jennyarntzen.music

  Last night I attended the Vancouver Folk Song Society bi-weekly gathering at the Quaker Meetinghouse here in Vancouver.  The organizers had put together a program in honour of International Women's Day coming up on Saturday, March 8. We shared songs, stories and poetry by, about, and for women. There were women of all ages sharing their musical offerings. One the signature moments for me was the third half of the evening's program. A group of women, aged across decades, had put together a program of songs. It was transforming to see these elder women helping the younger women to get up in front of a room full of people to sing the songs they had prepared. To lead us in learning new songs and singing along on the chorus. It struck me how important our elderly women are to helping our society transform and grow. How they can model poise, dignity, self-respect, courage, confidence, collegiality to foster these qualities in our next generations of women. Women will lead us out o...

  For a few hours on a Sunday afternoon we gathered to make music and make sense of what is important in our lives. This was our sixth Neighbourhood Folk on the first Sunday of the month. I never know how many people are actually going to attend. Sunday morning there is often a flurry of texts letting me know someone needs to stay home, or someone else is bringing a visiting relative or friend. That is part of the fun. Each gathering is uniquely inspired by the people who choose to attend. This method of programming is what George Lakey called, 'emergent design'. The content of our creations is informed by the contributions from the group. In the days leading up to the first Sunday of the month I am thinking about getting the house ready, the menu for dinner after music-making, and remembering to send out invitations to friends, neighbours and family. I keep trying different arrangements for seating, to get the most people comfortably seated as possible.  For our March 2 gathe...

  We gathered for our Neighbourhood Folk - Feb 2 on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm. There were fifteen of us with instruments and music stands nested in the livingroom. The snowstorm put a crimp in travel for some attendees, luckily we had enough within walking distance to have a nice gathering. Matt joined us on drums. There is a particular feel the drummer can bring to folk music that really helps the strings and voices stay together. It is a light touch, so as not to drown out the acoustic instruments and unamplified voices. It is also a steady pulse that helps us all stay together. The rest of us can relax a bit, resting on that rhythmic support. Georgina was sitting beside me with her mandolin. She is a strong mandolin player and singer. I played my ukulele tuned to the bottom four strings of the guitar - E, A, D, G and plugged into my bass amp. Next time I will have my Fischman amp ready to amplify the high end frequencies of the ukulele. Georgina started us off with her song, Huck...

  Last night I attended a Vancouver Folk Song Society Zoom Song Circle. The Zoom circles started in response to the pandemic, when face-to-face gatherings were cancelled. This Zoom Song Circle had been convening on the fifth Wednesday of a month having five Wednesdays. The VFSS hosts it's regular weekly face to face gatherings on Wednesday evenings. This was the first Zoom Song Circle I had attended where there was no live, face to face gathering occurring at the same time. I was skeptical of the efficacy of attending an entirely online gathering but that has been replaced with enthusiasm.  First, we are not out of the woods in terms of communicable disease. In fact, given the rise of anti-vax and anti-science demagoguery, we are at higher risk of infectious outbreaks. Second, this rise in infection risk is coupled with an over-stressed healthcare system. It behooves us all to take precautions to stay healthy when and where we can. At the same time, we are in continuing state ...

  The first Sunday of February has come up fast! It is time to re-charge our collective batteries and get ourselves on the same page for the month ahead.  Many of us are facing unprecedented challenges that are calling us to our best work, our best selves and our greatest courage. Ellen Dissanayake asked, "What is Art For?" (1988). She observed that art-making behaviour was common across humankind and was curious about the significance of creative works in human social systems. How is it possible that we allocate precious resources to creative works even in times of scarcity and difficulty? What is it about our art-making activities that gives us the sustenance we need to face an uncertain future? We may not understand the relationship between our transcendental experiences with art, art-making, and art appreciation. We may not be able to define how our experiences of creative works as a collective body giving us strength to persevere, increasing our resilience through our sh...

  My sister and I shared a new experience last evening. We attended an open mic gathering at our local community service centre.  Holly arrived at my house at 2 pm in the afternoon. We had a cup of tea and caught up on project developments and then rehearsed for an hour and a half. We wanted to prepare a couple of songs for the open mic, we also wanted to work on songs that are new to each of us. When Holly and I play together, our default instrumentation is for Holly to play the dulcimer and I play the bass. Our alternate instrumentation is to have Holly play the piano, and I play either the bass or a recorder or whistle. For this expedition we were self-contained with our string instruments and our own amplification. The songs we settled on for the open mic were pieces that we have performed before. We were going into a new situation with new people. We decided it would be best if we also didn't add new music and arrangements to the mix. That said, we spent time working out ...