Post 33.

Wind bands (concert bands, marching bands, etc.) are a big part of school music in the United States and elsewhere. There are small school districts where the concert band is the only music education students receive in high school. Even in districts where general music and performance ensembles are diverse and abundant, eco-literacy can be cultivated in band. An interdisciplinary movement, David Orr defined eco-literacy. "The ecologically literate person has the knowledge necessary to comprehend interrelatedness, and an attitude of care or stewardship." Wind bands provide opportunities for conversations that matter. In band, students can expand and reinforce what they know about environmental issues (such as parks and wilderness conservation, protected species, and the challenge of waste). These conversations help students understand the musics they perform; and, I think, help them to perform better. Many times I've worked harder on music after I understood it better. Though I cannot cover all music that can be used in the wind band to cultivate eco-literacy, I'll begin using ten examples (program notes from the  California community band, Foothills Symphonic Winds, webpage). For those teaching ensembles, these ten likely will remind you of others (I've previously, for instance, discussed the ecological messages of Dave Maslanka's music).

1. Beautiful Oregon, by James Barnes: "Few regions of the lower 48 States can boast the scenic beauty of Oregon. As one travels from the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in the Southwest past the Three Sisters and Mount Hood to Portland, turning east through the Dalles, then going on through the Umatilla and Willowa Mountains to Hell's Canyon, one can only admire Oregon as a region of stunning natural beauty. While composing this work for Michael Burch-Pesses and his fine band, I closed my eyes and thought of the fresh, cool air, the countless streams teeming with trout and the gorgeous, snow-capped mountains that seem to go on endlessly. Such rare beauty is uncommon in our world, and I daydreamed that I could be there again."
2. Reflections on the Hudson, by Nancy Bloomer Deussen: "Reflections On The Hudson is one of Ms. Bloomer Deussen’s environmental compositions inspired by the beauty of nature. Subtitled “An American Poem”, it was written when the composer lived in New York City, while she sat on a park bench overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan. She tells that it depicts both internal reflections as well as actual reflections in the water. While it has no specific program, its meaning can be found in the feelings it produces in the listener. The steady flow of the river, conveyed by the music, is punctuated with the daily boat traffic. Mid-day activity, including ships’ whistles, gives way to the calm flow of the evening. Meter changes and measure lengths convey the sense of interplay of the river’s currents."
3. Yosemite Autumn, by Mark Camphouse: "How could any human not be profoundly moved by such stunning beauty? How could any American not take immense pride in our nation being so richly blessed with such an abundance of natural beauty? . . . finally, how could any composer not be inspired and hopelessly tempted to “get the creative juices flowing’ in trying to capture the rich history and majestic landscape that is Yosemite? The remaining portion of this family vacation was doomed. I was there physically with my family - hiking, horseback riding, and doing the things tourist do. But the creative part of me was definitely somewhere else - absorbed in thinking about ways I might try to go about capturing musically the awe-inspiring sights and sounds of Yosemite: Glacier Point, Half Dome, El Capitan, and Yosemite Falls, to name just a few."
4. From Every Horizon, by Norman Dello Joio: "Native New Yorker Norman Dello Joio composed the score for one of the films, entitled “From Every Horizon,” featured at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. These multi-media presentations were designed to educate the public and give a glimpse of the benefits that technology would bring for the future. A sense of optimism pervaded the exhibits of computers, communications, the space program, and new energy sources. Subtitled A Tone Poem to New York, Dello Joio’s composition is in three movements. The first opens and closes in a pastoral mood that portrays the slower pace at the edges of town; the hustle and bustle of the daily commute into the big city marks the center of a typical day. The short adagio second movement reflects the nature of an evening – generally tranquil, but interrupted by natural and man-made sounds. Flowing without interruption into the third movement, the vibrant energy of this metropolis bursts forth. There is the decisive flow of commuters on foot, cars, and public transit. Deliveries are made to businesses and ships move about the harbor. The tired tourist seeks out one more show or landmark."
5. Lauds, by Ron Nelson: "Lauds is one of the seven canonical hours that were selected by St. Benedict as the times the monks would observe the daily offices. Three (terce, sext, and none) were the times of the changing of the Roman guards and four (matins, lauds, vespers, and compline) were tied to nature. Lauds, subtitled Praise High Day, honors the sunrise; it is filled with the glory and excitement of a new day."
6. Mountain Song, by Philip Sparke: "It was inspired by frequent visits by the composer to Mayrhofen in the Austrian Tyrol. On Sunday mornings the village is quiet and peaceful, the only sound being the rhythmic tolling of the church bell. The mountain peak, behind the village, is a gentle three-hour walk. As the climber ascends, the broad panorama of the Ziller Valley is glimpsed through the trees. A sudden fresh breeze catches the climber by surprise, rustling a nearby branch. A few steps further and we’re above the tree line and the full beauty of the surrounding scenery is revealed. After a short rest, the climber starts down again, eventually returning to the village and the echoes of the church bell."
7. Sunrise at Angel's Gate, by Philip Sparke: "In October 1999, I was privileged to be invited to Flagstaff, Arizona, to take part in the centenary celebrations of Northern Arizona University. The University is two hours drive from the Grand Canyon, so a visit was compulsory! It’s really not possible to describe this amazing natural phenomenon – it’s just too big. You can’t even photograph it effectively but it undoubtedly leaves a lasting impression on anyone who visits it. Sunrise and sunset are the best times to view the Canyon, as a sun low in the sky casts shadows that give depth and form to the vast panorama. Angel’s Gate is one of the many named rock formations on the northern side of the Canyon and in this piece, I have tried to depict the sights and sounds of dawn there, birdsong in the early morning sky and the gradual revelation of the Canyon itself as sunlight reaches into its rocky depths."
8. Shenandoah, by Frank Ticheli: "In my setting of Shenandoah I was inspired by the freedom and beauty of the folk melody and by the natural images evoked by the words, especially the image of a river. I was less concerned with the sound of a rolling river than with its life-affirming energy — its timelessness. Sometimes the accompaniment flows quietly under the melody; other times it breathes alongside it. The work’s mood ranges from quiet reflection, through growing optimism, to profound exaltation."
9. October, by Eric Whitacre: "October is my favorite month. Something about the crisp autumn air and the subtle change in light always makes me a little sentimental, and as I started to sketch I felt that same quiet beauty in writing. The simple, pastoral melodies and subsequent harmonies are inspired by the great English Romantics (Vaughn Williams, Elgar) as I felt that this style was almost perfectly suited to capture the natural and pastoral soul of the season."
10. Machu Picchu, by Satoshi Yagisawa: "After considering these remarkable ideas I wished to musically describe that magnificent citadel and trace some of the mysteries sealed in Machu Picchu’s past. Three principal ideas dominate the piece: 1) the shimmering golden city of Cusco set in the dramatic scenery of the Andes, 2) the destructiveness of violent invasion, and 3) the re-emergence of Incan glory as the City in the Sky again reached for the sun."

DJS

Link: https://www.sunypress.edu/p-1285-ecological-literacy.aspx
Link: fswinds.org/pgm_note/
Link: https://www.routledge.com/Eco-Literate-Music-Pedagogy/Shevock/p/book/9780415792578

Post 32.

My theology of education has been greatly influenced by ecological ideas. This week, I feel I'm spending a lot of time contemplating these ideas.* In my book I propose philosophical positions, but I also suggest a theological root (a spiritual praxis), which may be distinctive to our field. As a Catholic, I use Catholic thought to provide that theological foundation (which is extended using a couple of Buddhist authors); but I'm sure other religious traditions are able to provide other foundations. Those foundations don't discount the philosophical arguments because philosophy occurs conceptually at a different level than theology. One theologian I use extensively is Thomas Berry, CP.

Thomas Berry (1914-2009), a Passionist priest, spent a good part of his professional life integrating the ideas of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin with Thomas Aquinas; and linking those ideas to the current ecological challenges. In his 1997 "The Wisdom of the Cross," Berry quotes Aquinas: "... in all creatures there is found the trace of the Trinity," and Berry continues, "In Thomas Aquinas we find an orientation toward the world as manifesting the Trinity, the order of the universe; [and] medieval Christian thinkers ... all relate the wisdom of the cross to an inherent wisdom in the world." The antipathy many Christian writers seem to have for the natural world (and I'll add to scientific theories) "has appeared in contemporary Christianity." It is ahistoric. In contrast Berry, like Chardin, sees redemption paralleled in the material universe: "We might even say that the redemptive suffering of Christ lies in the line of creative transformation moments revealed to us in the universe throughout the entire course of history." He exemplifies, "This supernova event could be considered a sacrificial moment, a cosmological moment of grace that established the possibilities of the entire future of the solar system, Earth, and every form of life that would appear on Earth, including the spiritual dimension of the human mode of being." For Berry, cosmological, historical, and Christian moments of grace are all religious moments of grace.

Continuing Berry's line of reasoning, our domination of the natural world emerges in our psyche--our "hidden rage against the human condition"--an uneasiness (I can't help but think about my own work in interrogating uprootedness in our profession). For Christians, "The universe as divine manifestation has receded into the background ... The sense of a Christ presence or Christ identity with the natural world has been diminished." This unhappy domination of nature also leads to "ever greater exploitation of the weaker by the stronger, of the less competent by the more competent, of those who own nothing by those who own everything." And here is the ecological and spiritual root of the inequities we face. This is why I suggest educators begin by becoming conscious with the ways we are uprooted. Uprooted teachers teach uprootedness. When uprooted teachers recognize a problem, they suggest uprooting solutions. Roots are therefore a spiritual matter. A matter for religion. A matter for intergenerational culture. A matter for place.

To conclude, a theology of education based on Thomas Berry might:
1. Recognize spiritual truths within the natural world.
2. Be deeply historical, cosmological, and grace-infused.
3. Cultivate peace to alleviate the rage against the human condition in our psyche
4. Recognize the way we are uprooted, so that we can help in ways that are rooting.

Pope Francis recommends little acts, which have spiritual implications for our teaching. In Laudato Si' he writes:
"Saint Therese of Lisieux invites us to practise the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness. In the end, a world of exacerbated consumption is at the same time a world which mistreats life in all its forms." What little ways of love will emerge the next time we walk into school? Even if its a small sign, a gesture of peace, we can make a difference in the lives of our students. This is part of an ecological pedagogy, ending exploitation, selfishness, and violence against each other and creation.

DJS

*Note: my book continues to be much cheaper on the Routledge website than on Amazon or BN.com, and I cannot figure out why; but that means purchase it there, or pick it up at the library.

Link: https://www.routledge.com/Eco-Literate-Music-Pedagogy/Shevock/p/book/9780415792578
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Berry
Link: http://thomasberry.org/publications-and-media/the-christian-future-and-the-fate-of-earth
Link: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Shevock15_4.pdf
Link: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Post 31.

Many women have been important to eco-literate music pedagogy.

For instance, music education scholar Roberta Lamb was one of the first to suggest to me this work was important. It was also Lamb's 2014 ACT article, "Where Are The Women?" that led me to look to ecofeminist scholarship. She shares a quote by an ecofeminist that has influenced my skepticism about globalism: "Marciel Mena López suggests that, 'Globalization is an excuse for ending diversity' (2011, 229)."

My work into Satis Coleman (1878-1961) made me aware of many of the ways music and the natural environment are interconnected. I discuss her pedagogical idea of finding "Silence in Nature" in my 2015 MEJ article (research I conducted in 2013 in a graduate history class). Two of my mentors at Penn State, Linda Thornton and Joanne Rutkowski, deserve mention because at various points they helped support my current ecological work (Thornton through conversations about the work early in the process; and Rutkowski by reading a chapter of the book). My friend Val Flamini also read a chapter, and commented on it. She's been incorporating these ideas in her own teaching, which is an inspiration!

Though I found it late in my book writing, Julia Koza's 2006 research, "Save the Music?" draws together the ideas of cultural and environmental sustainability. She suggested we can do more with less. When I was beginning this work in 2015, I came upon Charlene Morton's 2012 chapter "Music Education 'For All My Relations'," which places ecological issues within the context of Dewey's scholarship (which I already understood well, as my doctoral cognate was a self-made "Democratic Teaching Practices.") So, without the work of these women, my book, Eco-Literate Music Pedagogy, would not exist.

Outside of music education scholarship, a mentor was Madhu Suri Prakash, who I studied educational philosophy with during my Ph.D. studies at Penn State. In her 1994 paper, "What Are People For?," (expanding on her friend Wendell Berry's short story of the same name) she discusses the connection of the destruction of culture and nature (an idea that is still central to my work). And so my work is heavily infused and informed by the work of women. Particularly, I use the work of Ecofeminists Vandana Shiva and Karen Warren in my book. Women are distinctly placed in our society to have insight about the natural environment that, if we take their work seriously, can make our profession better; more moral.

