Music and Water

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent" - Victor Hugo

For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking a lot about the links between music and water.  One of our project interns, Niko, studied music for his first degree at SOAS and is now pursuing a master's in development studies.  Dr Frances Cleaver, the project director, thought it would be a useful that Niko examine the link between cosmologies and water, given his interests.  Quickly this evolved into a mini-project on the links between water and music, which has prompted me to think about many different cultural references to water in musi and how music acts as a medium to reproduce cultural and/or cosmological beliefs

After doing a little bit of internet research I learned about some references to water in African American slaves' struggles for liberation.  For example the song "Wade in the Water" is a quite well known song and this website gives a brief description about what the song means.  It is interesting how water is conveyed as a protective resource, one that would allow for successful escape.  And it is similar with the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd", which folklore suggests was used to lead slaves to freedom up north.  In this song though it is the big dipper (drinking gourd) constellation which will lead slaves to freedom, there is still a link made between water and freedom.  Although these two examples are not referring to water for drinking, hygiene, or development more broadly, songs like these still frame the way water is conceptualised on the whole. 

A couple of days ago Niko and I met with Dr Angela Impey in SOAS's music department, to try to pursue this link in a more academic fashion.  We discussed a range musicological aspects which can be linked to water, and I became fascinated with the ways that water has been linked to music in different societies and within academic settings.  This makes me wonder:  What do water-related songs mean to the people who have created them and continue to pass them on?  What can music tell us about the way environments and ecosystems are conceptualised by different people?  What are the implications of the link between water and music for development scholars and practitioners?