A lot of things end, but at least keep the music playing

I thought that one of the most suprising things I learned about another culture was India's sense of pitch (svara) and scale system. The raga and the tala is such a foreign method to most Western classical musicians. I understand what it is, but I know it would take numerous days, months, years in order to play a complex Indian piece.
It's so cool how they have certain ornamentation for certain notes within certain scales. After rehearing the listening assigment from my first music history class fall semester, I now have a better understanding of what a raga and tala are and how they are so important to the art music of India. When going over it in class, it was hard to put into words what we were hearing because our music has no exact "translation" to a raga and a tala.

I know it may seem elementary, but I did not realize how Western classical music focuses so much on the harmonies, which is not as important is most of the other cultures that we discussed this month. Even the Blues have the "12 bar blues" which creates a harmonic progression, although it's not the main focus, it still has it! Our ears are drawn to the tension and release aspects of music. While listening to a lot of other cultures' music, I kept trying to hear in the music some sort of building tension, but the song almost always never ended up where I wanted it to go. Now I realize that that is not what is aesthetically pleasing to them.

I enjoyed learning about the role of langage/speech in the vocal music of other cultures. Classical singing in our culture takes lots of training, but for example, Native Americans sing because they can also talk, it's not about a question of trainging or experience.

A long time a go I saw the movie "The Constant Gardener" and the majority of the movie is filmed in Africa. I absolutely love the soundtrack to that movie, you should definitely check it out sometime. Needless to say, I was excited to learn about African music because it's a music of the people and not for the people, if that makes any sense. I love that the have worksongs and that it takes place outside of artistic events. (I was also REALLY enjoyed Dr. Week's slideshow, definitely something I think that needs to be shared with every class every year) I've always been a fan of African music, but I really got interesting in the BaAka of Central Africa, as well as the Griots. The yodeling style of singing that the BaAka people use is definitely something that I'd like to hear more of.

Cool Stuff!

Here is a video of a Japanese version of the musical The Phantom of the Opera. It was done in Tokyo in 1994: 

Video

Here is a video of a Bali Arts Festival, there is a man dancing with a gamelan playing somewhere in the background. You should definitely watch the dancer's hands (you can't miss them). It's a really up close and personal look at the Rame that we talked about in class:

Video

Go to this link and you can click on and listen to many different Indian musicians. There are some audio clips of Ravi Shankar as well as L. Subramaniam who is a famous violinists. 

Link

The Audacity of Music

As I was researching for this blog entry, I came across the funniest thing that I just had to share. I was unaware that Paris Hilton created a music video that dealt with the election. She did so because McCain had apparently used an image of her in a television ad in order to blast Obama, so she created a fake campaign to try and prove that McCain is way too old to be the next President. She entitled her music video "Paris for President," and danced around in a white bikini. I thought that was interesting, very interesting.

I also came across an African American woman named Odetta. She has apparently been referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement." Another one is "The Queen of the American Folk Song," given to her by Martin Luther King, Jr. She's best known for the singing of "O Freedom" in the March on Washington during the Civil Rights Movement. What is pretty amazing about her is that she has had operatic training, but then branched out and become a political singer of the blues, jazz, folk, and spirituals. She was awared by President Clinton in 1999 the National Endowment for the Arts' National Medal for Arts. Bob Dylan has been quoted saying that Odetta inspired him in the way of folk singing. Reading about her, it sure sounds like she was a big star during the civil rights movement. You should definitely go search her on youtube, or maybe I'll do that for my "cool stuff" on the blog this week.

