Participants in the Northern Regional Culinary Champs select products courtesy of sponsors in preparation of one of the live cooking challenges.
The last leg of the Regional Culinary Championship will be held in the Western Region at the Hollis Peter Lynch Auditorium in Montego Bay, St. James, on Friday, May 5. Organized by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), the Western Regional Culinary Arts Champs will feature budding chefs and foodies primarily from Trelawny, St. James, Hanover and Westmoreland, who will showcase their culinary talents and compete in several exciting and innovative categories, including – Special Diets (Live Cooking), Fruit and Vegetable Carving, Sweet Treats, Mixology, Dutchie Dash and Hot-off-the-Grill.
According to Paula Williams, JCDC Culinary Arts Development Specialist, “The Northern, Central and Eastern Regional Champs all brought out impressive competitors and culinary talents, and the Western Regional Culinary Champs promises to be just as exciting and engaging; as the competitors focus on presenting local foods in a creative way. We look forward to even more amazing meals coming from out West.
“We will also be taking on spot entries in the sponsored products category and the Dutchie Dash segment, so if your specialty is a one-pot meal, please come out and join us!” Williams continued.
The Jamaica Culinary Arts Competition is Jamaica’s premier culinary competition and specializes in showcasing the creative talents of Jamaicans in the culinary arts, while promoting healthy lifestyle and wellness. The competition also seeks to encourage innovative and creative use of local foods and to stimulate creative talents and provide opportunities for exploring the economic potential of local foods.
Greetings in the Mighty name of YESHUWAH the Messiah. I would prefer at this time not to reveal or publish my own personal identity in an effort to divert unnecessary attention towards me as a means of focus on the very urgent message that is now a matter of life and death, and I am appealing for some assistance getting words of urgent warning to the general public without causing too much panic or fear.
I would like to use this opportunity to convey to the nation, in a most serious way without being too melodramatic about it, that as it now stands, Jamaica, along with the rest of the world, is now facing the imminent return of Yeshuwah the Messiah Prince (which being interpreted as Jesus Christ).
Based on my own Scriptural and Jewish research, it appears that it is most likely to happen in the Jewish Year 5777, which converts to the Gentile year 2017 and more specifically, in the Jewish historic month of IYYAR, which generally converts to the Gentile month of May. I am unlike many false prophets, who by the spirit of the Anti-Christ have made countless, weird and false predictions like the boy who cried wolf in fulfillment of the very Scriptures itself concerning many false prophets that shall arise. The very sad thing about that story is that nobody believed the little boy when the wolf really came. To a large extent we have repeatedly heard all these doomsday predictions before and all of them lacked the true spirit of prophecy and Accuracy. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is it. What makes this quite different is the fact that I am an underwater born-again disciple of Yeshuwah the Messiah, and one who has been baptized with the Holy Spirit of the Living God. And also, I am one who has been awakened and made aware of these things by a God who is my salvation.
It must be understood that many false prophets have found the prophecies of Daniel to be a huge stumbling block because as I have said before, they speak not with the Spirit of Prophecy. Now, after careful research and analysis, I am also fully convinced that the prophecies of Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel (1140 -1217) are faithful and true. And the reason for that is the recognition that his ten Jubilees end time prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah, concurs with the prophecies of Daniel (9: 25) in regards to the timing of the “Seven Sabbaths of Years” meaning (7 x 7yrs) = 49yrs, which undoubtedly began the countdown from the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem since June 1967 until the coming of the Messiah. From 1967 + 49yrs after (Restoration of Jerusalem) = 2016, which means that the “Seven Sabbaths of Years” have already been fulfilled, and we are now in the Year of the Messiah according to the interpretation of Daniel’s Prophecy, as well as the Prophecy of Rabbi Judah Ben Samuels. While The “Sixty-two Sabbaths of Years”, spoken of by Daniel, was in relation to another dispensation regarding the First Coming of the Messiah the Prophet, Daniel indicated the passage of 49yrs and NOT the passage of 50yrs, and since 50yrs would come on (Jewish) IYYAR 28th 5777 or May 24th 2017, this I believe should indicate to us that the Messiah intends to come before that date.
