, they’re released on DVD! The flip side of that however, means that videos often aren’t allowed on youtube. Recently, the Shiki company, responsible for the current production of Phantom of the Opera, which is in the process of transferring to Tokyo to Osaka, has had all Japanese Phantom videos removed, going back as far as 1988 when the first Japanese production was mounted. These copyright issues make it harder for me to find good clips to show you guys, but it’s not totally impossible.  Here is a recently released ...

  None of my family lives in South Carolina and the bulk of them live in California, where I’m originally from. The three hour time difference makes it hard for us to find a good time to sit down and talk, so I had a chat with my mom. There’s still an hour time difference, but we’re not in different parts of our day like my Cali family. From this transcript, I have omitted my six year old sister, Evie, telling(and singing) me her favourite songs and… “helping” during the conversation. Me: What is your earliest memory of music? Mom: My father would whistle a tune when he came up the stairs when I was little, and I knew that tune meant daddy was coming home.  Me: What music do you associate with your childhood? How did it change and evolve? Mom: As a child, I listened to what my parents played; oldies. Bands like Bread. The song “Time in a Bottle” is very memorable. Lots of 80s music, like Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul. As I got into high school, I started liking alternative rock...

  I am a practicing Hellenic polytheist and we have a deity for just about everything, so I’m always curious about other religions and their deities. I searched and discovered Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of music(and also knowledge, art, and speech). She’s usually depicted holding a veena, and I’ll talk more about that in a moment. Sometimes she’s shown with four hands, which represent manas (mind, sense), buddhi (intellect, reasoning), citta (imagination, creativity), and ahamkāra (self consciousness, ego).She’s usually seen with a hamsa, a swan or goose, which is a sacred bird in Hindu mythology. In Japan, she’s known as Benzaiten and is typically shown played a Biwa, which is a Japanese short-necked lute. Here is a morning prayer dedicated to Saraswati. A veena is a stringed instrument, however there are some specific veenas. The God Shiva is said to have created the Rudra Veena, the most difficult of the veenas. It is a is a fretted veena with two large equal size resonators b...

  The Appalachian Mountains rest along the East Coast of the United States. There are 13 states in the Appalacian region; Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virgina. The music there derives from a variety of influences such as blues, African music, and the music of the British Isles and would end up influencing Bluegrass, country music, and rock n’ roll. Immigrants first arrived there in the 17th and 18th centuries and brought their music with them. Ballads, fiddle tunes, and church songs made up the music of the Appalachians. “ Young Hunting ”, “ Lord Randall ”, and “ Barbara Allen ” were popular ballads that the European immigrants brought over to the Appalachians. “ Leather Britches ” was a popular fiddle tune that was brought over via printed music. This is the music that laid the groundwork for Appalachian folk music.  Appalachian musicians used instruments such as ...

  My friend introduced me to Pygmy flute music called Hindewhu. While there are several Pygmy groups in sub-saharan Africa, Hindewhu is specific to the BaBenzélé and is performed after a hunt. Their flutes are made from papaya stems. When looking online, I found a lot of tutorials like this one that teach you how to imitate their sound using a bottle. In Hindewhu music, they sing a note which varies in pitch, alternating with blowing into the single note flute. Below, I have shared a video of what that music traditionally sounds like. Modern musicians have incorporated Hindewhu into their music, which is demonstrated here in the song “ Watermelon man ”. The song starts with the distinct Hindewhu sound and slowly evolves, adding more to the music.  While I was looking up Hindewhu, I came across music from another pygmy group; Liquindi, practiced by the Baka forest people of Central Africa. Liquindi is water drumming, and it is only performed by women. It is performed by standi...

  Music has always been a huge part of my life. My mom was a singer who was studying musical theatre and my dad played the guitar and the drums. My mom taught me to love musicals like the music man and ballets like the nutcracker. My dad gave me my appreciation for Slipknot and Eminem. While writing this and thinking about the music I grew up with, I accidentally unlocked a core memory. I had to text my mom and spend way too long trying to figure out what that one song with that weird music video my dad used to play for us all the time was. Since I spent so much time tracking it down, here it is. I grew up in a small southern town that was very, very Christian. My mom was the church secretary and so we went pretty regularly. There were certain beliefs that were impressed upon me from a young age concerning gender and sexuality. It was a very sheltered existence that hindered me in a lot of ways.  Confirmation class was a requirement for teenagers at our church, as it is at a l...

  One of the videos we watched mentioned the Ghost Dance. I wanted to know if this was a one time event in history or perhaps a ritualistic dance that is repeatedly performed. When I googled “Native American Ghost Dance”, I found that it originated in 1890 as a ceremony that was then incorporated into the Native American belief system beginning with the Paiutes. This video talks briefly about the history of the people and the Ghost Dance. It was believed that the dance would reunite the living with spirits of the dead and the spirits would fight for them and restore peace. It lead to the Wounded Knee Massacre and the Ghost Dance War. The Ghost Dance movement prevails to this day. There is some footage of the dance, and some Native American groups make Ghost Dance songs. When I mentioned that we were currently covering Native American music, my friend recommended that I look up the Coast Salish people who live near her. When I looked them up, one of the first things I found was thi...