Some of the Other Stuff

 I'm actually really excited to write about this first one, which I've chosen traditional Chinese music- particularly Taoist music (which I'm hoping we all know is in Asia). All of you that are close to me probably remember that Sam and I had an insane Duolingo streak learning Mandarin because we were convinced that after Converse we would move to the Wudang mountains in China and become Taoist Monks. We actually got really into it and both of us have copies of the Tao Teh Ching in our dorm rooms (poems by Lau Tzu that serve as the primary text for Taoism). So the first culture featured here is the meditational music of the Di Zi. The Di Zi is from Tibet, which is a little bit West of the Wudang mountains that Taoism originated in. It's typically used in periods of recitation and is made of bamboo or wood. Here's an example of a solo used for energy summoning, since I know we all need that at the end of a three week Jan-term.  (traditional, Asia) 

Next onto Belize! Belize is another melting-pot place that's like an actual melting pot, not a stew like America. They already had a variety of cultures (having Garifuna people brought over stuff like the accordion and the DONKEY'S JAWBONE?? ((apparently it was played like a saw) and Creoles that would use the jawbone for a rhythmic style called Brukdown). They then had even further influence from being under Spanish rule, then had a lot of German and Swiss immigrants that brought European influence. The distinct style that they had turn out from their specific influences became known as "Punta Rock." There's even an influence from African rhythms in this genre. With the combination of those rhythms with contemporary melodies it's been noted as becoming similar to what we would call Reggae. (Modern, North America)

Now for an insane change of pace, Russian folk music. The origins of Russian music are really tied into Balkan and Slavic ceremonies. They were mostly in really complex and asymmetrical meters, and primarily focus on dissonant, close intervals within the melodies. The music was typically accompanied with a dance, and the complexity of the meters made for a very dance-y tune. Typically the music was only vocals, and even later on, the Russian church banned the use of instruments. I did find an instrument that I think is really cool, the Gudok. It served as a drone, and could have up to eight strings that were flat on the instrument so that they could easily be played simultaneously. I used to play cello and I think I was drawn to this one because you can make a similar, medieval-ish sound on the cello, but it's not the same. Here's a cool video of someone playing the Gudok: (Traditional, Asia/Europe) 

Now onto the Philippines, because I just found out I actually really like the Manila sound. The Manila sound is the word that became used to describe music of the Philippines that started in the 70's. It's a really smooth sound. It's relaxing and catchy and really simple. It feels like a cheesy Asian love story that I would have secretly watched on Netflix as a 14 year old. The Manila sound is named after the city Metro Manila, Philippines. It was there that the sounds of the Philippines combined with jazzy and disco styles- and, I cannot make this up, the main band that gave this style a start was named Hotdog Greatest Hits. I actually really like the music. I was not expecting to find this when I randomly decided to do the Philippines. The music is so calming. It's also the predecessor to OPM, or Original Music of the Philippines, which is what they've decided to call their mainstream music nowadays. It's a little more rhythmic and bigger sounds than Manila. Here's an example of Manila sound in Hotdog's music: (Modern, Asia)

What an interesting Jan term it's been. Now I have a band called Hotdog in my Spotify liked songs. I really enjoyed learning about different cultures this January. I feel like I have a way more expanded view of the world :)

Music and Family

 For this project, I thought it would be really interesting to interview my paternal step-grandfather, aka "papa Richard." I hadn't seen him in years, with the exception of my grandmother's (his wife's) funeral in early January. He mentioned to my dad at the funeral that he actually really wanted to talk to me about some of the music things I'd been doing. I realized that all this time I had thought I was the only one in my family that played an instrument, because I simply forgot that he was into music like that because I was a kid the last time I saw him. When this project was mentioned I thought it was the perfect opportunity to talk to him a little bit more. 