The Rabbinical Prophecy therefore concurs with Daniel’s Prophecy in relation to the Jewish year 5777 or Gentile (2017) starting at the beginning of the ecclesiastical year (Not the Jewish Civil year) on 1st of Nisan 5777 or (Tues. March 28, 2017), which means that the 49 prophetic years of Daniel’s prophecy ended on the 49th anniversary of taking back Jerusalem, which was the 28th of IYYAR, 5776 which converts to (Sunday, 5th of JUNE, 2016). What that means is that we are all now quickly approaching the very last month of the Prophetic year of Jubilee (50th years) in 5777 for (JEW) and 2017 for (GENTILE). Based on Scripture, we are now in the final moments of Daniel’s Prophecy in the year of the Messiah, meaning TIME IS UP!!
These commandments were given to the children of Israel approximately 630 years before the Prophet Daniel was even born.
THE TRUMPET IS ABOUT TO SOUND. THE THIRD BOOK OF MOSES CALLED, LEVITICUS:
25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Now, based on numerous Scriptures, example Song of Solomon 2: (10 -13), it is apparent as indicated to us that Christ is definitely coming back in the season of Spring, which runs between (March 20 – June 20) in the Northern Hemisphere (Jerusalem being the Benchmark). One month and a week of Spring have already gone. This time period also coincides with Daniel’s Prophecy.
I am not permitted to say that I know, so I am now saying I strongly believe that the Messiah is coming back no later than the month of May 2017 (IYYAR -5777), which is also a Spring month formerly known as the month of Ziv, (which means light or glow). I also have very good reasons to believe that he could be coming on the Sabbath day, possibly anywhere between Saturday, May 6, 2017 and Saturday, May 13, 2017 and with good reasons.
Please note that I said “I strongly believe”, because I will not be presumptuous and say I know, for no one knows the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.
Here is why I strongly believe this: The facts are as follows: The month of IYYAR (May) contains three very important dates, two of which pertains to ISRAEL.
The first is the 5th of IYYAR, 5777 (Monday, May 1st, 2017) which happens to be the Jewish anniversary date of the declaration of Israel becoming an independent Jewish State in 1948 (within the Prophetic Range).
The second is the 28th of IYYAR, 5777 (Wednesday, May 24th, 2017) which happens to be the Jewish anniversary date when Jerusalem was restored to Israel in 1967 (not within the Prophetic Range).
And the third is the 17th of IYYAR, 5777 (Saturday, May 13th, 2017) which happens to be the exact anniversary of a major cataclysmic event that destroyed the earth with a catastrophic flood which occurred in the days of Noah. Jesus did say “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man”. (Luke 17:26) (Within the Prophetic Range)
What is even more interesting is the fact that Saturday May 13, 2017, is at the very centre of these two dates, May 1 -13 = (12 days) and May 13 -24 = (12 days) also. This could represent the Twelve Tribes of Isra-el, also the Twelve Apostles of the Messiah, the Twelve Gates of Heaven (4 x 3) and the Twelve Foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem, also, (4 x 3 = 12) but (4 + 3 = 7) God’s perfect number.
The year 5777 is quite peculiar containing God’s perfect number in a set of three as in Father, Son & Holy Spirit and the Water, the Spirit and the Blood, and the Seven Churches, Seven Golden Candlesticks, Seven Vials, Seven Years of Tribulation, Seven Sabbaths, Seven Days per Week, Seven Years of Plenty, Seven Years of Famine etc.
And also, IYYAR 10th & 17th, 5777 or (May 6th & 13th, 2017) fall on the Sabbath on both Jewish & Gentile calendars which doesn’t happen again on the Jewish calendar for another seven years in the year 2024 and also seemingly referring to this passage of Scripture: Hebrews 4:(8-11);
[8]For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
[9]There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
[10]For he that is entered into his REST, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. [11]Let us labour therefore to enter into that REST, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Since leaving Egypt with death and destruction behind them, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years day and night just before entering the Promised Land, and for forty days and forty nights, Christ himself also went through a time of trial and testing and there also existed forty days and forty nights from the beginning of the scriptural or ecclesiastical year to the time that time ran out on man when God Himself shut the door of the Sanctuary of the Ark seven days before the cataclysmic disaster of the destruction of the earth by the flood waters in the time of Noah. And it also rained for forty days and forty nights during the destruction of the Earth. WARNING: BE AWARE that forty days and forty nights from the beginning of the ecclesiastical year falls on [Saturday, MAY 6, 2017], the exact anniversary when Noah and his family entered into the safety of the Ark and Almighty God Himself sealed the door shut.
HERE ARE THE TOP TEN EXPECTATIONS WHEN THAT DAY COMES:
1.It is going to be the next greatest event that will shock all the countries, continents and people of the entire world.
