Sorcha Dorcha at Lower East Side Festival on May 25

If you find yourself in New York City on the eve of the Memorial Day weekend, come on down to the Lower East Side Festival on Friday night. Sorcha Dorcha will be playing a 15 minute set at this annual event. We're scheduled to play at 7:53 pm in the Cabaret Theater, one of two theaters housed within the Theater for the New City.

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets)
212-254-1109
Click on either of the links above for directions.


© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Sorcha Dorcha in Stuyvesant Square Park on May 20

On Sunday May 20th from 1-3 pm EDT I will be performing with my Irish band Sorcha Dorcha in Stuyvesant Square Park in Manhattan. We are contributing to the citywide semi-annual It's My Park Day taking place this weekend. Thousands of volunteers will come to approximately 150 park sites in all five New York City boroughs to paint, plant, and clean up the parks in their neighborhoods. If you live nearby, please come help in the park and look for us in on the west side of Second Avenue near the statue of Peter Stuyvesant.



© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Cantor's Turtle Nesting Ground Discovery

Various news agencies are carrying articles about the Cantor's giant softshelled turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) whose Cambodian nesting ground was recently discovered by conservationists. The Cantor's turtle is one of the world's largest and least studied turtles. Instead of an exterior shell, the Cantor’s turtle has a rubbery skin with ribs fused together to form a protective layer over the internal organs. It spends 95 percent of its life hidden in sand or mud and can extend its neck with lightning speed, more rapid than a cobra strike according to the press release. It bites with jaws powerful enough to crush bone. Not a turtle you want to stumble over at the beach!

For the future protection of the species, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, and the Cambodian Turtle Conservation Team plan to employ local community members to protect nesting beaches for the turtles and to conduct patrols during the dry season to prevent illegal fishing of the species prized as an expensive delicacy in neighboring Vietnam. The organizations will also provide the communities with financial incentives to offset the potential loss of revenue from illegal trade in the turtles.

Here's Conservation International's May 16 press release with more details and some good pictures.



© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Spring Comes to 14th Street

Many people find it surprising to learn how many trees and flowers there are in NYC. All the residential areas -- even in Manhattan -- are lined with trees, and flowers sprout from flower beds and window boxes.

My apartment complex, Stuyvesant Town, was particularly lush and green this morning. Here's the view from my window at 7 AM.

Just last week the trees in Union Square (3 blocks away) were that pale green color which lasts only a few days, when the buds have just burst open and the leaves are not yet fully unravelled.

When the flowering trees were in peak bloom, there were white trees on 14th Street just outside Stuyvesant Town ...

and pink trees further down 14th Street at Union Square.

There were azaleas outside my building ...

and daffodils by the subway entrance.

This week the flowering trees are have changed to green and the leaves are fully open. Here's the center of Stuyvesant Town as seen from the kiddie's playground outside my building.


Yes, some call it the concrete jungle. Betcha they don't live here!



© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Hangin' in there

Photo by Harry Peronius, used with permission.

My friend Harry snapped this little guy at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Last Sunday I attended an exhibition sponsored by the West Side Art Coalition where Harry was showing two sets of pictures - the face and hands of a Finnish farmer and of an Indian peasant woman. You can view Harry's work online at the Silver Pix Gallery.

© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Live on WFUV

If you are near your computer this Sunday -- 29th of April -- around 1 pm Eastern Daylight Time -- you can hear me play Irish music on WFUV, Fordham University's radio station broadcasting live over the internet. Check this out ahead of time to see if it works:

• Click on http://www.wfuv.org/audio/stream.html
• On the next screen, select the most appropriate choice for playing music on your computer, given your connection speed. If you have no idea what selection to make on this screen, select the Windows Media button. (unless you're a MAC person, then select MP3 Shoutcast.)
• After a short commercial for Carnegie Hall, you should hear whatever program is being broadcast at the time of your test.

