Jeremy Grimshaw Gives a Sneak Peak of His Faith + Works Lecture, “The Dimple of Skin at the Tip of the Sword"
Jeremy Grimshaw, associate professor of musicology and ethnic musicology, kicks off this year’s Faith + Works Lecture Series. He teaches world music classes and directs the Balinese gamelan for the School of Music at Brigham Young University. Up until a few months ago, Grimshaw served as an associate dean, working alongside the dean on amazing projects such as the Music Building and the new Arts Building, which is still under construction.
Q: What is Gamelan and the Balinese percussion orchestra?
Grimshaw: The music comes from Bali in Indonesia and it's a traditional and contemporary music form. Gamelan basically means orchestra and refers to the whole ensemble. Our gamelan is usually between 25 and 30 people playing bronze xylophones, gongs, drums and bamboo flutes.
One of the things that I love about the performing arts in Bali is that it is deeply integrated into social, cultural and religious life. It makes it really hard to draw a clear line between where performance ends and ceremony begins.
Q: How does your faith inspire your work and what you do at BYU?
Grimshaw: Part of what I want to talk about in my Faith + Works lecture is my growing up and getting involved in music. I knew that music, spiritual experiences and connections with my community gave me big feelings and that somehow those things were all kind of tangled up with each other. Then later on, when I discovered Balinese music, I found that those things are tangled up in Balinese music and culture in a similar way, or at least in a way that resonated with me. I like the idea of envisioning God as a being who appreciates and cultivates beauty as an end unto itself, not just a means to some other end.
Q: Tell us about your topic for the lecture. What does the title “The Dimple of Skin at the Tip of the Sword" mean?
Grimshaw: The imagery that I use in the title refers to a kind of dance performance that happens in Bali. It is a really special performance and occasionally it is done for tourists. I have seen the tourist versions of this performance, but I have also been lucky enough to see it in a more ceremonial context as well. In the performance, there is a moment where several of the men are overcome with intense emotions. They have swords and, as part of the story, they are trying to kill the bad guy.
There is a tense moment in which they turn their swords on themselves and press the tips of the blade against their own chests. It is a really profound, intense moment where all the conflict between good and evil in the world, in the universe, is playing out at the tip of the sword that these men are holding against their own chests. That image captures, for me, part of what art is supposed to do. I think art is supposed to help us grapple with and think through big, complicated things, especially conflicts like strife and grief.
Q: What are some of your inspirations in this field?
Grimshaw: Part of the reason I got into world music and ethnomusicology in grad school is because a lot of the composers that I was interested in had gone down various world music rabbit holes when they were finding their voices as composers. I was fascinated by composers such as La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass and many others who had been profoundly influenced by music from different parts of the world. I started studying some of those styles of music, and fell in love with them on my own terms. I followed those experimental composers down that rabbit hole and ended up pursuing musicology as my degree.
Q: Is there anything else you want students to know about you, your topic or something that would help prepare them for the lecture?
Grimshaw: One of the things that is really important to me about gamelan is that it is supposed to arise from, embody and foster community. Anybody can play in gamelan. We have made a point of making gamelan a welcoming place where people can find a community. That has been really important to me.
When my kids were growing up, we developed a phrase for when I dropped them off at school. I would roll down the window and yell, “Be cool to the weird kids and weird to the cool kids.” That became a family motto where the point is that everybody needs a place to land. Everybody needs a place where they can go, regardless of whatever else is going on, that allows them to connect with other people in a profound way. Gamelan has become that thing for me and many others.
Q: What do you hope that people take away from your lecture?
Grimshaw: There are two things that I hope people take away from the talk. One of them is that I hope people really appreciate their own artistic inclination. If there is art that you make or do, I hope that you realize how important it is to use that art to grapple with hard things in life. The second hope is that you find ways to use art to build community around yourself. There are very few ways you can build that sense of connection to people that are more profound and more satisfying than through the arts.
If you are looking to find community in the arts, you may find the answer in Jeremy Grimshaw’s Faith + Works Lecture. See you on November 6th at 11 a.m. in the Concert Hall of the Music Building (MB).