MUH 6515: Musics of the World

Title: Jam Session (no title) Performers: Jesse Rya and two other strangers Instrumentation: guitar, voices Culture of Origin: USA While this may seem on the surface to be an unusual choice for a World Music blog post, I think this YouTube video perfectly captures the spirit of creativity and crossing of styles and cultures. Campbell (2004) discusses the importance of creativity. She talks about the idea of "extending what is already there" and exploring "the way musicians interact during performance." Both of these ideas are demonstrated beautifully in this video. Despite the fact that the players are strangers and likely come from different musical backgrounds, they were able to come together to extend the original piece of music, creating something new. The thing that I like most about this is the playful nature of this interaction. The three men making music are unafraid to insert their own sound and style into the music, while still staying true ...

Title: Ahrirang Performers: Lincoln Middle School Instrumentation: piano, flute, chimes, voices, finger cymbals Culture of Origin: Korea The readings this week focused on authenticity and grappled with the ways in which teachers struggle and often fail to present music of the world to our students in an authentic way. Koops (2010) presents several different models of authenticity in her article and touches on many ways teachers commonly use music from different cultures in an inauthentic way. This recording of the Lincoln Middle School choir singing an arrangment of Ahrirang is just one example of how we move away from authenticity. Though the tune is authentic, the song relies on a translation to convey the meaning of the song and the harmonies and instrumentation have taken on a broadly European/Australian/North American flavor. Additionally, the singing, though a beautiful sound (to American ears), is not the timbre usually found in Korean music. When evaluating this ar...

Title: 6 1/2 beat Tala (solo) Performers:  Zakir Hussain Instrumentation: Tabla (membranophone) Culture of Origin: India When I read the prompt this week - "provide an example of and discuss the role of context in musical structure" - I immediately thought of Indian Tala. To an uninformed listener, this track sounds simply like an impressive drum solo, presented in free rhythm by the performer. The title, though, points to a significant clue. Zakir Hussain is playing a Tala, an Indian rhythm system that determines the meter of the music. Tala has a set number of counts (which can go as high as 128 beats) comprising a pattern that recurs throughout a performance (Wade, 79). Along with Raga (Indian modes), the Tala comprises one of the fundamental elements of music and life in Indian culture. Without knowing this, the casual listener would completely miss the complexity and importance of the rhythmic structure and meter in this performance. References: Wade, ...

Title: Kokle Variation 2 (Variation on a Latvian Folk Tune) Performer: Laima Jansone Culture of Origin: Latvia Instrumentation: Kokle This week's readings discussed instrument classification systems. Every culture has their own way of classifying instruments. Though many of these classification systems are similar to ours, many are completely foreign to our understanding. The ancient Chinese, for example, classified their instruments by the "natural material that produced each instrument's sound" (Wade, 2004, p. 28). The European classification system, which we are most familiar with, includes four groups: strings, winds, percussion, and keyboard. As the field of ethnomusicology grows, it becomes increasingly important to have a classification system that is universally used and understood. Of course this system does not have to replace any traditional systems, but simply allows those outside of the culture to better understand unfamiliar music and instru...

Most múlik pontosan by Csík Zenekar (Hungary) Orchestration: Violin, guitar, viola, bass, accordion, voice I am thrilled to be able to discuss this piece of music this week. After living in Hungary for a year while completing a research grant, I became fascinated with Hungarian culture. In Hungary, the country's folk music still plays an invaluable role; Hungarians value their folk music and a large segment of the population knows and recognizes traditional folk songs.  This band is called Csík Zenekar. I think they are a fascinating example of the modernization of Hungarian folk music. This song, "Most múlik pontosan" is a traditional Hungarian folk song. The band, however, has found a lot of mainstream success in Hungary, performing all over the country and in neighboring European countries as well. Their shows often include modern versions of folk songs as well as a modern concert experience. The study of ethnomusicology helped to preserve the song...