Tag Archives: music

Cultural Literacy: Orpheus and Eurydice

Posted on July 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

Have you ever seen the movie Black Orpheus? It’s something I would love to use in the classroom, but I fear it may be a tad too complicated (fast-moving subtitles, for one thing, might cause some challenges) and subtle for the students I serve. It’s a masterpiece by any standard and available from the excellent Criterion Collection with an array of edifying extras.

So, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Orpheus and Eurydice that would, I think, serve as a useful adjunct to a viewing of the truly great film.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Glenn Gould on the Purpose of Art

Posted on July 24, 2018 | Leave a comment

 “The purpose of art is the lifelong construction of a state of wonder.”

Glenn Gould

Commencement address at York University, Toronto, Canada, 6 November 1982

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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1,003 Conquests of Don Giovanni

Posted on July 6, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Leporello, manservant of the fictional rake Don Giovanni (Don Juan), revealed that his master made 1,003 sexual conquests in his Spanish homeland…as well as 640 in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, and 91 in Turkey. Of course, it must be remembered that Leporello’s purpose was to gently persuade Donna Elvira not to put too much trust in his master–and to amuse an operatic audience. Still, Don Giovanni’s figures stack up well alongside his historic rivals. Casanova claimed to have slept with a mere 122 women. Byron (who wrote his own Don Juan) raced through more than 300 women (plus numerous rent boys and transvestites) before his early death in Greece, aged 36.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Two Sevens Clash

Posted on June 20, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Two Sevens Clash was the debut album from Culture, the roots reggae band led by Joseph Hill and produced in Kingston, Jamaica, by Joe Gibbs. Its title refers to the date of 7.7.1977—the day when ‘two sevens met’—which the Rastafarian prophet Marcus Garvey predicted would be a day of chaos and apocalypse. As the liner notes of the album read: ‘One day Joseph Hill had a vision, while riding a bus, of 1977 as a year of judgement—when two sevens clash—when past injustices would be avenged. Lyrics and melodies came into his head as he rode, and thus was born the song Two Sevens Clash which became a massive hit in reggae circles both in Jamaica and abroad. The prophecies noted by the lyrics so profoundly captured the imagination of the people that on July 7, 1977—the day when the sevens fully clashed (seventh day, seventh month, seventy-seventh year) a hush descended on Kingston; many people did not go outdoors, shops closed, an air of foreboding and expectation filled the city.’”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Cultural Literacy: Josephine Baker

Posted on March 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Josephine Baker who was, by any standard to which I can comfortably stipulate, a great American who lived most of her life, like many American entertainers, writers and intellectuals of African descent, in Paris

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Bette Midler on the Timeline of Culture

Posted on March 20, 2018 | Leave a comment

“When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London.”

Quoted in Jerusalem Post, 24 February 1989

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972)

Posted on March 7, 2018 | Leave a comment

“U.S. gospel singer. As a child, Jackson sang in the choir of the New Orleans church where her father preached. She learned sacred songs but was also exposed to blues recordings by Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. In Chicago she worked at odd jobs while singing with a gospel touring quintet, and opened several small businesses. Her warm, powerful voice first came to wide public attention in the 1930s, when she participated in a cross-county tour singing such songs as “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Closely associated with Thomas A. Dorsey, she sang many of his songs. “Move on up a Little Higher” (1948) sold over a million copies, and she became one of the best-selling singers of the 1950s and ‘60s. She first appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1950. Active in the civil-rights movement from 1955, she sang at the epochal 1963 civil-rights march in Washington.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Clifford Brown, 1930-1956

Posted on February 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

“U.S. jazz trumpeter and principal figure in the hard-bop idiom. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, he became the most influential trumpeter of his generation, inspired by Fats Navarro to combine technical brilliance with lyrical grace in his playing. After touring with Lionel Hampton’s big band in 1953, he worked with Art Blakey; in 1954 he and drummer Max Roach formed a quintet that became one of the outstanding groups in modern jazz. He died in a car crash at age 25.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Cultural Literacy: Jazz

Posted on February 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

You might find that this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Jazz nicely complements the post on the late, great Clifford Brown above it. “Brownie,” as his friends and colleagues called him, was a major influence in the genre and still an unmitigated joy to hear.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Cultural Literacy: Spirituals

Posted on February 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

Since we as a society have decided that music education is somehow superfluous to the edification of children, I don’t know whether you’ll be able to use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on spirituals. I hope so.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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