bannerWe are living in unprecedented times. With live performance banned until the current global COVID-19 pandemic is under control, artists of all genres are using their imaginations to find new ways to virtually connect with their colleagues and audiences. One of the earliest initiatives in Canada to fill these gaps was BIG GIRL & Friends, an hour-long livestreamed show on YouTube, created and hosted by Toronto Musical Concerts’ artistic producer Christopher Wilson, and associate director, Ryan Kelly.

The show is a casually formatted musical theatre chat show, with the hosts (who seem to know everyone in Canadian musical theatre) welcoming guests who sing several songs interspersed with fun conversations about the industry, their career journeys, and how they are coping with the realities of social distancing. They also entertain questions from people watching via comments on the YouTube site. Guests so far have included Alessandro Constantini, Charlotte Moore, Gabi Epstein, Jake Espstein, Michael de Rose, Thom Allison, Erica Peck, Sara Strange and Bruce Dow, among others.

The show is free to watch and all the artists, and the hosts, are donating their performances, with donations to support the AFC (the Actors’ Fund of Canada) encouraged. Given the current lockdown, the AFC (founded and active since 1882) desperately needs funds to continue its support of arts workers who need financial and advocacy help — and that’s not just actors, but also directors and designers, stage managers and costume makers, musicians, writers, film crews and front-of-house workers. Anyone in the arts and entertainment industries who needs assistance can apply.

Impressed by Wilson and Kelly’s rapid deployment of their more-or-less daily fundraising show, and enjoying the fun of getting to know Canadian stars in such a personal format – despite each person being in their own living room – I reached out to Christopher Wilson to find out a bit more about how it all came about.

The following conversation has been condensed and edited.

Christopher Wilson L and Ryan Kelly RWN: What gave you the idea to start the YouTube BIG GIRL & Friends broadcasts, in this format?

CW: Our Canadian theatre industry ostensibly ground to a halt shortly after Friday, March 13 (ironically). With unprecedented cancellations and closures of both theatres and events nationwide, it became increasingly evident that we (the artistic community) were going to be adversely affected for some time with the swiftly shifting landscape of the coronavirus.

When the Broadway League announced that all Broadway theatres would close (initially until April 13), SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and his husband, producer James Wesley, began a daily online mini-show, entitled Stars In The House - featuring a "who's who" lineup of stage and screen stars, singing and performing live (from home on YouTube) to promote support for The Actors Fund (US).

I tuned into their first stream on March 16 (featuring Kelli O'Hara) and immediately knew that I had to facilitate a comparable initiative here in Canada, to benefit The AFC (Actors' Fund of Canada). Having worked in the Canadian professional musical theatre industry for nearly 30 years, I am fortunate to be connected with most of Canada's extraordinary musical theatre artists from coast to coast!

WN: Where does the name come from?

CW: During my only season performing at the Stratford Festival back in 1995, I was somewhat of a gregarious “Saint Bernard puppy” type of an emerging artist (you know, the type that inadvertently takes out small children and Christmas trees in their oblivious wake). One particular rehearsal day, during an overly-enthusiastic moment, I gently annoyed one of the company members (Canadian actor, writer and theatre director, Lee MacDougall – also an original Broadway cast member of Come from Away) who lovingly expressed, “You are such a BIG GIRL!” This was also a reference to my newly embraced self-identity as a gay man.

The nickname, Big Girl, became a term of endearment among company members at the Festival – and was officially coined a phrase when I was paged over the theatre intercom, “Big Girl to the stage, please!” Since that time, I have lovingly been referred to as the “tall, high-kicking, low singing BIG GIRL”. Several years ago, I self-produced two stage cabarets at the former Flying Beaver Pubaret under the name, “Big Girl & Friends”. Both cabaret events were fundraising initiatives for local charities including the AIDS Committee of Toronto and the Daily Bread Food Bank.