Today in Intro to Western Music, my students will be listening to Libby Larsen's "The Womanly Song of God." They'll listen, and analyze the lyrics and make sense of them. I leave the lyrics below for your reflection. How powerful these are, especially when considered along with the powerful, rhythmic, moving song.

DJS

I am the woman dancing the world alive:
Birds on my wrists
Sun-feathers in my hair
I leap through hoops of atoms;
Under my steps
Plants burst into bloom
Birches tremble in their silver
Can you not see the roundness of me:
Curve of the earth
Maternal arms of the sea?
I am the birthing woman
Kneeling by the river
Heaving, pushing forth a sacred body!

Round, round the wind
Spinning itself wild
Drawing great circles of music
Across the sky
Round the gourd full of seed
Round the moon in its ripeness
Round the door through which I come
Stooping into your house
I am a God of a thousand names:
Why cannot one of them be
Woman Singing?

Link: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Lamb13_1.pdf
Link: https://philpapers.org/rec/KOZSTM
Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0027432115590182
Link:http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195394733.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195394733-e-025
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-5446.1994.00135.x
Link: https://www.routledge.com/Eco-Literate-Music-Pedagogy/Shevock/p/book/9780415792578
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agZ9EXSPOgE
Link: https://genius.com/Libby-larsen-the-womanly-song-of-god-lyrics

Post 30.

"Go back to your books, and your armchair. Plant your trees, watch them grow. If more people valued home above gold, this world would be a merrier place." ~Thorin Oakenshield

“In the ecological age, we need to see the universe as a community; particularly the planet earth; and particularly in the biosphere.” ~Thomas Berry, C.P.

The idea of peace, and cultivating peace in the natural world, begins with self-peace. We cultivate peace within ourselves, and then we are able to cultivate peace in our families, our communities, to suggest peace-driven ecological policy, and cultivate peace in the natural world.

Even as a teenager I had an intuition that the ideas of peace and ecology were interconnected. I chose as my confirmation name “Francis,” after the 13th Century friar, Francis of Assisi. Similarly the current Pope, Francis, has been inspired by the Italian saint, using the saint's famous Canticle of the Creatures to model his 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato si’, or “Praise be to you!” "The ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us. Rather, all creatures are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival, which is God, in that transcendent fullness where the risen Christ embraces and illumines all things." Pope Francis's work certainly seems to come out of Berry's scholarship. Laudato si' is not anthropocentric. It is either ecocentric (ecology centered) or theocentric (God centered), though how you understand the words ecology and God can affect whether you think ecocentrism and theocentrism are different or the same.

When I was receiving the sacrament of confirmation, the only Francis-inspired prayer I knew was the 1912 “Peace Prayer of St. Francis,” which has been set to music many times. Though it's not written by Francis, it seems to be modeled after one of Francis's earliest followers, Giles.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.

The modern ecology movement grew out of the peace movement of the 1960s, which is evident in names of groups emerging from this era, such as Green Peace. Nuclear war and nuclear plant meltdowns continue to be an ecological concern taken up by many groups.

I hope to cultivate peace with human and non-human beings living together on this planet. How do we get there? Another poem. This one mine:

The tree’s leaves are seen each year, but roots are hidden; they seldom appear
And when they do, they trip me up
The truth of roots beyond my sight, the work of day requires night
Breathing out and breathing in, sound and silence, the other, kin
On soil I stand with roots for life, with a rake and a garden knife, with my son and with my wife, with neighbors and with wildlife
With history and the songs of place. Ways of cooking. Ways of grace.
Roots unseen within these walls, where “profession” and where “money” calls
I run headlong to be a “grown up,” but that’s when roots trip me up
Just then roots trip me up
When I look down impatiently, to hurriedly get back institutional-me, there it is, my history, and there it is, the mystery, of roots
Which, if I recall, is genuine-me