For starters, I found out that not only does he play plain acoustic guitar, but has also worked with different techniques like slide guitar, and plays harmonica and piano. He started playing around age 13, and said that him and his sister playing gospel music is where he really started. I mentioned some of the church gigs I've done in the past year, and he mentioned that last Christmas eve a bunch of people at his church ended up playing guitar together in a very fun, community orienting way. While he was telling me about this, I realized another question that I didn't know I was going to have- How has music had an influence on your faith? 

"Yeah. Just the wording, lyrics, the way it's played, I don't know if you've ever heard How Great Thou Art. You ever heard that song? Songs like that they- it gives you time to think, y'know?" 

The next bit of questions I had were about the music that he liked growing up. He said that he could never get tired of Sweet Home Alabama no matter how many times it's played. There was also a little bit of a separation between music that he considered to be more relationship-centered, versus music they liked at parties. For the party side, he said the typical artists would be bands like ACDC, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd- and his parents hated it. He said he wasn't allowed to play that stuff in the house. He said he's always been really into the blues, and he actually knew a lot of the history of it too. We got a little bit side tracked talking about the syncretic nature of it and the 12 bar blues and everything that we've just learned about in class, it was really fun to find someone in my family that I could talk to about that. One genre that he absolutely hates is "that hollerin' music," aka heavy metal, rap, anything super intense like that. 

For the relationship side of the music he liked growing up, he said the typical artists were Faith Hill and Hank Jr. I kind of wanted to go a little bit deeper with this one and asked if he had any special songs with Rita, his wife that passed in December. He had a little bit of a list for this answer. Some of the songs were It's Your Love by Faith Hill, The Blues Man by Hank Williams, and Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton. He said she really wanted him to learn how to play Tennessee Whiskey, and he did learn a bit of it. 

I really enjoyed this project. After the interview, he stayed for dinner and we talked for a really long time at the table with my parents and my sister. It was a really nice night- well worth the hour and a half drive through Greenville at 3:30p.m. He also invited me to come over sometime and see his harmonica collection. I feel like this project helped me gain a family member that the business of life had kind of separated me from. 

Music and Traditions

 I've been fortunate enough to only go to a handful of funerals and weddings in my life. Thankfully for the sake of this project, I do remember one of my cousin's wedding. I was 16 when she got married, and remember it very well because she went all out for her wedding. Rather than having a honeymoon, they dropped-I think-close to $20,000 on the actual wedding itself. 

Unfortunately, they didn't actually hire musicians as a part of the wedding experience, but there were very very nice speakers around the venue. Music that they actually carefully selected themselves was playing almost the entire time. I actually asked my cousin for a list of the music they had at their wedding, and it was so carefully selected that they divided the music into sections of the wedding. Here's the list that she gave me: 

Ceremony Music

pre-ceremony: The Rest of Our Life- Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

Parents/ Grandparents Processional: Make you Feel my Love- Adele

Bridesmaid/ Groomsmen Processional: A Tale as Old as Time (Instrumental)- Danielle Leoni

Bridal March: All of Me- Daniel Jang 

Unity: One Plus One- Lawson Bates 

Bridal Departure: This is it- Scotty McCreary

Reception Music 

Bridal Party Walk In: Signed, Sealed, Delivered- Stevie Wonder

Bride and Groom First Dance: Amazed- Lonestar*

Father/ Daughter Dance: Here Comes the Sun- The Beatles 

Anniversary Dance/ other Special Dances: A Thousand Years- Christina Perri 

*They actually had two songs to play for their first dance. The one that isn't listed here is the one that her husband actually wrote for her through Songfinch. 

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I can't for the life of me figure out how to embed this link, sorry guys. 

I think it's really sweet that he wrote the song for them specifically. I think that the music used at weddings helps to personalize it more to celebrate the couple and in general adds another layer of experience that would have otherwise been missed. Music allows emotions to come through in a way that they wouldn't come up in silence, and I think writing a personalized song for your spouse on your wedding day is one of the most romantic things possible. 

