Music

Music is a re-occurring theme from Rosemary's interviews.  Below are some of her quotes.

(talking about her father and her childhood)

"Another thing we used to do is sing to these, uh, Sing Along With Mitch...Old folk songs. Ha. He’s buy these record albums and they’d have him singing on it, and then you’d have all the words so you could sing with it.  And my mom and my sis-my mom was a musician, my father was not...And, my sister’s a musician, and…she was 4 years older.  This, I guess I was probably six or seven when we were doing this, and my sister (mumbles)  ten or eleven, and my mom.  And they’d be laughin’ at us because my dad really couldn’t sing (laughs) and he would be all off key, and  ya’ know, they were learned musicians, so, anyway, they would laugh at us...They’d think it was really funny."

"They wouldn’t sing?"

"No, well, no.  Because they  were sort of-well, maybe they did sometimes, but they would just get a kick out of.  It was mostly my dad, really, because he really was kinda’ tone deaf and couldn’t sing at all, and my mom was a musician, it was a real, contrast.  And I was little, so I couldn’t really sing that well either, just ‘cause I was little."

(We laugh.)

"But you’re a musician now."

"Yeah, I am, well, yeah, I started playing flute when I was young, and I took lessons, and I was a musician, I was gonna’, I almost became professional, I thought maybe I would when I was younger, when I was a teenager."

"Be a professional musician?  That’s cool, why did you decide to not be a professional musician?"

"Well, I guess it was a combination of wanting to be outside and (clears throat) noticing how competitive it was in classical music and how…um…flute is a really common instrument and there’s lots and lots and lots of really good flute players and I wasn’t really good. I studied real hard and I’m a good musician, but I really, I had some limitations on the flute and I was realistic about that, it’s not like I was down on myself, I just understood that I didn’t have a competitive personality, I didn’t have an edge by being…In other words, you have to be fantastic on the flute in order to have a chance, because there’s so many-"

"At making money?"

"Yeah, so, I was pretty disenchanted with that and really it wasn’t a friendly environment, you know, all those things put together.  And I really wanted to be outside, and I really wanted to…be physically active in my work.  I decided that, rather than diet, I was gonna just eat well, and be active, and I wanted to have an outdoor active job.  I just really decided that through my teenage years as I was studying music.  I just knew that I kinda’ wanted to be on a farm.  I just sorta’… I started forming that, I guess I was probably 16 or 17, actually, really more like 14 now that I think about it.  I started getting these magazines called Natural Lifestyles, when I went to Philadelphia to my flute lesson.  (laughs)  I’d get these magazines and start reading about them, they were homesteading magazines, and they were about, like, cheese making and growing vegetables.  And by the time I was, ya’ know graduating from high school and thinking about music school, I applied to music school, I was also, already had this interest of being in the country.  (tape whirling, Degra most likely asked about when Rosemary went to music school.)  I did, let’s see, I did for 2 years, the first year was when I was a senior in high school.  I went to classes on Saturdays.  And then one year after that."

"What…was that in, Pennsylvania?'

"That was in Philadelphia, yeah.'

"What was the school called?"

"The New School of Music."

"The New School of Music.  Was it a college?"

"Um, it was a conservatory, so you could go there when you were younger, if you were good enough, and you could also go there as a college.  But let’s see, you had to combine it with the Temple-another college to get your academics, cause they only taught music...Yeah.  And they were expanding. I got a scholarship to go there when I was a senior ‘cause they were expanding into wind instruments, they were mostly just strings before that, so, now they’re associated with Temple University’s music school.  So this is many years later, but it kind of evolved.  It was started by a man who was from Curtis Institute, which is a very famous conservatory in Philadelphia.  He started New School of Music, which used all these, anyway, yeah, I went there."  (laughs)

" OK".

"It was fun, I really enjoyed the music classes...Yeah, {and I went [there] one year while I was in high school, I went on Saturdays."

"But I’ve been doing so much music and stuff lately, that I haven’t been gardening as a hobby, as much as doing it for my job."

"So music’s coming back in your life!"

"Very much, yeah."

"That’s exciting."

"Yeah, it is."

"And you’re going to Ghana, and you’re probably pretty good at playing drums now."

"I’m getting’ there, with practicing."

"What kind of drum do you play?"

"Djembe, mostly...They’re actually not from Ghana, huh, they’re from Guinea."

"Hum, is that what Kusun plays?"

"Um, couple of them play that, yeah, but it’s not their traditional instrument."

"Um-hum.  Do they play traditional music of Ghana?"

"Yes.  They also play, they teach, some of the dances they teach are from Guinea.  Cause they, ya’ know, learn different stuff from around west Africa and they teach different things.  But their main mission is to spread the traditional music and dance of Ghana, to, sort of so it doesn’t get lost...All over the world.  Yeah, not so much in Ghana, there’s not as much, I mean, they’ll try, but there’s not as much interest in the traditional stuff in Ghana... I know, it’s curious.  I mean, I don’t have as much interest in traditional American music.  We used to love folk music, and I probably in the right context still would, I mean it’s fun to sing, and stuff."

"Plus we’re used to it, and since we’re used to it, we’re not really that excited about learning about it."

"Well no, and yet these guys, they love it, they love doing their traditional music..."

"That’s why I play music, ya’ know, it’s a great free way to have fun!" (laughs)

"Uh-hum, it is!  Do you have to pay for your classes?"

P:  Yeah, I do, so that’s not free.

"But it’s cheap."

"Yeah, I mean if-I really enjoy getting better, ya’ know, I like-I love the feeling of accomplishment.  It’s very thrilling to play when...whenever you have some skill behind you, it gives you a lot of freedom to...But I have a Friday night drum group and a Sunday drum circle and there’s no money exchanged and they’re lots of fun."

