Editorial
Tea with the Soloist - Jonathan Storey
Graduation - A Day to Remember
Celebrating Charles Ives
Musings on Music Journalism
Go On... Try Something New
Brendan Duffy at the Black Swan
Definitive Saxes is Coming!
'We Are One' : The Music of Obama's Inauguration
2009: Composer Anniversaries
Robert Burns at 250
Where are they now?
The new Classical Chart
These are a few of my favourite things - Catherine Duncan
Something from Guy!
Ornamentation and Improvisation Workshop with Pamela Thorby
Daphnis: First of a Kind
Pringle Jingle!
The Importance of Western Popular Music in the Redevelopment of Cambodia
Arvo Pärt's Fratres
Operagasmic
Contemporary Analysis for Humans
The YUMU team
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Susie Murray
'It is you – Americans of every race and region and station who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there… It is how this nation has overcome the greatest differences and the longest odds – because there is no obstacle that can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change.' - Barack Obama, 20 January, 2009
On 20 January, 2009 Barack Obama was sworn in as the first ever African-American U.S. President. Over 37 million Americans watched the momentous occasion on television, not to mention the thousands of people who turned up in person. The significance of this, and what it meant in terms of how far America has come and the further unity it is looking towards, was reflected in the Inaugural concert organised in celebration of the event. As Obama said in a statement before the Inauguration: ‘At this moment of great challenge and great change, renewing the promise of America begins with renewing the idea that in America, we rise or fall as one nation and one people. That sense of unity and shared purpose is what this Inauguration will reflect’.
Aptly titled ‘We Are One’, the 90-minute concert featured performances by Beyoncé, Usher, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, Jon Bon Jovi, Will.I.AM and John Legend. The artists were required to perform music following the theme of the concert; therefore Beyoncé sang ‘America the Beautiful’, Mary J. Blige ‘Lean on me’, Sheryl Crow and Will.I.AM ‘One Love’ and Jon Bon Jovi ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ with soul legend Bettye LaVette. Although many of the songs performed were significant to the theme, the history behind some of them (and the performers themselves) was on occasion just as significant to their performance. A clear example is the song ‘This Land Is Your Land’ sung by Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen and Seeger’s grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger. Woody Guthrie wrote the song in 1940 as a response to the song ‘God Bless America’, and after witnessing emigrant workers in the thirties seeking work following the depression and the Dust Bowl exodus (a period when a substantial amount of farmland across America became useless due to drought and mishandling of the land, forcing workers to migrate). The song has since been performed many times, in its early days by Pete Seeger who was an active supporter of the Civil Rights movement, and later by Bruce Springsteen who performed it in 1985 after extensive job loss in the steel industry. At Obama’s Inauguration however, the song was used as an upbeat anthem of hope, and further symbolism was added by visuals that supported the idea of unification. The three performers (from three generations) were accompanied by a multiethnic gospel choir of teenagers dressed in the colours of the American flag. The performance was also intended for audience participation; not only did Seeger beckon the audience to join in, saying the lines of the song before they were sung, but acoustic guitars and a banjo (a symbol of American folk) were used, creating an intimate and unintimidating atmosphere.
Folk music was born from the working-class or ‘underdog’, making its appearance in Obama’s Inauguration even more appropriate as he himself would have been considered the ‘underdog’ not long ago as a result of his ethnicity. It also supports the idea that one can come from any background and prosper, demonstrating a rejuvenated era that has already moved on from the rich Bush dynasty. The performers of ‘This Land Is Your Land’ are not from especially wealthy families - Springsteen is from a working class background and Seeger - wearing a checked shirt, jeans and a beanie hat that didn’t sit on his head properly - was in no way transforming his casual image for the occasion.
Nevertheless, despite the national icons who performed and the many American flags waved by the crowds, the concert was about more than national euphoria; it was about inclusion and the celebration of revitalised hope for the establishment of the ‘American Dream’. This was affirmed by Obama in his speech: ‘if we could just recognise ourselves in one another and bring everyone together - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; Latino, Asian, and Native American; black and white, gay and straight, disabled and not - then not only would we restore hope and opportunity in places that yearned for both, but maybe, just maybe, we might perfect our union in the process’.