Traditional music degree on tap at UL. In a 1965 editorial, titled “They Call That Music??!!” Burton Grindstaff wrote in the Opelousas Daily World: “Cajuns brought some mighty fine things down from Novia [sic] Scotia with them, including their jolly selves, but their so-called music is one thing I wish they hadn’t.”
Now that UL Lafayette is poised to offer a degree program in traditional music (read: Cajun and zydeco), Grindstaff may be turning over in his grave. At the same time, there’s a good chance Dewey Balfa, Gladius Thibodeaux, Revon Reed and Louis LeJeune have played “Lacassine Special” and other Cajun standards in the great beyond countless times since the word got out.
Recently, the Louisiana Board of Regents approved a new bachelor of arts program in music with traditional music and music business as two areas of major study at UL. Now it’s up to the National Association of Schools of Music to grant it accreditation.
“In traditional music, there are very few programs like it in the country,” says Dr. Mark DeWitt, who joined the UL faculty in 2010 as the inaugural holder of the Dr. Tommy Comeaux Endowed Chair in Traditional Music. “So we’re really doing something new here.”
And such newness will apply to the way traditional music playing is taught, and locally that means by ear as opposed to “academically” traditional.
“What I would like is this: Basically, yes, that the traditional music will be taught in an un-traditional way,” says DeWitt, who doesn’t see developing music books so students can read traditional music notes. “That’s not the point.”
However, lyrics are another aspect where singing in French and pronunciation are important, and DeWitt is cool with instructional books. “But as far as reading the notes, that’s not what I had in mind,” he says. “Now, for an accredited bachelor of arts in music, will they need to learn how to read music? Yes. So, my plan there is to propose that they learn how to read music, but not for their major, traditional instrument program.”
In the meantime, courses and camps have been around for years in the area teaching people how to play traditional music on the traditional instruments. Dr. Garth Alper, department head of the School of Music and Performing Arts, doesn’t see a problem.
“We already have a partnership with a lot of the same people,” Alper says. “We’re certainly looking to support all of those initiatives in the community and to have a partnership with the community.”
Musicians and instructors who have been teaching people how to play the music have nothing to worry about. Familiar names in Cajun and zydeco music circles, such as Kristi Guillory, David Greely, Al Berard, Wilson Savoy and Corey Ledet, are teaching at UL or will in the future.
“Really, one of the missions with the new degree is to support the musicians in the area,” Alper says. “And many of those musicians will be teaching here. It’s gotten a hugely positive response from the traditional musicians in the area and the community and the university.”
A final decision for UL’s new degree courses may not come until July, but that is not a problem for getting the program up and running.
“They’ve already given us permission to teach the classes. We just can’t officially call it by its title until we get their approval,” Alper says. “Even if the stamp of approval were delayed, we could still offer the classes.”
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
MAY 24 Here's a NBC33 story about Tyrann Mathieu. He has signed with the Arizona Cardinals, inking a $3 million, four-year deal. He gets a signing bonus of $265K, but gets another, larger bonus if he doesn't get cut from the team for doing drugs. The deal reportedly includes mandatory tests and meetings for the player.
MAY 24 Jarvis DeBerry posts here about the redonkulus rhetoric that would have us believe NOLA is a safe city with a murder problem. Maybe the city's crime stats don't compare with its murder stats because you can't manipulate a murder, he says: a dead body's a dead body. It just doesn't make sense, he says, and his readers agree: a poll asks if they believe the city is safe, and more than 90 percent say no.
MAY 24 Jindal administration officials announced Thursday that the privatization of public health care is going to cost a lot more than they budgeted for, the Advocate reports here. "I'm so surprised," said no one. Anywhere. The cost they're projecting now is more than $1 billion - a lot more than the $626 million budgeted for it. And, it's more than it cost the state to operate those hospitals. So why are we doing this again?
MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
MAY 24 Politico details some recent fund-raising efforts by Sen. David Vitter, which have raised the question of his future political plans. This time, it is a $5,000 per head "bayou weekend" that includes "Cajun cooking" and an all-caps "alligator hunt," the story reports. Funds raised go to a super PAC that can spend money to support Vitter in federal or state races, the story points out.
MAY 24 The pink building on Royal in the quarter was sold at a sheriff's sale Thursday, this Picayune story reports. An injunction that would have halted the sale wasn't enforced because the family failed to post a $150,000 bond, the story reports. So the owner of the mortgages on the building bought it, for nearly $7 million. Now the feuding family will have to negotiate with that company to get a lease on the building that has housed their business for close to 60 years.
MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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