I will be playing on a student-produced radio show called Ceol no nGael which starts at noon. My group is supposed to play at 1 pm. It might be a little earlier or later, so I would suggest you tune in by at least 12:45 pm EDT and hang in there until they start talking about the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra from NYU - that's us! We will play three sets of tunes, with our mighty leader Mick Moloney providing commentary.

Enjoy!

© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Motivation

Having the desire and willingness to do something.

Deployment of energy is often evidence of motivation.

Nearly every site returned when you google "motivation" has to do with the lack of motivation and how to generate it when it's mssing. Judging from the Google evidence, one could conclude that no one really knows where motivation comes from, what causes it, or how to create it.

Thankfully, I'm motivated once again with regard to my music, but I wonder why? And what's the relationship between artistic inspiration and motivation?

Looking back, my silver flute vs. Irish flute quandry as described in my February 2 post was evidence of frustration. My playing had reached a plateau, and I was wondering if my lack of progress had to do with the instrument itself. Someone named Sam Wise left me an amazing comment reassuring me that I didn’t necessarily have to switch to the Irish flute. I started to realize that if I’m looking for the shortest route to playing well, I should seriously consider continuing on the instrument I’ve played since I was 13 years old. Duh!

Shortly after writing that post, preparation for several performances distracted me from my frustration. In mid-February, I was asked to play a St. Patrick’s Day gig at the Half King Bar & Restaurant with Lorcan Otway’s band, Sorcha Dorcha (pronounced sorka dorka and translated as Dark Sarah in Gaelic). Since I knew very little of Sorcha Dorcha’s repertoire, I plunged into learning approximately 20 new tunes and brushing up about 10 more tunes that I didn’t know well enough to perform.

Poster by Lorcan Otway, used with permission.

In addition to the Sorcha Dorcha activities, I had to learn tunes and rehearse with my other group, The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra, since they were scheduled for a couple of performances as well -- the Irish Heritage Concert at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on March 15th and the April 20th annual awards ceremony at City Hall sponsored by the NYC Department of Education’s Irish American Heritage & Cultural Committee.

In a reflective moment this weekend I realized how motivated I feel now as compared with last February. Pondering how exactly this shift occurred, I have been able to isolate several contributing factors:

• Recent performances. Performing generally creates positive reinforcement. I’m finally beginning to realize that performing is about bringing enjoyment, not displaying perfection. (what a relief!)

• Feeling of competence. All the hours I’ve spent practicing over the last two months has improved my tone as well as my technique. I seem to have pushed through the plateau of last February. I now feel less discouraged by the aspects of my technique that still need work.

• Resolution on the instrument dilemma. I’ve decided to stick with the silver flute and to accept the challenges that implies.

While it's possible to analyze and dissect some of the sources for my present motivation, I doubt I will ever have a really good answer to why it is that throughout my whole life I have felt drawn to playing music. Maybe it’s genetic, or to take the religious viewpoint, maybe God intended it. Or from the psychological standpoint, maybe it’s the only uncomplicated component to my relationship to my mother. Who knows? It boggles the mind. I think I’ll just go with Jimmy Cagney’s line from the movie Strawberry Blonde:

...that’s just the kind of hairpin I am.

© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Musical Analysis of Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing

(The conclusion, Part V, in a five-part series on the song Lift Every Voice and Sing written by James Weldon Johnson & J. Rosamond Johnson.)

In my internet research I didn’t find any material on the musical elements of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing. That prompted me to do some analysis of my own, so in this post I will consider a few aspects of composition and songwriting. You may want to refer back to my introductory post on February 25, 2007 to review the song's text and listen to the music in the links found there.