2.It is going to strike suddenly like a thunderbolt, abruptly, unexpectedly, without warning and without prior notice.
3.It shall be a joyous day for some and a sorrowful day for some with unimaginable, indescribable, uncontrollable regrets for others.
4.There shall be no second chance or a repeat episode of the event ever again.
5.It shall be a day when the righteous sheep shall be separated from the unrighteous goats.
6.A great number of people including careless Christians, will be caught off guard.
7.The event will catch the righteous, righteous still and catch the sinners, sinners still.
8.It shall be a day of big surprises where a great number of people will realize that they have been deceived all these years.
9.Another surprise may be that a man or woman who had faithfully served the Lord for many years, may defile his/her garment just before the sound of that summoning trumpet and miss the glorious opportunity for eternal life, while a longstanding sinner may surrender his/her life just in time to make it.
10. The dead in Christ shall rise & corruption will put on incorruption and mortal will put on immortality and they shall inherit eternal life with Almighty God, and death shall have no dominion over them for all eternity.
REFLECTIONS ON THIS MESSAGE AND VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE:
One of the gains of this reminder is that there may be someone reading this piece today who will take a firm decision to ensure that he/she gets on board that celestial flight traveling to Glory Land. However, one of the greatest tragedies of this reminder is that there may be someone too who is reading this piece today but who will see no need to heed this warning. A tragedy indeed!
What manner of love is this, that a God so mighty and powerful, the immortal and invisible God, the Creator of the vast expanse of the universe, the Creator of all things celestial and terrestial, the Creator of all life forms on earth, that he should choose to manifest Himself in flesh, taking on a human form and to be spat upon by mere mortals, to be despised of men and to subject Himself unto a painful and horrible death on a cross, to die for us that we might live for Him. What manner of love is this, that the Ancient of Days should allow himself to be flogged, punched, boxed, kicked and crucified on a man-made tree by men who have no power over Him, for God to become a man that man can become a God. How can these things be, for the Creator of the oceans and the seas, the Creator of the rivers and the lakes to hang on a cross and say “I thirst”, for the omnicient (all-knowing) God to ask “Adam where art thou?”
I am, D.A.F. (Concerned Disciple of Jesus Christ).
Once again, Child Month will be observed during this period with the nation focusing on its young ones in a positive and caring way. Many activities have been planned to commemorate the moth, and we sincerely hope that this will not just be another occasion for slick public relations and lip service, but that genuine projects will be pursued in order to improve the lot of our children.
It is no secret that in Jamaica today, child abuse is commonplace. Almost daily, there is an Ananda Alert which focuses on missing children. Human trafficking, child prostitution, as well as labour exploitation, are but some of the cruel practices involving our hapless children. In the meantime, there have been many instances of rape and other forms of sexual abuse involving not just girls, but boys as well.
But perhaps the most heinous act of all has been the murdering of children. This act of seemingly senseless brutality has almost become a national pastime. Indeed, if as it has been said that children are our future, then by killing them, we are in fact destroying our future. Infanticide is a most scurrilous act to be condemned by all well-thinking citizens, and we do believe that government should introduce more stringent, if not draconian, measures to deal with child molesters and abusers.
One of the major challenges facing child care in this country is the inability of many parents, especially the younger ones, to bring up their children in the right and proper way. In fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, children have been having children. In this scenario, given the socio-economic circumstances affecting many parents, children oftentimes live in a one-parent home with absenteeism a major factor with respect to fathers.
There has been talk about putting in place the necessary legislation to punish dead-beat fathers but, alas, this has been just another case of shoptalk by our vote-catching politicians.
Satoshi Takashima leading a training session with young players at Westwood High School.
Although the association is in its fledgling stage, the plan is for long term development of the sport in the parish.
The Trelawny Table Tennis Association (TTA), which came into being in January with its main purpose, the development of the sport through board base recruitment and to work on its training of players, coaches, referees and other game functionaries.
Raymond Lawrence, President of the Association, told the Western Mirror that the organization is here to ensure that table tennis in Trelawny, which has produced such greats as Anita Belnavis and Aldith Ellis, can match against other popular sports in the parish.
He disclosed that recently they had the honour of National Team Coach, Japanese native, Satoshi Takashima, who is on secondment to the National Association carry out coach-led training sessions in the parish with several students from Westwood High School participating.
He related that at the conclusion of the training, coach Takashima revealed there were some positives identified and he would be seeking to do follow-up with some of the standouts.
