Latin American Music

This week we listened to three Latin American pieces: "Santo Domingo" by Los Cumbiamberos de Pacheco, "Huayno" by siko band and "Tin Tin Por Tin Tin" by Joao Gilberto.

The first track, "Santo Domingo", is an example of "cumbia" style music and is a very typical style of Latin American music and may be what is generally thought of when someone thinks about Latin American style music. This style of music likely began in Columbia and has European, African and indigenous influences. Since its beginnings, cumbia has spread all over Latin America and has become a popular style of music. As drums are one of the most important aspects in this style of music, the African influence can be heard in the percussion used within the piece. Indigenous musical influences can be heard in the wood wind instruments used, namely the flute in this piece. The beat of this piece makes it very ideal for dancing, which is an extremely important element of cumbia style music. This music reminded me a lot of the samba style of music we have been learning about in class, mainly in terms of the percussion and rhythm of the piece.

The second song, "Huayno" comes from the Andes in South America. Huayno is the name given to both the style of music and the style of dance in the region. This style of music is thought to have originated in Peru and it represents a combination of traditional folk music and modern rhythms from big cities.   In this piece, and in Andean music generally, many ski panpipes are used. The panpipes in this piece play interlocking rhythms which create a melody. The style of interspersed notes between two musicians playing the panpipes in a piece is called a hocket. Percussion and guitar are also present in this song.

"Tin Tin Por Tin Tin" by Joao Gilberto is an example of classic bossa nova music. Bossa nova is a popular style of music that came out of Brazil and is closely related to samba music. Bossa nova is derived from samba music but puts more of an emphasis on the melody of the music and less emphasis on percussion. It is also influenced by jazz music. Bossa nova was developed and became popular in the 1950s and 60s. Bossa nova pieces generally include classical guitar and drums and percussion. This piece also includes a orchestral background element. Joao Gilberto is considered one of the most influential bossa nova artists. Before listening to this piece, I recognized Joao Gilberto's name from a record my parents own of his music, in collaboration with Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto on vocals. I was excited to listen to one of his own pieces as I had grown up and loved listening to his album with his wife and Getz.

I enjoyed listening to all of these pieces, but I think that I most enjoyed the music by Joao Gilberto. There is something that is so relaxing about bossa nova style music, and I think I was a little bit impartial to his music in the first place because I had grown up listening to another album of his so that piece was very nostalgic for me.

Sub-Saharan Africa

This week, we listened to three music selections from Sub-Saharan Africa. The first song is called “Atsia Suite” and it is performed by the Ewe people of Ghana. The second selection is “Choral Song” from the Congo. The last piece is called Music for Divination by the the Aka Pygmies located in the Central African Republic. All of these songs have different sounds to them but they also share some similarities even though all of the pieces come out of different countries. 

Something that I learned this past week that I found to be really cool about Sub-Saharan African music is how music and dance is used in so many different social contexts in the region, and how music and dance is an extremely crucial aspect of community. Music is not just used for entertainment purposes, it is a highly important form of tradition, spirituality and expression. 

The first piece, "Atsia Suite" seemed to by played with only metal instruments until the middle of the song when drums come in. The higher pitched instruments play the same rhythm over and over again throughout most of the piece, which is called ostinato. The lower instruments play a pattern that does not stay consistent the entire time. These instruments played on the beat through some of the song and then towards the middle began being played on off beats. It was hard for me to hear any sort of structure in this song, but there very well could have been because my ears have been trained to songs that usually stay very consistent in their rhythm. 

I really enjoyed listening to the second piece, "Choral Song". There was definitely distinct rhythm in this song, but it was only through voices. The singers chanted throughout this song in differing pitches, holding some words out lingering than others. I loved the harmonies in this song and the way that the voices blended together. 

The final piece, "Music For Divination", started out with only voices too. The singing reminded me a bit of the Tuvan throat singing we had been listening to in class mixed with yodeling. About four measures into the song, drums join in with the singers along with people clapping, making in polyphonic. I could really picture this song being performed in some kind of community setting, with lots of people joining in to sing and drum and dance. The rhythm in this song seemed to stay mostly consistent, especially when listening to the people singing and clapping. The drum rhythm seemed to maybe have little sections were it may have been improvised a little bit. 

I most enjoyed listening to "Choral Song" and "Music For Divination". I think that this is because those two songs had a more consistent rhythm than "Atsia Suite", which just seemed kind of random rhythmically to me and made it kind of hard to listen to, plus it was really long compared to the other two songs. I have really enjoyed learning about the interesting culture that makes up Sub-Saharan African music! 

