Author: ncrane

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Marley’s Moving Music

From Bob Marley’s musical beginnings, he has always had an important message in his lyrics. The subject matter of many of his most famous songs regard the political unrest within his home of Kingston, Jamaica. However, as Marley’s musical fame grew and grew, he was able to address more worldly issues in his music.

Bob Marley was very passionate about political justice, especially in Jamaica. Thus, as his fame rose, it seems he began to speak out more and more of the issues and political unrest he was experiencing and trying to change. Marley’s political activism seems to be primarily rooted in his album releases between 1973-1979, although this of course does not cover the entirety of his politically charged music. In The Wailer’s 1973 album “Burnin'” there are several tracks that very directly discuss the issues of racial inequality, mistreatment of people from authoritative figures such as police, government figures, etc. This album in particular is noted to have a much more direct tone in discussing these issues, rather than the cryptic lyrics present in The Wailers earlier works. Off of “Burnin'”, Marley notably wrote the songs “Get Up, Stand Up”, “I Shot The Sheriff”,  and “Burnin’ and Lootin'”, among others.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnin%27_(The_Wailers_album)

“Get Up, Stand Up” has proven itself to be one of Marley’s most timeless songs. It very clearly discusses Marley’s displeasure with the treatment of African and Jamaican peoples in his homeland. In this song, the lyrics speak of encouragement and standing up for the worth of one’s life. Marley sings “If you know what life is worth, you would look for yours on earth.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2W3aG8uizA 

More specifically, this song deals with the socioeconomic and religious inspirations for the mistreatment of these African and Jamaican peoples in Jamaica. He discredits the cultural idea that unfortunately has been around for a very long time: the mistreatment of those who are not in good socioeconomic standing, as well as racial discrimination.  Marley also discredits the religious belief of waiting and settling for mistreatment in hopes of a substantially better afterlife, stemming from a typically Christian belief system. There was undoubtedly a great deal of religious conflict in Marley’s hometown of Kingston. Christian and Rastafarian beliefs often clashed, and were often bundled together with the mistreatment of poor and lesser-educated peoples. https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/crawdaddy/2011/08/the-origin-of-song-the-wailers-and-get-up-stand-up.html

Another massively popular Bob Marley song off of The Wailers’ album “Burnin'” is “I Shot The Sheriff”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrnZSLwfzVs . While there is clearly a conflict depicted here of government/authoritative officials versus the common people, there is a much more specific connotation for this song. Marley details Sheriff John Brown as those who are discriminating against Marley and his peers, presumably for similar reasons that were discussed above: social, economic and religious discrimination. This song is Marley stating that he will not stand for this unfair treatment, and will continue to try to spark an uprising against this long-lasting mistreatment of Marley and his people. information used from: https://everlivingroots.wordpress.com/2016/12/04/10-strongly-political-messages-in-the-music-of-bob-marley/

This song is also meant to be an anthem of sorts, an inspiring message for all people to be able to connect to and, as a result,  take action. Here is a video of Marley discussing his music and various inspirations, among other things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl0JpC7XO74

In reading Ted Gordon’s article on Dennis Prager, I found some stark differences between Prager’s approach in comparison to Bob Marley’s in both of their pursuits to spread music and it’s message. In Prager’s case, he argued that classical music must be integrated into culture in order to fortify Western supremacism and political “correctness”, in Prager’s case, being very far right.. Bob Marley is nearly the opposite of this, promoting the destruction of one’s ego and the support of one’s spiritual and compassionate beliefs. Marley promoted this positivity, peace and activism (not in any sort of violent way) in his music, whereas Prager promoted classical music’s integration into modern culture in a very destructive and hateful way; Marley’s integration of reggae into modern culture proved to be much more peaceful and universally accepted. http://musicologynow.ams-net.org/2017/09/does-music-trump-politics-dennis-prager.html

Ultimately, Marley proved to be a prominent political figure through his musical ideas and lyricism. He promoted equality, peace, and love in addition to highlighting political injustices such as racial discrimination and discrimination of people who are in lower economic and social standings. His music truly carries a powerful message for all.

 

*I’m sorry, I’m not really sure how to integrate hyperlinks so I just added the regular links..

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Bones?

The trombone is an instrument that is full of misconceptions from those who don’t play it. It is most commonly associated with silly noises, the parents talking sounds from the Charlie Brown series, and sheer loudness, among others. However, just because the trombone is capable of making silly, sound effect-esque glissandi if called upon, the trombone is also more than capable of creating beautiful, rich sounds in a wide variety of contexts.

