Parade

Public spaces in Linz have long served as open-air stages for a wide variety of musical events and thus have simultaneously became the scene of a struggle for the assertion of cultural hegemony—from the Nazis’ marching bands to the May Day processions of the Socialists and Communists. In these days of unavoidable commercial audio saturation and of the socially suggested cult of intimacy, what’s called for are personal and communal acoustic experiences in urban tonal space that give back to the public sphere some of its dignity and significance.

The scenario that’s been chosen to accomplish this is a parade of peripatetic musicians featuring great tonal artistry convening from all points of the compass—from Central Europe, the edges of the continent and beyond—that orients itself multi-dimensionally on the typography of the city. Accordingly, this conclave will not focus exclusively on downtown Linz; the routes will be dispersed, with the harbor and Pöstlingberg as featured culmination points. The musical spectrum will include oom-pah bands, players of the antelope horn and bagpipes, brass ensembles and choruses, and will make due without (occasionally fetishized) electronic amplification. The creative encounter with musical diversity is emblematic of one of Europe’s greatest cultural achievements, which the crossing of borders and migration have played an essential role in bringing about.

Moreover, the act of accompanying these musicians on their routes through the city is meant to make us even more cognizant of just how much immediate experiential quality the public sphere has lost as a result of its reduction to a setting for motorized locomotion.

The prototype of this musical and acoustic experience is the music of the Tonga people of Zimbabwe, Ngoma Buntibe, which is rooted in the spiritual and social life of an African village and which caused a sensation and made history at the Festival of the Regions in 1997 as part of an expedition over the Totes Gebirge mountain range in Upper Austria. Keith Goddard and Peter Kuthan, the originators of Parade, have been passionately committed to the music of the Tonga for more than 10 years, and they have already lined up numerous artists to join in on this process of cultural exchange between Austria and Zimbabwe.

Watch video: "4 Minutes with Keith" (Film by Michael Pilz, 10MB)