World Musics- Caitlin

The first listening exercise, explaining raga, helped to explain what the different aspects of Indian classical music, such as the raga, tala, and alap.  It is difficult to understand these terms precisely.  The raga, they explained, is not merely a scale, but a whole specific melody form dictating ascending and descending movement, and stresses and accents.  The rhythmic framework is called the tala and explains the rhythmic cycle of a piece.  Most songs include an alap part, an unmetered improvisational section.  This idea of how to explain music seems very foreign from our concept of keys and time signitures.

The song, “Rag Bhairav,” was a good example of a classic Indian song.  It started with an alap, with just a drone and a melody instrument improvising.  When the drums came in, the song became metered and the energy picked up and changed a great deal.  One of the aspects of the music that I find most exciting and unusual is the way in which a song is ornamented.  The large dips and slides seem iconic of what I think of as Eastern or Asian music.  These quivers and shakes of pitch are used a lot.

The first thing that struck me about the Andean pop music was the clear mixing of many different influences in the music. There was a lot of cumbia influence with the 1-,3,4 rhythm in the bass and the scraper playing the 1,2&,3,4& rhythm underneath it all. The song “Los Destellos” by the group Valicha, demonstrated this very clearly from the beginning. The instruments were varied, using Andean flutes and stringed instruments as well as electrified cosmopolitan instruments such as the electric guitar and synthesizer. In the wayno, “Julio Benavente” by Valicha, there were only stringed instruments used, charango and maybe a guitar.  This song, and the wayno style, is not as cosmopolitan as chicha or tecno-cumbia.  It has not strayed as far from indigenous musics, mostly staying true to their forms.  The more cosmopolitan musics have adopted much more from other cultures.  The sound quality and recording style is much different.  Chicha and tecno-cumbia sound much more “Western” and commercial, using reverb, distorted electrified sounds, and other modern recording and amplifying techniques.  These cosmopolitan styles have made the music sound much more like popular commercial dance musics from all over the world.

The listening examples for Monday and Wednesday are very different.  They illustrate the contrast between indigenous music, and the “folkloric” music that is put on the world music market.  The two songs by the group Urubamba, the band that introduced Paul Simon to Andean music, are very polished and arranged.  They use a lot of string instruments, mostly playing chordal accompaniment to a solo flute playing the melody in a very clean manner.  Though they do have parts that repeat, they don’t play things in the exact same manner many times.  They almost never have more than one melody instrument playing at the same time and when they do, they play together either completely different parts, or exactly the same part with a very tight and accurate western tuning.  Theses pieces had a drum playing, but it was not very prominent and you had to concentrate to hear the percussion.  The two Tarkas pieces for Wednesday were not like that at all.  They didn’t use any string instruments, it was all flutes and drums.  The flutes all played the melody, in parallel motion.  They used a wide tuning that is not “in-tune” sounding to the western ear.  The drums were very prominent and played a constant steady beat.  The pieces were very repetitive using an open cyclical form that didn’t have much contrast between parts.

The song, “El Condor Pasa,” has become iconic of indigenous Andean music, even though it was composed in the early 1900’s by a Peruvian Indigenista art music composer.  The most well known version was recorded by Simon and Garfunkel.

Now, with its popularity, “El Condor Pasa,” is performed and recorded by many different groups all over the world.

José Feliciano

12 Girl Band

Espiritu Andino

It’s very interesting to listen to this music while learning about the changes that came about in the last century in Bulgarian “folk” music.  When I was listening to the pieces.  To my ears, it sounds so foreign from Western music, therefore the automatic thing to thing is that it must be very authentic and unchanged.  Some of the most foreign elements are the use of the complex meters.  I believed that the first piece, “Arrangements of Folk Melodies” changed meters quite a bit, using irregular meters, almost never heard in Western music.  Another thing that really set these pieces apart from most Western music was the use of different modes.  Since most of the music that we hear is either major or some type of minor, completely different modes sound very foreign.

Both of these peices were very arranged and there were a lot of instruments playing all together.  This makes it appearant that the music is more modern than the days of very small ensembles or a solo performing, possibly playing in a pasture somewhere.  These exerpts were completely organized and planned with specific solo sections and then group parts.  The instruments used are the traditional instruments.  In “Krivo Plovdivsko,” the kaval, a type of flute, had several short solo sections.  In the background and other melody parts, you could hear the gudulka, fiddle, and the tambura, plucked lute.  Often, more than one of the same type of instrument were playing at the same time.  In the first piece as well, you could hear many of these instruments including the gaida, or bagpipes.  This exerpt also was very organized with specific solo parts and then parts where all of the instruments would come back in together.  Both of these peices were very influenced by Western European classical music and arrangments.  They probably came up with the the rise of socialism and the promotion of folk orchestras sponsered by the socialist state.