-if he wanted to he would😔-

Naturally, I think the reception was a lot more memorable than the ceremony, especially when you're a 16 year old kid that would rather be playing Minecraft than going to a wedding and helping set up (my mom baked all the cupcakes and decided we were going to decorate them at the venue). The song that I actually remember being played throughout all of this is the Anniversary Dance song. 

I know, cheesiest song possible, but there actually was a very sweet moment that kind of made me tear up. The anniversary dance was basically the part where they invited all of the already married couples to have a dance with their spouse and let the oldest couple go first all the way down to the newest couple. The oldest actually ended up being our Grandparents, who had been together 43?ish years. My grandpa has a hard time walking around and seeing the way he and my grandma looked at each other while they were dancing was adorable. 

Also, this song I feel like I should mention because it screams the energy of my Cousin and her husband. They're real country folk. 

Bonus: Here are some photos of the wedding

Music And Me

 Hello :) I'm Logan. I'm a sophomore residential student at Converse studying Music Performance on French Horn with a minor in Arts Administration. I started piano lessons at age 11 with my best friend's (Sam's) mom, and cello was actually my primary instrument before horn. I made the switch around 10th grade to focus more on horn. 

Before I moved to Spartanburg for school I lived in Seneca. I'm trying to move here move here, like in an apartment as soon as possible. For now, though, I have a 13 year old sister, Maddie, that I really enjoy hanging out with. I also have a gray cat named Athena that sleeps with me every night I'm home. I love her she's like my best friend in the world. 

1. My go to music: 

This actually tends to catch people by surprise for some reason, but my top artist on Spotify since I got it has been Lil Darkie. I'm in the top 0.1% of his listeners. In his music he talks about his battles with substance abuse, mental disorders, as well as societal issues like income inequality and racism. He's been very controversial in some cases because he commonly says things such as "f*** your culture" and people tend to misinterpret that. To him, that means that we're all human and shouldn't be separated by things such as skin tone or cultural differences. 

Most importantly though, this is my go to gym music because a lot of his stuff has no meaning other than it's just fun. Here's my favorite song to run to, and there's a music video with it (yay): 

 Here's another one that fits into his more heavy-themed music with actual meaning behind it, some may have seen it on TikTok, it was one of his popular ones. He also makes all of his music videos himself and has been getting into claymation recently, so this ones a really cool music video. 

2. Music that's meaningful/ June Henry: 

I've been listening to this especially recently, because put simply, it's January, and I'm cold and sad and lonely all the time during this month. June Henry is also a trans (nonbinary?) person and focuses on those types of themes in their music a lot. There's a song, Void Adjacent, that talks about especially the frustrations of the dating world as a transgender individual, which I can relate to and find comfort in music about this issue that not many people understand. 

This song, not abt, also stands out for this reason. A lot of the lyrics stand out like "I live my life like it's a movie someone's watching". . . "I'm the only one watching the movie." or "When my body was so distant, belonged to me like an instrument. Not something that I was, but what I played." I'm not sure if those are common things to resonate with, but with the lyrics coming from another trans person it makes me feel very connected to the part of me that I try to hide for safety purposes so often. Especially recently so since I've been in my hometown so much. 

3. Music that I don't like: 

This one was tricky to find, but I remember absolutely hating playing this one violin concerto with the wind ensemble and just searched everywhere and finally found it. I really just can't get around contemporary music like this that's not meant to go with anything. Like had this been in the background of a film or something, sure, great, whatever it sets a theme. The fact that we really just sat there and played this though? I don't think I remember a single person having a positive experience with this piece. 

4. Bonus, David Vandelay!

I wanted to add this in, but this guy actually graduated from the Governor's School in 2023. Although I never actually got to go to Govie, I was very close with a lot of the instrumental students that graduated with him, so we have a lot of common friends. Currently, I think he's living in Spain studying music, and he still releases songs when he has the time to. It's good music too :).