What IS politically correct?

This past winter I was in my first production of Madame Butterfly. I was so excited when we began staging because the director pointed out that I, along with nine other chorus members would be the "Geisha." I knew that this would mean that I would get to wear a kimono and very amazing makeup that was common practice of the geisha. Some of the other women of the chorus were made into relatives of Butterfly. When we had our first meeting with the make up crew, we learned how to put on a "Geisha face." The make up was complete with white foundation to make the porcelain skin that was the trademark of a geisha. After this demonstration, she had a different meeting with the "family members" who had different makeup with a different hue of foundation to make them appear more "ethnic." The color of the make up is best described as a golden brown that gave almost a yellow appearance to the performers. The color was really unbecoming on them and looked almost ridiculous. But the color, coupled with the black eyeliner that was applied to make the eyes look flat and longer was truly stereotyping what a Japanese person would look like. Practices such as black face, and yellow face were popular during the Victorian era. Kift discusses this issue during the character section of the chapter. Since the Victorian era, it seems that blacking out ones face has fallen out of favor and has become a social taboo in our culture, but why is it still acceptable to stereotype and comment on other cultures in the name of art? It is no different whether the singers were wearing the "yellow face" for the production of Butterfly then if they had been wearing "black face" for a production of Porgy and Bess and yet one seems to still be tolerated in our culture and one is completely incomprehensible. Is it because of the history that black people have had in our nation? Didn't we too make other groups of people suffer such as the Japanese in the work camps of World War II? Shouldn't we be mutually sensitive to everyone's culture? Does the story of Madame Butterfly face the possibility of not being told well if the makeup isn't "racially accurate"?

What ever happened to the music hall?

I thought it was very interesting this week to consider the music hall and where it's position is now in our society. Like always finding parallels to today's culture and what echoes of Victorian life we still see today is fascinating to me. As we discussed in class with the help of the temperance movement, and the fact that it was able to influence the goings on of the music hall, it changed the floor plan of the music hall. In the Kift article it was shown that the floor plan changed once the bars were removed from the hall from the standard table layout that invited people to socialize, drink and not necessarily be too concerned with the performance to benches that were positioned towards the stage that would then encourage people to pay attention to the show instead of just socializing. It is interesting to observe the influence of the cinema or maybe the reverse affect of the new floor plan to maybe inspire the cinema. In the early movie theater we see many similarities to the music hall. There was still some form of entertainment through the use of musicians playing the soundtrack and all of the sound for the film. Again as we discussed in class, there were also sometimes variety show type acts that would occur when reels would be changed or there would be a break in the production. I wonder if the temperance movement had not carried so much influence if we would not have seen the same tradition of the music hall carry over to America. Kift also blamed some of the demise of the music hall on other influences that were imported from America. The growing popularity of the dance the "Charleston" and Ragtime music attracted people to the dance hall instead of the music hall. Although I do believe that the "dance hall" we see during the big band era in America also echoes the traditions of the original music hall. In these dance halls we see people attending the performance not necessarily to see the band that is playing as much as to socialize, dance, and eat. Although the atmosphere may be similar, the music being played does not really follow suit to the variety acts of the music hall stage.

Vaughan Williams and Opera?

I have to say, prior to this week I really didn't even know that Vaughan Williams had written any operas. It was really nice to become acquainted with some of his work in this way. After listening to some of the operas I have to say the music is very beautiful and really easy to listen to. Quite a contrast to what we see coming out of some other countries in Europe at this time... Not that either is better, it is just interesting to see the difference in what was being performed in other parts of the world. It also made me think about what Vaughan Williams himself said about a genius. Maybe if Vaughan Williams had come earlier he too could have established a different and maybe more lasting tradition of British music. Anyway about the operas, I really appreciated the format of the article comparing these two operas in particular. Although the time between the release of Hugh the Drover and Sir John in Love was a short five years, there was really a significant change in the approach to composition that is apparent in these works. As I said in class when I was reading about Hugh the Drover I was thinking to myself that a more integrated use of folk song something that would propel the motion of the drama would make more sense and then when Saylor described Sir John in Love, it seemed to fit the bill. I really think that by using folk elements and making it a part of the characters by using diegetic music allows a flexibility and an overall more effective approach into integrating folk song into the traditions of English music. I was also happy that we discussed the appearance of the French chanson in the opera, Sir John in Love. I thought that it was funny that this happened when I read the article thinking, "Wouldn't it undermine his own efforts to establish English folk song in 'serious art' to establish a sound of England? But considering the long lasting opinion of both the French of the English and the English of the French it makes the appearance of the chanson laughable as far as the character is concerned. It adds a whole new level of insincerity to the character. Overall I loved considering these works and hope to learn more about his operas. They definitely seem worth it.

Vaughan Williams and National Music

I really enjoyed this week's discussion about Vaughan Williams' revival or maybe even the discovery of a national sound or music in England. I did find myself in his reading trying to think of many different ways I could argue against his view of folk song but I found it very hard to disagree with his opinion. I thought to myself about all of the other nations that have a well established "sound" and it seemed that these sounds are rooted in folk tradition. For example in Germany we see the folk song tradition directly influencing the strong establishment of the Lied in society. It was through these straightforward rhythms, "singable" tunes, importance of the message and the word that we have a genre that then can speak to many different people. I did like though that Vaughan Williams took the time to discover a uniquely "English" sound. Unlike the folk tradition of Germany, Vaughan Williams used the use of mode to inform the use of folk song and thus it became a sound that we could associate with the revival of this genre and the establishment of this sound in England. I also thought it was interesting that he claimed that the use of modes in the church also grew out of this folk tradition. On page 24 of his book he states, "Because a folk-song can be referred to one of these 'ecclesiastical' modes it is often imagined that folk-song derives from church music. I believe that it is just the other way round, namely, that church music derives from folk-music." I'm not sure if i necessarily agree with this or not, but I did find it interesting that in the Stanford article we see the same issue come up but he seems to argue the opposite viewpoint and using the example of Martin Luther and Germany said, "He explained how Martin Luther had affected the whole trend of culture, and had directed all the forces of artistic aspiration into one channel, music; thereby ensuring the ascendancy of the art in Germany for a doubly long period of time." Whatever came first, the chicken or the egg, what is true is the establishment of folk song sentiments in the culture's music can completely revive and aid in the establishment of a national music in a country.