Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES • WINTER 2017 • sai-national.org 20 D E J K O P T U Y Z MUSIC AND CULTURE By Dr. FrieDa HollanD GeBert Just a few years ago I had never heard the term "cultural sustainability;" sustainability was an environmental issue that had little to do with my artistic or academic life as a professor of music. However, I was feeling more and more restless in the role I had chosen as my life's work. I had even begun to wonder if I was a professional dinosaur, teaching classical music and preparing students for jobs that seemed harder to find, in a culture that valued classical music less and less. en I saw an email about a conference on sustainability to be held in New Zealand the following year. Part of the conference dealt with "cultural sustainability" which sounded interesting to me. Being interested in global environmental issues, I thought the intersection of my interest in environmental issues and my experience with the arts in world culture might be a good place to explore. As I delved into the role of music in sustaining culture, I discovered that the world is changing in ways I had never contemplated. Across the globe, cultures and societies are being eradicated by global development. Entire languages are being lost as tribes, races, and communities blend and merge into a larger world. And as these people let go of their traditions, the world loses the music and art that defined them. "e United Nations Intangible Heritage Convention describes culture as a living force, handed down from one generation to another, and constantly recreated by communities and groups. e document reasons that heritage is an essential part of community identity, and by maintaining it we promote respect for cultural diversity and human creativity. In short, cultural activities help define us and give us identity; these are essential components of a life well lived. UNESCO specifically identifies the following categories of cultural practices: • Oral traditions and expressions, including language • Performing arts (including music, dance, and theater) • Social practices, rituals, and festive events • Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe • Traditional crasmanship" 1 So to paraphrase this document created by the United Nations, the performing arts are a vital organ in the body of a culture. e United States of America is an ideal place for the study of cultural sustainability; it has always been a nation of immigrants, a country in which many individual cultures have survived, merged, and evolved. Its small indigenous population was nearly obliterated by the enormous numbers arriving to establish roots in the "new world." Over the last two hundred years, however, the United States has developed many ways to help individual cultures - indigenous and otherwise - co-exist and thrive. Here are a few examples of ways in which America is nourishing cultural identity today through music. Appalachia is a region in the eastern United States with a peculiar history. It has no specific geographical borders, but consists of 164 counties in the states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. It was settled primarily by Scottish and Irish immigrants in the 18th century. ey developed a close-knit culture that has become the subject of myth, speculation, and television scripts. Inhabitants have been portrayed as ignorant and violent, and although these distortions have been somewhat dispelled in recent years, the culture remains somewhat mysterious. ere is no doubt that the area has perennially struggled with poverty, geographical remoteness, and a lack of educational services. Appalachian culture has, however, produced two musical instruments that have become staples of American music, the mountain dulcimer and A Language Out of Mere Word's Reach HOW MUSIC IS GIVING DISAPPEARING CULTURES A NEW VOICE Cellist Ben Sollee

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