LEAF Schools & Streets

For the past few weeks, our class has had the incredible opportunity to work with several different middle and elementary schools in Buncombe county through the LEAF Organization. LEAF is a non-profit organization out of Black Mountain, North Carolina. The motto on their website reads: connecting cultures and creating community through music and arts. Based on what I have observed, this is an incredibly apt descriptor of the affect that LEAF has on communities on young people in the Asheville area. I had the pleasure of visiting a sixth grade classroom at Asheville Middle School to introduce them to Cajun, Creole and Zydeco style musician Cedric Watson. Upon first entering the classroom, the excitement of the students was almost palpable. The kids were engaged and enthusiastic as we presented to the class. Having never heard the term "Zydeco" before, the students were curious about the origins of the word and the style of music and dance. After watching a video of a couple at a Zydeco dance and listening to a recording of Cedric Watson and the Bijou Creole (which they played along to on cardboard washboards), they were extremely eager to experience and participate in the music firsthand at the LEAF Festival.

A week later, my group returned to the middle school classroom to observe Mr. Watson and the kids practicing their performance. It was truly inspiring to watch the four-time grammy nominated musician interacting with the students as if they were his peers, and it was obvious that the students highly admired him. Mr. Watson played his accordion and sang along with the students to lyrics that they had been learning throughout the week. We listened in astonishment as a couple of the sixth graders fearlessly belted out short solos in French, occasionally making mistakes but laughing them off with an air of poise that seemed impressively mature for their age. The confidence that all of the students exuded as they sang was definitely a product of having been able to work closely with an accomplished musician, and I was incredibly excited at the prospected of seeing them perform in front of a crowd that coming weekend.

Saturday finally arrived, and it was a perfect, crisp fall morning. Mr. Watson performed a couple songs before the students of Asheville Middle School took to the main stage with him. They performed beautifully and were very visibly enjoying themselves. Afterwards, the kids chattered loudly among themselves, an excited, nervous energy about them. Several of them mentioned how much fun performing was and how they hoped to be able to do it again someday. Many talked about being nervous beforehand but how happy they were that they had been able to perform. This is what is so special about LEAF Schools and Streets. It gives children such a unique opportunity to learn about cultures that they might never have been exposed to otherwise. LEAF gives kids experiences that instills a confidence in them that is needed in order for them to push themselves out of their comfort zones. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the chance to work with these kids and observe an experience that will surely be influential to their futures.

Fieldwork Proposal

For my fieldwork project, I am going to interview buskers in downtown Asheville. I want to examine this community of musicians because I think that Asheville's busking scene is very interesting. It seems to me that it is almost like a subculture of people. I want to get to know these people's stories... what they did before they found themselves in Asheville and how they ended up there. I am going to speak to anyone I can find playing music downtown. If possible, I will try to interview a wide array of people, old and young, men and women, people who are playing different styles of music. I think it would be really cool to discover how some of their stories differ and what aspects of them are similar, if any. I want to ask them things like when they first started playing music, where they're from, if busking is their primary way of making money or if they just like to do it on the side, if they have ever busked in other cities and how their experience in Asheville compares to that. I am also really interested to know about the unspoken rules of the Asheville busking scene that spectators don't know about.

I am going to start my research the week after fall break, before it gets too cold and there probably will not be as many musicians around to talk to. I will try to go down on a Friday night and Saturday during the day. I will do this probably two or three times total, depending on how successful I am the first couple times. I hoping to interview five different musicians. I will aim to be done interviewing by mid November. I will be writing field notes, taking photos of performances and maybe recording some of the interviews as well if it's okay with the person I am interviewing. I will record videos of the musicians performing. As a result of the project, I hope to have a better understanding of street performers and a new appreciation for the art. I will submit an interview transcript and photos with my final report.

Dingildai

The piece I listened to this week, "Dinglidai" by Igor Koshkendey, is an example of Tuvan throat singing which comes out of southern Siberia. Tuva is a subject of Russia which lies in southern Siberia in central Asia. Tuvan throat singing is a form of overtone singing, or harmonic singing. Throat singing has a long history and is practiced in Mongolia, Siberia, and Tuva. In throat singing, the singer produces a base pitch and one or more pitches over the base pitch, simultaneously. In music from Tuva, an instrument called the Igil is used, which has two strings. One thing that I found to be really cool about throat singing as I was researching it, is that the root of throat singing is said to be human mimicry of nature's sounds. Nature seems to play a big role in throat singing. Nature is often used as a way to shape the sound of the singing, often times singers will explore nature to find a place that will create the best environment for their singing- such as a river or a mountainside.

