Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.11.1504231317000.19853@panix5.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: flute, tour, flood (National Music Museum, South Dakota)
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 13:20:05 -0400 (EDT)
flute, tour, flood http://www.alansondheim.org/nmmtour005.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/nmmtour.mp4 http://www.alansondheim.org/nmmtour003.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/nmmtour004.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/nmmtour006.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/nmmtour010.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/councilbluffed.mp4 Images of a Ladakhi flute, given to me by Fred Lieberman, an ethnomusicologist and qin expert. The flute is constructed with reed, tar, and duct tape, and has an architecture similar to Native American flutes (see the Wikipedia article on the subject). Lieberman speculated there was a historic cultural relationship between the two groups. I had an Albert System C clarinet - this was decades ago - and I gave it to him; he wanted to play klezmer, and we were friends. In return, he gave me the Ladakhi instrument as a gift; he said he had gotten it in Ladakh. I remember all of this poorly, and am fascinated by the potential musical parallels between the Native American regions and Ladakh. I hope the National Music Museum will research this. And how accurate is my memory of his recounting, after so many years? (I had to keep the flute refrigerated, by the way so that the tar would retain its shape.) The video is a collection of still images I shot at the museum - instruments I was interested in, as well as some establishment shots. On the way to and from Vermillion on Route 29, we noticed dead trees on the western side of the road, near the Missouri River; this is likely the result of flooding a couple of years ago. The eastern side was going through the usual spring budding. All of this near Council Bluffs with its cylindrical iron jail; hence the title of the video.