When I decided to embark upon this specific online fundraising initiative (under the auspices of Toronto Musical Concerts), the title seemed apt to return to [to] support The AFC!

WN: You and Ryan are based here in Toronto, and your first guests have been performers known here in the city. Will you be reaching out across the country to speak to artists based further afield, or to join forces with other fundraising teams based in other provinces?

CW: I am doing my best to remain aware of other fundraising initiatives across Canada to benefit both The AFC and the Canadian professional musical theatre industry. Most notable was last week's incredible Virtual 24-Hour Telethon to benefit the AFC, Places Please!, raising an impressive $41,000.

Most of our first week guests were well known in Toronto and southern Ontario, but this past week's guests included artists such as Tara Jackson from Calgary, and we will be hosting the Charlottetown Festival's artistic director, Adam Brasier in Prince Edward Island – and ideally, the Neptune Theatre's artistic director, Jeremy Webb in Halifax (among others).

My biggest concern lies in the fact that as long as we continue to remain in this state of social distancing and self-isolation, our artistic community will become increasingly vulnerable, both financially and more importantly, emotionally. As we settle into this “new normal,” it is my hope that we can share this online fundraising initiative on a much broader scale, to reach as wide an audience viewership across the country as possible.

BIG GIRL & Friends intends to stream daily Monday to Saturday at 7 PM ET / 4PM PT on Toronto Musical Concerts’ YouTube channel until regional theatres are open again. To access archived livestreams and find the daily viewer’s link, visit their website here. To make a tax-deductible donation to The AFC, please visit https://afchelps.ca/.

Jennifer Parr is a Toronto-based director, dramaturge, fight director, and acting coach, brought up from a young age on a rich mix of musicals, Shakespeare and new Canadian plays.

COVID-19 Artist Resources

This list has last been updated on Thursday, April 13, at 12:00EST. We will try to continue updating this article as new information becomes available; if you have suggestions of new resources to add to this list, or of other ways that The WholeNote editorial team can help support the local music community during this time, please feel free to direct them to editorial@thewholenote.com.

In light of recent cancellations, closures, and quarantines around the world due to the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many folks are facing suddenly precarious financial and social circumstances. Arts organizations, freelancers, arts workers and other gig/temporary workers constitute a particularly hard-hit group—one that our team is trying our best to support. 

There have been several resources circulating online and in the news about efforts to provide financial support to those who need it (including some incredible lists already compiled by other organizations and community groups). Our intent here is to amplify the work put in by those who created (and are creating) those resources and support systems, by sharing them directly with our readership—especially those resources that might particularly apply to musicians and other arts workers based in the area we serve.

Financial health in times of crisis is a multifaceted thing, and there are many ways in which this list falls short. Many of the ‘official’ resources provided here assume Canadian (or in some cases, United States) nationality or permanent residency. Others may not be applicable sources of support for all artists. And of course, at its best this list provides assistance with only a small sliver of the many things that contribute to personal well-being and security during uncertain times. Nonetheless, we hope it is helpful, and that you find it a useful source of information and support.

For official information on medical issues related to COVID-19 in Canada, please refer directly to official sources, such as the Government of Canada website.

Compilation Documents

These are large, compiled resource lists that provide an overview of resources for arts workers struggling with issues related to COVID-19.

*updated March 26, 2020: COVID-19 CANADA MEGA RESOURCE LIVING LIBRARY: Musicians & Music Industry Professionals

This ‘living library’ is a frequently-updated list of resources related to professional music-making in Canada and COVID-19.

COVID-19 & Freelance Artists

One of the largest and most comprehensive resource lists for arts workers, this website provides information about financial advocacy groups, social equity initiatives, online support platforms, and many other useful tools. Many of the resources here are US-specific, but others are widely-applicable.