The opening note to this piece struck me as being very dramatic and dark. Once the vocals kick in on top of the melody, the result is monophonic. The throat singing in this piece, to me, sounded a lot like chanting and reminded me of a sort of prayer. Another voice joins soon after in a higher pitch than the first vocalist, creating a really nice harmony. Later on in the song, the vocal melodies seem to begin to differ from each other, creating some dissonance in the piece. During the throat singing breaks, the pitches of the vocals become dissonant while the instrument carries on the melody. The simple melody that is introduced at the start of the song is continuous throughout the entire piece, and serves as a base for the vocals and other instruments to build off of.

When I first started listening to this song, I did not like it very much. I guess that was because it was so unlike anything else I had ever listened to. When the vocals first came in, I thought that they were very odd sounding and kind of unpleasant to listen to. They honestly reminded me of the Oompa Loompa's voices from Willy Wonka. As I kept listening, though, I suppose I just started getting used to them. When the second voice came in and created a really nice harmony is when I was kind of able to take a step back and enjoy the piece for what it is, which is something very unique from what I'm used to- especially in terms of vocals. By the forth time I played it, the piece no longer sounded so strange to me and I felt I was really able to start listening to it critically. After listening to Dinglidai and really delving into it, I am now extremely excited to see Alash perform. I am sure that witnessing the phenomenon of throat singing live will be an awesome experience.

Yundum Niko

The song I am reviewing this week is called "Yundum Niko" by Jali Nyama Suso. I did a little bit of research on Suso and found out that he originally hailed from Gambia in West Africa. He gained recognition in the country for playing the kora, a 21-string lute-bridge-harp, and has been hailed "one of the greatest kora players of the 20th century". He had a radio program in Gambia for twenty years and then served as a resident artist at the University of Washington, where he released his first album in 1971. In the 1980s he toured around Europe.

When I played the song, the opening lines reminded me of flowing water. This remained true for about the first twenty seconds, while the notes and rhythm flowed freely and to my ears, sounded fairly unorganized- an example of polyrhythm. He seemed to be improvising on the kora. After these initial twenty seconds, however, a more steady tempo inserted itself into the piece, and after that the song progressed with a more consistent tempo, which seemed to be three beats per measure. There seemed to be a lot of improvisation in the vocals, which added a really interesting layer to this piece and made it a bit more unpredictable. I could hear a soft, long grunting throughout the song, but just barely. A few times before any singing began, and other times throughout the piece when there were no lyrics. I found this to be an interesting layer to the song. I really had to listen closely to be able to hear it and I do not think I even really acknowledged the grunting the first time through when playing the song. It kind of flew under the radar while my ears were busy listening for the complexities of the piece. Much of the vocals kind of bursted into the piece and the lyrics sped up and slowed down unexpectedly many times. The other instruments, too, accelerated and decelerated unexpectedly many times throughout the song.

I think that there are a lot of aspects to this piece that my ears are still missing out on, even after playing it all the way through several times. My ears have definitely been trained for Western music that, generally, maintains a constant rhythm. The instrumentation and rhythm in Yundum Niko sounded fairly random to me for the most part, and even though there were very few instruments used, the music was anything but simple. While listening to the piece I had to wonder how my listening experience would compare to that of a person who is more familiar with music of jali tradition- are there layers to the song they would be able to recognize that I was not initially able to perceive? Do parts of the song that sounds random to me not seem so to them? Although I had never heard anything like this piece before, I can say that I throughly enjoyed it, and found it very relaxing despite it's complexities and seemingly random rhythms.

Reflexive Essay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2JjJPDz3EE

I chose to write about Nick Drake's song "From The Morning" because it's one of the first songs I can remember hearing as a kid. My dad was always playing music around the house when I was younger, and his two favorite artists that I can remember listening to most often are Nick Drake and Elliot Smith. My dad loves recounting of when we were once listening to Drake's album Pink Moon together, and I asked, "Daddy, why is he so sad?".  He thought this was an impressive observation from a three year old, but listening to the album now, I would have to disagree. Almost every track on Pink Moon, except for maybe From the Morning, is hauntingly dark and ominous. Every song is beautifully simple... he uses only his acoustic guitar and his voice, with the exception of track one, Pink Moon, in which he breaks with piano between the harmonic guitar melody. Even three year old me could detect the melancholy tone that practically drips from his voice, and though I doubt I could actually make sense of his lyrics at that age, I wonder if I was able to perceive the poetic, emotional (and depressing) feeling of them.

