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Blogger’s Soapbox: Preserving the Past While Maintaining Modernity

8/31/2011

 
“Traditional music was not amp’ed because they didn’t have it.” -- Ed Howe of Perpetual e-Motion, interview with Contra Syncretist, published August 29, 2011.
I was thinking about what Ed said when I saw this post over on the Washington Post’s Classical Beat blog a little while back. In it, Anne Midgette talks about 24-year-old classical concert pianist Yuja Wang, who has drawn quite a bit of attention to herself in the classical music world lately by wearing rather starkly modern fashions while performing in her very traditional medium, most recently at a concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
Some of the negative commentary surrounding her sartorial choices recalls for me the tone of some of the more visceral negative reactions to crossover contras and electronic influences (names have been removed; all were made as public online comments):

“I have no argument with folks doing this, I do regret that they call it contra dancing.”

“When you lose the flow [found in traditional music], you lose the very essence of the dance.”

“It looks like she borrowed from an older sister's closet and forgot she was performing in front of a discerning crowd-not some local nightclub.”

“There's nothing wrong with daring and sexy but let's be honest she crossed the line and in the photo looks like a woman working the streets.”

It should come as no surprise to anyone who regularly reads this blog that I disagree with several of those sentiments, in both cases.

I recently saw the movie Midnight in Paris. (Very mild spoiler alert! Skip to next paragraph if you need to remain 100% spoiler-free.) One of the takeaways from that movie is that while we may romanticize some past era as The Golden Age, the people who lived in it thought of it as the modern day, just like we think of 2011 as the modern day. Someone in the year 2061 may well look at our time and think it extraordinary, whereas we just find it to be extra ordinary.

This is not to say by any stretch that there is no value in having hobbies that were more mainstream in a bygone era and are more niche now -- in fact, the entire idea of celebrating folklife in many ways revolves around keeping traditional arts and culture alive. But that’s just it: the tradition is a living one, picked up and carried into the future by present-day people. When people were playing concert piano and going to contra dances back in the day, they were wearing clothes and dancing to music that fit into that era and its social norms. Going back to the musical example, Mozart was seen in the mid-to-late 18th century the same way many see rock stars now. In Vienna in his day, the fashion-forward thing to do was wear tails and a powdered wig, and men were the only ones who performed concert piano so women’s fashion trends were irrelevant (but were equally ridiculous by today’s standards). For better or worse, these days society tells us that the fashion-forward thing for young women to do is wear a rather avant-garde short, brightly-colored tube dress with heels.  

Back in the day, going to the barn dance was the popular analog of going to the local club -- people went and mingled and swapped tales of the latest happenings in their (and others’) lives and dance and listen to music by talented musicians. At the time, there was no radio, so the neighbors who had musical talents formed the house band. If we wanted to go completely back to those times, we could certainly eliminate the microphones and sound systems that many bands use, and certainly we could stop importing bands from around the country and only use bands and callers from within a fifty mile radius. Of course, that would mean that Nils Fredland of New Hampshire would never make his way down to Glen Echo; the Syncopaths would never venture out of their neck of the woods in California; and the Dancing Fool weekend out in Washington State couldn’t have Elixir playing since they’re based in New England. And none of them could make recordings of their music, since that technology is a modern invention as well. I think most of us can agree that the folk-dance world would be poorer if those trends were abolished.

But I don’t think people are actually looking to capture exactly what folk dance was like way back when. Rather, they’re seeking to continue it, and the naysayers to crossover contra are looking to do so in ways that exclusively capture former sensibilities instead of incorporating more obviously contemporary ones. As modern people with modern sensibilities, some of those characteristics are working their way in. Composers re-arrange traditional pieces and write original ones, and frequently segue between the two to the steady beat of dancers’ footsteps in a contra hall. Truth be told, modern compositions with traditional instruments and inflections are just as anachronistic as modern compositions with nontraditional ones.  

