Some Of It All

“Ok, what I was saying was, so my nieces, when they were young, Jamaica, and then Irie as well, and their little brother Dante—we would go on these walks and we would sing... everything that would happen, and they were like, these ‘little musicals’ and I felt like I was living inside a musical at the time. And, I would think, well, this is possible for the future, this is a possible future — everything being musical.

And then, not too long ago, on facebook, Jamaica, who’s like now 22, I think, she... said she watched ‘Grease’ for the first time, and liked the idea of... she said... “What happened to musicals, why don’t we have musicals... more often?” So that led me to remember this time when we were young and... everything was... a musical. And I often think about what it would be like if we were...we were... living inside of music all the time... both... in our movement... and in our... so-called speech, you know, dancing and singing constantly, and, you know, that that’s a possible... that that could »happen. That’s a possible iteration in the future. Although maybe way in the future. Um, for society... but for myself »personally... I think it’s a worthwhile goal... which I think about sometimes when I’m dancing in the morning, like how to extend that dance all day long, and, I haven’t been as musical lately as I used to be... I haven’t had the time, to practice, although I need to get back into it...because I want to... also extend that.

So, that’s just a little riff of of your... um cool info about that tribe [ the Dagara, of Burkina Faso, who have a musical ur-language ], which I didn’t know about, um, and I could definitely see how language would lock you in. I also think about going to see... uh, this musical, not musical...but a motet recently. A 40-person motet. That you walk into this room and there’s 40 speakers and each speaker has, you know, one person’s voice, of the motet so you can walk around and listen to each person’s individual voice, and, I would watch people walk into this room, which is at the cloisters in New York City and... about half the people that walked in would immediately start crying...and just the way that music can just... do that... to you. Amazing.”

— Adam DeGraff - transcribed from a voxer by Darin De Stefano 02.23.14 11:11 AM