COVID-19 & Freelance Artists and Writers, CANUCK EDITION / CBC Resource List

A Canada-specific version of the COVID-19 & Freelance Artists resource list, available both in its original Google Doc form, as well in an article written in collaboration with the CBC, available here

Opera.ca COVID-19 Resources for Artists

A resource list compiled by Opera.ca with a focus on financial support for Canada-based artists.

Financial/Advocacy Resources

These are organizations who routinely work to provide support and emergency funding for professional artists in Canada.

Unison Fund

The Actors Fund

Financial Resources: Information from Government and Granting Bodies

This is where you can find information related to government and grant support.

*updated April 17, 2020: Government of Canada: Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)

This program provides financial support to Canadians who have lost their job, are sick, quarantined, working reduced hours, or taking care of someone who is sick with COVID-19, as well as working parents who must stay home without pay to care for children who are sick or at home because of school and daycare closures. It applies to wage earners, as well as contract workers and self-employed individuals who would not otherwise be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI). Individuals are eligible for CERB if they are 15 years of age or older, live in Canada, have had an income of at least $5,000 in the last year and who currently earn less than $1000 monthly as a result of COVID-19 disruptions.

Government of Canada: COVID-19 Economic Response Plan

Government of Canada: COVID-19 Updates - Employment and Social Development Canada

Government of Canada: EI Support for Self-Employed Workers

 

*updated March 26, 2020: Toronto Arts Council TOArtist COVID-19 Response Fund

Small grants of up to $1000 for Toronto-based artists who have lost work due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 Updates from the Toronto Arts Council

COVID-19 Updates from the Ontario Arts Council

COVID-19 Updates from the Canada Council for the Arts

*updated April 23, 2020: Canada Council for the Arts - “Digital Originals” micro innovation grants for creating digital work or adapting work to a digital platform

Community-led Initiatives

These are initiatives for support led by individuals, organizations, and community groups.

I Lost My Gig (Canada)

A Facebook support/resource group for arts and freelance/gig workers in Canada.

Caremongering-TO: TO Community Response to COVID-19

A Facebook group for local/grassroots resources and support actions in Toronto.

For musicians to record lost income

A downloadable Google spreadsheet template for musicians to keep track of lost income due to COVID-19-related issues.

Glad Day Emergency Survival Fund for LGBTQ2S artists, performers & tip-based workers

Toronto-based Glad Day Bookshop has set up an emergency fund to help LGBTQ2S artists, performers & tip-based workers. This fund is not meant to help people recover lost income, but is an emergency resource for urgent aid in paying for necessities.

COVID-19 Black Emergency Support Fund

Black Lives Matter - Toronto has launched a fundraising campaign to create a GTA Black Community Emergency Support Fund for Black folks in the GTA who require support due to COVID-19-related concerns. 

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For those readers who do not require assistance, but would like to support arts workers and folks in otherwise precarious circumstances, please consider donating to one or more of the funds listed above. In addition, consider supporting the artists whose work you admire: now is a great time to donate to local arts organizations, buy artists’ merchandise, and tune in to (and financially support) musicians’ livestreams.

More locally: consider joining a community support effort. Offer help to those in your community or your neighbourhood, especially those who can’t leave the house or are in otherwise precarious situations. Advocate for those facing more challenging circumstances than yourself. And be kind to one another. We will be trying to do the same.

Geronimo Inutiq, a presenter at the CNMN 2020 Forum. Photo credit: Photo: Pedro Ruiz, Le Devoir, 2016.In November 2005, the non-profit Canadian New Music Network (CNMN) / Réseau canadien pour les musiques nouvelles (RCMN) was founded with a mandate to foster community-building, networking and to broaden awareness of new music activity. It’s an organization that is designed to support those involved in the pursuit of creative art music and sound art within Canada, including creators, performers, presenters, music educators, musicologists, and others. One of their activities is to present a bilingual and biennial CNMN Forum, held this year in Regina, Saskatchewan from May 21-24, 2020, on Treaty 4 Territory, the traditional territory of the nêhiyawak (Cree), Anihšināpēk (Saulteaux), Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation. Titled “Listen up / Tendez l’oreille,” this year’s Forum will be focused on five streams: Accessibility, Community, Indigenous Resurgence, Land, and Technology-Innovation. 