You can argue the aesthetics of it all you want (back in the day I’m sure there were people for whom jigs and reels sounded like nails on a chalkboard), but the evolution is part of what sustains people’s interest.

To use a more modern and more recent example than folk dance, let’s take the modern pop queen of reinvention who -- love her or loathe her -- has managed to keep people’s attention for most of the last thirty years: Madonna. (Yeah, I never thought I would be mentioning her on this blog, either. But I have a point. I promise.) She has gone from being the bleached-and-permed blond Material Girl to being a born-again hippie child who did yoga religiously and studied the Kabbalah (mid-90’s) to embracing a more openly provocative and electronic influence, and has covered several identities in between. I may be much more of a fan of mid-90’s Madonna than I am of 2011 Madonna, but that does not mean that I’m going to try and stop others from going to see her live (and in her current evolution) the next time she rolls into town. I may host a listening party for her 1998 album Ray of Light and privately comment that I wish she’d evolve more in that direction again since I personally prefer that aesthetic to her more recent work; however, I’m also going to respect that somehow she’s managed to keep the international public eye for not only her allotted 15 minutes, but many times over that. In a society with a collective case of untreated ADD and amnesia, that is rather impressive.

Contra dancing, to my mind, has followed a similar (though overall slower) trajectory; people add to the tradition all the time and adapt it to modern sensibilities. Since the 1970’s there has been a folk resurgence in the U.S. and the tradition has been revived and had things added to it. Some additions are more based in traditional pieces and others seek to incorporate contemporary additions of electronics or -- gasp! -- mixed tracks by DJs. But the choreography and the community and the appreciation for both traditional and modern twists on the concept remain essentially intact, much as the appreciation for decently played classical piano remains intact (though I’ll acknowledge the genre faces several publicity problems at this point in time; I had never heard of Yuja Wang before that article ran in the Post, so maybe the clubwear scandal has fulfilled the purpose of bringing lay people’s attention to her art the way many mainstream 24-year-old female musicians have). These factors connect current contra enthusiasts to others who have come before and many who will come after. Meanwhile, I’m headed off to find more audio of Ms. Wang’s playing online.
Ryan Holman is the brains and primary blogger behind Contra Syncretist and can frequently be found dancing at her local traditional and crossover contra series. To be perfectly clear: the Blogger's Soapbox pieces are the thoughts and opinions of the blogger and do not reflect other people's thoughts or opinions, except where directly indicated.
Perry
8/30/2011 11:40:54 pm

Almost EVERYONE who runs, supports, or loves techno/crossover contras says, to a person, that they love traditional contras too and do not want technos to replace live trad contras. BUT - if what you say above is true, then it's inevitable that techo WILL replace live contras. Madonna ain't going to sing Material Girl again - EVER - that part of her life is long past. As these techno bands continue pushing the enevelope, their popularity soars and the popularity of trad bands wanes. You go to a contra dance that has excellent local muscians that don't do anything fancy, just play good music, and attendance is almost always smaller. The only thing that is keeping contra sonic's attendance smaller is that they are on Tuesdays, and it's inevitable that they're going to have to move to weekends and compete with local trad contras. And that's what local folk musicians are scared of.

dest/jess(ie)/etc.
8/31/2011 01:29:38 am

Yes, i'm sure that is what worries a lot of our accoustic musicians--that with this wave of interest in contra done to EDM, they'll lose their audience for the lovely acoustic music they do.

