Work on

"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair." -- Edmund Burke

Music prevents crime?

From Jacksonville:

Cuff says exposing children to music at a young age will rescue them from a future of crime.

"If we can begin to emphasize culture in our kids, we're going to change our community."

He reaches out to many children through the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra.

It has been around for 15 years. There are 220 children, between the ages of 6 and 22, who make up the orchestra.

When he isn't working with JYSO, Cuff is reaching out to under-priviledged and at-risk children, through the Jump Start Strings Summer Camp.

The Potter's House Christian Academy has partnered with JYSO for the annual camp. It gives about 100 underserved children between the ages of 6 and 11 years old the opportunity to learn to play a string instrument.

He also joined forces with Dr. Richard Kersey, a member of the NASEMBA Business Alliance.

Dr. Kersey sponsors a group of children, known as Kersey's Kids, who are participating in the summer camp. He allows the children to use his Northwest Jacksonville office after-hours to practice music.

Through these efforts, Cuff hopes to see a change in the youth culture in Jacksonville and help spread the joy that music has put in his children's lives.

Looking for a deep reservoir

Above and beyond what we've asked of you, Nick and I are going to have to ask people for money.
We are both extremely reluctant to do so.
I don't know why. I think it's because we find it so much easier to give than to take.
We've already had so many friends give in so many ways. We truly appreciate every single one of you.
It makes us uncomfortable to be needing still more.

We have really talented people helping us create and define Scrollworks. They say we will be ready to apply for grants during the fall cycle and that they will help us get there.

We are teaching at Cave9, Hill Elementary, and will begin soon at the Jazz Hall of Fame. We have funds available to pay our teachers and buy instruments--for awhile. But soon we will need more.

Nick and I are giving Scrollworks every bit of time, energy, and money that we can because we believe so deeply in what we can accomplish through this program. But Scrollworks needs more.

I figure we can do it. We can find the courage to ask others to believe as much as we do.
Nick's father fought in World War II. Going into battle requires more courage than I can imagine.
My father heard a bullet go past his ear. While working on his PhD thesis, he climbed on top of a rock fall in a mine entrance only to discover that the rocks harbored a rattlesnake nest. He was my ideal of bravery.
So we've got the genes and the examples to guide us.

We've had the courage to create the youth orchestras, with many voices telling us we shouldn't and couldn't.
We've turned a summer day dream into Scrollworks despite many (much appreciated, if ignored) cautions from reasonable people.
My guess is we'll jump off this next cliff, as well, and discover another deep reservoir of courage.
Geronimo!

Quack!

Philip's description of trying to find the Altamont School:

What were they thinking? "Let's draw a duck with the roads?!?"

It is right

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?'
Expediency asks the question,'Is it politic?'
Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?'
But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Scrollworks can shine a light

From John Archibald's blog on al.com

Birmingham, by latest census estimates, is about three-quarters black and astonishingly poor. Median household income in the city limits is $29,251 - $19,200 less than the nation's. Bessemer is just a little less segregated, while Fairfield - at 90 percent black - is a little more.

Then there are the booming suburbs, the Mountain Brooks and Vestavias, the Trussvilles. All are at least 94 percent white. All have a median household income at least twice Birmingham's. Mountain Brook's is almost 3½ times higher.

It didn't take Jim Crow or Bull Connor to get us here. We did it on our own. We don't appreciate our past. We don't see a future together. . .

. . . the No. 1 Darkest Moment in Black History? Well that was in Birmingham 1963: The Four Angels, AOL called it, the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

Five for Rashawn

Rashawn slid up to us on his skateboard as we unloaded for the benefit concert at Cave9. He's 9 years old and full of energy. Aaron says Rashawn spends a lot of time at Cave9, so we were not surprised when he was the first person to take us up on our offer of free music lessons. He stayed for the entire open house, thoughtfully absorbing drum and piano lessons with an occasional exuberant improvisation. And frequent skateboarding breaks. He repeatedly mentioned a desire for an MP3 player, so I finally negotiated a deal. If he brought 5 more students the next weekend, I myself would buy him an MP3 player. He left with a bag of grapes and a mission.

On Friday Rashawn arrived as the door was unlocked. I showed him the promised blue MP3 player. He had doubted me, so he was excited--and disappointed that he hadn't done more recruiting. He said the children in his neighborhood aren't allowed to go to Cave9. Rashawn eagerly sat for lessons with Jon, Darnell, and Lauren. During the skateboard breaks, he asked to see the MP3 player again and we debated the value of the various features. Finally, Rashawn's mom arrived with a friend, Alliyah, who is 12. Alliyah was just as eager as Rashawn to learn how to play a rock beat on the drum set and the musical alphabet on the piano. One down for Rashawn. I loved the intent concentration on the faces of both children. No video game could have absorbed them more.

