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Ethnomusicology And Alchemy
God" is a profound realization of music's criti Foa'i, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Mark Mancina. cal role in the society. Dave Metzger arranged and orchestrated all In Bali, serious literature, poems and of the music in the film. It took three full days prayers begin with the letter "ONG." The to record the percussion parts alone.11 Samoan sound of this letter resonates through the by birth, Opetaia Foa'i started a contemporary body, alerting all of one's gods and demons music group called Te Vaka, which claims a (your emotions, qualities and thoughts) to "distinct original sound and un-touristy devo alertness. Balinese music specialist Michael tion to the South Pacific and the stories of its Tenzer notes that "Music is ubiquitous in Bali; ancestors."12 Band members are featured in its abundance is far out of proportion to the many of the songs of Moana. This inclusion of dimensions of the island. The Hindu-Balinese cultural sensitivities gives an indication of the religion requires gamelan for the successful seriousness in trying to understand and repre completion of most of the tens of thousands sent various areas of the world without simply of ceremonies undertaken yearly."8 Music is appropriating materials. simply a part of everyday life, whether it be to accompany martial arts, to sell goods or to race Contemporary Compositions bulls. There is music for entertaining the gods The incorporation of world musical in festivals, to accompany offerings at a tem traditions into contemporary composi- ple, to provide for cremated remains, even to tion is exemplified in Kevin Walczyk's 5th be played during a young woman's ritual tooth Symphony, Freedom From Fear: Images From filing ceremony. In Bali, music and dance share the Shoreline.'3 The commissioned symphony structures and terminology. They are wedded was to be centered around displaced peoples. together. Walczyk thought of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's address to the United Nations in World Music in Films 1941 when he spoke of four essential human , The concept of world musics being combined freedoms. The last of the four was freedom with other art forms is nowhere more evident fromfear. The symphony's four movements than in contemporary film, but it is an endeav are "The Relinquishing," "Sands of White and or that is not approached lightly. After all, does Black," "Lullaby" and "Sea Crossings-Mother one approach a supernatural being lightly? of Exiles." Two images of shorelines served Film composers, orchestrators and arrangers as the foundation for the second movement. have become extremely skilled in thinking The first is a photograph entitled "Three globally. Americans," which appeared in a September Moana, the animated Disney movie released 1943 Life magazine article. It depicted the bat in 2016, is set in Polynesia on a fictional tle of Buna-Gona in Papua, New Guinea, and island. To be cognizant of culturally sensitive was the first image of dead Americans that issues, Disney formed and consulted with President Roosevelt allowed to be published Oceanic Story Trust, a group of advisors that during World War II. Walczyk incorporated included academics, anthropologists, linguists, two percussion instruments indigenous to historians and choreographers, as well as Papua, New Guinea: log drums, known as "tattoo artists, navigators, fishermen, elders, "slit" drums, and a bullroarer. "In Papua New and artists."• Disney Animation sponsored Guinea, bullroarers hold a traditional place of research trips to the South Pacific Islands of honor in men's ceremonial clubhouses. The Juri, Samoa, Tahiti, Moorea, New Zealand, Namau people of the Purari River Delta used Bora Bora and Tetiaroa. "Every name in the them during funerals of important men and movie either comes from or was approved called them imunu viki ('weeping spirits')."14 by the Oceanic Story Trust. Moana's name The log drums and bullroarer were used to means 'of the sea.' Every draft of the script, represent the "weeping spirits" of the three every little change, was sent to the Oceanic dead soldiers. Story Trust to vet."10 Most of the cast mem The second image shows protesters in Biloxi, bers are Polynesian. The songs were written Mississippi in 1959. As part of the struggle for in Samoan, Tokelauan and English by Opetaia civil rights, people participated in "wade-ins"
AMERICAN MUSIC TEACHER 19