Fragile Culture

             

            I once thought I’d like to become a musicologist. It’s a fascinating field that studies music, how music came to be, and how it interacts within culture over time. I think you have to be part musician, part historian and part anthropologist to be a good musicologist.

I remember reading an account of the adventures of a 20^th century musicologist that astounded me. Before World War I, this musicologist (I want to say his name was Green, but I’m really not sure) traveled to America’s Appalachian region to write down the songs that had been passed down among the Scotch Irish that had lived for  generations secluded in the region’s mountains and hollers. The music was not written down. People learned by listening and repeating - pretty much how freshmen learn their college songs and can still belt them out 50 years later at reunions.

Much of the music particular to Appalachia is based on the Dorian mode, an antique “scale” known to the early settlers hundreds of years ago. (Our major and minor scales are two of those antique modes.)  Because those tunes, sung for years in the Appalachian Mountains, have a sad or minor key sound, the Dorian mode is often called “mountain minor.”

            Enter the war and the young men of Appalachia exited their hills to become soldiers. When they returned home, they shared what they had seen, heard and experienced from the rest of America and the world.  After several years, “Mr. Green” returned and discovered people had forgotten those hand- me- down songs in that quaint mountain minor. He had to re-teach them their own songs.

            How fragile traditions are within a culture! Our Native American code talkers in World War II couldn’t have contributed as significantly as they did unless the generations preceding them had not valued and passed on their tribal languages. It’s a mistake to think that songs, dances, philosophies, customs, and language of the past are less valuable then what is currently popular in our melting pot American culture. I think it behooves all of us to value and pass on what went before us, even as we recreate culture for our own times.   

The Duck Dynasty Series

                I must confess I’m hooked on the reality show Duck Dynasty. I accidently discovered it because I collect wooden ducks, both decoys and decoratively hand carved specimens, so the title jumped out at me one evening when I was scanning the TV listings. I had to check it out.  

                There’s this family of Louisiana rednecks who became fabulously wealthy by making those gizmos hunters blow into to mimic a duck’s call. I read that the father of the Robertson clan, Phillip, used his product while hunting one day and his friend exclaimed, “You didn’t call that duck. You commanded it!” And so they named their company “Duck Commander.”

                Three bearded, long haired sons with gorgeous blonde wives, a crazy like a fox uncle, Dad (Phillip) and Mom (Miss Kay), plus a few interesting employees as well as a passel of grandchildren and pets, make up the cast of characters.  The family owns acres upon acres of land, on which they work, live and play.  

                Like when Phil decided an old trailer would make a great deer stand once his sons and Duck Commander employees got it hoisted and camouflaged high up into some trees. It did look inviting and far more comfortable than freezing on a few elevated two by fours while waiting for Bambi to saunter by.

                Besides the interplay and the running comments family members make about each other, I find the Southern redneck culture the Robertson family celebrates charming. This is regional America at its best. It doesn’t take long to realize this family, is neither stupid nor uneducated.

 Son Willie runs the company with skills he acquired from his business degree. Grandfather Phil, bearded like all the Robertson men, summons his grandchildren to his home and teaches them life skills while he gets “free labor” from them. Clearly the teens do not appreciate the tasks Phil assigns but they are respectful and do his bidding. (Phil may have crossed the line on career day when he taught a classroom of 8^th graders  how to eviscerate a duck…..but with our current Congress, hey, you never know when that  may come in handy.)

This series is about a family, once poor and now wealthy because they embraced the American values of belief in God, family, and hard work. Every segment ends with family prayer before a meal and a comment on loving each other.

I have come to appreciate the special view Duck Dynasty offers into a culture that has endured for years and, judging by its popularity, America is learning to appreciate as well.