Since October 2017, I’ve been looking forward to writing an essay on “music and relationships” — a topic I’m not only intimately familiar with but also crave to research and write about. Yet, I procrastinate writing the first word. It’s due next week, and I’m still fidgeting over the central thesis. Is it another familiar writer’s block?
At first I thought I’d write about ukulele clubs. After all, I’m starting one in the part of Boston that currently has no gathering of ukulele jam sessions. Then I got sidetracked by the research questions I posed at the end of my conference paper on house concerts presented in 2010. Because someone had taken an interest, read it, and asked me questions about the paper, I revisited the topic of house concerts, salon concerts, and hausmusik.
I downloaded a bunch of articles about house concerts. The message was the same as what I found when I was writing the paper eight years ago. Classical musicians should consider performing in house concerts. They should learn to network and concertise the way singer songwriters do with and through their fans. Venue owners should learn to organise and produce concerts. Audiences get a different listening experience in a smaller, private space.
As for ukulele clubs, I’m still waiting for a scholarly article about this growing phenomenon: the birth of the ukulele and its role in building and engaging communities. Maybe I’ll have to write it, from the angle of “participative music making.”
I have an inherent need to become competent at something before committing to another subject area. There is one song I’ve researched ad nauseam. For the better part of 2017, I’ve been tracing the origins of the music and lyrics for Danny Boy, which speaks of farewell and mourning. Two essays and a paper later, it’s time to move on.
Let the writing begin.