BY DESIREE COOPER
Detroit Free Press,
Nov. 28, 2006
Holiday music is infectious. These days, I'm humming while driving,
shopping and cooking. Old- fashioned carolers have gone by the wayside,
but between holiday pageants and office parties, this is still the
season to sing along.
According to neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, singing shouldn't be a
seasonal inclination. We're hot-wired for music, according to his book,
"This Is Your Brain on Music."
In fact, it's only a modern idea that certain people are considered
musical and others aren't. He cites a researcher in Lesotho who
apologized to tribesmen for not joining in their traditional music. The
villagers were confused; to them, singing and dancing is an extension
of walking and talking. Everybody can do it.
Levitin writes that Western man got separated from music about 500
years ago with the creation of concert halls and orchestras. People
became either musicians or listeners. Audiences were expected to sit on
their impulses and be quiet.
But there remained little pockets of democratic merrymaking. In
parlors, sitting rooms and porches, families continued to gather in
song. Harps, guitars, concertinas, banjos, harmonicas and pianos -
instruments that reminded us that music doesn't belong just on the
stage.
It belongs at home.
The gift of music
That's what I love about the Palmer Woods Music in Homes concert
series. Every year my neighborhood, located at 7 Mile and Woodward in
Detroit, has had a holiday home tour. But this year, the local
association has decided to invite people into their homes to share the
treasure of music. The first of five intimate concerts, which together
will feature classical, world music and jazz, is on Dec. 22 at 8 p.m.
"It's the difference between hearing music at the Music Hall or in
a great room with 125 people," said Jane Strand, chair of the
committee. "You're closer to the performer and you're looking more at
expressions and body language. You're with a small group of people in a
beautiful setting. You feel connected."
Many of the Palmer Woods homes include ballrooms and parlors. The
December concert, featuring award-winning jazz chanteuse Shahida
Nurullah, will be in a 1929 English Tudor built for Detroit theater and
radio entrepreneur John Kunsky. The architect, C. Howard Crane, also
designed Orchestra Hall. The house has a great room with limestone
fireplace, vaulted ceiling and stage, perfect for a holiday concert.
The music series will support one of Detroit's oldest neighborhoods
and highlight the Creative Arts Collective, which produced the series.
But attendees are sure to get a gift as well: A reminder that music
should always be welcome at home.
If you go
The Palmer Woods Association's Music in Homes series will happen
monthly, December-May. Tickets for most events are $25 per person and
must be purchased in advance. For more info, call 313-920-4864 or go to
www.palmerwoods.org.
To support the Creative Arts Collective, go to www.spencerbarefield.com.
Contact DESIREE COOPER at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, or catch her on
public radio's "Weekend America," 2-4 p.m. Saturdays on WUOM-FM 91.7.