Also recently, in a bid to promote the sport at the grassroots and youth level, there was a handover exercise of a table tennis board and equipment to the Hague Primary School in the parish.
It is expected that students, in utilizing the equipment under guidance can develop in future players and champions in the sport.
He further highlighted that the Association is now putting in plans to boost the sport locally with the introduction of a business house league that is set to kick-off in June.
This he expects to build the enthusiasm about the sport among players in the parish. The champions can expect to earn cash incentives in the competition. SB
LADIES OF TRELAWY IN ROW: Seven young ladies are set to vie for Festival Queen Crown in Trelawny come Mothers’ Day on the historic cruise ship pier in Falmouth. Recently, they had their sashing ceremony. Miss Trelawny Festival Queen 2016, Kacia Whilby (centre), is flanked by the 2017 contestants. They are, from left to right, Krisna Davis- Miss Falmouth Jamaica Land Company Limited/RCCL, Phelisa Ricketts- Miss WICan Supply & Services,Tercia McPherson- Miss Port Authority of Jamaica, Celine Graham- Miss Gore Development Limited, Grace Harrison- Miss Trelawny Cooperative CreditUnion, Kay Shaw- Miss Glastonbury Purveyor Company Limited and Kimberely Wright- Miss Smart’s Auto & Car Sales.
The journey towards crowning the 2017 Miss Jamaica Festival Queen heats up with parish level coronations, which will be held throughout the month of May. A signature programme of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen parish coronations will see intelligent, culturally-aware, poised and empowered women who are seeking a platform to make their contributions to nation building, compete to represent their parish at the national coronation in August.
Saturday, May 13 will see St. Elizabeth’s coronation at the Alpart Sports Club in Nain, and Kingston and St. Andrew’s coronation at The Louise Bennett Garden Theatre at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, both beginning at 8: 00 pm. Sunday, May 14 will see Trelawny’s coronation at the historic Falmouth Cruise Port and St. Ann’s coronation at the Sandals Hotel, Ocho Rios, both also beginning at 8:00 pm.
Saturday, May 20 will see Portland and Hanover’s coronation’s at the Port Antonio High School in Port Antonio, and the Jockey Factory in Lucea respectively, both beginning at 8:00 pm. While Sunday, May 21 will see St. Catherine’s coronation at the Eltham High School Auditorium, beginning at 7:00 pm.
Saturday, May 27 will be the Clarendon and Westmoreland coronations at the St. Gabriel Anglican Church Hall in May Pen and the Sean Lavery Faith Hall in Savanna-la-Mar respectively, both beginning at 8:00 pm. While Sunday, May 28 will see coronations in St. James at the Iberostar Hotel in Lilliput, beginning at 8:00 pm, and in Manchester at the Cecil Charlton Hall in Mandeville, beginning at 7:00 pm.
Tickets for the various coronations may be purchased at the relevant parish office, or at the gate of the event.
Here, Great Shape! volunteers pause for a photo with the students of the Cambridge Primary to celebrate Dental Health Month.
Over 30 volunteers from the Great Shape! Inc. Dental Group in partnership with the Sandals Foundation were hosted at the Sandals Inn in Montego Bay to assist with the continuation of its dental sealant programme that has been in operation since 2010. The project, endorsed by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, saw almost 400 persons from the Cambridge Primary School in St. James being offered free dental care; thereby providing over 1300 teeth protected sealants – a fluid that assists with preventing and reducing cavities.
The convenience of the initiative being brought to the school has resulted in its high impact and high participation rate, seeing more than 90% of the students receiving dental care which otherwise would have been considered too expensive to attain.
The Great Shape! Inc. is known to be one of the largest international humanitarian dental projects in the world and has maintained an unwavering partnership with the Sandals Foundation for over seven years to restore confidence and build the self-esteem of children across the Caribbean by delivering healthy teeth and a thousand smiles.
Suzanne Stephenson shares a smile with our lens as she multi-tasks
Philanthropist, musician and mentor are just a few arms of Suzanne Stephenson’s professional portfolio. Her colleagues describe her as an ever-evolving and high-spirited being who pursues opportunities for professional development through the Sandals Corporate University (SCU) and is known for playing her part in improving communities through the Sandals Foundation.
