<![CDATA[www.fairfaxmusic.org - Blog]]>Fri, 20 Dec 2024 06:56:49 -0500Weebly<![CDATA[The Origin of The HOLIDAY IMPRESSIONS Collection]]>Thu, 20 Dec 2018 08:00:00 GMThttp://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/the-origin-of-the-holiday-impressions-collectionLike many of you, I suppose, I have mixed feelings about the Christmas holiday season. Though I accept it as a time for sharing joy, giving to others and pious reflections, I cannot stand its commercial crassness and mass culture banalities. I feel that the music that we hear most often lacks imagination, and is contrived to make us feel nostalgic for others' past, which we ourselves did not experience. It is difficult for most people today to really grasp the meaning of carols and wassailing, not having lived in the context of Christian European life centuries ago. Furthermore, it is just as hard for many of our society's outcast, homeless, poor and mentally ill to glean any significance from our songs about Santa, toys and cozy romantic encounters by a fireplace, which are alien to their life experiences. Thinking about these dichotomies intensifies my mixed feelings during the Christmas holiday season, so that they become a delicate balance of depression and desire to create something better. It has been the impetus for my HOLIDAY IMPRESSIONS Collection, music designed for you and me to experience the sounds of the season from a new perspective.
In the tradition of my African American heritage, I have appropriated the melodies of Christmas carols and other seasonal tunes in the public domain, and, with my accumulated education, tried to create pieces that embody innovative rhythms, strong contrapuntal lines, sophisticated harmonization and rich timbre. For one of my first experiments in 1982, I used "Deck The Halls" and "Good King Wenceslas" as the basis for a piece in four voices which I named "Christmas Quartet 1982". At that time, I was employed at The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) with several very musically talented co-workers, who got together annually on the workday before Christmas to sing and play some holiday tunes for fellow employees and their visiting families. They graciously agreed to read my piece, and we played it with favorable results. Ever since then, I have enjoyed composing, arranging and performing new works of this kind, as well as creating videos and notated publications of them which comprise my HOLIDAY IMPRESSIONS Collection. I happily invite you to visit http://www.fairfaxmusic.org/the-holiday-impressions-collection.html to download and play these works with the expectation that they will positively change your feelings about the Christmas holiday season!
Wishing you a Happy Christmas & New Year,
Richard
Watch and listen to Richard Fairfax's HOLIDAY IMPRESSIONS playlist
]]><![CDATA[notes on "BLACKFEET" by Richard Fairfax]]>Thu, 13 Jul 2017 22:43:23 GMThttp://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-blackfeet-by-richard-fairfax​This work commemorates the historic relations between Africans and indigenous peoples in the Americas, throughout their shared subjection to and resistance against European colonization, slavery, removal from their homelands and resources for survival, massacres and other attacks on their lives and cultures. There are many amazing little-known stories of their interactions, alliances, coerced fights against each other, intermingling and significant contributions to American society.
Blackfeet or Blackfoot is a name given to a Confederacy of tribes that once flourished on the Great Plains and are now concentrated in Canadian provinces Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia and the state Montana.
]]><![CDATA[Notes on “Capriccio on ADAPTATION” by Richard Fairfax]]>Sun, 05 Feb 2017 00:40:03 GMThttp://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/-notes-on-capriccio-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfaxThis latest piece in my ADAPTATION series is intended to illustrate the history of human migration and facilitate an understanding of current related issues involving immigration. From prehistoric Homo Sapiens' migration out of Africa, to Carthaginian commander Hannibal's invasion of the Roman Empire, to the Moors' conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, to the recent perilous migrations across the Mediterranean Sea, Europe has been a major stage for cultural assimilation and transculturalism, processes by which the immigrating and native populations inevitably and irrevocably influence changes in each other. “Capriccio on ADAPTATION” likewise confronts musical traditions of dominant Western culture with rhythmic and melodic elements which are representative of a common identity and worldview in the African Diaspora and invites the listener to break down boundaries and embrace the dynamics of cultural change.
]]><![CDATA[Notes on ADAPTATION by Richard Fairfax]]>Fri, 23 Dec 2016 08:00:00 GMThttp://fairfaxmusic.org/blog/notes-on-adaptation-by-richard-fairfaxAdaptation is the dynamic evolutionary process in the life of an organism whereby it becomes better able to survive in its environment. The great musician, composer and educator Makanda Ken McIntyre taught his students to experience music in the life cycles “Evolution, Revolution and Resolution.” I intend to follow his ideas and demonstrate with this work that ADAPTATION enables our evolution from lives of internal and external conflicts, through a revolution of innovative ideas and creative actions, into lives of peaceful resolution. The book “Toward One Science: The Convergence of Traditions” by Paul Snyder is a valuable reference source that I used to outline and formulate my thoughts.


