Sylvia Munsen
The Catalina Timewalkers chapter of the Questers met on Feb. 17 in the home of Leni Bowman, with eight members in attendance. Following the business meeting, the members enjoyed an interesting program about “World Ethnic Music Instruments” presented by Sylvia Munsen.
Sylvia utilized PowerPoint slides to showcase her collection of world ethnic music instruments. She has collected the instruments over a period of more than 50 years and used them extensively in her teaching—both in elementary general music classes and in university methods courses—and with her children’s choirs throughout her career. The collection includes more than 200 instruments from diverse cultures and traditions: Native America, Hawaii, Latin America, Brazil, Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. The instruments are works of art from each culture.
Music is regarded to be the “universal language,” which is evident by viewing the instruments. The most predominant types of instruments from all of the cultures are various kinds of drums and rattles/shakers. It’s interesting to note the similarity between/among instruments from all of the Americas, especially the materials used to create them.
Many instruments from the State of Bahia in Brazil show the influence of instruments from Western African countries, which were brought with those people to Brazil. Sylvia shared her perspective as a music educator regarding the value of introducing children to music of diverse cultures and traditions, identifying similarities between/among various cultures and unique aspects of each culture. She brought a collection of instruments from Africa so that the members could see the instruments up close and personal and play them with a Liberian song Sylvia sang. They had fun!
Are you interested in the history, education, and preservation of various collections and artifacts? Join Questers! Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month at 9:30 a.m. in a member’s home or at an outside location, including a variety of museums. Meetings are conducted October through May, with the December and May meetings on the third Tuesday of the month. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 17, at the Florence History Museum.
For membership information, contact Leni Bowman at 623-217-5336 (texts only, please).
The purpose, mission, and vision of Questers can be found at www.azquesters.org. Upcoming events can be viewed at www.azquesters.org/news-and-events.