As I read the details on each of these topics, I was encouraged to see that conversations of this nature are now being considered within the new music community. The various presentations this year will address such issues as how we incorporate our listening and presencing skills as well as ecological activism into music-making, how the music community can respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, the celebration of the ways music can be experienced beyond the concert hall, and how more inclusive audiences can be built in the dissemination of experimental music and sound art forms.

I spoke with CNMN executive director Terri Hron to find out more about the nature of this year’s Forum. In previous years there have been conversations around issues of diversity, environmental sustainability and the social impacts of a musical practice, she told me. When Hron was hired a few years ago, her goal was to continue those conversations and expand them to include larger cultural issues, including taking concrete steps towards responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She stated that questions such as “what does having right relations with Indigenous communities mean in the context of music-making?” and “how can we create more events that are Indigenous-led and work in good ways as allies with Indigenous artists?” will be part of the conversation at the Forum, with a goal to design an action policy regarding these issues.

Most of the presenters were selected by the Forum’s advisory committee members as well as by a jury that selected from an open call. Olivia Shortt, a Tkarón:to-based artist and currently involved at Toronto’s Music Gallery as an Artistic Associate, was one of three jury members that helped select from the submissions. I asked Shortt about some of the proposals that stood out for her.

The Vancouver-based Astrolabe Musik Theatre was one of her mentions; they will be presenting their documentary film entitled The Lake / n’-ha-a-itk, made in collaboration with artists from Westbank First Nation. The film integrates an opera composed by the late BC composer Barbara Pentland with syilx/Okanagan culture, music, language and dance. A presentation by Kayla McGee, the current executive director of the Music Gallery (and a leader in the Music Gallery’s partnership with The Dandelion Initiative, an organization committed to creating safe and inclusive spaces, including performance venues) was another of Shortt’s picks. McGee’s topic is entitled “Beyond EDI,” and tackles how we can expand our understanding of the principles of equity, diversity and inclusivity.

Shortt also spoke about a performance entitled Aspects of Trees, a collaboration between Newfoundland-based composer/technologist Teresa Connors and New Zealand filmmaker Andrew Denton that gives attention to the escalating pine beetle epidemic that has decimated forests on the west coast of North America. The work includes video footage of the forests and audio captured from the tree bark and inside the trees. The performance will be an improvisation between Connors using her laptop-based tree instrument and Ellen Waterman (Ottawa) on flute, who will also be presenting as part of the accessibility session. During this panel, Waterman will discuss her involvement with the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument (AUMI), a project founded by the late Pauline Oliveros, and the recent developments of a vocal version to explore issues of accessibility in choral music. Geronimo Inutiq, originally from Iqaluit and now Montreal-based, will be discussing his process and approach to electronic music production and performance, highlighting his ideas around interconnectivity and independent music production in a post-internet age.

These are just a few of the presenters; listings of the full CNMN Forum program can be found on the CNMN website, and profiles of many presenters on the CNMN’s Facebook page.

The good news is that if you are interested in attending, for the first time, the CNMN is offering financial assistance for travel for select attendees. Terri Hron emphasized during our conversation that the application process is very simple and is open to anyone who wishes to attend. The deadline is coming up on April 1; you can find application information on the CNMN website. This Forum promises to bring the conversation around music and sound-based artistic practices to a new level.

At the time of publication, the CNMN has released this statement on their website regarding the future scheduling of the conference given the current global coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic: “CNMN is monitoring the development of and response to COVID-19 and will be updating here if there are any changes to the Forum. Registration will open April 1.”

Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electro-vocal sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com.

