The Community within Community Music

Abstract

This article discusses the concept community in relation to the larger concept of community music (CM). It suggests that the community within community music is best understood as hospitality. Hospitality encompasses the central characteristics of community music practice, broadly understood as people, participation, places, equality of opportunity, and diversity. This does not mean that hospitality should replace the term community , but that hospitality evokes the practical meaning of community in that which is named community music . From this perspective, community can be conceived as “an act of hospitality” that runs deeply through the practice of CM, and that an acute awareness of hospitality exposes the distinctiveness of CM in music education.

Untitled

“…Luck imposes limitations on morality. According to Bernard Williams, morality (contemporary and otherwise) aims at "delivering good news," 21 by advancing harmonious conclusions to practical dilemmas. The circumstantial contingencies of human life betray, at every step, the ambition to find harmony for practical dilemmas.…”

“…He is not only silent but he is also presented as "a grim, unfriendly man who wore the same dirty beige windbreaker no matter how hot or cold it was and always seemed to need a shave". 21 According to Jack, Happy Chang was "unlike the other Asian fathers in our town" who are "doctors, computer scientists, and businessmen who played golf and made small talk in perfect English", 22 men who have somehow blended into the culture that surrounds them. The doctors, computer scientists, and businessmen do not stand out, but Happy Chang has "a rough edge, a just-off-the-boat quality".…”

“…Krauss 21 brings specificities that allow us to shift the attention from the object to the relation-to what she calls "specific relation". The way the object nature becomes exchangeable in a given situation will be in tune to a body behavior itself.…”

“…But in contrast to this film, that included Lou Lichtveld's modern and harmonious compositions, this scene in Gray Morning is accompanied by the song "Gloria", which is part of the Misa Criolla (Creole Mass), and goes: "Gloria a Dios / en las alturas // y en la tierra paz a los hombres, / [...] paz a los hombres / que ama El Señor [...]" 20 (Glory to God / in the heights // and peace to men on Earth, / peace to men / who love the Lord, our translation). The Misa Criolla was composed by the Argentine musician Ariel Ramírez 21 in 1964; the moment was considered a folklore boom in Argentina, as all sorts of musicians were approaching the Latin American popular culture. As Díaz said, the aim at that moment was to recover the Latin-American as an idea of cultural union of the countries of Latin America, without, however, regressing with respect to the particularities of each region.…”

“…20 Though the definitions are vague, authors generally describe CM as flexible and inclusive social musical activities that may involve the following three aspects: music of a community, communal music-making, or an organized musical group with a leader from the community. 21 Leglar and Smith define purposes CM, which may have: education; performance with an educational component; and culture, socializing, or entertainment with no specific educational objective. 22 Kertz-Welzel highlights the transformative musical vision of CM, "characterized by social justice, cultural democracy, participation, and hospitality," but notes that establishing a close collaboration between CM and school music scholars "could be useful in order to implement the notion of everybody's musicality more thoroughly in the discourse and practice of music learning."…”