CMUS 103: Introduction to Musics of the World

Listening to and these various forms of prayer calls was very interesting for me, particularly in thinking about the question of what consistutes something as “music” or “not-music”.  I found the first example to be particularly beautiful; I liked the use of long pauses in between phrases, which served to emphasize the space around the content of the song, the emptiness from which the words came. In the second call, I noticed the way the voices wove in and out of one another, creating an interlocking piece.  On the question of whether the prayer calls are an example of music though, I find some difficulty deciding. They all, especially the first one, sound like music to my ears. The “singer” uses many different notes even within one word or syllable. In the cell phone example, there are even synth and piano sounds added in the backround. These are interesting cases to me because the creators of the sound explicitly say it is not music, in fact music is forbidden by some strict adherents of Islam, and yet to my ears with my culture and conditioning they sound like beautiful singing which is music.  

These two pieces seemed quite similar to me. They both started out with just one instrument for a very short period of time, then are accompanied by another. The instruments which are played are different in each song as they have different tones in the beats produced. They also have fairly similar beats and there are no lyrics in either piece. They bring about the same type of feeling or emotion when listened to. The beat is energetic and seems like it is music that makes you want to move around to as it has a repeated melody.

Both of these pieces are group activities that seem to maybe be played at some kind of gathering or festival as it has a repeated melody throughout. Because there is a repeated melody it seems like many more people could enjoy it as it is played over a longer period of time for many people to enjoy or take part of at some kind of larger social event.

Friday September 26

Workshop: Bibbins 238, Conservatory of Music, 4.30-6.30pm, Open to All

Concert/Dance Party: the ‘Sco, 10pm till late. $3 OCID/$6 public

Turli Tava takes its name from the meat and vegetable stew, the Macedonian gumbo, that accordionist/ vocalist Sasho Dukovski ate back home in Bitola. Through that city, along the ancient trade road called the Via Egnatia, history brought waves of travelers and settlers to make the unique cultural blend of Macedonia; the mix that is reflected in Turli Tava’s repertoire. The musicians in the group have been playing for Macedonian and other Balkan communities in North America and in Europe for decades.

Bitola born Sasho Dukovski (accordion/keyboard/vocals) first learned Macedonian music at the knee of his grandfather, a traditional clarinetist, and from his parents, both professional singers in Europe and the US. Sasho’s father’s family is from Bitola and his mother’s family was from Aegean Macedonian. From age seven, he lived in two worlds – Cleveland and Bitola–and soon was performing in both. He graduated from Bitola’s music school and is a veteran of the five-night-a-week hotel and restaurant gigs, weddings, military send-offs, and other private parties that, on a good night, fill Bitola and the surrounding villages with music. He has played with Heraklea, Elita, Pelagoniski Biseri, and many other well known Macedonian groups and also accompanied the vocal duo Selimova/Zhelcheski , Zoran Josifovski, and clarinetist Slave Naumovski.

While still in high school, Sasho began playing with Turli Tava’s clarinetist, Walt “Vlado” Mahovlich (clarinet/sax/gajda), an accomplished multi-instrumentalist in a variety of Eastern European styles and also currently leads the East European folk group Harmonia. Vlado has played for Macedonian and other East European communities since his teenage years. He began playing clarinet originally with traditional musicians who were immigrants from the Lake Prespa region of southwest Macedonia. Early on he seriously studied and began playing the music of the old time Macedonian master clarinetists, particularly the late Kime Nachoff. In the 1970’s he was performing with such noted old-timers as Paul “Spaso” Vangeloff and Chris Athans. He has appeared on concert stages throughout North America and Europe, including performances the Smithsonian’s 1976 bicentennial Festival of American Folklife, Smotra Folklora in Zagreb and at festivals in Sofia and Zlanitite Piasotsi in Bulgaria. He has also frequently taught Macedonian clarinet at summer Balkan Music workshops. All that said, Walt is really in his element playing for dancing late night at Macedonian weddings and vecherinki.

A virtuosic drummer playing tapan and tarabuka, as well as an astonishing master of the tambura, bouzouki and a vocalist, Rumen “Sali” Shopov hails from Gotse Delchev in Pirin Macedonia in Southwest Bulgaria. As concertmaster of the Nevrokopski Folk Ensemble, Bulgaria’s first national folk ensemble, for more than 20 years, he also a led the Pirin region’s two hottest wedding bands: “Shturo Make” and “Orkestar Orbita.” In 2002 Rumen settled in the United States His music captures the incendiary rhythms, and expressive soul of Rumen’s native Turkish-Romani (”Gypsy”)/ Bulgarian musical tradition. Rumen began playing together with Turli Tava in 2004.