Back in August of 2008, the prinicipal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergier, conducted the Maryinski Orchestra from St. Petersburg, Russia in Tskhinvali, South Ossenia. The concert was in celebration of the Russian military victory over the country Georgia regarding Ossenian independence, but it was also in mourning for the Russian soldiers that lost there lives right in the very area that they were performing. The orchestra played the Leningard, or Stostakovitch's Symphony No 7. I, personally, had never of this piece until reading all about it. Apparently, back in 1941 this piece exemplified the Russian and western opposition to Nazi rule. But, at the same time, it can be considered war propoganda.
Valery Gergier, as part of the concert, made many annoncements dealing with political affairs, but these views are also supposed shared by Putin, so he didn't overstep the bountries in the Russian government's eyes.
What I find so intriguing about this is that he was so outspoken about the Russian victory for Ossenia, when he is actually just a conducter there to share music that is supposed to bring some sort of stability and peace to humanity. Gergier is actually Ossenian, so that probably explains why he shared his political thoughts so freely and with such confidence.
If you'd like to read more about it, the article can be found here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4579829.ece

There are so many other music and society topics that come to mind in our own American history. I'm mostly thinking of the 1960s/1970s protest music (as well as before, during, and after the Vietnam War): The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan..the list goes on and on. It's amazing how the music industry exploded with all these songs that accompanied this free spirit movement of peace, love, and happiness. Music really can change society!

Cool Stuff

Here's a sampling of Israeli folk music by the musician Yair Dalal:
http://calabashmusic.com/world/publisher/flashPlayer/action/view?playerAction=loadAlbum&albumID=148&real_domain=nationalgeographicmusic.com


This is really neat, it's a website that has all the popular children's songs and nursery rhymes from Central and South America. There is no recording of the music, but it gives you a translation in English:
http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=e_cont&c=4


A youtube video of famous blues musician Albert King singing the song "I'll Play the Blues for You" onstage in Japan in 1989:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHqPXSA9bQE&feature=PlayList&p=73CF7B32724B8BD9&playnext=1&index=15

Music and Rites

Why is that we sing a song to a person on his/her birthday? For some reason, our culture associates big events with music. Maybe it has something to do with the the many kings of England who preferred to march into the room accompained by the regal sounding melodies of trumpets. The music signifies how important that day is, or at least should be because sometimes we simply sing the Happy Birthday song because it's what we've always done.

For most "once in a lifetime" occasions, the music usually emphasizes what is being celebrated, remembered, mourned, and so on. My choir in high school sang every year at graduation. We sang songs like Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" along with the song "For Good" from the musical Wicked. In one way or another, these songs fit the theme of growing up and thanking those that helped you along the way.

My sister's best friend had asked me to sing for her wedding a while back (but I couldn't because it ended up being the same weekend as my senior prom..) Anyway, she had asked if I would sing Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This." That's just another example of how unique events in our lives are ususally paired with certain types of music.

There are other things that occur in our lives that are not so unique, like a birthday or Christmas. That's not to say that these things are not special, they just happen every year. The music we perform at these types of rites are the same every time. As Americans, we like to sing the Star Spangled Banner at almost every event. There's nothing wrong with showing national pride, but it begins to lose its meaning when it is sung so often.

It's difficult to choose music for a rite that will reflect the individuals involved, but at the same time there is that pressure from the person organizing the music to choose music that will represent the people as a whole without his own personal preferences imposing.

Another funny observation about our culture is that we hardly ever have impromptu musical performances. We may in the comfort of our own homes or at a karoke bar on our birthdays, but to experience first-hand something like a mother's lament, as tragic as it is, we might never encounter. Most music that we perform in public is well-prepared.

On a lighter note, perhaps we all need to burst into song a little bit more. All life really is is an unstaged musical anyway.

Music and Religion

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands" Psalm 100:1

I'm a Lutheran. That means that my church services are very "by the book," or rather "by the Bible, no more or no less." If there is anyother church that we can be compared to in terms of tradition, it would be a Catholic mass, but there are differences for those of you that know your history of Martin Luther and the 95 theses. I'm actually a WELS Lutheran, which stands for Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church. Basically, our Lutheran synod originated in Wisconsin.

