The understanding of history and the arts is incredibly important to people’s lives, ETSU’s 2004 Wayne G. Basler Chair of Excellence told a large crowd of students and faculty Thursday night at ETSU.
The Basler Lecture, titled “Violin History in African and Afro-American Culture,” was given by John Blake
He is a classically-trained jazz violinist and ETSU’s newest Chair of Excellence for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Music played an important role in African and African- American history, and thus plays a role in the future, said Blake, who trained at the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Montreux, Switzerland, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in music from West Virginia University.
“In trying to get a better understanding of the past, it helps us to really get a deeper understanding of the present,” Blake said.
“Because, if we don’t understand what went on before how can we appreciate where we are at the moment? And then if we’re able to appreciate the present by understanding the past that means we’re that much more prepared to prepare for the future.”
Music has many roles in African culture, Blake said, including communication, social entertainment, education and religious ceremonies.
Songs and dances were used to give praise to a tribe’s ancestors, as well as aid in daily life, Blake said, playing recorded songs from various parts of Africa to show the audience the different playing styles associated with African cultures.
Many of these cultural roles transferred to American plantations with slavery, Blake said.
“Music was really a very, very important part of general life [in African culture],” he said.
Drums, in fact, were banned on plantations because they helped the slaves of different cultures communicate, he said.
On American plantations, slaves would make instruments out of whatever available materials they had, he said.
Violins and banjos were the first instruments played on plantations, Blake said, holding up for the crowd a one-stringed “violin” made out of a gourd.
He proceeded to play it, evoking wild applause from the audience.
Some songs played on plantations were taught to the slaves so that they could entertain the overseer and his friends, Blake said.
Slaves, he said, might play Irish or other European songs, but with African playing styles.
Other songs on plantations were about freedom, often using biblical themes, Blake said.
Songs like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” were not only about being taken away to heaven, but also had a sub-meaning about being taken from the plantations to freedom, he said.
As time went by and America evolved, music evolved and traveled with it, Blake said, with freed slaves moving from plantations to their new jobs.
The birth of the blues, Blake said, probably came soon after.
“I believe there was blues going on before the turn of the century,” he said.
As time went by and African-Americans began moving around the United States, the popularity of their music spread as well, Blake said.
To illustrate the sound of bluesman Thelonious Monk, Blake and a four-man group of ETSU students and faculty played a song by Monk, which was called “Blue Monk,” to a cheering crowd.
Various blues songs – on CD – followed, in addition to musical examples on Blake’s own violin, which he says is “nothing special.”
His bow, however, is worth $5,000. “Nothing but a stick and some horse hair,” he said, holding his bow up for the audience to see.
Violins themselves can run anywhere from a few hundred dollars to more than a million, Blake said.
At the end of the lecture, Blake invited the audience to ask him questions.
A young man asked him where he got the inspiration to become a violinist.
Blake said he was inspired by the musicians he saw on television.
It’s important for children to be exposed to as many cultural experiences as possible, he said.
“The arts really relate to life,” Blake said.
Blake encouraged everyone to come to his other lecture, “The History of Violin in Jazz” on March 10 in Martha Street Culp Auditorium.
He also invited everyone to come listen his group, The John Blake Jr. Quartet, perform “An Evening with Jazz” Feb. 24, also in the Martha Street Culp Auditorium.
For more information on the upcoming Basler Lecture and Performances with John Blake, contact Marjorie Williams at the College of Arts and Sciences at williams@etsu.edu or 423-439-5671.
For more information on John Blake, visit his web site at www.johnblakejr.com.

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