Qualms

It is hard work to study Social and Cultural Anthropology and to a job. There are seminars to teach students the basics and academic levels of quantitative and qualitative research- they last one semster. Students have to learn how to write in scientific / academic style, plus there is a seminar about how to work scientifically. Professors insist, that students should acquire additional skills. Be it, as it may, studies are hard and lots of knowledge have to be compiled and managed by students, themselves, and I am not the type of person who is satisfied with good lecture notes and one must-read book. I got to delve into what I study to fully experience my interest and subject.

Each book is like a little universe opening the mind. It does good to have a comfortable couch, tea and a soft blanket. Listening to music, like Mozart´s piano concerts, or to Mahler´s romantic compositions, or some Jazz. By now, I mean music, that is not new to my ear, so that I do not have to listen closely, like The Beatles, or Jazz by Louis Armstrong or Errol Garner. Many Jazz musicians - from the beginnings on - have adpated classical music for instance by Bach. More and more I consider the functions of music in the world. Well, there are many, and the entertainment factor is only one. Music accompanies various situations, like birth(-days) or other rites. So it is with every piece of music - it opens a little universe.

I listen to the Approximately Infinite Universe music, over and over. Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band present thoughts and critique on society with music. Yoko Ono writes about the Feminization of Society and what I think of nowadays society is written in this text, which was published in 1972: "This society is driven by neurotic speed and force accelerated by greed, and frustration of not being able to live up to the image of men and women we have created for ourselves: the image, which has nothing to do with the reality of people."

  

                                 

 

Jazz: BHBJ

I edited and cut this video, then published it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOdMfU3S0Zc . Thanks to the Austrian ORF I could copy an old VHS to DVD in best quality, possible - on my machine. This is the Barrelhouse Jazzband located in Vienna in the 1960s of the 20th century: Heinz Feix (b), Peter Hoffmann (p), Otti Kitzler (t), Horsti Bichler (dr), Alfons Wuerzl (cl) and Norbert Vas (tb) are the musicians. They perform three pieces of Jazz, which were very popular in the 1920s: 1 is called Where Am I?, the second is the Flat Foot Floogie, the third on the Shimmy Sha Wabble.

Vienna - Barrelhouse Jazzband
This kind of Jazz focuses on entertainment, it was played in the cafés and bars, but also on the streets in the Deep South. The Barrelhouse Jazzband Vienna was honored for best classical Jazzband in the sixties, as were some of the musicians: Horsti Bichler, the drummer, and my daddy, Otti Kitzler playing trumpet and English horn. The BHBJ refers to the Chicago Style and Dixieland. They published several CDs, recently, and earlier a single and the famous Pferdeplatte.

Here I found something about the Flat Foot Floogie at Ethnopoetics including the lyrics. Jerome Rothenberg writes about lyrics:

"While the initial focus of ethnopoetics was on orality and performance, the discourse turned as well to the visible aspects of language — writing & inscription — both as a persistent contemporary concern & as an often unacknowledged kingpin of a revitalized & expanded ethnopoetics. In an age of cybernetic breakthroughs, the experimental tradition of modernist poetry & art has expanded our sense of language in all its forms, the written along with the oral. In doing this, it should also have sensitized us to the existence of a range of visual/verbal traditions and practices, not only in literate cultures but in those also that we have named "non"- or "pre"-literate — extending the meaning of literacy beyond a system of (phonetic) letters to the fact of writing itself." (Rothenberg: http://www.ubu.com/ethno/visuals.html).

Popularizing the Shimmy in America tells its story. The shimmy was a new kind of dancing dating back to 1910, and "One of the most talked-about dances of the time was `the shimmy`."(Bryant, Rebecca 2002 at JStor: American Music).

The best way to learn about Jazz is to listen to the music: Listen to the sounds and try to get the lyrics. There are lots of internet sites about Jazz. Here are related links:

All About Jazz: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/

Big Band Database: http://nfo.net/

Jazzology: http://www.jazzology.com/jazzology_records.php

Chicago Jazz Archive: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/cja/

del.icio.us Tags: music, muzak, jazz, bhbj

  

           

© Sybille Amber U, A. L. J., Anthropo Logic. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Bid

This is my introduction for the bid of your vote. Not a political party, no: Just help me blog for a year. This means: You give me your vote, the more votes might make a winner.

I am Sybil Amber living in Vienna. I study Social and Cultural Anthropology. When I was small, I used to talk to my daddy as soon as he came home. He answered all my questions, that I collected the whole day. We talked about his music, which was Jazz. I learned about the when´s and why´s of Jazz music. I learned about slavery, despair, illness and death, things human beings did to human beings. I developed an interest for what human beings would do to each other, by asking for the reasons of their behavior. Thoughts, ideas and what human beings would do in the course of their lives to communicate with each other and what they would do to create their kind of societies, this was – and still is – what occupied my thoughts and reflections.

Yes, I thought about the reasons why I study Social and Cultural Anthropology. I remember having posed questions over and over, all day long. Whatever I heard or what was said, I commented. What stayed until today is for instance:

The Black people were stolen from Africa, they were made slaves and had to live in this metal huts in summer. Sixty degrees in the hut and fifty on the cotton field.

Well, do have to say more than this: I painted myself all Black. I used shoepaste or water color. I learned, that all the Jazz songs have a meaning, deeper than the ocean, that was left behind. Please read the Strange Fruit lyrics for it. Billie Holiday, the All-American Girl, sung about the

Strange fruit hanging on a poppy tree - ...

Poppy tree has a special meaning, most of the lyrics texts write poplar tree. People are discussing lots about where this word Jazz comes from. Thanks to my -our - daddy, always.

I´m going to research about this early Jazz: If you want to contribute your opinion and views, please feel free to mail me!

Ethnomusicology

What an incident! Joe Zawinul´s Syndicate is out and about again. I have collected some Jazz vids, old and new, like Weather Report´s music, and a short history about how Jazz evolved in America out of slavery, poverty, dispair, sickness, depression, and diaspora:



In Professor Kubik´s book Africa and the Blues the student learns:

"Historically oriented research on the blues embraces several disparate areas of inquiry:
1. The study of musical, literary, and social factors leading in the late nineteenth century to the grdual development of a new, distinct genre of accompanied solo song in rural areas of the South - a genre that would later be labeled `blues`.
2. The study of the remote history of this previously unnamed genre´s musicostructural and literary characteristics with regard to their origins in African and other cultures.
3. The study of the developments and changes that took place in the blues after the first publication of sheet music versions in 1912 and commercial gramophone records beginning in 1920.
4. The study of influences exerted by the blues and its contemporary rural and urban derivatives upon other types of American music and upon other musical cultures of the world from the 1920s to the present." (Kubik 1999: 3)

Kubik, Gerhard (1999) Africa and the Blues. U. S. A.: University Press of Mississippi

© Sybille Amber: Intellectual Property 2005/2006/2007

© Sybille Amber U, A. L. J., Anthropo Logic. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Bilik, Franz (1973): Pfui Teufel, mir graust ...

Wiederentdeckt:

Ironisch, gesellschaftskritisch, sarkastisch sind die Lieder in Wiener Dialekt von Franz Bilik aus den siebziger Jahren. Einige davon haben traurige Aktualitaet, "Lass di umbaun auf a Pflanzn" warnt vor den Folgen der Umweltzerstoerung, "Ur - Ballawatschata" war mein Lieblinslied als Kind, bemerkenswert auch die Musiker, welche manchmal im Jazzland zu hoeren sind! Von Papa an seine Kinder weitergegeben, von mir an meine Nachfolger, ein Stueck Musikgeschichte: Bei Extraplatte unter Franz Bilik & Seine Brogressivschrammeln. Mit Franz Bilik, Uzzi Foerster, Humbert Augustynowicz, Bernhard Gottlieb, Horst Bichler, Gerd Bienert, Peter Koelbl, Christian Zahn und der One Family.

© Sybille Amber: Intellectual Property 2005/2006

this is

well, well, well

John Lennon

Yes!

OK, post arrived, but there seems to be a little fault with the line spacing. I will try to add a footnote now^[1] and continue writing, so that there are more lines in my new post. I will go out to meet my family, my dearest nephews and brother. In the Email I integrated for posting, the text is ok and formatted, too. Music I listen to know: Go Johnny, go, For You Blue by The Beatles with a wonderfully played slide guitar. Well, it is easy to play, as much as I remember, when I played it with my Band The Razorblades in my twenties. 8/18/2006 5:00:35 PM, post formatted by macro into Arial 11pt, 1,5 line spacing and blocked. When will they publish the Let It Be film in full version and the Roof Top Concert, also in full length? Yes, The Beatles I mean².

---

^[1] This is the small printed text, you should usually read, but forget immediately.