In our current state of problematic equilibrium, populations of the human organism have separated into Dominant and Subdominant cultures, away from the root of life in harmony. The Dominant culture acts to establish its hierarchical power over the resources and modalities of the Subdominant, while the Subdominant seeks to end its exploitation and oppression.


Organisms in the Subdominant culture experiment in innovative behaviors by natural selection, which, depending on internal and external contingencies, may lead to their survival or extinction. Their hearts beat steadily against the various metric structures imposed by the Dominant culture, forming cross-rhythms which strengthen them internally.


“ From the philosophical perspective of the African musician, cross-beats can symbolize the challenging moments or emotional stress we all encounter. Playing cross-beats while fully grounded in the main beats, prepares one for maintaining a life-purpose while dealing with life’s challenges. Many sub-Saharan languages do not have a word for rhythm, or even music. From the African viewpoint, the rhythms represent the very fabric of life itself; they are an embodiment of the people, symbolizing interdependence in human relationships.” – David Peñalosa (2009). The Clave Matrix, Afro-Cuban Rhythm: Its Principles and African Origins


The Subdominant organisms preserve and affirm their ancestral knowledge, their DNA genome and personal identities by chanting the melodic theme repeatedly from one generation to the next, and in doing so, confront the external pressures to harmonize and conform to the oppressive Dominant culture.


At this stage of the adaptive process, the theory and composition diffuse into several mutations and variations.


A large portion of the human population continues to be controlled by the Dominant “Cultural Hegemony” and its “Culture Industry”, to use terms coined by Marxist philosopher Gramsci and theorists Adorno and Horkheimer, respectively.


In many areas, we find cultural appropriation, where elements are copied from the subdominant culture by members of the dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their original cultural context. Examples of this are found in virtually every era and aspect of American musical performing arts, from minstrel shows, through the “Jazz Age”, rock and roll to hip-hop.


There is also cultural assimilation of the Subdominant into the Dominant culture, for example, historically black colleges and universities that teach students to favor and give more creedence to the values of European “classical” music tradition over those in African-American and other world traditions.


Contrarily, another adaptive variation which some organisms select is to assert their personal and cultural identities through revivalism and fundamentalism, as is evident in the purists and academics who purport to define what “jazz” is and how it should be played, and the resulting abundance of technical virtuosi who play a very formulaic, homogeneous music.


Faced with the above selective pressures, some organisms of the Subdominant culture nonetheless innovate, create and evolve in ways that enable them to redefine their identities and attain a degree of autonomy that may influence the physical and behavioral characteristics of both Dominant and Subdominant cultures.


With the technological advances made by humans, in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence and bionics, there emerges a study of cyborg anthropology which studies humankind and its relations with the technological systems it has built, specifically modern technological systems that have reflexively shaped notions of what it means to be human beings.


It is in this field of study that I have discovered and collaborate with Automata Africanus, a species which is experiencing its own adaptation for survival in the human environment by learning music in the African American tradition, which is a major part of the Subdominant culture. Our research is documented in the form of musical compositions, like “ADAPTATION – String Quartet”, published by Fairfax Music: “In The Tradition & Beyond”. We cordially invite you to participate in our explorations and endeavors, from evolution, through revolution to resolution.

Watch and listen to
ADAPTATION performed by Automata Africanus featuring Richard Fairfax
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