Raised in Barnett Lane, Montego Bay, a young Stephenson witnessed her single mother struggle to make ends meet for herself and her five older siblings, while her father who was better off lived a lavish lifestyle. The drastic contrast between her parents’ lifestyles drove her to develop a hunger for success so that she would be able to offer the best to her future brood- a yearning that would follow her throughout her years at the Mount Alvernia High School and even presently in her role as Administrative Assistant in the Engineering Department at Sandals Royal Caribbean.
After graduating high school at the top of her class, Stephenson took an untraditional route and chased a career in music. Her passion for this artistry led her to form a calypso and reggae band for which she sang and played the trumpet. After only a few months, the band’s popularity grew stronger and they received bookings from noted resorts across the island and were also affiliated with major acts like Marcia Griffiths and the I Threes.
“The band was really successful. We became so sought-after that we were getting calls from all over to perform and somehow I ended up managing our schedules, contracts and basically all other administrative duties,” Suzanne shared. This was no doubt the start of a new career path for the young musician.
A NEW PATH
In the heights of her musical career, Stephenson became grounded with the birth of her son. As a single mother, she quickly realized that her late-night jam sessions and occasional travelling did not offer her the stability she would now need to provide the best quality of life for her newborn.
Stephenson hankered for a change.
“I remember being sent back and forth to stay with my mom and then my father and I just wanted to make sure that I was in a position to always be present in my son’s life,” she expressed as she recalled her childhood.
A friend who was then employed to Sandals Royal Caribbean informed Stephenson of a part-time position as Administrative Assistant. Using her supervisory role in the band as her core experience in the field, Stephenson was declined the opportunity and deemed not qualified enough for the post. However, three weeks later a determined Suzanne landed a space in the resort’s Hospitality Training Programme- a six-week programme that exposes individuals to various operations in the hotel industry.
INFLUENCING CHANGE
During her illustrious tenure, to date, Stephenson has completed SCU courses in Guest Services, Customer Service, Leadership and Management, Supervisory Training and more- all of which are accredited through the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Her work colleagues expressed that this aspiring manager never tucked away what was taught in these courses.
“After every training session, you could see that she became a renewed professional. She is always working to implement new methods for productivity that work best for her and her team,” advised Sandals Royal Caribbean’s training and development manager, Tracie Shortridge.
One team member acknowledged that Stephenson also encourages her colleagues to get involved in the resort’s curricular activities and to make good usage of given opportunities for advancement. “If it wasn’t for her I don’t think I would have ever pursued higher education,” reminisced Joseph James, plumber and shift manager at the resort. He further added that it was Suzanne’s assistance in filling out his application to the SCU and her constant follow-ups that allowed him to be the recipient of a full scholarship to attend the Montego Bay CommunityCollege in pursuit of an Associate Degree in Engineering.
“In just four years, Suzanne has managed to make an indelible mark in the lives of the team. She is always on top of our schedules and encourages us to participate in resort activities and not be locked away in our tool boxes! I have no doubt that she will one day be an exceptional manager at this resort,” lauded Devon Gordon, engineering manager.
What passes for music at the local level in Jamaica today is a total denial of the art form. Indeed there is still a fair sprinkling of good musicians to be found in the country, but their influence on the populace in general is almost nil.
The whole popular musical genre of this country seems to be led by a group of untrained persons called promoters. These so-called promoters or music ‘dons’ are persons of affluence and capacity to produce state-of- the art music studios; persons without musical ability or capability, and without any interest whatever in providing themselves with accomplished musicians who could be used as guides in the pursuance of making music that conforms with the art of combining vocal or instrumental voices in varying melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre (pronounced taumb) – and rest.
(Yes! Rest: that very vitally critical golden moment of silence which serves to impart its subtle impression on the musical human mind, and not the monotonous cacophony of coarse imbecilic and vulgar sounds passing for local music).
A music writer should have the ability to form structurally complete and emotionally expressive tonal compositions arranged so as to impart pleasure, and/or excite the musical sensibility of the listener. Please note here that I say the listener not the hearer, which is what ninety-nine percent of us Jamaicans are nowadays as compared to the Jamaican of fifty or even forty years ago. I say this without any fear of honest contradiction, that a majority of the present day people of Jamaica is musically degenerate if not altogether tone deaf. As a cultural medium of expression, the local music of today is used to propagate ‘badmanism’, drugs, the gun, porn, and all the sundry implements of evil of which certain types of music are quite able to impart.
There was a time in this country when a majority of musicians were music literate, with the exception of our mento musicians, and even among these were to be found those who could read a musical score or otherwise play a mento genre that made musical sense and satisfied an aural pleasure. Today, what is generally heard on local radio is a monotonous cacophony of sounds gleefully called ridim by persons blessed with various forms of tertiary education.