The basic premise of good songwriting is that the music complement the words. One of the ways Rosamond Johnson uses musical elements to accentuate the words is by placing longer note values on important words or concepts. The opening phrase of the first verse illustrates this technique. Rosamond sends the first phrase of the song off to a running start by moving quickly through the first three words which have less relative importance, then remaining longer on the more important words he wants to highlight. The emphasized words get triple the time allotted to the preliminary words. Also note the placement of the emphasized words: both VOICE and SING fall on the downbeat, the strongest rhythmic beat in each measure. By contrast, the words of lesser importance precede the downbeat and are used as "pickup" notes.

Lift-ev-ry VOICE AND SING

In wordy passages Rosamond aligns the metrical value of the notes to speech rhythms as is done in opera recitatives. In this example, each monosyllabic word is given a separate note and all words have equal time value, much like the phrase would be spoken.

Full-of-the-faith-that-the-dark-past-has TAUGHT US

Another musical technique Rosamond employs is called word painting. In the opening phrase about LIFTING our VOICES, the pitch rises with each word in the phrase, moving stepwise up the scale.

Lift-ev-ry VOICE.

Later in the first verse is found this phrase:

let-our-re JOIC- ING RISE

On the word RISE the melody achieves the highest note yet heard in the song, an E above the piano’s middle C, illustrating a very effective use of word painting.

Looking at meter for a moment, we see that Rosamond uses a 6/8 time signature, a rolling dance meter which emphasizes the first and fourth beats of the measure.

1-2-3-4-5-6 1-2-3-4-5-6

The strong pulses fall on beats 1 and 4,creating a feeling of duple meter. Because this tune is heard in a slow “two,” the result is a walking tempo, not as strident as a march and with a lilt coming from the dance-like triple meter underpinning. Again, very appropriate for the tone of the words – not charging forward or lightly skipping, but walking steadily towards a goal.

Rosamond sets the song in a major key. We associate major keys with happy, positive emotion. In one brief phrase towards the end of the verse, Rosamond dips into a minor key, a darker and more brooding modality, but returns quickly again to major. This technique lends musical interest and variety, and gives the whole song more emotional credibility than if it was strictly in a major key. The harmonic tension between major and minor symbolizes the tensions described in the text – a determined optimism about the future despite a tragic past.

Rosamond's chords throughout the song fall in the same rhythm as stated in the melody. There are no frilly filler notes, arpeggiated chord patterns, no counter-melodies -- just strong chords placed directly on the melody’s rhythm. This technique once again indicates the strength of the sentiment expressed in the poem. In fact, Rosamond seems determined to allow nothing to lead our attention away from that sentiment, not even for a moment.

That’s probably enough analysis to illustrate some of the musical conventions that Rosamond used. The techniques I’ve described were applied with skill, and as a result they don’t draw attention to themselves but instead hold the words up for our consideration.

Although James Weldon Johnson’s words speak of African Americans’ past travails and current hopes for the future, these words speak to ALL Americans of the spiritual strength and dignity of those who were oppressed. In order not to be part of the continuing oppression and racism in our country today, I believe it is important that Anglo Americans try to see history from the African American point of view.

On her Speaking Truth to Power website, Vernellia Randall, Professor of Law and Director of the Academic Excellence Program at University of Dayton School of Law, recalled attending segregated schools in Texas until she graduated from high school in 1966. At each of the three schools she attended, the day began with The Lord’s Prayer, the National Anthem, and the Negro National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. When I first programmed this hymn to be sung on Martin Luther King Sunday at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship, I hoped that James Weldon Johnson’s words would enable our mostly white Mennonite congregation to catch a glimpse of what Randall must have felt when day after day she prayed to be forgiven of her sins as she forgave those who sinned against her, then sang the national anthem of the country that segregated her, followed immediately with the Negro National Anthem that offered her the hope that things could be -- indeed, would be -- different.

As Anglos in America, who by definition are members of the dominant class, let us not be afraid to face the shameful history of our country. Let us honor the memory of people like the Johnson brothers who helped all of us to find a way out of those awful times. Let us continue their efforts to achieve full equality for all.

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

And all the people said?
Amen!



© 2007, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement