UA researcher Brian Moon, an expert on American music traditions and popular music trends, shares how festivals have shaped the industry. Amongst other things, I am a 2009-2010 Thomas J. Watson Fellow learning about ¨The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music¨ in Norway, India, Peru, Bali, Cameroon, and Tuva. It has many effects on us. Music sometimes enables us to express feelings, ideas, thoughts, and emotions that we cannot express through words or acts.
Music touches our lives in various ways that are sometimes conspicuous and sometimes subtle. As I’m always on the lookout for new and different artists that I haven’t heard before, so when my teacher spoke of Imogen Heap I figured I’d check her out. It’s amazing to me to look at how I was as a little kid and to see how much my mindset about trees and nature has changed.
On the other hand, the entertainment sphere is packed full of artists who could never hope to be anything close to moderately talented. At Grundlsee the energy between artists and public, nature and music really does bubble over. Music and dance have so much in common that to separate them would be an arbitrary task.
Think of a music therapist as a guide, someone who can help you find the music that evokes from you the most relaxing responses as well as the most positive ones. You can go on a camping trip and when you go just simply bring along a tape recorder to catch all the interesting sounds in the forest, you will definitely be able to record a lot.
One gets better at discipline through music, because regular practice is the only – or at least the quickest and most effective – to create good music. One concrete strategy for addressing this issue of sustainability and resilience is to make cities act more like nature.