Women From SpaceFor the second year in the row, a group of committed exploratory musicians are celebrating during the weekend around International Women’s Day, March 5 to 8, with Women From Space: a four-day festival at two Toronto venues, Burdock and 918 Bathurst. This year, Women From Space is geographically even wider in scope than previously, with musicians arriving from Halifax, Vancouver, New York and Baltimore to play alongside committed performers from the GTA. The mostly women-centred 16 sets will feature free improvisation, contemporary notated music, dance, intercultural projects and even some pop grooves. “Our goal is to create a festival that is majority women performers, but not exclusively women,” explains alto saxophonist Bea Labikova, one of Women From Space’s two organizers. “We do our best to present the festival as a celebration of International Women’s Day, which anyone and everyone can and should celebrate.”

The Women From Space name was initially used for a series curated at the Tranzac Club by festival co-organizer, soprano saxophonist Kayla Milmine. “I drew inspiration from Sun Ra, especially the film Space is the Place,” she remembers. “I like the idea of ‘women from space’ exploring the universe for new musical sounds and ideas and featuring them in this festival.”

The majority of the Women From Space performers this year are women, with efforts to feature queer, transgender and non-binary artists; men will be playing as well, largely in supportive roles to the women improvisers, composers, and bandleaders. While the number of participants has increased over the 2019 festival, showing the depth of Toronto’s musical scene, only a few individual performers are returning this year. Furthermore, these returnees’ 2020 Women From Space projects are completely different than the ones they were involved with in 2019. Notes Labikova: “We are consciously trying to expand our scene as well as audiences, by presenting new performers each year.”

Pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn.Another change from 2019 is that financial resources were made available to Women From Space from various funding bodies, allowing the festival to host sets featuring international players. For instance, Baltimore-based pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn will play a solo set at Burdock on March 5, sharing a bill with solo sets by Halifax-based guitarist Amy Brandon, Vancouver harpist Elisa Thorn, and Toronto-based keyboardist Claire Yunjin Lee. At that same venue two days later on March 7, New York soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome will improvise alongside Milmine. On March 8, the official International Women’s Day, the festival moves to 918 Bathurst for closing night celebrations. Among the features will be the duo of New York-based German tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and Canadian-in-Brooklyn pianist Kris Davis. That same night, New York double bassist William Parker will be part of a trio with locals, percussionist Germaine Liu and Labikova. 

Although the American guests are known for their jazz and improvisational skills, composition will also be emphasized at the 2020 festival, including new works commissioned by the festival organizers. Toronto-based Dutch composer and vocalist Lieke van der Voort and Toronto saxophonist/clarinetist Naomi McCarroll-Butler are each composing works for a special festival ensemble of double bass, baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, which will give premiere performances at Burdock on March 6. McCarroll-Butler will also perform as part of a trio with bassist Lauren Falls and saxophonist Olivia Shortt, at the club that same evening.

Meanwhile, West Grey Township-based trombonist Heather Saumer has composed special pieces that will be premiered at 918 Bathurst on March 8 by Felicity Williams, Robin Dann, Thomas Gill and Alex Samaras, who are singers as well as instrumentalists. Also that evening, former Montrealer, now Toronto-based Elizabeth Lima will perform a solo set based around vocals, clarinet and electronics, interacting with visuals by Meghan Cheng which were specially commissioned for the performance.

Pantayo. Photo credit: Sarah Bo.Other sets will emphasize still other music. On March 6 at Burdock, for example JUNO-nominated vocalist/trumpeter Tara Kannangara and her band will perform electric pop tinged with jazz. That same night, Teiya Kasahara, who specializes in contemporary opera and whose practice often incorporates opera, theatre, and taiko, will offer a solo set. At the same place the next night on March 7, all-women group Pantayo will preview selections from its upcoming album, which mixes percussive metallophones and drums from Kulintang traditions of the Southern Philippines with synthesizer-based electro grooves. On the final evening at 918 Bathurst, local independent dance artist Sahara Morimoto will perform with percussionist Raphael Roter.