I'm inclined to think madonna isn't a good example for precisely the reason you list--an individual musician does not as frequently return to hir earlier stylistic choices. Perhaps a better one would be rock music itself--where new techniques and sensibilities have taken over the mainstream but never really taken away folks' interest in old-school rockabilly. Or dance performance--where we've found room for modern dance troupes like pilobolus and eiko + koma but still kept going to the new york city ballet.
If we're talking about interest in the hard-line oldtime stuff, i think interest has been waning there for far longer than anyone's been hosting techno contra. It's a very stylized form, it's as much an interpretation of what folks were listening to as it is a preservation of the form, and apparently it doesn't hold people's attention as much as it used to. I don't feel a need to apologize for that.
Also notable, Elixir and contrazz and the groovemongers and avant gardeners are all examples of contra syncretism to some degree, since they mix other forms of music (jazz, rock, mariachi...) with the standard contra form.
As for EDM replacing standard acoustic contra as the music of contradance, i don't see it happening in the long run. Techno contras are still a special treat in many areas, so people make a special effort to go just like they would some big name guest band, but i've generally observed folks treating it like a both-and, not an either-or. Plus the majority of contra dancers are still at least 50, and EDM is typically more popular with the younger crowd. By the time this crop of younger dancers are no longer young and the current older dancers don't dance, some other form of music will be popular and we'll be thinking about how to play around with that. And the acoustic nights will still be there, pulling in solid crowds. Part of being a vital subculture is being open to new ideas without losing the old stuff we love.
What i worry about more when it comes to our music is whether we're doing enough to encourage all of our musicians to grow and develop and experiment in ways that interest them, and whether we'll be able to sustain affordable gate prices and still pay the fees the great guest bands want, since more and more of them are trying to turn pro and can no longer afford to treat touring as a vacation. In both cases, i think this is a total non-issue for some and an ongoing concern for others.

Trouble
8/31/2011 11:23:05 am

Speaking for myself, I've never really understood why there is a controversy on this issue. We can talk about how the current crossover trend might, in some way, at some undetermined point in the future, somehow "threaten" traditional acoustic contra dance music. If so, what's the problem?

In order for traditional contra to be threatened, by definition we are saying that more people *prefer* dancing to EDM than to a live band. If that happens -- or, frankly, even if it doesn't -- only the format that attracts paying patrons will continue to survive. If people do not want to engage in an activity, that activity will die out.

This leads to two points:

1) This is no change whatsoever to the challenges faced by the contra scene for the last 40 years. In order to have survived this long, we have had to continuously recruit new dancers despite all of the other things in the wide world out there that are clamoring for people's attention. Obviously, we have been successful at precisely that. Now, there is one more thing out there competing for people's time and attention. So what? The contra scene, just like EVERY OTHER activity still needs to be proactive about growing the community. TANSTAAFL.

2) If the preponderance of contra dancers in the marketplace choose to spend their time and dollars on EDM contra INSTEAD of traditional contra (and I personally see this as being extremely unlikely), so what? It is not my place or anyone else's to tell people what they are supposed to enjoy. People deserve the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they wish to pursue one format or the other, or even both. If one particular format does fall by the wayside, there will certainly be proponents of it who will be left disappointed, but the majority should not be dictated to by the minority. If (and this is a very, very big if) attendance to traditional contra ever dwindles to the point where it is no longer sustainable to continue putting on dances, it would never be appropriate to tell those who enjoy EDM contra that they must stop and go to traditional dances instead.

I guess you could call this the "free market" approach. (And, I suspect, one might even call it the "Tea Party" approach of one was wishing to be uncharitable.) I am in no way trying to be dismissive of those who prefer traditional contra or even those who ardently wish to preserve it. (Speaking for myself, I like BOTH kinds of dances and I regularly attend BOTH kinds of dances, so I am not trying to imply any kind of “ought” in any of the above.) I am only pointing out that traditional contra will only survive as long as there are enough people who want to pursue it. As it should be. As it always has been. To say otherwise necessarily implies forcing people into activities that they honestly would prefer not to engage in.

-Steven.