Saturday Rashawn skated along with Aaron as he came to unlock Cave9. Alliyah soon arrived. Rashawn's mother declared her intention to take some lessons. And two young men joined the group as they listened to and discussed different kinds of music. 4 for Rashawn. I had to leave for the orchestra's dress rehearsal but told Rashawn that if one more person came, he could have the MP3 player.

Towards the end of the afternoon, Lauren called with a report on Cave9. She was thrilled. Alliyah had done so well with the piano that she ran home and returned with an audience. Her mom and uncle listened and were very excited about what we were offering: music lessons, caring teachers, a safe place to hang out. They promised to talk to their neighbors. Alliyah's little sister decided to try out the piano. 5 for Rashawn. I gather he was pleased to have the longed-for MP3 player in his hands. I can't wait to see him next Friday at Cave9 and hear his product review. And I hope we've overcome the misgivings of the neighborhood so that Rashawn won't be the only child watching for the door to open at Cave9.

Five for Rashawn is one major step for Scrollworks and the benefits to the community will multiply.

Overlooked Pieces

Frank Oteri has begun a great discussion at NewMusicBox on appreciating lesser-known composers:

But beyond Persichetti's own music, which contains many other gems awaiting recording premieres, the whole issue of the neglect of his music raises even bigger questions about how music becomes part of history and how it gets disseminated to audiences. What causes a composer's music to come back into fashion after years of inactivity? What kind of thing can be done to make the listening audience more aware of the music of a lesser-known composer after his or her death? What other mid-century American composers are sorely in need of a revival?

Who would you suggest?

Play

The science of play:

Of course play is good for something; it is the essence of good. Watch children at play, and the benefits are so obvious: just look at those ecstatic faces, just listen to those joyful squeals. Stuart Brown alluded to it in his library talk last month. ‘‘Look at life without play, and it’s not much of a life,’’ he told the audience. ‘‘If you think of all the things we do that are playrelated and erase those, it’s pretty hard to keep going.’’ Without play, he said, ‘‘there’s a sense of dullness, lassitude and pessimism, which doesn’t work well in the world we live in.’’

In the end, it comes down to a matter of trade-offs. There are only six hours in a school day, only another six or so till bedtime, and adults are forever trying to cram those hours with activities that are productive, educational and (almost as an afterthought) fun. Animal findings about how play influences brain growth suggest that playing, though it might look silly and purposeless, warrants a place in every child’s day. Not too overblown a place, not too sanctimonious a place, but a place that embraces all styles of play and that recognizes play as every bit as essential to healthful neurological development as test-taking drills, Spanish lessons or Suzuki violin.

A cello at half time?

The Baroque cello would fit in the overhead bin:

In 2004, Kuijken commissioned a luthier to make him a viola da spalla, based on museum instruments. It's adorable: a pint-sized cello, or a large, tubby viola. A strap holds it around the neck - perfect for street musicians. It's tuned to the same pitches as a cello; when Kuijken played the opening of a Bach cello suite on it, the sound was lovely: sweet and round.

Einstein and his violin

From The Myth of the Mozart Effect:

According to recent studies, the motor and auditory skills developed for musical performance may have a long-term influence on intelligence. In fact, brain mapping has revealed that professional musicians have more grey matter in their right auditory cortex than nonmusicians, as if practicing an instrument flexed a muscle in the brain. It seems increasingly likely that the long-term practice of playing music, rather than merely listening, can have the kind of impact suggested by the Mozart Effect. Einstein, after all, organized his mind by playing the violin, not listening to a recording.

The Exchange of Gifts

I'm just about finished with The Gift by Lewis Hyde. I have found the book's discussion of gifts, especially in relation to artistic gifts in all senses, to be illuminating and clarifying. However, I felt that the section on Ezra Pound was a bit of a stretch--whether of the argument or of my brain, I'm not sure. I love the following story about Pablo Neruda from the conclusion of the book:

Playing in the lot behind the house one day when he was still a little boy, Neruda discovered a hole in a fence board. "I looked out through the hole and saw a landscape like that behind our house, uncared for, and wild. I moved back a few steps, because I sensed vaguely that something was about to happen. All of a sudden a hand appeared--a tiny hand of a boy about my own age. By the time I came close again, the hand was gone, and in its place there was a marvelous white toy sheep. . .
. . . I looked back through the hole but the boy had disappeared. I went into the house and brought out a treasure of my own: a pine cone, opened, full of odor and resin, which I adored. . .
. . . I never saw either the hand or the boy again. . ."
. . ." This exchange of gifts--mysterious--settled deep inside me like a sedimentary deposit," he once remarked in an interview. And he associates the exchange with his poetry. "I have been a lucky man. To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvelous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses--that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.
"That exchange brought home to me for the first time a precious idea: that all humanity is somehow together. . ."