Klarinet Archive - Posting 000081.txt from 2002/09

From: w8wright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] "Music and the Mind"
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 15:41:55 -0400

<><> I wrote:
particularly where public ceremonies and early 'law' were concerned.
Thus 'music' and 'language' (says Storr) were the same thing originally

One of Storr's examples about law and music comes from Australian
aboriginal society:

=============

Since they [Australian aboriginals] had no form of writing or notation,
oral tradition was the only means of retaining and inculcating their
lore, and music therefor provided the essential mnemonic medium [...]
Bruce Chatwin demonstrated how songs served to divide up the land, and
constituted title-deeds to territory. Each totemic ancestor was
believed to have sung as he walked, and to have defined the features of
the landscape in so doing [...] The contour of the melody described
the contour of the land [...] Each individual inherited some verses
of the Ancestor's song, which also determined the limits of a particular
area [...] As Chatwin's informant told him, "Music is a memory bank
for finding one's way about the world."

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