Finally, I'm on topic!

I was listening to the "Around the World" concert last night, and (since I just can't turn my mind off homework) one of the pieces reminded me of the stuff we've been covering in class --

the "Mi'kmaq Honour Song" by Lydia Adams (sung by Concert Choir): the notes by the composer say,

"The Mi'kmaq Honour Song is a chant dedicated to and in honor of the Creator. The employment of nature sounds and the call of human voice honors this tradition of the Mi'kmaq peoples. The sounds are not in any particular language, but are perhaps a derivation of a test handed down through the ages."

This is so similar to Pollock and Rothko -- they are all influenced by the affective and "noble savage" way they see primitive culture (kind of like Grizzly Man, too?) and go for "universal" symbolism.

While the piece sounded haunting and evocative of spiritual things (like Pollock's "Guardians of the Secret" seemed to have some religious meaning), in the end it is 'empty' of religion -- it is not grounded in a tradition but just nods at everyone's idea of primitive traditions; not only does it not use words, but the sounds are not out of any real language, by trying to preempt the beliefs of any particular tradition and get "before" them to the source of spirituality, the Abstract Expressionists, and Lydia Adams in this piece, only succeed in creating a front with nothing behind it.