I know this post is a week late, but I wanted to post it anyways for the edification of the readers. The extra credit blog posts look cool so I am not too concerned :).
For my musical ethnography, I propose to study the music of the Meyerson. The Morton H. Meyerson symphony center is home to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and plays host to many classical, pops, and other concert events. While the symphony is the primary occupant of the Meyerson, they actually have a far wider range of music than just the DSO, and this is why I believe it would be an interesting study.
I have picked out 3 concerts at the Meyerson that are between now and the ethnography due date. One is purely classical; the DSO is performing Shostakovich’s Symphony #7 on February 18-20, providing an excellent example of the core music of the Meyerson. The following week, February 26-28, they are holding a “50s Dance Party”. No orchestral music is involved here, but they are in their words “celebrating the music of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens”; essentially they are undoing the “day the music died” and it seems intriguing to see this music performed in the context of the Meyerson. Finally, there are two events the next week of which I will attend one. On Wednesday March 3, the DSO and a vocalist present the music of Pink Floyd; as I am a huge Pink Floyd fan I think this would be really cool and just a fun event regardless. On March 5-7, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is bringing their act to the Meyerson, which is yet another genre that would be interesting to see.
As I said I plan on attending 3 of the 4 aforementioned events; I’ll take notes during each one to analyze them relative to the 4 elements of music performance, and hopefully come out with a semi-coherent ethnography for the Meyerson Symphony Center. Even though this is an assignment…I’m actually kind of excited because it looks like a lot of fun! Stay tuned…
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In the interest of time, your sanity, and the scope of the assignment, narrow down your music-culture to incorporate the culture related to ONE of these events. It might be difficult to argue that one culture might attend all of these events. Keep in mind that you are focusing on the aspects of music-culture (including ideas about the music, material culture, etc.) which may make it difficult to characterize if such a variety is considered.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, it is your call, but be sure you can meet the requirements and yet keep the ethnography down to the maximum word requirements.
The vocalist, Randy Jackson, performed for the DSO in 2008 in their concert "The Music of Led Zeppelin." (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-zeppelin_0109gl.ART.State.Edition2.37e2e30.html) He is actually the lead singer/guitarist in Zebra, a rock band. (http://www.thedoor.com/) So this should be an interesting mix of rock fans and classical music go-ers. You might want to chime in on our rock discussion later this semester, especially in defense for popular music in general.
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