“I live in Music” blogpost prompt

i live in music
. . .
do you live here in music
sound
falls round me like rain on other folks 

           –“I live in music”

Shange does not speak of a particular kind of music. Instead, she finds music in all sound–from the rhythms of typing, to the particular cadences and intonations of blacks’ speech, to the seductive reticence of a saxophone or bass clarinet. Music, as natural as the elements, releases and sustains full creative energies,

Neal A. Lester, Ntozake Shange: A Critical Study of the Plays

Neal Lester puts his finger on sound as a specific facet of Shange’s method, something she shares with many Black Arts Movement artists. (Indeed S.O.S. Calling All Black People includes a whole section of music lyrics.) Poet Harmony Holiday’s argument about the intense musicality and orality of Amiri Baraka’s work and influence could speak just as well to Shange’s work:

Perhaps Mr. Baraka can’t be understood fully without recourse to sound — his style of oratory and the range of expression in his voice, whether heard in person or on the records he occasionally made, often with jazz musicians. . . . you can adduce clear relationships between his written and oral phrasing and the playing of John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach and Albert Ayler (quoted in “Hearing Amiri Baraka,” NYTimes 1/17/14).  You can listen to her conversation with Ben Ratcliffe (and to clips of Baraka) below.

As you know from poems like “I live in Music” (nappy edges) and Shange’s many collaborations with musicians, sound and music are an important part of the physicality of her language: music makes an appearance at key moments in her fiction and verse as well as in her choreopoems. For this blogpost, pick a piece of music or significant sound that is cited or played in one of her works. (You can choose one from the playlists or pick one on your own.) Listen to the song and find out a little about its background. How does the song function in the text? For example, does it create an emotional state, evoke a certain historical period, link to movement, or cite a certain politics? What correspondences can you see between the music and written phrasing? With what sensory experiences is music connected?

This is a post you can do at any point during the year.  Feel free to use it if you don’t have a focus. You can also use it in conjunction with your music contribution to class.