These are just a few of the 40-odd performers who will be featured during the four days of this year’s festival. “Ambitious, fresh and diverse programming helps us increase our audience base,” states Labikova. “It also contributes to increasing Toronto’s reputation abroad and draws attention and recognition to women in music.” Plans for next year’s festival are already being germinated, she adds, maintaining the four-day schedule and likely inviting more international players.

The second annual Women From Space festival takes place in Toronto at Burdock, 1184 Bloor St. West (March 5-7, 2020) and 918 Bathurst (March 8, 2020). For more information about the complete lineup, as well as details about tickets and festival passes, visit www.womenfromspace.com.

Ken Waxman is a Toronto-based journalist who has written about improvised and other musics for many years. Many of his articles can be found at www.jazzword.com.

34375373Music - A Subversive HistoryWhat if true innovation always comes from the outsider, the marginal and the underdog? Prominent American arts journalist and music historian Ted Gioia took this idea for a walk across the centuries in his new book Music: A Subversive History (Basic Books, 2019) and found a lot of evidence for it: musical progression toward new art forms and styles of expression is often pushed from the outside of the mainstream – slaves, foreigners, the underclass, the second sex, the precariat. New ideas become mainstream when the upper classes and musical gatekeepers adopt them too. A Subversive History however, at 487 pages without the index, is much more than its main thesis: it’s a history of human song from the Paleolithic era till the current era of our digital overlords, and a detailed look at the socio-economics of music-making – who earned what working for whom, with what degree of autonomy. Once the chronology reaches ragtime and jazz, the book becomes almost exclusively American in focus, but no matter: the rest of us can use the final chapters to compare and contrast local musical developments with American pop-culture dominance. Ted Gioia and I corresponded over email as 2019 was drawing to a close.

Ted GioiaWN: Why, do you think, do many musicologists avoid taking cross-cultural research on any musical phenomenon, and seem to be terrified of adopting a planetary, universal POV, like you do? The kind of (frankly, refreshing) view that you take when you look at similarities between, say, shamanistic practices in distinct cultures, similarities between myths that appear in distant territories at around the same time, musical forms that persist in very different circumstances. To prove your main thesis, that it’s the outsider, the exploited, the subaltern that brings about musical innovation – you look across cultures.

TG: A huge divide now separates most musicologists from almost everyone else researching the role of music in human life. On the one hand, we have neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, evolutionary biologists and other researchers publishing persuasive and detailed evidence of universals in music. In the other camp, old-school music professors are holding on to a very different worldview in which musical cultures exist in isolation, incommensurable and resisting cross-cultural analysis.

You ask why this is taking place. I see three reasons. First, the growing specialization in all academic disciplines makes it harder and harder for scholars to take a truly cross-cultural and multidisciplinary approach to studying music. I’ve tried to do this, but as you probably know it took decades of research on my part before I could navigate through these issues with any degree of comfort and expertise. Music: A Subversive History builds on more than 25 years of research – and that process could not have been accelerated, given the complexity of the issues at play.

The second reason for this narrowing of focus in musicology is the problem of groupthink—an unwillingness to challenge embedded ideas even when they no longer possess explanatory power. Every field suffers, to some extent, from groupthink, even musicologists.

The third cause for this close-mindedness is a historical legacy. There was a day in the early and middle decades of the last century when the study of musical cultures benefited from an isolationist perspective. When addressing a musical genre or practice that had never been studied by academics before, a narrow focus on the specifics at hand was probably justified. But when that narrowness becomes an ideological mandate, and close-minded academics start claiming that individual communities do not participate in the larger human musical experience, we have reached a dysfunctional point. It seems as if these smaller communities are being othered and marginalized by experts who should be opening up connections rather than shutting them down.

