Kara Listening Journal

What stood out to me so significantly in these two samples of Andean folkloric songs, was the strong sense of structure.  Each instrument which was played stood out individually.  I loved how the flutes played the melody.  There sounds as if there are two different wind instruments, one plays higher notes, while the other focuses on the lower notes.  The flutes seem to interlocking, in the way that they do “call and response” at the beginning of the song. Unlike music which we have heard recently, these two songs are not participatory.  The instruments seem to have specialized roles.  I also noticed how aesthetically ”Western” the two songs sound.  The pace / rhythm of the songs are very standard sounding.  Finally, I have to point out the tamber of the wind instruments.  The flutes are very breathy sounding, which is personally find very lovely. 

Before doing any of the reading, when I heard the first track under Folk Orchestras, I could only focus on the immense amount of interlocking, which was taking place.  Once doing the reading, I was able to hear the traditional nature to the music.  It is the dissonance of the harmonies, which suggests the traditional feel to the music.

The second track, Krivo Plovdivsko Horo, sounded much more crisp than the first track did.  Though there was also interlocking, as heard in the aerophone in the background to the, as well as the eclectic group of instruments, the pieces seems, in a Westerner’s point of view, more organized.  The piece has designated parts for instruments to have solos / improvise.  I really enjoyed the minor key that the piece is played in.

Perhaps the clearness of the second piece is due to recording quality, however I do not think that is entirely the case.  The first piece seems to stay more so on one tempo, and there is a sense of form.  The piece always seems to come back to the same base after going off into solos.   On the other hand, the first piece seems to focus more in the texture of the piece, rather than organization.  

This piece is very upbeat and festive sounding.  The beat is steady and can be broken into four parts. The rhythm is kept by what sounds to be maracas.  The other prevalent instruments in this piece are gongs, corpophones (clapping) and Idiophones (voice).  The main voice in the piece comes from a man.  This man seems to have a lot of range, for he is constantly changing his pitch while singing.  He jumps from a low note to a height note with, what sounds like, ease.  There is a lot of form to this piece.  The instruments appear to be repeating the same sequence of notes over and over.  It is the voice part of the piece, which seems to be improvised.

 

Though on the surface Balinese gamelan beleganjur and other Indonesian gongs ensembles that we have studied thus far sound the more or less similar, when investigating Balinese gamelan beleganjur in detail, the differences are unavoidable.

To start off, when describing Balinese gamelan beleganjur in its most simple state, one could describe it was a processional ensemble of instruments, which are featured during ceremonies.  Examples of when the gamelan beleganjur would perform would be at temple anniversaries and cremations, as read on Professor Fraser’s website.  The website describes the extravagant ceremony involving gamelan beleganjur.  The texts describes how the “gongs of the gamelan beleganjur resonate so loudly they make the ground vibrate as they pass.”

Unlike the Javanese gamelan, which are kept in a gamelan room, for they are far too sacred to even have the soles of one’s foot shown to them, Balinese gamelan beleganjur, as I previously mentioned is processional.  The website describes how the instruments are “borrowed from the much larger stationary ensemble called gamelan gong kebyar, or occasionally from gamelan angklung.”  The members of the ensemble strap the instruments to body parts and polls in order to gain control over them while traveling extended distances.  The website elaborates by saying that “the heavy gongs are strung up on poles; the drums are carried on a strap around the neck; and the rack of kettle gongs is divided up so that each kettle gong is carried and played by one musician.”

The website also talks about the structure to gamelan beleganjur.  It discussed how, though each instrument has a unique individual role, they all are based on an eight beat cycle.  Example of the individual roles that the instruments play, can be seen in Nyoman’s description.  He “explains that three large hanging gongs provide the foundation of the cycle. The “female gong,” the largest and deepest one, marks the beginning of the cycle, which in Bali is considered to occur on beat eight, not beat one. The “male gong,” which is slightly smaller, marks beat four, while an even smaller gong plays on beats five and seven.”

Finally, yet another component, which separates Balinese gamelan beleganjur from other Indonesian gongs ensembles, is the rhythmic playing of paired ceng-ceng.  The website described how “Five to ten pairs of large hand-held cymbals are used,” when performing.  Typically kotekan is performed on the ceng-ceng. Kotekan is a an interlocking rhythm that is very “important in Balinese music and have symbolic religious meaning.”

All three talempong pieces, Buburan “Kembang Pacar”, Guided listening: Buburan “kemband Pacar” and Ladrang “Wilujeng” are similar in that they are not played at a particularly fast pace, and that they all end by the tempo slowing down significantly.  

Buburan

“Kembang Pacar” changes tempo throughout the piece.  It begins slowly, speeds up in the middle and then slows down again at the end.  This “loud playing piece” has a lot of form.  It seems to fit into a four beat count, despite the change in tempo.  No instruments are added or subtracted through out the piece.  It is the same talempong the entire time.

Guided listening: Buburan “kemband Pacar” differs in that the first half of the piece only has one gong note playing at a time.  This technique allowed for each individual note to truly stand out to us.  Half way through the piece another gong joins in and is then followed by an idiophone (clapping), as well as what sounds to be a xylophone.  The piece then speeds up in tempo and a lot of texture is created.  As the instruments take on the faster tempo, they seem to be able to fit into a four beat frame, just as the first piece did.

Ladrang “Wilujeng” opens up with an aerophone, which if I had to guess, I would say is a pupuik.  After a short moment, gongs are added into the piece, and the sound of a xylophone is present as well.  This piece, like the others consists of a lot of texture, however, what separates this piece from the other two is the singing.  A female voice enters into the song.  She sings in a high pitch head voice.  Her voice is somewhat vibrato.  Further into the song other vocalists join the female soloist and they all proceed to sing in unison. 

Though as I mentioned before, all three pieces are somewhat similar, the reason they the “kemband Pacar” pieces are considered to be “loud playing”, as opposed to “Wilujeng”, which is “soft playing”, is because of the instruments being played in each piece.  “Wilujeng” features a singing voice, which can only exist in “soft playing,” and “kemband Pacar” consists of only instruments, which too is a requirement for “loud playing.”

The question that I would like to extend to the class is regarding the fact that “loud playing” pieces are meant for festivals and outdoor events, while “soft playing pieces” are meant for more intimate events.  My question would be to discuss whether or not you can actually hear the difference in the purpose of the mood that the piece is trying to convey.  Is this possible to hear with a Western ear?  If so, where do you hear the differences? 

On the surface the three pieces sounded similar.  Main variations were, for example that “Sidi” introduced a wind instrument in the middle of the piece, and that the tempos of the pieces were different.  However when listening to the pieces more carefully there is a lot more which can be said about the differences.

“Sidi” had a melody, which was induced by an aerophone.  I believe that the aerophone can be considered a melody, as apposed to just another layer of texture, because of the manner in which it was introduced into the piece.   The aerophone is not played until maybe a quarter way into the piece.  This reminded me of Professor Fraser’s example when she sung a melody over us clapping to a certain beat.  The gongs that were playing were not all in sync, however they all had form to them, basically repeating the same sequence of notes.

“Urang Halaban” opens up with prominent staccato notes.  After seven strikes of the gong, the other gongs begin to weave into the piece and eventually a membranophone is added.  Another aspect, which stood out about this piece, was the fast paced tempo.  To a Western biased ear, it almost sounds like they are rushing themselves.

“Minangkabau” sounded the most Western in my opinion.  The notes being played were more recognizable than the notes of the other pieces.  This is because “Minangkabau” is played in clear major notes.  In Western culture we are prone to the major scale, for we hear it all the time, and from a very young age, for example, most nursery songs are in a major key.  Though this song is not specifically iconic, it is definitely indexical for many people due to the major notes.  Minangkabau provides a warm happy feeling when listening to it, as opposed to “Sidi” and “Urang Halaban” where no particular feeling arose when listening to the pieces, except for how beautiful they sounded. 

All three tracks have amazing range.  The men sing in a smooth tone and the prayers definitely sounds as if it came from the Middle East.  In this sense, the three prayers are iconic, not only for Westerners, but also for the Middle Easterners who rely on hearing this call to prayer multiple times a day.In addition, Arabic and Hebrew are similar languages so when hearing the call to prayers I am reminded of  Jewish prayers.  This is an indexical representation because it brings me back to when I would attend synagogue and especially to my bar mitzvah.  

Organs playing is my example for an Iconic sign.  Though I think that many people associate organs with church, I on the other hand associate organs with my high-school’s founders day.   Once a year my high-school celebrates our founded, Felix Adler, by holding a school wide assembly consisting of speeches and music.  Where the organs play a role is that once everybody is seated and ready to begin the assembly,  the senior glass enters the assemble hall single file to the sound of organs.  I had witness this event for six years and as a middle schooler I would dream of the day when I was a senior and could enter to the sound of organs.  

 My example for an indexical sign would be reggae music.  Reggae music is associated with Caribbean islands, especially Jamaica. The upbeat, tone provides a warm and joyful feeling that people often affiliate with the warm, tropical whether.   Reggae music always have similar tone structure, thus making it very easy to recognize music that would fall into the Reggae category.