M4GHD issues, applications

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M4GHD: Issues & Applications - BIG PROBLEMS and how to approach them, musically...

Focus on localized, adaptive, participatory, small-scale, collaborative musical approaches...expressions and solutions to big global (system) problems that resist the system, restoring a healthy lifeworld. Perhaps nearly all music does this to some degree...but the music of greatest interest has particular properties: it is flexible (adaptive), and open to participation.

Protest music, general

Music calling explicitly for rights and justice, protesting prevailing conditions of inhumanity, is a micro- instance of "music for sustainable peace and development". Most of this music doesn't fit the mold of M4GHD because it's generally not a global, sustained, collaborative project - more often than not it's just a musician or two and guitar. But a team of one can do a lot when the song is performed and gathers a crowd - suddenly it's a musicking group, and maybe some of them will contribute actively in other ways, production, publicity, fundraising...and voila, M4GHD! These songs, usually centered on a leader, can almost always accommodate any number of participants and can adapt to circumstances; they stir, they console, they galvanize, they remember - and all the while they link participants together.

(Most of this should be filed under one or more of the headings below.)


There is much protest music on the Smithsonian Folkways label, most famously that of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, and much also from around the world, especially Latin America, where protest song has thrived.

See this Listing of protest music on Smithsonian Folkways.

There is developed protest song tradition in the Arab world as well:

  • Shaykh Imam
  • Sayyid Darwish
  • Palestinian protest music


-- There are other genres of protest music also:

Classical music and protest:

CHARLES IVES (SF): http://search.alexanderstreet.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/view/work/71537

FREDERIC RZEWSKI The People United Will Never Be Defeated! Pt.1/5 based on the renowned Nueva cancion chilena song "El pueblo unido jamás será vencido" by [1], music by Sergio Ortega and the text by the Chilean revolutionary folk group Quilapayún who performed it; also performed by the famous Chilean group Inti Illamni.


Jazz music and protest:

Chant, general

Chant may not seem like music, but it displays many of the same properties. What it lacks in musicality it gains in mass participation - anyone can chant! And often a song becomes chant, or vice versa. (Tahrir square protests).

See: Songs of the New Arab Revolutions, first two segments.

Music for community-formation and maintenance

  • MENAME: UofA's Middle Eastern and North African Music Ensemble
  • Church congregations in Ghana

Music for Identity, Cultural Continuity, and Intercultural Understanding

Infrastructure for m4ghd

  • Building archives (El Mastaba and Makan, Aswan)
  • Building groups ("singing and dancing for health" youth groups)

Human Rights

Rights of women and girls

Nneka performs “Shining Star” on #Music4Dev

Rights of the disabled

deaf rapper

Music, forced migration, and refugees

Readings:

Projects:

Giving Voice to Hope: Music of Liberian Refugees (raising funds and awareness, supporting local music)

For the People (raising funds and awareness)

Refugees of Rap

http://www.pbs.org/pov/sierraleone/

Music for Global Health

What is the role of music in global health?

  • Health literacy, promotion, awareness
  • Music/dance therapy and treatment

Readings:

Projects:

Education

Readings:

Projects:

Child Education in Liberia

[5] and other projects for Music Education.

Poverty, Hunger

Egyptian singers:

  • Sayyed Darwish - al-`ummal
  • Shukuku - Fagr
  • Anwar Wagdi - Ma`na Riyal (& Fayrouz)
  • Shaykh Imam - Humma keen
  • Shadia
  • Na`Im Akif

Repression, Conflict, Violence, War: peace and social justice

Victor Jara[6]

Protest songs of the vietnam war

Reasons

Giving Voice to Hope: Songs of Liberian Refugees

Songs of the New Arab Revolutions

Music for cultural continuity and civil society


Broadly focused projects: music for individual and social progress, social justice, intercultural understanding

  • Smithsonian Folkways Recordings(library access: [7])
  • Playing for Change. "Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music. The idea for this project came from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people."
  • El Sistema[8]. El Sistema is a tested model of how a music program can both create great musicians and dramatically change the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of a nation's neediest kids. Building Community: El Sistema grows from loving children first and loving music second. Emphasis is placed on creating a community that supports one another. Teachers and students alike are invested in both personal and community success, creating a place where children feel safe and challenged. El Sistema graduates leave with a sense of capability, endurance and resilience — owning a confidence about taking on enormous challenges in their lives. A deep sense of value, of being loved and appreciated, and a trust for group process and cooperation, enables them to feel that excellence is in their own hands.
  • Mideast Tunes. Our mission is to bridge barriers of faith and geography to unite people committed to fostering constructive discourse in the region through music.
  • Atlanta Music Project. The Atlanta Music Project believes the pursuit of musical excellence leads to the development of confidence, creativity and ambition, thus sparking positive social change in the individuals and the communities we serve. Mission Statement: “To inspire social change by providing Atlanta’s underserved youth the opportunity to learn and perform music in orchestras and choirs.”
  • Mashirika. Mashirika's mission is to prove that performing arts is not only entertainment but a tool of social transformation and source of employment..
  • World Bank's Music4Dev series, e.g. Music as a tool for social change

Protest music, general

Musicians, Producers, Others

Each of these individuals has contributed to M4GHD-type projects of various kinds... (locate and list songs and examples)

  • Hope
  • Shadow
  • Norvor
  • Nora
  • Ari
  • Fairouz
  • Thomas
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