The Many Roads to HONK! and the Power of Brass and Percussion
Reebee Garofalo
The history of brass and percussion is a tortured history, full of contradictions and inversions, that spans the globe and dates back centuries, if not millennia. It is a history of militarism, imperialism and religious evangelism. Indeed, in the period leading up to the modem era, it is fair to say that the first exposure to brass band music for most people in the world was probably from an invading colonial army or an evangelizing Christian mission. Invading colonial armies may have provided people the world over with a terrifying first glimpse of brass, but not without some unintended consequences. At war’s end, returning or defeated armies often discarded their instruments, which were acquired by civilian musicians who adapted their use to indigenous musics, secular rituals, and creating new cultural forms that served quite different ends, including protest and other oppositional practices. The results: inclusionary cultural practices, unconventional performance styles, learning by rote, an emphasis on improvisation, a tolerance for mistakes, and an unrestrained spirit of exuberance. Along with other festival traditions, HONK! has become a part of this historical trajectory as a phenomenon that attempts to codify these cultural practices, as they have emerged in mostly Western societies.
Reebee Garofalo is a member of the Organizing Committee for the Somerville HONK! Festival and plays snare drum in its host band, the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band. A longtime scholar of popular music studies, he is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Supplemental Resource:
Reebee Garofalo
The history of brass and percussion is a tortured history, full of contradictions and inversions, that spans the globe and dates back centuries, if not millennia. It is a history of militarism, imperialism and religious evangelism. Indeed, in the period leading up to the modem era, it is fair to say that the first exposure to brass band music for most people in the world was probably from an invading colonial army or an evangelizing Christian mission. Invading colonial armies may have provided people the world over with a terrifying first glimpse of brass, but not without some unintended consequences. At war’s end, returning or defeated armies often discarded their instruments, which were acquired by civilian musicians who adapted their use to indigenous musics, secular rituals, and creating new cultural forms that served quite different ends, including protest and other oppositional practices. The results: inclusionary cultural practices, unconventional performance styles, learning by rote, an emphasis on improvisation, a tolerance for mistakes, and an unrestrained spirit of exuberance. Along with other festival traditions, HONK! has become a part of this historical trajectory as a phenomenon that attempts to codify these cultural practices, as they have emerged in mostly Western societies.
Reebee Garofalo is a member of the Organizing Committee for the Somerville HONK! Festival and plays snare drum in its host band, the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band. A longtime scholar of popular music studies, he is Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Supplemental Resource:
