Jeremy’s Blog

I really love this song. It is not only nice, light, and pleasant but the musicians seem to be incredibly talented as well. They are able to string endlessly complicated lines of notes together with an ease and style that is very satisfying to my ear. Initially I thought this was all improvisational, but the way that the instruments work together so smoothly signaled that it was actually rehearsed.  I guess that, given my background on guitar, hearing stringed instruments played very well makes a piece all that more enjoyable for me. The way that the vocalist and stringed instrument synced up towards the end was beautiful and very impressive as well. I think the reason I may like this song is it sounds inherently “western” to me and as such I can relate to it more than most of the music we have previously listened to. 

Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock is really interesting in that it connects two very different types of music to create one cohesive whole. In one swoop Hancock manages to create something modern and funky with direct and discernable roots in the past. A lot like Paul Simon’s work on Graceland, Hancock piece is very unique in comparison to typical modern music, which is influenced by past musical stylings, though does not directly reference them. In a sense the piece is almost an abridged look into one facet of our own musical evolution throughout history. We as a species have constantly pulled inspiration from a number of sources, combined them and shaped them, and in the end created new musical stylings deeply connected to the past. It is a strange phenomenon, music being heralded as new and groundbreaking despite drawing heavily from the pre-existing ideas. Bands like Vampire Weekend are today being applauded for their musical style, which for VW is an ingenious combination of surfy pop grooves with African drums and melody. Both styles have been in existence for a while, and despite one’s influence upon the other, neither had even been played together in such a way. Do you think that music is solely a product of the past or have we managed to break free from our musical history?

The Baline gamelan beleganjur is very similar to other Indonesian gong ensembles we have previously listened to, but in key areas the music differs. From a pure instrumentation standpoint there seem to be similarities in the prevalence of gongs and metal instruments, but the beleganjur seems to go a step further than most by being much louder. Most of the gong music has been pretty high in volume, but the beleganjur intensity just seems to be one step above. There seems to be a lot of focus on instruments that don’t necessarily have much of a pitch as well, like the cymbal-sounding object in the song. That instrument in general seems to go against the Javanese gamelan style by being a bit more free form, with a steady rhythm and melody sitting beneath the high-energy percussive solo it creates. Also, in other types of gong music people tend to play more than one gong-like instrument at a time, but in beleganjur each person carries and plays a single gong. The prevalence of syncopation also separates belangur in that most other forms of Indonesian gong music do not stray from the written beat as much as in the example given. Javanese gamelan and this gamelan do have in common that the beat slows and accelerates mid song, seemingly without warning. Overall though the sound of beleganjur is quite different from that of other gamelan style musics. It seems to be more “western” in that the performance seems to be a tad superfluous in many ways, with the musicians playing to incite a reaction as opposed to playing to set societal rules.

The audience behind the music has a lot in common with other forms of Indonesian gong music in that they are not attentively listening.Like in Javanese gamelan the audience listen to the music, but not so closely as to interrupt their outside conversations. Even Indonesian Randai performances, which are highly theatrical in nature, are not free from audience chatter and performers have learned to respond to and incorporate audience suggestion. Like in Talempong the entire cast moves along in a processional style, unlike javanese gamelan which tends to be played in a stationary position. In terms of context, pieces tend to be played in religious functions, which is no different than most other gong based musical groups, which tend to assert either religious beliefs or moral ideals of some sort.

These Tango pieces made me acutely aware of the importance of recording music in a specific way. Each of these songs appears to have been played in a room with a fair amount of space, and therefore echo, which naturally affects the sound each instrument produces. The natural reverb which the room creates adds so much to not only the sound of each instrument, but also to the space in each song in which there is quiet. Each note breathes and then decays into a ringing silence, giving the feeling that each piece of music is living. The pieces are emotional and frivolous, much like the movements of those who dance along with them, and each of them advances with a slinky aggression that would be lost if the recordings were treated in a different manner. The recording process imparts a sense of legitimacy, almost as if the pieces were live recordings, as opposed to compressed and altered versions only slightly resembling the original performances. If no thought had been given to the recording process of these songs than I feel as if they would have been rendered much less evocative than they truly are when performed.

The three pieces are all music in my opinion, though they sound very different to my ear. The second piece (Multiple Azan) is the most odd to my Western ear due to not both the vocal quality and tuning of the piece. Much of the piece sounds out of tune to me, almost like someone with inadequate pitch recognition was singing it, though I recognize that said idea is only a product of cultural bias because the singer seems to have no lack of talent. The “problem” is not the piece or the singer, but my own internal tuning preference. The piece “Adhan” seems to straddle the line between the Azan and the ringtone by combining a vocal quality that is more recognizable to the Western listener with a somewhat more recognizable tuning structure. The rhythm still seems to me as if it non-existent or unimportant to the singer, which leads to the ringtone piece, which is definitely the most inherently Western of the three. It is the only one of the three with musical accompaniment, let alone accompaniment of electronic origin, so the piece as a more modern feel than the two others. The singer is unerringly in tune due to the harmonic drone beneath his own voice, and his voice has been enhanced by what sounds like electronic reverberation. This is in stark contrast to the two other recordings which are free from any sort of electronic enhancement, the recording process merely serving to highlight the singers voice, not enhance it in anyway.

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