The first song, Nhemamusasa (at bira), has a very driven duple meter rhythm.  There are maracas or shakers (hosho) that hold down the main beat, playing a consistent part throughout the piece.  At times, another percussion sound comes in which could be someone clapping or hitting something which played counter rhythms that varied and were often on the off-beats.  There were many people who sang at different points throughout.  One person often sung lead lines that sounded sometimes improvised, and then others would join in adding background parts or complimentary interlocking singing and at points whistling.  Sometimes, they sang in a call-and-response style.

The third listening exerpt demonstrated the form of Nhemamusasa.  When listening to just these mbira parts, not in the context of a full peice with percussion and voices, it is interesting to hear the different layers that come out.  It seems that the rhythm is subdivided into larger and smaller segments.  Each given phrase has twelve beats.  Beats 1, 5, and 9 are emphasized as one subdivision of the phrase, then other parts play the beats within that.  When played fast, sometimes beats would syncopated, with a certain note coming just a bit late to make it swing.  Often, it sounded that he would play directly on every beat except beat 2, playing on the and of 2 instead.

Throughout Indonesia, there are many musical styles that are called gamelan.  They all have a lot in common, but there is still much variety between different styles of gamelan.  Balinese Gamelan, the style specific to Bali, is one of these unique forms that has a lot in common with other musical styles in Indonese such as Javanese Gamelan and the Tampelong of Sumatra, but also has many distinctive features.

The first thing that hit me when listening to excerpts of Balinese Gamelan and watching videos of performers was the rhythmic drive that propells the music.  Though Tampelong and Javanese Gamelan often have strong and regular beats, to me, they often seemed more rhythmically free and loose.  They seemed more focused on the melodic interlockings than the rhythmic drive.

A reason for this could be found in the instrumentation of the different forms of gamelan.  Many instruments are the same in both styles.  They both can consist of various types of gongs, metallophones, drums and flutes.  In Javanese gamelan, stringed instruments are also used, the most common of which is a two-stringed bowed fiddle-like instrument.  In Balinese gamelan, cymbals are also a very common instrument.  The percussion parts often seem very central in Balinese gamelan, creating an up-beat, very rhythmically driven feeling music.  This is especially evident in the performance of a Balinese Gamelan Beleganjur (to see video, click here).

The form of Balinese gamelan is very similar to that of other types of gamelan.  Pieces are composed in a cyclical pattern with many different interlocking parts.  In certain types of Balinese gamelan, one instrument or musician may play both an on-beat part, and an interlocking part on the off-beat.  Often, such as in Gamelan Rindik, a person will be playing a different part on each hand.

There are many different styles of gamelan within Bali.  There are many differences in instrumentation, style, and context within these forms.  Some of the differences come through physical aspects of the instruments.  For example, all of the styles of gamelan have some form of xylophone-like instrument.  However, though most of them are made of metal, most typically brass, Gamelan Rindik uses bamboo xylophones to get a sweeter softer sound. Gamelan Selonding, an ancient form of gamelan associated with pre-Hindu practices, uses iron instead of brass in its instruments.  One form of gamelan, the Gamelan Beleganjur is portable and typically used in processions.  This is similar to the two distinct styles of tampelong, one that is processional and another that is sedentary.  Other types of Balinese Gamelan include Gamelan Angklung and Gamelan Luang.

There are many different contexts for gamelan to be performed in Indonesia.  Different forms of gamelan are often used in religious ceremonies, for public festivals, private parties, weddings, funerals, etc.  Some are used as an accompaniment to dance or drama while they still often perform alone.  With the many different styles of gamelan, there are many similarities and differences between them.

Both Ladrang “Wilujeng” and Buburan “Kembang Pacar” are examples of Javanese Gamelan,  but they are very different pieces of music.  Ladrang “Wilujeng” is a soft-style gamelan piece while Buburan “Kembang Pacar” is a loud-style gamelan.  The main differences that I heard between the two were that “Wilujeng” had vocals while “Kembang Pacar” did not, and the rhythmic drive seemed clearer and more pronounced in “Kembang Pacar.”  I’m not sure if I’m right, but I think that I heard some sort of stringed instrument in “Wilujeng” as well.