² Please see http://www.thebeatles.com for a production list

Das Problem der "westlichen Ohren"

Es erscheint mir wichtig in Vorbereitung auf meine Pruefungen einen status quo abzurufen und schriftlich festzuhalten:

Verschiedene Probleme (in) der Tonika erkleaert Prof. Kubik, indem er cents als Mass zum Verstaendnis einfuehrt:

"We express pitch intervals in cents, a system introduced by Alexander Ellis. The universal interval of the ocatve is assigned the value 1, 200 cents. The semitone in the European tempered system, therefore, has the value of 100 cents. With this calibration established, any interval can be expressed. Thus the tempered major third (as on a piano) has 400 cents. But tempered intervals are quite artificial. The natural major third, as derived from the harmonic series, stands at 386 cents, the natural minor seventh at 969 cents (i. e., 31 cents lower than the tempered minor seventh on a piano). In African equiheptatonic systems the octave is divided by ear into seven approximately equal parts. This is a non - European example of temperature. Its standard interval is 1, 200 : 7 = 171, 4 cents, mathematically. Human auditory perception does not reach such a degree of accuracy. In practice the intervals will fluctuate between 160 and 180 cents. The equiheptatonic or "neutral" third is mathematically 171, 4 x 2 = 342, 8 cents. Again in practice it will fluctuate anywhere between ca. 320 and 360 cents." [Kubik 1999: 120]

Fuer mich ein erster Ansatzpunkt Musik, auch in Hinblick auf beispielsweise indische Halbtonschritte, zu beschreiben. Rechnerisch ist Musik, ihre Bedeutung und Ausdruck fuer mich kaum zu begreifen: Ich will damit sagen, Musik ist mehr als eine vorgeschrieben Tonfolge, und die "westlichen WissenschafterInnen" haben sicher eine Menge Probleme zur Erfassung indigener Musik, die kaum aufgeschrieben wird, sondern oft von Generation zu Generation als Geschichte/Mythos/Melodie weitergegeben wird. Verschiedene Faerbungen praegen den Vortrag, und in Referenz zur gesprochenen Sprache spricht man von einem gewissen voice level [Kubik 1999: 130] und Repraesentationen von Menschen, die in Instrumenten manifestiert sind.

Ich kenne einige Musikstuecke, wie den Bugle Call Rag, die direkten Bezug auf "afrikanische" (in Anfuehrungszeichen, weil viel zu weit gefasst) Ueberlieferung nehmen. Das bugle ist ein Horn, das die Ahnen um Zuwendung anrufen - also call - soll. Der Rag ist eine bestimmte Form des fruehen Jazz. Das instrumentale Stueck wurde u. a. von Django Reinhardt interpretiert, aber nicht in der Version, die ich liebe: Diese wurde im beginnenden 20. Jahrhundert aufgenommen.

Kubik, Gerhard (1999): Africa and the Blues. Mississippi: University Press.

© Sybille Amber: Intellectual Property 2005/2006

music

one of my favorite musics is called trilogy by sonic youth: the tripartite the wonder, hyperstation and eliminator jr. make shivers go down my back.

here is the band´s website: sonic youth´s music made me start to research for urban anthropology and music, i. e. the band from new york expresses to me a feeling of density of living together, and they use a special tuning, which was used in early times. the texts are (not only) criticizing nowaday´s society and they shurely were/are a kind of avantgarde band semantically, contextually and musically. i used to play kim gordon´s bass lines on my bass, she can hack the eights as i like to hear them. straight rythms and concertant patterns form the melodic daydream nation cd.

© Sybille Amber: Intellectual Property 2005/2006

Georg Kreisler´s Texte

Hier >>> gibt es einiges von Georg Kreisler zu lesen. Dieser Text "spricht mir aus der Seele" >>>. Ich kenne bis jetzt erst eine Platte, naemlich die "Georg Kreisler Platte" und einige Chansons aus den sechzigern.

© Sybille Amber: Intellectual Property 2005/2006

Ich erinnere

Der Artikel Verliebt, verlobt, abgeschoben? beschreibt die Situation in AT: Ich erinnere mich an dieser Stelle an ein Lied von Andre Heller, ich war noch ein Kind, meine Eltern hatten diese Platte. Auszug aus dem Text "...denn ich will das es das alles gibt, was es gibt...". Das Lied handelt von Liebe zwischen Menschen.

© Sybille Amber: Intellectual Property 2005

Dance

Some new pictures from the shopping mall: This group of dancers / activists seem to visit VIE quite often.

© Sybille Amber: Intellectual Property 2005