Vernacular literaturesin

the (post-)/(multi-)literate classroom

“A Homeland of the Mind”

Incorporating Culture in the Language Classroom:Exploring Cultural Identity through Music

Indiana University Bloomington, June 2009

Dr Christopher Smith, Associate Professor & Chair of Musicology;Director: Vernacular Music Center & TTU Celtic Ensemble Texas Tech School of Music - christopher.smith@ttu.edu

http://ttuvmc.org

Seamus Ennis: “The Grip”

Disclaimer!

VMC

“Vernacular”?

Example:

Message:Trust your own performance skills

Belle je me’en vais en Allemagne

What, where, and who?

Pre- versus post-literacy

One key insight

John Barleycorn

The world, the classroom, & the body that links them

One key insight

An dro: Garcon a marier

Intuition 1

Vernacular literatures

Seamus Ennis: Don Niperi Septo

Intuition 2

Those literatures’ precision

The Constitution and the Guerriere

The Constitution and the Guerriere

Intuition 3

Paying attention to these literatures

The Shan Van Vocht

Intuition 4

Relevance beyond the ancient

Gerrard Winstanley (1609-76): You Noble Diggers All

Premise

Topics versus mindsets

The Threes…

and Sevens…

Premise

Learning modes, ancient & post-modern

Patterns & their power

“Read one, see one, do one.”

Example: the power of the drone:Óró Sé Do Bheatha Abhaile

Oro, se do bheatha abhaileOro, se do bheatha abhaile

Anois ar theacht an tsamhraidh Anois ar theacht an tsamhraidh

Oh, welcome home.Oh, welcome home.Oh, welcome home.

Now the summer is coming

Grannie mhoal (Grace O'Malley) will cross the oceanWith armed warriors as her guard.

Gaels are they, not French nor Spaniards.They will overwhelm to the foreigners.

Oro... Thank Heaven's King that we shall see

Even though we die soon after (the next week).Grannie Mhoal and a thousand warriors

Herald the stranger's retreat Oro…

Premise

Students: strengths

Example: Iconography

“Farmer Giles & his wife shewing off their daughter Betty to their neighbours, on her return from school” --James Gilray, 1809

Premise

Students: handicaps

You scholars of English one question I'll askTo answer you won't find a difficult task

Of Shakespeare's great heroes,/which one would you pick

To award him first prize for being totally thickOthello you know was a gullible dupe

And Hamlet's delaying landed him in the soupBut the stupidest moron in all of Shakespeare

Was that old King of England, the man they call Lear 

Three daughters he had in the course of his lifeAlthough we're not told what befell his poor wife

I'll bet she ran off to avoid going insaneAfter years of enduring that pompous oul pain

At the Donkey and Crown where he drank every nightThe locals all knew poor old Lear wasn't bright

When they said your "Royal Highness we love and revere"The oul fool lapped it up and bought everyone beer

 a

ACT I. Scene I.  Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund … Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could; whereupon she grew round-womb'd, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?

Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.  Glou. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged.

OOR HAMLET(Adam McNaughtan)

There was this king noddingIn his garden all alane

When his brither in his ear droppedA wee tait of henbane

Then he stole his brother's crownAnd his money and his widow

But the dead king walked and got his sonAnd said,"Now listen, kiddo

I've been killed and it's your dutyTo take revenge on Claudius

Kill him quick and clean and showThe nation what a fraud he isThe boy says, "Right, I'll do it

But I'll have to play it craftySo that nobody will suspect me

I'll kid on that I'm a dafty

Premise

“New” literacies

Premise

Visceral/intuitive

Breton bourees

“Once upon a time…”

Premise

Patterns & their power

Na Ceannabhain Bhana

Goirim fhéin, goirim fhéin, goirim fhéinI myself applaud, I myself applaud, I myself applaud

Goirim fhéin Micil 's MáireI myself applaud Micil and Máire

Goirim fhéin, goirim fhéin, goirim fhéinI myself applaud, I myself applaud, I myself applaud

Siúd iad na Ceannabháin Bhána The little fair canavans

Goirim fhéin, goirim fhéin, goirim fhéinI myself applaud, I myself applaud, I myself applaud

Goirim fhéin Micil 's MáireI myself applaud Micil and Máire

Goirim fhéin, goirim fhéin, goirim fhéinI myself applaud, I myself applaud, I myself applaud

Siúd iad na Ceannabháin Bhána The little fair canavans

Patterns & their power

Memory, orality, recall

Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore

Patterns & their power

Extending this use

Patterns & their power

“Let me tell you a story…”

Patterns & their power

Context & content & their interplay

Thank you!

Participation

“party pieces”

Making rather than buying

Finding your own repertoires to teach the concepts you want to teach

Music as a medium, language as another

Ethics, values, history, critical reading/listening/speaking/thinking

Multi-generational communication

Skills versus data

Modeling desired modes

Expert musicianship is not the issue; most of these musics were originally intended for participation