MUSIC LITERATE
A majority of our literally thousands of practicing present day musicians are not music literate, and it is from this group who are used to produce the present cacophony, that most of our local aggregations are drawn. We only need to take a look at the produce of the yearly JCDC popular song competition to grasp the enormity of the plague to which I refer.
Most of the songs submitted from year to year are plagiarisms of songs of years gone by, and worse, what seems a bit bewildering to me is the judges’ incompetence to recognise plagiarised pieces. If the melody of any musical work contains more than four measures of any other previous composition, the work is a plagiarised copy. So if the judgment is critical and fair, why is there a reluctance to throw the garbage out?!!.
We have come to a point where due to a proliferation of non-musicians, all songs are stuck in a two-chord groove, (and that is IF there is any harmonic sense) limiting song writing in the majority case to a tonic, supertonic, mediant format, or the DJ rap sequence, where the melody has no chance of a variation from something stuck in a groove, and so the sequence continues without a resolution of any kind, whether a perfect, plagal, half, or deceptive cadence. Note! At the best of times, local studio so-called engineers use fading in place of a cadence.
Any song diverting from the elementary diatonic to include anything resembling a chromatic sequence is labeled: Ah w’ite man music dat: and by not a minority.
The great musician, Schonberg, once said: “If music is an art, it is not for everybody; if it is for everybody, it ceases to be an art”.
In this country at present, most newspaper entertainment columnists, radio and TV entertainment commentators, see most mediocre, wriggling, writhing so-called stage artistes, whinnying out monotonously coarse and ridiculous two or three note chants, as what they call, awesome performances. Very few are capable of recognising whether the voice is between the cracks of the keys of a keyboard.
Our musicians must wake from their slumber and give the art of music a chance to prevail as an art instead of the constant pandering to non-musicians who are after nothing but filthy lucre. Can this pernicious cycle be broken? Yes! As an initial step, music should be made a compulsory subject in our education system, and there is a way to get around this if Jamaicans can prove that they have the guts to fight for what they believe to be desirable. I will get back to this in a while, but first let me elaborate on a few ideas.
MUSIC AS A LEARNING TOOL
Music can be used as a learning tool. The student of music learns to appreciate the value of time. Time in music can be analogous to a structuring of one’s work ethic in which one learns to apply a sense of order, arrangement and application. [Duty]
The student of music learns musical harmony, which if properly interpreted and taken to its logical conclusion, shows how agreement between man and nature may be attained, therefore natural fulfillment by learning to successfully grapple with the discordant episodes one may encounter in the process of learning. [Comfort]
By the same token one gets a feeling of discomfort when notes are in disharmony. [Your math is in disarray, so to speak, in need of a thinking, orderly, reasoning mind.].
Then there is nuance which is subjective. The student learns to appreciate the value of (a) Rest; which is empirical to the appreciation of choosing precisely, when and how to do what.
(b) Timbre: [1]. Quality of sound: When to be soft, or loud, or gentle, or silent, or persuasive. [“A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger” says the good book.] Music may be used to express any of these functions.
[2].Music can be calm and music can be grievously turbulent. A musical sound exceeding 180dbs can be fatal to humans. Science has discovered that an intense and continuous sound of 7Hz can cause fibrination of the blood in the human heart, resulting in death. This also means that music of a given intensity is dangerous.
Music is also cosmic in nature. The manufacturers of brass instruments have made use of one of the fundamental qualities of musical sound. In a majority of cases, three valves are all that is found necessary in production of 3-5 octaves of chromatic musical scales. The valves serve to lengthen or shorten the travel-time of a column of air, producing the wave-length of the tone. This is achieved by the natural attributes of a fundamental tone producing its 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, harmonics and their partials under the influence of particular portions of controlled air directed via a mouthpiece. The human lips are the vibrating medium used to set up the motion. The ears of a sensitive listener are able to detect these tones when a bass note of a piano is struck, setting the relevant harmonics in motion, or careful listening to the pedal notes of a pipe organ.
We now come to the difficulty of a Jamaican school curriculum which includes the subject of music.
One last comment: I have noticed that today’s song writers and studio engineers have rid themselves of the (nuisance?) of musicians and have turned to using digital musical crap found on modern keyboards and computers!! What a PRECKEH!! jones714023@yahoo,com
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