You Are a Musician

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They considered that the only genuine forces which could form the soul were words and sounds, and - so far as they work through words or sounds or both - rhythm and harmony: for the decisive factor in all paideia is active energy, which is even more important in the culture of the mind than in the agon which exercises physical strength and agility.

Werner Jaeger

The symmetry of the two following chapters, "Five Proliferocity Principles" and "Five Obstacles," is in the middle of this book for a reason: stark contrast. Each child could be a happy and prolific musicking-creator if it weren't for all the layers of typhos - literate fog, spin, lies, false standards, perfectionism, etc. etc. - we put in the way of paideia con salsa (see Appendix B.).

I was especially happy finding that little tshikona example from Blacking's Venda Children's Songs to tack on to Pat Campbell's Ch. 38 commentary. Just as Blacking's How Musical is Man? makes the argument of this book with great elegance, the tshikona example of a classic ngoma summarizes another main point: when children participate with each other and with the natural world in music-dance synchronies there is a whole lot of healing and interbeing going on.