The modern trombone originates from an instrument called the sacbut, or sackbut. The true date of origin of the sacbut is not known, but “ by 1500 it is illustrated and mentioned regularly.” https://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/sacbut.htm

The sacbut had four main sizes, being alto, tenor, bass and great or contrabass. The tenor sacbut eventually evolved into what is known as the modern tenor trombone. This instrument is however very different from trombones as they are known today. Sacbuts are generally smaller, but particularly so in the bell. Thus, the sound quality of the sacbut is less full, due to the actual lack of overtones being produced. The sacbut also does not have much of the tubing present on modern trombones, as the intonation was primarily fixed from the main slide, unlike the extra tuning slides that modern trombonists are able to work with. An example of the sacbut’s sonority: https://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/mp3/Musica_Antiqua_hymn_to_st_john.mp3

These instruments were primarily used in church settings to accompany the choir, as the timbre of the sacbut and trombone are both very similar to that of the human voice, especially a tenor. “For outdoor music the top part of a sackbut ensemble was usually taken by a shawm, and for church music, by a cornett. The sackbut player should imitate the sound of the cornett, not the trumpet. Thus today’s marching band trombone blasts have no place in the performance of early music.”https://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/sacbut.htm
This statement is a very accurate depiction of the sound concept of a sacbut versus the modern trombone. While “marching band trombone blasts” are of course not the only sound that trombonists are capable of creating, although some do unfortunately favor it, the sacbut was an instrument intended to blend into the sound of the lead voice of a shawm or cornet.

Many players very much enjoy abusing the trombone’s capabilities in terms of volume, rather than exploring the trombone’s capabilities in terms of beautiful sound quality. While the sacbut was intended to blend into the top voice of its ensemble, so too is the trombone meant to blend into the sound of the lead trumpet (or other instrument) in its many contexts today, such as the orchestra, wind band or various jazz settings. http://www.blackdiamondbrass.com/trbhist/tbonehist.htm The trombone was used by the great, extravagant composers of Richard Strauss and Wagner in moments of triumph and great energy, in order to ‘properly’ utilize the trombone’s unique capability for great volume.

See this thoughtful article on the development of trombone playing in terms of equipment and mindset: http://www.dansr.com/wick/resources/me-myself-and-i-are-orchestral-brass-players-losing-the-concept-of-being-team-players

This article touches on the fact that trombone equipment has been continually getting larger, typically to help players produce bigger sounds within the orchestra. Famous trombone pedagogue Doug Yeo touches on the fact that in modern orchestral settings, you will notice plexiglass shields protecting the string players positioned in front of the brass players. The fact alone that players need plexiglass shields and/or earplugs to protect their hearing speaks a lot about the sheer volume being produced from brass players today. This illuminates the great deal of change that has accompanied the development of the sacbut into the modern trombone in terms of instrumental design and adding of tubes as well as increasing size of almost every aspect of the instrument, specifically the tenor and bass ranges. For example, here is a trombone ensemble playing music from Game of Thrones, extremely loudly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTDEVUlCClk

Modern trombonists would surely benefit from thinking more about the blend of an ensemble and fitting into the top voice being played. While outputting great amounts of volume and energy is very exciting and fun as a player, sometimes it can simply be overpowering, or just overbearing and not enjoyable to listen to. As quoted in Doug Yeo’s article speaking of the great Chicago Symphony brass, “The performance was electric because I (Ed Kleinhammer, former bass trombonist of the CSO) was part of a great unified orchestra doing their thing.”

While the tone of this article was generally disapproving of modern trombonists’ habits, this article does not intend to encompass the intentions of every modern trombonist. There is a large community of sensitive and actively listening players that are promoting these good habits into the orchestral and jazz settings of trombonists everywhere, like my good friend Jack Courtright. Here is an example of beautiful trombone playing that blends beautifully with an ensemble, while also playing solo lines that soar over and project with a beautiful tone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79-EDLi8KRw

The future of brass playing could surely benefit from increased sensitivity, and forgetting about the ego that comes from being the loudest player in the orchestra. The increase in musical technology from the beginning of the sacbut to the modern trombone certainly had its flaws, primarily due to players trying to abuse the trombone’s capabilities. However, if played right, the trombone can be the most beautiful sound you’ll ever hear.