I’m attempting to stay ahead of the game by kick-starting my search for cool-stuff Friday. Seeing as the “Postal Workers” tune is still resonating in my brain, I felt compelled to begin my search with some background information on James Koetting, the ethnomusicologist who recorded the music of Ghana during the 1970s. He is, as you may recall, the man responsible for the lovely recording of “Postal Workers.” I find the concept of work music really fascinating; I’m basically jealous that our culture is not so in tune with music as a way of life, as we consider music to be more of a hobby or an occupation for a select few.
So, as far as cool stuff goes, I came across a few videos on youtube regarding Ghanaian work music. The first, an excerpt from a documentary, shows a similar situation to that of the postal workers song we heard in class. The man cancelling the stamps uses rhythm to pass the time for a rather monotonous task.
This next video runs along a similar vein; it is also a clip of work music for passing the time. This clip, however, shows a group of women working cohesively while farming. Careful, the screaming towards the end startled me a bit.
I’m always skeptical with finding random videos online, as they could pretty much come from anywhere and not come from legitimate sources. Nonetheless, this final source is an absolute treasure trove compiled by Brown University. The link below leads to an online collection of interviews, recordings, photographs, and much more in association with James Koetting’s research in the 1970s. I’m providing the home link so you can go explore as I did. DEFINITELY check out the reels of recordings. For the record, our favorite “Postal Workers” song is from reel 149. I love hearing the talking and laughing beforehand – it makes the situation that much more tangible. I had a little trouble listening to the recordings – sometimes the music would stall and sound a bit like a robot trying to communicate, so hopefully it works better for everyone else.
The End.
I truly enjoyed watching videos and exploring the website. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. It was really nice to have a visual of the cancelling stamps and how it really is possible to make music out of it. I thought it was interesting how the African women in the second video were working together at the same time, as if they were one person. I wonder if there are similarities in the cultures of the Africans and Native Americans, since the Native Americans beat on the drum at the same time, and the African women were working together to make a steady rhythm.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, Abigail. That website really is wonderful. You know, reading your thoughts about how you wish we had more work songs in our culture made me think of something: we DO have lots of work music in our culture, but it's almost all stuff we listen to, rather than stuff we sing. Store clerks have muzak, office workers turn on radios, postal workers have iPods. I wonder what that comparison might say about our relative cultures...
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