30 July 2012

Language

"Parents had not bothered to teach their children this language [Yiddish]—their mother tongue—nor anything about the beliefs of their forefathers. Neither did they tell them about what had happened to them in the Ghetto and in the camps. In fact, they had hidden their lives from their children and had molded (albeit unintentionally) a life devoid of the thread of family history and without a spark of belief."
(Aharon Appelfeld, Table for One: Under the Light of Jerusalem)

"The rape culture of the European colonization of the New World—is the rape culture that stops the family from achieving decolonial intimacy, from achieving decolonial love."
(Junot Diaz, (interview) The Search for Decolonial Love, Part II)

for part one:
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.4/junot_diaz_paula_moya_drown_race.php

I descend from a rape culture—close among shik'éí and saturating this land through the generations. My mother's mother's mother was raped. My eldest aunt was born from that rape. When anything needed an explanation, we would say "you know she was born from," and nothing more. She didn't know who her father was, there were many among us who did not know. That was important, but it did not explain it all. The rape silenced everything. We were formed and ordered by her experience. Shimá sáni's language hid our shame and hate. We learned to speak from her.

Life is spoken within the silence. People and places are revealed by their absence. Language shapes by what can be said and to whom. Silence does not interrupt speeches, the moans, the cries of happiness and despair—silence shapes. I see it on our bodies and in the ripped fabric we clothe ourselves in, calling it family, shik'éí.

In music, the articulation notation legato tells the player that the notes are to be played smoothly. Legato notes are to be connected. The connection is indicated by a curved line, drawn under the notes that are intended to be played without an intervening silence. This notation does not necessarily indicate a slur, though a slur is sometimes the means of expression available on the instrument.

Legato is what is known as an articulation. How is this music to be played? Articulation gives direction.

"This language—their mother tongue—anything about the beliefs—and what happened." These are the curved lines that hold our notes together.

When playing legato on strings virtuosos are known for their ability to play extremely complex runs, permeated with notes, at extreme tempos; on keys one note is held while the other is depressed, allowing the fade to resonate, introducing the new note that takes over without proclaiming a discontinuity from the rest; voices try to sustain vowels and eliminate interruptions by consonants. They call this the line —it should be maintained.

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