"Are those your friends, or…whose in that?"

"I have, um, on Friday night it’s a small group of friends that actually, the drum circle’s been going on for about 15 years.  It’s longer than I’ve even been known, and on sun-um-it’s moved here."

"It’s at your house?"

"Yeah, it is.  At this point it is.  And then on Sunday I have a women’s drum circle, every Sunday, for any women of any level, and I teach...'

(Phone rings.)

"So, you have a women’s drum circle on Sundays."

"Yeah. Yeah, and I teach the African rhythms that I know.  (clears throat)  Yeah. We have a great time, we sing too.  A lot of women like to sing, so we focus a little bit on that."

"And where’s that?"

"Here."

"At your house?"

"Um-hum."

"Wow.  Drumming is a big part of your life"

The following excerpts are from our second interview.

"So, ummmm. When I was transcribing your stuff, I just thought that music is such a big part of your life, that that must be like one of the most important things to you."

"It is, it has been, I took a pretty long break from it.  I did it when, my mother was a music teacher, so I had it a lot growing up.  And then I stopped when I was about 22, and I really never played, or sang, or did anything for about 22, 23 years.  And then, I started, I had this flute, that’s a really nice flute.  And I had it that whole time, and I started thinking, I started thinking, ya’ know, I have this flute and it’s not being played, and I felt really badly that it wasn’t being played, and I thought I really ‘oughtta sell it, if I’m not gonna’ play it I really ‘oughtta sell it, ‘cause it’s just sitting there, ‘ya know? I actually have 2 flutes, they’re pretty nice, but one’s especially nice.  So I got it out and started playing it. (laughs)  I’m so glad I didn’t sell it, because I really got into it, I mean I haven’t, recently I haven’t been playing that much flute."

"When did you do that?"

"That was about six, seven years ago. Six years ago, I guess. Ya’ know, actually, ya’ know, played with some friends, and did a bunch of stuff. And I got, I found a guitar player and started doing duets, classical flute and guitar duets.  We even got a few jobs playing out, it was really, really fun. I think the main reason I’m not doing flute is because it requires that you do it really often in order to be able to play.  Because the muscles in, around your mouth get-it’s like being an athlete, I mean it’s not really like being an athlete, but around your mouth it is.  You have to have those muscles developed, so for me to pick up and play now, when I haven’t played in a while, less than 5 minutes, I’m not gonna’ be able to play anymore.  But if I played everyday for 10 minutes, then I’d be able to play. But I just don’t have that consistency with the flute."

"You do with drums!"

"I do, although I can go easily a week or two without drums, if it happens, and it won’t be a problem."

"Do your arms, I mean, your arms are more mus-I mean they get built up muscularly, right?  From playing?"

"Yeah, they do, yeah, to some degree."

"And I guess since you use your arms a lot in work, anyway, that you don’t loose that."

"Right.  Plus, even if your arms get tired you can still made a sound out of the drum.  Whereas, what’ll happen is the muscles around my mouth will get so tired, I can’t even get a sound out of the flute."

"Oh!"

"Because it gets that bad, when they’re not in shape like that.  So it’s a little, it’s a little discouraging, ‘cause I’d love to be able to just pick it up and play anytime I want, but I really can’t do that for more than, 45 minutes.  (laughs)  And that’s it.  (laughs)  Unless I start playing everyday."

"I think it’s neat you do music, I never have."

"I’m so glad I got back into it, ‘cause I really didn’t have any desire, for a long time.  And then I started playing the drums, and then I started playing the flute, again.  I love the West African music so much that…I really get into that.  I play a little flute, West African style.   A little bit."

(We talk at same time and drowning each other out.)

"They’ve got a flute you blow into, ya’ know, kinda’, it’s not a recorder, but it’s a wooden kind of a, they call it a flute."

"Do you have one of those?"

"No.  I haven’t been playing that, I’ve been playing the same tunes on my silver flute."  (laughs)

"That’s good still."

"Yeah, yeah.  Just not as much, it’s not, well, it’s not as demanding as classical.  Classical is so-you need such discipline to play classical. It’s incredibly fun when you’re in shape and doing it all the time.  But if you get out of shape you can’t do it, at all."  (laughs)

"I guess not, you just have to practice a lot if you wanna’ do it."

"Yeah…and let it go if you don’t."  (laughs)

(I have been talking about how I have no rhythm in music.)

"When I was 4, my mom had, there were 3 other 4 year-olds in our neighborhood, and she would have us all over and she taught us songs.  And she had us, she gave us pots and pans, like a pot with a spoon, or maybe 2 pot lids for cymbals, and we would march around the house singing songs.  And she would get us to march and play on the beat by singing, ya’ know, stuff like that.  Just little games that get you…just keeping a beat, paying attention to keeping a beat."

"Well see, I don’t know how to keep a beat, so…"

"You know what, the other thing I want to say about that is that everyone has a heartbeat, so everyone has a rhythm, so you do have an internal rhythm, you don’t loose it, you can’t loose it."

"Well that’s a really good point, so maybe I should learn to my heartbeat…Does that make sense?"

"Yeah."

(laughs)  "OK.  OK, so I’ll do that."

"...Because also I think drumming is a visual thing, do you think so?  That a performance has it’s, that the visual is very enhancing?  That’s what I think."

"I think so to some degree.  Um,  it depends on the people, though, I mean, some people can perform where there’s not much to look at, cause they’re so involved in their per-in their instrument.  Creating the music.  And then other performers, they do a lot of, like Kusun, they do incredible eye contact and they just relate to the audience so amazingly well, it adds to it like cra-like it’s just amazing!"

"Um-hum. They do a really good job."

"Yeah."

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