We Can All Make Music.
It’s really meaningthing!
Our values and vision
We believe:
Everyone
has the desire, need, right and capacity to sing. Singing together can be a joyful experience with
profound potential to enhance many individual and community capacities.
Society
should actively encourage, facilitate and promote singing among its citizens
and their children because:
making music together is the foundation of social connection.
music carries our culture - our memories, stories, identities,
values and hopes.
when people lose their music they lose their voice, and often
their sense of connection to the society in which they live.
when people make music together they transcend the differences
between them (“the differences which divide”).
through music we can restore the practices of the everyday arts
which fulfil the basic human needs for free and creative expression,
connectedness and participation.
Music-making is an everyday art which does this, particularly in groups.
Making
music together creates a crucible in which people can experience and
productively channel the synergy which results from collaborative effort. Community music making:
provides an immediate and tangible manifestation of the power and
joy of co-operation.
is the creative manifestation of community.
transforms the metaphor of harmony into a real life experience.
is always a creative act “in the moment” - a practice of the
“everyday arts” as an integral part of ordinary people's daily
lives.
Healthy
and creative communities depend on there being regular opportunities for
citizens and their children to come together in safe and supportive
environments within which mutual respect and validation, co-operative
interaction, creative stimulation and joyful outcomes are the normal conditions
and result of engagement.
Community
music making offers a highly productive context in which these conditions can
be realised and where community vitality, capacity, confidence and energy can
flourish. It can also create community
where there was none previously, and can engage the un-trained in instant,
positive experience which moves them from being spectators to participants.
We wish:
Our
purpose is to assist in the emergence of a widespread singing culture that:
is sustainably embedded in communities.
is consciously focused on strengthening communities.
welcomes all comers.
valorises and respects the differences in people.
nurtures participants.
interacts with and illuminates contemporary experience.
recognises and facilitates creativity.
acts co-operatively.
Such a
culture is far more likely to be sustainable and authentic if productive
capacities are embedded within communities.
It follows therefore that the most effective place for leadership to
reside is within communities. Ultimately, music is owned by those who make
it as it expresses the feelings of its makers; an authentic
community music is driven, and sustained, from within.
We look
forward to a society in which:
the populace happily walk the streets singing.
public places are regularly filled with people making
spontaneous music together.
communities and families naturally express their connectedness
through a commonly held repertoire of songs which they regularly sing together.
everyone confidently expresses themselves in song.
public events always begin and end in group singing.
adults and children enjoy and feel confident singing together.
making music is universally recognised for its educational,
therapeutic and connecting value.
a song is respected as being as legitimate a way of
expressing truth, hope, fear, critique, protest, or love as any of the more
“rationally based” modes of expression.
making music is as prevalent as listening to music.
improvising and making new songs is an everyday activity amongst
groups of ordinary people.
We’re
sure you’ll agree that to be part of this culture would be an exciting
and wonderful experience…
CMV - making a
sound world together.
©
Community Music Victoria Inc.