The singing in “Wilujeng” was very central to the song.  It started with whatever the stringed instrument was playing a slow lilting melodic line and sliding into many of the notes.  When the idiophones come in, they play a cyclical parts with a very strong rhythmic pulse in a duple meter.  A voice comes in over them singing a very long slow melody.  I think that part of the reason why this piece sounds less rhythmically driven than “Kembang Pacar” is because it has these other parts besides the idiophones.  While those parts are very similar to those in “Kembang Pacar,” the voices and the stringed instrument play and sing over these parts.  Their lines are much less rhythmically driven and seem to be almost half-time, using very long notes.

“Kembang Pacar” has very clear repeating parts that cycle throughout the piece playing very clear melodic lines.  More parts are added, or certain parts may change a bit.  There is one instrument who plays a longer melody over the quickly repeating phrases in the other instruments.  This seems similar to what the voices and stringed instrument play in “Wilujeng,” but in “Kembang Pacar” it is more blended with the rest of the instruments and less free rhythmically.  The tempo of the song speeds up in the middle and slows down again at the end.

These two pieces had many similar features, but were also very different.  They are both Indonesian and both make great use of gongs, but the whole sound and feel is very different.

Rhythmically, both exerpts are in a duple meter.  “Minangkabau” had a slower feel with a very strong pulse and seemed very almost loping.  The other piece, “Sidi,” the group version of “Urang Halaban” had a quicker pace and from a Western point of view, seemed to have a weaker rhythmic pulse.

Both of the listening exerpts were mostly gongs, but the quality and tone of the gongs was very different.  In “Sidi,” the gongs had a very warm tone, but didn’t resonate for long.  It was a cleaner sound.  In “Minangkabau,” the gongs really rang for a while after they were hit, so the sounds really layered over each other and resonated for quite a while.  Also, the structures of the two songs were very different.  “Sidi” started with many gong parts that mostly had short phrases that were repeated and added to each other layering over one another.  After a while, another instrument came in.  I’m not sure what it was, but it had a very intense and almost pinched tone.  It played a different sort of melody line above the gong background.  This instrument slid between notes a fair amount, never used vibrato, and played many long strait tones, but also broke up many tones with little ornaments of stoping the sound, or oscilating between two notes.  “Minkabau” also came in with many different gong parts, but it sounded like all of the gong parts together formed distinct phrases that then repeated all together.  At one point, one gong came out above the others to play a lead line while many others kept playing backgrounds to it.

I’m not sure why, but “Minangkabau” sounded more familiar and “western” than “Sidi.”  I think that this might have been from a combination of the more familiar sounds of the instruments, the clearer rhythmic pulse, and the melody and phrases that sounded closer to western music to me.

Listening to the three calls to prayer, many things struck me in how they were similar and how they were different.  Without any knowledge, I would automatically characterize all three as music without a doubt.  Now that I have learned that these are not considered music in their respective culture and that it is sacrilege to call them such, I wouldn’t call them music.  To me, they have all the characteristics of what I consider music, however, I understand that they are not universally music.

I found the first peice, Adhan, incredibly beautiful.  The quality of the person’s voice is intense and almost peircing, but still very lyrical and pleasing and not at all harsh.  The quality is a bit nasal and the singer uses a lot of strait tones, with some vibrato.  I love the sort of shaking ornaments that are used.  There is a lot of empty space which to me, makes the music sound more solemn and serious.  I’m not sure what mode the music is actually in, but it sounds very minor which also serves to add to the serious sound.

The second piece, Multiple Azan, was more difficult for me to listen to just because of the sound quality.  There was a lot of fuzz noise which made the music a lot less clear.  The main voice sounded very similar to the voice in the first exerpt with the same piercing, slightly nasal quality.  There were other voices in the background who at times sang another melody and at some times sang a drone.  At times, the main singer cut out and a different voice could be heard singing what I considered the lead part.  From the way I think about music, the second piece sounded more “traditional” and older to me just because of the worse sound quality.  I know that this is not how I should measure the authenticity of traditional music, but it automatically made me think that it must be the real thing since it’s recorded with a lot of fuzz.

Before I heard the third piece, I found it funny that it was a call to prayer, but a ringtone?  I really don’t know much at all about this music’s culture, but having their call to prayer used as a ringtone seems extremely blasphemous, especially compared to something like calling the call music.  These pieces just sound so serious and somehow real to me that using them as a ringtone seems like such a trivialization and degradation of them.  However, I found the actual exerpt very appealing.  I thought that it was interesting that it was the only one to use sounds other than the human voice.  I don’t know if they were really instruments or sythesized noises.  Mostly they were used just as a drone under the voice and made the piece sound even more solemn.  There was a lot of reverb on this piece and it just sounded very processed.