Week 8 - Uyen Ngo

I often hear people say that music can transform them, that one song can change the course of action for them. One song can remind them of a love they have lost or one song can make them see the world in a different way. There is no doubt that music has always had such power but it also important to acknowledge its spiritual origin and how it was inspired by the song of the earth. The article shows us that everything we knew about music was given to us by the earth. For example, it talks about harmonies and how "harmonics are integrated into nature" and how "the earth song has a gentle flow that is pleasing to the senses" (5). 

It's also a mutual relationship with this earth song as while the earth is playing this song, it is important that we stay in tune with the song. The importance lies in that being in tune is important as "things are missed when one is distracted for too long" (2). The paper really made me reflect on my own relationship with the earth's song and how at times I forget that there is music being created around me. It makes me think of the long summer nights sitting outside that I would hear crickets singing and wind chiming in, and how in those moments, I felt as alive as I could be. It was a reminder that we sometimes need to take a step back to listen to the most powerful song of them all. 

Work Cited

Frances Wyld & Bronwyn Fredericks. “Earth Song as Storywork: Reclaiming Indigenous

Knowledges.”