While I can distinctly remember hearing most of the songs off of Pink Moon since I was young, I felt compelled to write about From The Morning because, when listening to the entire album over again, this one stood out most to me... it's the one that I remember most distinctively, and I think this is because while the rest of the album is so dark and sorrowful, From The Morning comes along at the end and sort of lifts the listener up. The guitar is much more colorful and cheerful than in the previous songs, and his lyrics are as well. I think that maybe as a child, I could relate to this song more than his others because I had never felt the feelings of intense sadness that are expressed in a lot of his music. I think that this song ends the album on a beautifully hopeful note.

When trying to think of just one song that would sort of summarize my musical background, this one came to mind because of the memories and nostalgic feelings that I have attached to it (fun fact from our textbook, this is called "situating"). My dad has definitely been the number one influence on my musical taste... some of my very favorite artists are ones that I was exposed to when I was really young. I have a strong disposition towards folk-rock music, music that could be said to be similar to Nick Drake's... that relies heavily on intricate guitar melodies, warm vocals, harmonies and poetic lyrics- like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Simon and Garfunkel. I love a lot of the music that came out of the late 60s and early 70s.

I think that because of my musical background, I am naturally drawn to music that is carried on guitar, or similar stringed instruments. I'm probably more likely to consider a piece pleasing if it has a clear structure, a distinct melody that repeats itself... and more likely to appreciate a piece that has lyrics and vocal harmonies. I'm not really sure about what else to say about this, only that I'm very interested to discover how I internalize different aspects of the music I'm used to listening to as an American, how this shapes my perception of what "music" is (and isn't), and how that will influence my thoughts and feelings about music from other regions around the world.

El Caballito

My first assignment is write about the song "El Caballito" by Los Camperos de Valles. Immediately after pressing play, I began dancing in my chair. The song is very upbeat right off of the bat, and opens with a lively riff on the fiddle which is soon accompanied by fast paced guitar strumming. In the background, there is a repetitive clapping noise that reminded me of the clopping made by a horse's hooves when it runs. The vocalist (there may have been multiple) in the song sang very passionately, and at some points it even sounded as if he was sort of howling. While listening to El Caballito, I imagined it being played, live, at some sort of party or celebration in front of a large group of people. In my mind I saw many people, of all ages, dancing traditional Mexican dances together. Just by listening to this song, I feel that both the performers and the listeners/dancers play important roles in the musicking of this piece. 

I googled the meaning of the word "huapango", which turned out to be a musical dance and music style. I found it really interesting that I automatically attributed the upbeat tempo of this song to a certain style of dance, without knowing anything about it. I'm consistently amazed with the way music is able to convey meaning to listeners, even when there are no lyrics, or the message within the lyrics is lost. The hoofbeat like noise in the song comes from a wooden platform on which a dancer makes "zapateado" (traditional Mexican) dance steps. I read that the dance is traditionally done by men and women partners, and it made me wonder whether it would be unusual for same sex partners to dance the huapango together at a gathering. I imagine that men probably traditionally play this style of music (think of mariachi bands), and I was also interested to know if the person who dances zapateado on the wooden platform is typically male or female, because in Mexican cultures it seems to me that traditionally, it is typical for men to be musicians and women to be dancers. 

After doing some research on the band, Los Camperos de Valles, I found that they are a trio of men. It seemed that they did most of their work in the mid to late nineties, but also released an album about ten years ago. The type of music they play, Huasteca, is a region in Mexico located along the Gulf of Mexico. I discovered that the guitar played in the song is called a jarana huasteca and is an intrument that is traditional in that region. There is also an eight-string bass guitar that is typically played. Two trade marks to this style of music is that the violin is improvised based on the melody and the songs are sung in a high falsetto. The guitarists take turns singing coplas (short poetry stanzas) back and forth, alternating verses. 

I really enjoyed this song and thought it was a fun way to start off this assignment. Although, I will say that it was hard to sit still and complete this entire blog post, because after listening to it the first time I just really wanted to dance. Thanks for reading!