At WELS Lutheran church services, all music is predominantly accompained by the piano or organ. Occasionally, during the offertory or for special church season occasions, like Chistmas Eve or Easter, other performances are allowed. Any and all music that is performed in church is to be sung or played for the glory of the Lord; the objective is to praise His holy name and thank Him through music. We also have a choir and/or a bell choir that sings/plays every so often. After every musical performance, no one is permitted to clap. It sounds harsh for those that are playing/singing, but typically, clapping is viewed as a way of praising the musician. The whole point of being musical in our church services is to glorify God, therefore, Lutherans normally feel that clapping is unneccessary.

All songs and pieces that are played in my church are straight from the hymnal. J.S. Bach was a Lutheran, so many of his familiar tunes are based off of hymn melodies as well. Within the hymnal, each song is organized by church seasons/events. We have the Christmas and Easter hymns, but there are also hymns for Communion and Baptism.

Growing up as a Lutheran, my musical experience has been based solely off of classical and religious music. My very first solo in church was "Silent Night" at the children's Christmas program. Other people in the choir would sing solos, it didn't matter how good or bad you were, the point was just to make a "joyful noise." Through the years, the church has started to become a little more conventional. Most Lutheran churches now have sound systems and different types of instrumentalists are performing. In fact, my very first church formed a group of instrumentalists, consisting of roughly one clarinet, one trumpet, one trombone, and an euphonium. (Secretly, my family liked to call them the Umpa band, their musical abilities had quite the range).

I'm very much drawn to classical music and religious songs because of my background in it. I grew up in the church singing "On Eagle's Wings" and "Be Still My Soul," so understandably, that genre of music has had its influences on me. I love music that has a theme of something bigger than ourselves, it gives a deeper meaning to the music, and I'm sure that can be attributed to my faith.

Christian hymns were the very beginning of Western music. Many classical composers stole melodies and ideas from the written hymns. I think that most Christian hymns exemplify the starting point of what all Westerns orginally found aesthetically pleasing. For example, think of the tritone. It was first thought of as some sort of spawn of satan in the form of music. Many songs that were considered too dissonant were band from the church. Music has obviously grown since then, but how it all started is still very much apart of society today.

Music and Movement

On Sunday night, I walked into my dorm room for the first time in about 4 weeks, and I saw my roommate setting up here brand new ipod dock. She played a few songs, and we both instantly started joking about how we should have a dance party, right there in our dorm room (minus the strobe lights..) It's really funny, my roommate is a biology major and I'm a music major, but every time we hear any kind of music we both start breaking down to some really embarrassing dance moves.

The other day in class when we were listening to the Johnny Cash song, I was looking around the classroom and more than half of everybody there was tapping their feet or bobbing their heads to the beat "Folsom Prison Blues." It's an involuntary reaction to music we hear that we like. Sure enough, I consciously recognized that I was actually bouncing my foot as well. I think music is some type of endorphin, it gets our blood pumping in a new sort of way that makes us fidgety. That's the only sort of way I really know how to rationalize the phenomenon.

My all time favorite music to listen to is gospel music. And when I say gospel music, I mean the kind where the soloist is busting the microphone with her booming voice and the choir is dancing, stomping, clapping..and singing "Hallelujah" in the background. It gives me goosebumps to hear it! There's something so spiritual about it, like your inner core is pushing you to clap along with them. Jessye Norman, though, also does the trick.

Even though dance/movement and music can exist apart from eachother, I still think that they can become closest to their truest purpose when used together. For instance, if you are playing a certain type of tune in band, like a waltz or a march. The director, try as he might, is not going to get the same type of affect from the band if he is standing still while conducting. Music needs energy, and more often than not that energy comes through in the form of body movement.

In my own experience, I've had plenty of times when music demanded movement. The first thing that pops into my mind is Musicianship class. How many times have we stood up and stomped, clapped, and circle danced the rhythms in class? It's all about feeling the beat, we all have a heart that pumps blood through our viens, and to feel that is to feel the pulse. Singers have some pretty crazy warm-up activties, we spin our arms and sing upside down, but it's sole purpose is to connect us to our bodies, and that's done through kinestic movement. There is this connection with the brain to movement that makes things happen for us, music being one of them.

