Woody Guthrie and the Columbia River: Propaganda, Art, and Irony

Pedelty, Mark

doi:10.1080/03007760701219079

Cited by 15 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Ingram summarizes, and critiques, complex philosophical issues in concise and direct language, and he makes clear his own suppositions and positions. His work complements that of other interdisciplinary scholars: musicologist Denise Von Glahn (2003) connected art music and iconic American places, musicologist Brooks Toliver (2004) drew on ecocriticism to relate popular concert-music composer Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite to ideas of preservation and conservation in the United States, and anthropologist Mark Pedelty (2008Pedelty ( , 2011 has considered popular music from Woody Guthrie to Green Day in the context of environmental issues. Together with Ingram's book, these works can serve selectively in ESS curricula to illustrate key concepts and widen the disciplinary breadth of the field.…”

Section: Changing Histories Of Musicmentioning

confidence: 94%

Ecomusicology: music, culture, nature . . . and change in environmental studies?

Allen

2012

J Environ Stud Sci

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The five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing. We rely on them daily, professionally, and personally-each can inform our understanding of the world and evoke memories of places and times, both distant and dear. Public policy and science, however, are guided primarily by the visual: maps, not the smell of rich soil or the feel of damp air, are used to understand local and national borders; photographs, not the feel of

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Section: Changing Histories Of Musicmentioning

confidence: 94%

Ecomusicology: music, culture, nature . . . and change in environmental studies?

Allen

2012

J Environ Stud Sci

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“…One year after Paul Robeson's debut of ‘Ballad for Americans’, U.S. Department of the Interior's Bonneville Power Administration hired Woody Guthrie to write an album of 26 songs to persuade the general population of the supposed benefits of building dams along the Columbia River. Roll of Columbia , as Pedelty (2008: 333) writes, focused on technological awe, a concern for the working class and an appreciation of the natural landscape of the Pacific Northwest. This state‐sponsored music, other than being the very type of propaganda that Guthrie often opposed, firmly conceptualised and politicised the Columbia River and the region (Pedelty, 2008, 2012).…”

Section: Geographies Of Music and Nation‐buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Roll of Columbia , as Pedelty (2008: 333) writes, focused on technological awe, a concern for the working class and an appreciation of the natural landscape of the Pacific Northwest. This state‐sponsored music, other than being the very type of propaganda that Guthrie often opposed, firmly conceptualised and politicised the Columbia River and the region (Pedelty, 2008, 2012). The song ‘Roll on Columbia’ not only promotes violence against Native Americans, but sets a clear divide between nature and society through the lyrical description of men labouring ‘gainst the river's wild flight’ and their ultimate victory in ‘the hard fight’ (Gold, 1998; Rogers, 2004).…”

Section: Geographies Of Music and Nation‐buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music work: Traditional Cambodian music and state‐building under the Khmer Rouge

Rhodes

2020

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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Recent scholarship has opened questions as to the everyday actions of the Khmer Rouge and those living under the regime which led to the Cambodian Genocide. Current work examines the critical cultural geographies of the Khmer Rouge: photography, poetry and music, for example. Music specifically has an interesting underpinning, as it was previously understood to be have been eradicated in the genocide as the standard narrative has us believe. This paper instead investigates the pieces of evidence that exist, which explain the use of music by the Khmer Rouge. I explore the geographies of music beyond the lyrics and look at the transformation and use of music in Cambodia and Democratic Kampuchea. What elements of traditional Khmer music were used during the regime? What modifications occurred to the music of Cambodia during the regime, and how did the Khmer Rouge modify existing Cambodian (and other) music to best fit their desired uses (state‐building and genocide)? This paper goes beyond traditional geographies of music, which rely on lyrical analyses, to bring an ethnomusicological perspective to the work of music and its role in shaping the idea of the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea.

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River definitions reciprocally define us

Sohns

2023

River Research & Apps

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This article explores different definitions of river, and in doing so, considers how our efforts to define rivers illuminate aspects of the human condition. Through an exploration of our definitions of river, through the human imagination, in poetry, music, and human's actions, this article considers how our nature is reflected back by rivers—how we in turn are defined by rivers—such as their role in determining borders, movement, escape, the locations of cities, trade, communication, and in the shaping of cultures and societies. This article specifically highlights three definitions of river using examples predominately from North America. River as boundary, exploring how in the reaches of some river basins, rivers act not only as a border, or boundary between two nations or cultures, but also as a line of demarcation between the known and unknown landscapes and the tamed and untamed lands. The definition of river as pathway includes exploration of how the Mississippi River served as a natural highway for people escaping slavery to travel North and reach Underground Railroad routes toward freedom, while also forcibly moving hundreds of thousands of enslaved people in the United States from the Upper South to the Lower South as they were “sold down the river.” Third, this article examines how rivers have been defined as a resource through examples, such as the US government and Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) efforts, to encourage support of large dam construction and water development projects by hiring Woody Guthrie in 1941 to write songs that would prompt public support for the water projects. Through this discussion of three river definitions, the article considers how rivers have been conceptualized over time and how those different knowledges inform our understanding and treatment of rivers. The article argues that it is vital to include knowledge from across scales, time, boundaries, and ways of knowing in order to improve the protection of rivers and their ecosystems. If we do not, we will continue to lose freshwater biodiversity, wetland and riverine habitat, and their immeasurable qualities that inspire life and imagination at a staggering rate.

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Woody Guthrie and the Columbia River: Propaganda, Art, and Irony

Cited by 15 publications

References 8 publications

Ecomusicology: music, culture, nature . . . and change in environmental studies?

Ecomusicology: music, culture, nature . . . and change in environmental studies?

Music work: Traditional Cambodian music and state‐building under the Khmer Rouge

River definitions reciprocally define us

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