The insight I offer in my scholarship, perhaps, can be boiled down to these five points:
1. Today's global capitalist system destroys the natural environment by taking away the intrinsic value of all creatures (humans included, but not only), and placing them into a oft-devastating system of monetary value. If a mountain has a monetary value, however high, some billionaire can buy the mountain that God (or Mother Nature, or ecological systems, or all of the above) made millions of years ago, and rightfully destroy it because they "own" it. What an absurd idea!
2. The natural world has many sonic aspects that we can experience. These are nature's beauty and ugliness, and have deep spiritual meaning for us. If nothing else, we evolved with more-than-human soundscapes, and this is where their meaning lies. Once destroyed, these soundscapes cannot be easily remade. Not within millions of years anyway.
3. We are ourselves uprooted by forces connected to our global system (jobs and war are two uprooting factors), which hinder our ability to cultivate healthy communities and defend local places from environmental destruction.
4. We must reroot ourselves in local communities through family, friendships, and local organizations.
5. Before or during enacting any of this, we must wage peace upon ourselves (not absolutely correct--"cultivate" is a better word--but I like the turn of phrase from "waging" war on nature), so that we can begin to think about what solutions will actually work here and now, and set those goals.

DJS

References
The Hobbit: The Battles of Five Armies. Directed by Peter Jackson. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros., 2014.
Link: https://youtu.be/tKEBQe4c7n0
Link:https://www.osv.com/Article/TabId/493/ArtMID/13569/ArticleID/17693/Laudato-Si-On-Care-for-Our-Common-Home.aspx
Link: https://youtu.be/agPnMxp5Occ

Post 29.

I'm back from my winter break from the blog; and am excited to get back to writing eco-literate related posts for music education. On Monday, I'll be presenting a lecture at Elizabethtown College on the intersection of peacebuilding, music, and ecology. Here's a link to the Elizabethtown "Campus Connections" page for Peacebuilding, Music & Ecological Care: The Power of Music-Making in Rooted Places. Its time we declare peace on ourselves, on our communities, and on the more-than-human world.

Okay. I return with a challenging title. Perhaps even a little unfair. A mountebank is a charlatan. Someone who deceives in order to make money. In the case of music education technology mountebanks, there's certainly some money in our field in promoting technology. Its not as bad as large fields like Engineering or Medicine. But any time profit is involved in promoting less sustainable options, we should question technology scholars who avoid discussing negative aspects of technology. Here are two big challenges all technology scholars SHOULD have to address in every single published article, without exception.

1. E-waste. In 2017, the UN released an important report, "United Nations Sytem-wide Response to Tackling E-waste." All technology researchers need to read this report closely, and direct their scholarly effort to critiquing and challenging music education practices that exacerbate the e-waste crisis. E-waste is a problem that affects the global poor, women, and people of color, while tech-heavy pedagogies benefit primarily the global rich, in the U.S. and Europe. We cannot go on having our purchases hurt those on our planet who are suffering the most.

2. Human relationships. With the now infamous pro-Trump Facebook scandals of 2016, little has to be said to the general public (at least those who do not write about technology in journals) about the negative affects of social media on face-to-face relationships. I won't say too much here, but you can start by reading some of the (large amount of) scholarship that challenges social-media-as-unquestionably-good discourse. It's 2019, so I'd start with a recent book, like "Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now." If you start there, you'll at least understand the field on which social media is played.

As it is, David Orr might call our technology scholars ecological yahoos (a phrase he uses in his groundbreaking book Ecological Literacy). If they don't understand the documented impacts of e-waste and possible impacts of social media on human relationships, they can also be called technology yahoos. If we can get every music education technology scholar to consider these two problems, e-waste and human relationships, in a decade we'll understand technology in our field much better than we currently do, where much technological writing might be considered mere advertisement. We can begin to construct a meaningful approach to technological use in the 21st Century. One which addresses the unique economic and ecological challenges we face. Though I joke about it, I'm not actually a Luddite. I am a long-standing user of Facebook and YouTube. There's a chance I spend more time on these platforms than many of our field's technology mountebanks. I played M.U.D.'s in the 90s, and had a Geocities page like everybody else. But, unlike a mountebank, I do know firmly that more isn't always better. One beer isn't bad for you. Ten is horrible. The same is true for technology ... unless you're selling it. If you're an actual scholar, you need to be  outlining where the good limits are to be found.

DJS

Link: https://25livepub.collegenet.com/events-calendar/pa/elizabethtown/etown/arts/and/culture/events/cultural-events
Link: https://unemg.org/images/emgdocs/ewaste/E-Waste-EMG-FINAL.pdf
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Arguments-Deleting-Social-Media-Accounts/dp/125019668X
Link: http://www.sunypress.edu/p-1285-ecological-literacy.aspx