Concerning Native American music, one Navajo man in the video we watched today mentioned that dancing the way he does grounds him to mother Earth. It's a spiritual activity for them, just like all music that we love has some type of emotional/spiritual meaning behind it and what better way to try and explain that to ourselves than through tapping our toes?

Native American and African Music Links

This song "Din Din Wo (Little Child") is by Habib Koite & Bamada, a really cool Malian group. What's pretty unique about Habib Koite is that he tunes his guitar to the pentatonic scale and sings songs in English, French (Mali used to be a French colony), and Bambara (the language of Mali). His songs strongly demonstrate syncretism. If you like this, it's from their album entitled Muso Ko. I also suggest listening to "I Ka Barra (Your Work)"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ZiZnycnWY

This is definitely something that I think you should watch!!

I just copied and pasted what what written about the video...

Radio Biso na Biso is the first community radio station to broadcast in the 12 indigenous languages spoken in the FSC-certified concessions of Congolaise Industrielle des Bois in Northern Congo-Brazzaville. In addition to celebrating these unique cultures, oral traditions and musical styles, the radio station gives local indigenous people a platform to discuss and learn about the issues they face in the context of industrial forestry operations, and about the need for the company to obtain their free, prior and informed consent to operations in their traditional forest areas.

Biso na Biso is recruiting journalists from each indigenous group in the concession to produce programmes in local languages that speak to peoples concerns and interests. This video shows one of these journalists, the Ba.Aka Paul Aboyo, alias Mandero, journaliste internationale, making one of his first programmes for Biso na Biso.

The highlight of this video is when Mandero brings in indigenous people to play some of their music to broadcast on the radio. It's really neat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKZVETgJYk

Here is a clip of a Navajo feather dance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NHFgzX7c48

I haven't had abundant encounters with performing music from other cultures, but what I have had the opportunity to perform has been very memorable to me. I think I remember them all so well is because my director emphasized the overwhelming importance of performing other cultures' music. Oddly enough, all the songs that I have sung that are from outside the Western culture have all been choral pieces, I have never sung one as a solo. I feel like that gives it a richer experience, to be sharing an unfamiliar musical style, text, etc.

One of the choral pieces that I did when I was at district chorus in high school was called "Veneki, Birth Switches." It's a Russian favorite, but it literally translates into nothing. There are some references to brooms; it is sung in Russia purely out of tradition, but is not in the least bit comprehensible. I'm sure the funniest part for our director was listening to us all trying to pronounce the language, luckily it was very repetative. In my junior year of high school, I had the most wonderful experience of attending the All-Virginia All State Choir. My director was Dr. Janet Galvan, who teaches at Ithaca College in New York. What was so fabulous about this woman was that she believed it was not only recommended, but necessary, to diversify our musical repertoire. In my opinion, the most interesting song we sang was called "Hoj, Hura Hoj." It is translated "O, Mountain O" and it is a Movarian Czech song by Otmar Macha. There was three soloists choosen, and Dr. Galvan specified that they needed to be as close to straight tone as possible (with little or no vibrato). I'm assuming that that is the Czech style of singing. The summer before my senior year, I went to a conference for the American Choral Director's Association. Obviously, I'm not a chorus director, but my old voice teacher was a member, so she sent me to sing in the choir that was going to perform at the end of the conference. One of the songs chosen was called "The Children's Revolution." It was the big piece at the end of the performance, it included the Children's Choir, the students, and the teachers. Needless to say, the stage was very crowded. Although parts of the songs are in English, there were sections of it that were sung in Swahili, which is an African language. "The Children's Revolution" contains the Swahili language to show what the chidren sing in that section of Africa. That was when I discovered that Swahili is one of the most beautiful languages to sing. There are so many distinct "clicking noises" used in African languages that give it this unique coloring and meaning.