WN: Practical ‘management’ of work/hunt, communication with the world of the spirit and animal, group cohesion, unity before enemy: the early song, you remind us, performed all those functions. Today, the song is very different – most often an expression of inner states and feelings – though there are echoes of the old song in some of the new functionalities (workout music, protest songs, sports and national anthems, ecstatic raves). Music is still used for manipulation in the 21st century, as has been in the 20th. So here’s a question for you in Adorno’s voice: should we not criticise the manipulative, group-forming side of music and advocate for a music that consciously refuses to speak to the atavistic, irrational in us?

TG: Yes, music has tremendous power in promoting group formation and interpersonal bonding. But this can be good or bad, depending on the context. Every group creates bonds through song – labour unions, soldiers, sports fans, religious believers, music fans at a concert, protesters, revolutionaries, even families and romantic couples out on dates. My goal as a historian is to cast light on this process, because only when we understand how it works can we channel the power of music in a positive direction.

Frankly, I don’t think we can remove this element from human music-making. It’s as much biological as it is cultural. When we listen to music in groups, our body releases the hormone oxytocin, which makes us more trusting of those around us. Our brainwaves adapt to the rhythms of the music. In dozens of other ways, our bodies are altered by the music. These are constitutive elements of the power of song, and removing them is not possible, and probably not even desirable.

WN: The book seems to be suggesting that the pre-Pythagorean, pre-systematized, pre-mathematized musical practices – the era associated with the superstitious, magical, ecstatic, Dionysian employment of music – was also a domain in which women musicians (eg. female drummers) played an important role. What evidence is there that women ever held positions of power in music performance and religious ceremonies that involve music performance?

TG: The deeper we dig into the history and pre-history of music, the more we encounter women innovators. The oldest songwriter known to us by name is Enheduanna, a high priestess who lived around the year 2300 BC. There’s good reason to believe that the shamanic tradition was closely linked to women in its earliest days – this is supported by the documented practice of male shamans dressing in female attire, as well as various linguistic evidence. We can also trace an important female role in the Confucian musical tradition, in Islamic societies, in various ancient drumming traditions, in the origins of Western love songs, and various other styles, settings, and genres.

In so many instances – documented in great detail in my book – men eventually took credit for these innovations, and also changed how these songs were used in society. When women were drummers, the music was used to create ecstasy and trance. When men took over control of drums, they became used in military music. I’m simplifying a lot there, but the larger trends here are unmistakable.

WN: I know you have Gimbutas and Bachofen [known for their theories on ancient matriarchies] in your endnotes, but you also remind us that that scholarship has been put into question: there is no evidence that matriarchy ever existed before the patriarchy took hold.

I do appreciate that you observe that the repudiation of the ecstatic, sexual, boundary-threatening aspect of music has always been present in societies where there’s repudiation of femaleness and actual women. But I’d caution against associating the visceral aspects of music with femaleness – because that would take us in the Jordan Peterson, feminine-chaos vs. masculine-order view of the world, and to the old philosophical chestnut of women being associated with the lower part of every duality: nature, instability, irrationality, softness, darkness, etc.

TG: I’m really not concerned with creating ideological frameworks. There are plenty of other people who specialize in that kind of work, but that’s not the main thrust of my writing. My primary focus is on reconstructing facts and the sequence of events. And this is essential work, because conventional accounts are so misleading. In many instances, you could actually describe them as blatantly deceptive. I could have written a book of aesthetic theory based on my research – and maybe I will at some point – but before we can get to that point I felt it was necessary to lay out a true chronology of music history.

By the way, I offer no final verdict on Gimbutas’s hypothesis of a dominant matriarchy in early Western culture – that’s an issue much larger than music history. But I can say that my research makes clear the female musicians had a much higher profile during this early period, and their innovations were later taken over by men, who worked very hard to hide the original sources of these new types of songs. There are so many examples, it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve already talked about the role of women in drumming, but the shift in lyric song, for example, is just as important. When Sappho emerged as the key innovator in this field, her songs captured the imagination of listeners as platforms for personal expression. But a little more than a century later, Pindar became the dominant figure in the lyric song, which now served as vehicle for praising the deeds of great men.

