Welcome to the stage, Cadenza the Newsletter!
All about Cadenza, cultural criticism as a sacred practice, The Bushwhackers, and how we are NOT machines for endlessly working
Welcome to the stage, Cadenza the Newsletter!
There are many brilliant newsletters about creativity, culture studies, noticing things and bossing people about great things to read and watch. I’m interested in the intersection between music, creativity and all the ways we teach and pass on the things we’ve learned. Where is the newsletter for the adult who wants more music in their life? One that highlights the struggles, inner game, processes, fears of trying to live a life with music?
Here she is, Cadenza the Newsletter. I’ve been dreaming about her for a while. The books I want to talk about, the links to share, playlists to make public, podcasts to rave about and the connections between all of these things to our practices in music, creativity and teaching. LIke a cadenza, if you will.
Why name her after a cadenza? Back when I learned violin concertos the cadenza was my favourite part. The flashiest bit. The bit where you were licensed to show off your personality. You could improvise, or at least make it sound like you were improvising. Take a musical idea and spool it out into places you want to explore.
Cadenza Ad Libitum (Thoughts and Links)
Thinking about how we use cultural criticism as a sacred practice to enrich our experiences of music, podcasts, TV, film and books.
An autumnal playlist for those in the currently cold Southern Hemisphere or who just want some extra cosiness in their lives
Two podcasts exploring the idea of the switches built in our psyche and in our very cells: In ‘The Dirty Drug and the Ice-cream Tub’ RadioLab (alongside a killer story about the discover in Easter Island of a miracle drug that seems to ‘stop time’) discusses the idea of on and off seasons lying in every being’s very cells while the ‘Leisure’ episode of The Real Question deep dives into what leisure actually is and why we resist it, defining leisure as switching from the state of giving to receiving. In other words, you are not a machine for working, take a nap when you need it
Before the lockdown Lach and I went to the Brunswick Ballroom to watch the Bushwhackers (yes, at thirty we were the youngest folks in the room). This band, with all it’s akubra wearing, lagerphone glory is in the DNA of so much of the music we love and make. Really political too. In particular the song about the Shearers Strike (/birth of the labour party) and this song about immigration and building your life in a new land.
New Resources section on my website including links to workshops I’ve run in the past:
Finding your classroom rhythm with rock-steady routines
Teaching the Philosophical Question: What is Music?
Seven ways to practice a fiddle tune