Seven Cycles

William Cole might be called a musical Johnny Appleseed. Since 1975, when he planted one of the first seeds of non-Western music at Dartmouth, the professor of music has propagated a veritable orchard right in the thick of the traditional European musical idiom of this country.

The seed was a Hopkins Center concert of improvisational jazz by Cole and two friends in the summer of 1975. In the wake of this event, Cole conceived the idea of a series of seven "cycles" annual programs of non-Western music that were increasingly complex and far-reaching. The concept was drawn from the reincarnation theory of the Ibo tribe of Nigeria, according to which the human soul must go through seven stages of reincarnation after death, gaining wisdom in each stage. The 1975 concert was called the First Cycle, after the fact, and Cole went on to fashion six more increasingly ambitious programs.

The Second Cycle, for example, was in the mold of its predecessor, but two new artists were added. By the Fourth Cycle, the program included a Latin jazz dance, a gospel choir performance, and a 28-person improvisational concert. The final stage, the Seventh Cycle, was held in mid-October and was a fitting conclusion indeed. It included a Hopkins Center concert bringing back many artists who had participated in earlier cycles, representing the striving towards perfection and the improvement on past experience embodied in the reincarnation theory. In addition, for the first time, there was an off-campus presentation, in which the Seventh Cycle was performed again two days later in New York City's Town Hall.

The common thread running through all seven cycles has been the desire to expose audiences accustomed to Western music to a wider variety of musical forms: the Chinese muzette, Native American song, blues, West African drumming, Caribbean dances, and many others. Encouraging a global consciousness that transcends mere musicology is also a part of Cole's mission.

The end of the seven cycles does not spell the end of that mission. While the cycles were growing on the Dartmouth consciousness, Cole was also presenting a variety of other non-Western music through the auspices of the John Coltrane Memorial World Music Series an ongoing project that he directs. A recording of the First Cycle has been made, five years after its performance, from the tape that is made of every Hopkins Center concert. The reception accorded the Seventh Cycle in October speaks well for the success of Cole's mission, and he talks enthusiastically of getting another similar project underway soon.

I trust [my early efforts] are forgotten; they were in very bad taste. I had not then learned all true power in writing is in the idea, not the style." Daniel Webster