Music, the Voice of Memory: An Exploratory Approach

Authors

  • Norman King University of Windsor
  • Jane Ripley Independent Scholar

Abstract

The word “memory” comes from “mind” and suggests that what is directly experienced remains in our awareness. Even though no longer physically present, experiences may be called to mind or remembered. The word “voice” or “vocal” comes from “vox” or “vocare,” meaning to call, with its cognates “evoke,” to call forth, and “recall,” to call back. The notion of memory, therefore, may be linked to the voice both calling back and, in a sense, calling forward various experiences of one’s life. To remember is to call back a voice from one’s past, to hear it again in its same form or to give it new voice. Through music, perhaps especially vocal music, we are drawn to return or called back to a place, a time, a person, and with the thoughts, feelings, and associations of that experience that remain with us still. This paper is an attempt to explore the connection of vocal music with memory. Essential elements of this exploration include: the roots or etymologies of words connected with memory and voice; the various dimensions and meanings of memory at the level of thought, feeling, presence, and identity; the inseparably relational dimension of memory; and its flowing not only from the past into the present but also reaching into the future; and the connection of all of these with vocal music. Music may be a link to our human quest to find and express our authentic voice, within a greater relational, communal, and social context.

Author Biographies

Norman King, University of Windsor

NORMAN KING, MA, PhD, Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor, has taught, written, and lectured for over thirty years on a wide range of themes and topics. Norman was educated at Toronto and Laval Universities, in Western literature and philosophy, with doctoral studies in systematic theology and contemporary religious thought and spirituality. He has focused especially on the human quest for meaning in the twentieth century, in its personal, interpersonal and social dimensions, with some emphasis on the work of German theologian Karl Rahner and American essayist Thomas Merton. His courses have included themes in religion and spirituality in dialogue with ritual studies, literature, psychology, and sociology. He later expanded his teaching areas to include Greek mythology and Canadian multiculturalism. Norman has authored three books and numerous articles, chiefly in the area of contemporary spiritual thought, and continues to write on this subject, as well as in the area of ethics and business. Jane and Norman have discovered that they share a similar orientation of mind and spirit, and have come to collaborate on a number of projects, one of which is the co-authoring of a book of reflective verse entitled Touching the Spirit ... Reflections from the Heart. They sense that these undertakings are an occasion to draw together the strands of their life’s work, and to share that work in wider circles. This outreach has taken the form of workshops, papers, and seminars. They have given papers on the interpretation of the music of the Spirituals and presented one on ‘Spirituality and Vocal Music’ at the 2005 Festival 500 symposium. A unifying thread in both their life and work has been the notion of presence, and its expression in words and music. To be present is to “be with,” to be in touch with one’s own silent, sacred core, and to be attuned and responsive to the silent, sacred core of another. Their work together echoes this theme and they hope it reflects, speaks to, and encourages in others, the voice of the spirit and the music of the heart.

Jane Ripley, Independent Scholar

JANE RIPLEY, BMus, CHM, has taught music in the elementary school system, has been a director of church music, and continues, at present, to teach voice, piano, and theory in her private studio. Jane completed a music degree (vocal major) and a diploma in church music at the University of Windsor. She was awarded the Board of Governors’ medal for the highest standing in her degree program. She is a member of the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (ORMTA). Jane has also recorded an instrumental CD, featuring violin, cello, and keyboard, that includes one of her own compositions. She has found in music a profound avenue and expression of a genuine spirituality, with its power to express the whole range of human feelings, and its ability to bring people together into community.

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Published

2013-10-29

Issue

Vol. 6 (2007): The Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium VI

Section

Articles