It is very pleasing and exciting to find that, in the other half of the world, there are colleagues reading what I have wrote. It also makes me happy that the little thoughts about a local phenomenon make other people think about the sounds of their own culture. So, first of all, thank you for letting me know about this. The "cacerolazo", as we call it in this latitudes , has been a spontaneous phenomenon of non violent civil protest, which started last December regarding the burst of a social and economical crisis. Suddenly, the government decided that all the savings that people had in banks had to be attached, decided the marshal law , and simultaneously devaluated the currency to one third of its value related to the American dollar.
The response of the Buenos Aires citizens, absolutely spontaneous, was to go out to the streets challenging the marshal law and marching to the government buildings with empty cooking pots (as a symbol of hunger), which were hit with spoons. As the result of this social riot , called "cacerolazo" (which literally means " bump given with a cooking pan"), the government fell and was replaced by a transitional government until next elections. Since then, the "cacerolazos" became a sonorous symbol of social protest, and you can hear it frequently in the city streets and squares. Today, for any Argentinean , the metallic sound of any kitchen element that is being hit takes him immediately to the feeling and image of a protest.
Obviously, there are lots of sounds in our culture . Some of the musical sounds, due to the globalization and to the disco industry, go beyond boundaries, in a non - reciprocal way. The huge mass media corporations create sonorous products that different populations continuously consume in a massive way. Others also go beyond boundaries, in behalf of their artistic quality of their producers (I'm thinking, for example , in artists of the level of Keith Jarret, B. Meldauh, J. Garbarek, C. Hayden, E. Gismonti, A. Piazzolla, J. Mitchell). Although they are not as popular as others, they are also part of a global sonorous culture. But then, there are other sonorities, that are absolutely local. Some are musical, and lots of them are not. They are part of the sonorous environment from each place, and in each of those places they hold a great richness that we, music therapists, must discover. I agree with you when you say that all senses are stimulated in a particular way in each place. Tokyo surely smells different from Buenos Aires. New York has a urban sonority which is completely different to the one from Viena or Río de Janeiro. But even though we pay attention to the sonority of each place, we must consider that in every big city there are a lots of social subgroups, and, that each one of them has its own Non Verbal Communicational Modes. Part of our duty as Music therapists is get to know, decipher and impregnate with our clients Non Verbal Communicational Modes, and get to know the sonority of their global culture, of their social subgroup, and their own. From my perspective, that's an essential step for an effective therapeutic action.
I want to finish telling you about my curiosity for the "therapy with sounds of nature and sounds in life". In Argentina we have various theoretical theories in Music Therapy, but there is nothing about what you mentioned. We use occasionally , the sounds of the environment , but nobody works focusing on sounds of nature. Could it be possible for you to send me information about this?
I hope these thoughts don't lead us to a dead end, but allow us to continue exchanging opinions and points of view. It is quite enriching for me.
From the other side of the planet, with affection,
Dear Akiko:
It is very pleasing and exciting to find that, in the other half of the world, there are colleagues reading what I have wrote. It also makes me happy that the little thoughts about a local phenomenon make other people think about the sounds of their own culture. So, first of all, thank you for letting me know about this. The "cacerolazo", as we call it in this latitudes , has been a spontaneous phenomenon of non violent civil protest, which started last December regarding the burst of a social and economical crisis. Suddenly, the government decided that all the savings that people had in banks had to be attached, decided the marshal law , and simultaneously devaluated the currency to one third of its value related to the American dollar.
The response of the Buenos Aires citizens, absolutely spontaneous, was to go out to the streets challenging the marshal law and marching to the government buildings with empty cooking pots (as a symbol of hunger), which were hit with spoons. As the result of this social riot , called "cacerolazo" (which literally means " bump given with a cooking pan"), the government fell and was replaced by a transitional government until next elections. Since then, the "cacerolazos" became a sonorous symbol of social protest, and you can hear it frequently in the city streets and squares. Today, for any Argentinean , the metallic sound of any kitchen element that is being hit takes him immediately to the feeling and image of a protest.
Obviously, there are lots of sounds in our culture . Some of the musical sounds, due to the globalization and to the disco industry, go beyond boundaries, in a non - reciprocal way. The huge mass media corporations create sonorous products that different populations continuously consume in a massive way. Others also go beyond boundaries, in behalf of their artistic quality of their producers (I'm thinking, for example , in artists of the level of Keith Jarret, B. Meldauh, J. Garbarek, C. Hayden, E. Gismonti, A. Piazzolla, J. Mitchell). Although they are not as popular as others, they are also part of a global sonorous culture. But then, there are other sonorities, that are absolutely local. Some are musical, and lots of them are not. They are part of the sonorous environment from each place, and in each of those places they hold a great richness that we, music therapists, must discover. I agree with you when you say that all senses are stimulated in a particular way in each place. Tokyo surely smells different from Buenos Aires. New York has a urban sonority which is completely different to the one from Viena or Río de Janeiro. But even though we pay attention to the sonority of each place, we must consider that in every big city there are a lots of social subgroups, and, that each one of them has its own Non Verbal Communicational Modes. Part of our duty as Music therapists is get to know, decipher and impregnate with our clients Non Verbal Communicational Modes, and get to know the sonority of their global culture, of their social subgroup, and their own. From my perspective, that's an essential step for an effective therapeutic action.
I want to finish telling you about my curiosity for the "therapy with sounds of nature and sounds in life". In Argentina we have various theoretical theories in Music Therapy, but there is nothing about what you mentioned. We use occasionally , the sounds of the environment , but nobody works focusing on sounds of nature. Could it be possible for you to send me information about this?
I hope these thoughts don't lead us to a dead end, but allow us to continue exchanging opinions and points of view. It is quite enriching for me.
From the other side of the planet, with affection,
Diego.-