In my book, I trace similar shifts in dozens of other settings. You can put whatever ideological label you want on this, but the significance of this recurring process and its impact on music history are undeniable.

WN: As a person who grew up in the Balkans, I’m always glad to come across Milman Parry and Albert Lord’s thesis about the kinship between the South Slav epic poetry performance and the way that Homer’s epics were originally performed and came to be preserved… But although it’s still a plausible thesis, we can’t know for sure if the Iliad and the Odyssey have been orally performed by anonymous bards until somebody(ies?) called Homer wrote them down. It’s probably the best thesis around but – we don’t know for sure, do we?

TG: We can never make any definitive and final claims about Homer. But we can get a very good sense of what singing bards can do by the many documented cases that I describe in the book. Albert Lord’s research is just one part of a much larger tapestry of evidence. In fact, we find these amazing singers in every culture. When researcher John Lomax encountered convict James “Iron Head” Baker at Huntsville Penitentiary in Texas, he was so impressed that he called the prisoner a “black Homer.” The illiterate epic singer Vasily Shchegolenok had a similar impact on Leo Tolstoy. Beatrice Bernardi is another example. She was just a herder, but amazed art critic John Ruskin with her ability to sing lengthy tales by memory.

This gets back to my earlier comments on the chasm between theory and practice. People construct elaborate theories about narrative and epic, but if they don’t actually do research into the real historical data, they are building castles in the air. Many people might find it hard to believe, for example, that a single individual could create and perform an elaborate sung epic of Homeric proportions. But the illiterate peasant Avdo Međedović did just that for Parry and Lord – performing a story song that went on for more than 12,000 lines. That’s as long as Homer’s Odyssey.

P.139: “No force in the history of the western world has ever matched the early Christians in their determination to police, prohibit, and punish singing among the populace.” And as a result, “Virtually no secular songs in the vernacular European languages have survived from the long centuries preceding the rise of the troubadours.” How much do we know about these songs?

The authorities did such an excellent job of censoring sinful songs in the vernacular language that almost none of them have survived. Yet the fact that they were attacked and condemned so frequently over the course of a thousand years tells us that they must have been sung and heard by countless individuals. This is why gaps in the historical record are often as revealing as the officially sanctioned accounts.

This, too, is a recurring pattern. Take, for example, the lullaby. These have been found in every part of the world, and have existed for thousands of years – Plato even cites this kind of song as an example of the power of music. Yet for many long centuries these songs were not preserved. This should remind us that a huge gap separates the real musical lives of people and the documented songs that make up music history. One of my key goals has been to close that gap as much as possible.

WN: Some of the recurring themes of troubadours, like being a slave to love, you suggest, probably come from the qiyan, the enslaved female singers of El Andalus – the Muslim Spain of the 8th century... How would the errant knights and aristocrats have come into contact with them in Islamic Spain, be allowed to hear their singing, and be influenced by it?

It’s only a short trip from Spain, where these Muslim songs flourished, to Provence where the troubadour revolution took place. We know that the earliest troubadours had close contact with Islamic culture, and almost certainly heard these songs. The fact that the songs were associated with slaves probably only added to their allure. The ruling class always craves the energy and excitement of forbidden songs performed by the underclass. Even when their public stance is to criticize these songs, they also want to hear them. Or if they don’t, their children do. It’s hardly a coincidence that William IX of Aquitaine is famous as the first troubadour, but his father fought against the Muslims in Spain. The very culture that the parent opposed, the child assimilated. Today we would call this an example of the generation gap.

Ted Gioia’s book Music: A Subversive History was published on October 15, 2019 by Basic Books. Click here for details

Lydia Perović is an arts journalist in Toronto.

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