The Spirit behind Music
and an invitation
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for this (short) Sunday Special commentary.
Comments and questions are welcome.
For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.
→ Also…. Did you know that you can start a chat with me? (Read to the end.)←
この解説の最後に、日本の読者への特別なメッセージがある。
(209 words)
A very nice subscriber left a couple of questions on one of my posts. He asked if I was a professional musicologist and how I would define the spirit behind music.
Well, I’m not a professional musicologist, or perhaps I’m an amateur musicologist.
As an undergrad, I studied Spanish and Linguistics, and my graduate work was in teaching English to speakers of other languages. I became interested in the history behind songs during the Iraq War from 2003 (you can read more at https://louisehaynes.substack.com/p/why-im-launching-social-issues-in). I’ve read quite a bit on a lot of issues in various countries and am interested in the songs people write about those issues. For example, in the past few years, I’ve been reading the history of the Spanish Civil War and have written about several songs from and about that period.
As to his other excellent question…
In my amateur opinion, like art, songs can convey emotion, can pass along our history and values to the coming generations, and maybe most importantly, can help us feel like we’re not alone in our struggles, whatever they may be.
There are many songs, not just those about social issues, that give us solace and hope. Songs about social issues give us a feeling of solidarity with others.
How about YOU? What do you think the spirit of music is? What does music mean to you? Leave a comment below!
VOCABULARY
musicologist 音楽学者
undergrad 大学生の時
graduate work 大学院
convey 伝える
struggle 苦闘
solace 慰め
solidarity 連帯
START YOUR OWN CHAT TOPIC!
Tap the blue chat button below, and start a new thread. That means you can ask questions, tell us about what’s happening in your life, send pictures of your cat, talk about music and the songs that are important to us, anything. It’s kind of like Facebook without the ads, AND it’s only for subscribers to my Substack.
AND—> There is a handy little Substack app that would allow you to chat with me wherever you are - on the train, waiting in line at the market. Free and easy!
We’re a nice little community. 🙂
Please join us!
ご存知でしたか？
Substackをどこにでも持ち運べるアプリがあります。つまり、バスの中でも、電車を待つホームに立っているときでも、重要な単語を復習できるということです。それはまた、私とのチャットがより簡単になるということでもあります。
チャットアイコンをタップして、新しいスレッドを立ててください。質問したり、近況を話したり、愛猫の写真を送ったり、音楽や私たちにとって大切な曲について話したり、何でもできます。広告のないFacebookのようなもので、私のSubstackの登録者だけが利用できます。
私たちは素敵な小さなコミュニティです。
ぜひご参加してください！🙂
ルイーズ