Ryan (Contra Syncretist) link
8/31/2011 03:21:35 pm

This may be a case of glass-half-full versus glass-half-empty. I see crossover contra's existence as evidence of the dance tradition continuing to speak to people and encouraging them to innovate and add things into the mix, not as a sign that it's going to die a slow and painful death. Another analogy here might be somebody adding walnuts to a brownie recipe. This does not mean that non-walnut brownies should not continue to be made, and both kinds should be out there and eaten. Some people are allergic to walnuts or just plain don't like them. Okay, so then don't eat the brownies with walnuts. Continue to make and eat (and share) your brownies without walnuts. But I will object to the claim that a walnut-laden brownie isn't really a brownie, simply because it has walnuts in it. And I will object to the claim that it should be called something else entirely if it has walnuts in it, because someone has decided that the Platonic ideal of a brownie does not have walnuts in it. There are several people -- me included -- who will happily eat both kinds and enjoy them both for their respective merits. The brownie recipe is still a brownie recipe, even with the variant of walnuts thrown in. (Hmm, now I'm getting hungry....)

dest/jess(ie)/etc.
9/1/2011 12:29:49 am

My sentiments exactly. And after several decades of loving brownies without walnuts, i just don't see everyone waking up tomorrow and saying, "Gee, you know, i just can't be satisfied with a brownie without walnuts anymore." Not gonna happen. And i defy anyone who might suggest that i should feel guilt or discomfort over wanting brownies with walnuts just because the ones they make are nut-free. I need variety. I have room in my life for lots of different kinds of brownies. Heck, i even have room in my life for shortbread.
Darnit--now i'm hungry.

Hollis link
9/1/2011 03:21:24 am

I've been thinking about this issue for a long time, as a "traditional" musician who came to the music by way of choral, jazz, and blues music. I spent a year living in Scotland studying the culture there through the lens of bagpipe music... and Scottish piping (at least in 2003) was about as rigidly fixated on "tradition" as you can get.

I've never bought into the argument all that much, and I think it's because I see tradition as more of a process than a product. Tradition in music is the process by which a certain set of musical ideas becomes popular, gains a following, and is integrated into the nebulous idea of "what people expect". I think we're often careless in our language, and we refer to the tradition as being the product itself: a habit of playing bagpipes alongside snare drums, perhaps, or the convention of playing four potatoes at the beginning of a contra dance, or whatever. I think those things are really just markers of the tradition's process.

When I was working in the archives in Scotland, I ran across all kinds of perseveration about whether women should be allowed to learn bagpipes. People disagreed about what the rules of tradition required, and there was bitter argument about it! You could certainly argue that the product of tradition is different now that women are allowed to play (there are many more pipers, and many of the best are female) but the process of sharing is pretty much the same.

As a teacher, I feel that there *is* value in being able to speak "from a tradition", meaning that you can play old timey music that sounds old timey, or you can track the changes in jazz, or that you can play New England fiddle tunes and have them sound "right". But I view that as a question of mastery, not a question of art: playing within a tradition is like a tool in your toolbox. Just as you want your razor plane to be as sharp as possible, you want your cross-tuned fiddle chops to be as strong as you can make them. But what you do with the tools... that's where the art comes in.

There are lots of dancers and lots of musicians, and all of us come with our own preferences. I think we all need to relax and let go of the idea that this is a zero-sum game: we don't HAVE to lose "traditional" listeners just because EDM's star is rising. We have this kind of deficit mindset that more for one group means less for another, and I don't think it has to be that way. People come hear me when I'm singing musical theater, they come hear me when I'm playing contra dances, and they come hear me when I'm playing solo bagpipes... there's enough audience to go around.

Thanks for putting such a great discussion into public view!

Perry
9/1/2011 06:17:50 am

Yes - very interesting discussion. I DO believe that it is possible to preserve traditions AND add in modern twists to make it more interesting. I'm glad that this is the stance that most folks are advocating.


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    I dance with abandon. I play with glowsticks. I look for music that is conducive to one or both. I play behind cameras.  I write about all of the above. I'm based in Glen Echo's contra dance community outside of Washington, D.C., but I'm happy to go dance afield when I can. Lather, rinse, repeat. Always repeat.

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