Paul Morrissett (bass/tenor horn/kaval/Gajda) is an accomplished player of traditional folk instruments of the Balkans and has played with Walt Mahovlich since 1984. He has traveled the world studying with ethnic masters such as Bulgaria’s most esteemed folk artists: gajda player Kostadin Varimezov and gadulka players Misho Marinov and Atanas Vulchev. With Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band and the George Tomov Dance Ensemble Orchestra, Paul has recorded and performed in venues from Lincoln Center to Zagreb, on instruments including kaval, bass, zurla, violin, trumpet, accordion and tamburica. He toured Macedonia with the George Tomov Ensemle and conducts workshops at festivals and the Balkan Music and Dance camps. Paul is also well known as the bass player with the Klezmatics.

Turli Tava’s music is strongly rooted in Macedonian dance traditions; it’s filled with the energy and creative surprise. Rooted, free yet traditional –Turli Tava is bonafide Balkan gumbo!

Berace Oro

Pajdusko Oro

Pavle Mi Pie

Although I know that that these three sound-clips are all calls to prayer, and are not considered to be “music” by the people performing them, it is still very hard for me to disassociate them from my own personal ideas of what constitutes music. This is especially true for the first clip, “Adhan.” Perhaps it is because I feel almost transfixed by it; I find the man’s clear, strong vocals beautiful and even haunting. I feel moved by it, in the same way that I would feel moved by musical pieces that I liked. The second clip ,”Multiple azan,” more easily registers with me as a call to prayer and not as “music.” I think this has a lot to do with the ambient sound in the background, and the way the man’s voice sounds processed through a loudspeaker. It gives more context to the soundclip, and reminds me of the its original intent. I feel compelled to argue that the third clip, the ringtone version of the call to prayer, is on some level intended as music. I believe this because of the addition of synthesizing, other digital enhancements, and the piano towards the very end, which is sparse yet still there. To me, these additions signify a change in intent and therefore, a change in how the piece is classified.

-Brittany

The first thing that struck me about these calls to prayer is that although Muslims do not consider them music and because of that it is debatable whether they are music, they all have certain musical qualities in terms of tone, pitch, structure, etc. What is interesting is that these examples, along with calls to prayer I have heard in documentaries and other media is that they all have slightly varying musical qualities. For example, here is an example of a call to prayer from Mecca that sounds slightly different from the ones we listened to for the lesson (which sound a bit different from each other to begin with):

My main question is, why the variation in their musical qualities? What is the purpose behind the fact that the length and tone of the notes and lyrics are different from one another? One thought I had is that since Islam is such a widespread religion, that these variances could be regional. For example, it is not at all difficult to believe that a call to prayer in Indonesia could sound to us radically different  from a call to prayer in Albania. Another question I raise is that do these calls to prayer sound different to Muslims throughout the world. If Muslims do not consider them music, do they only take into account the words, which are universal?  Not taking into account their musical qualities, these calls to prayer could certainly all be the same, or nearly so.

I guess the first thing worth noting is that the ringtone version of the call to prayer is predictably unlike all other versions of the call to prayer. It has a biphonic texture for most of the song, whereas usually the call to prayer consists of a one-man melody. It also seems to be recorded in a studio with musical effects. The voice is notably clear – it’s a little strange hearing the call to prayer without the radio-like quality of a megaphone, and without the usual distance between you and the mosque. To flip it around, it’s strange hearing the call to prayer with elements in the voice like the purposeful slight echo of the microphone. There’s the  deep continuous tone that plays through the entirety of the “song,” we’ll call it, the piano that comes in at the end, and the dramatic cymbals that get cut off at the end. I wonder how Muslims might understand this  step  towards the musical direction and away from the purpose of the recitation. Is it music and blasphemy, or is it still not music even if it’s removed from the mosque?

The music from these examples from Islam were very new to me. They were all sung my men who had a very high range. The first two also had no instrumentals, just men singing in different pitches for very long breaths. I found them to be very entertaining and interesting because of how high and low the singers could go and sound so fluent without background music. The thrid example had a very distinct background tone that did not change throughout the song and had a little bit of instrumentals at the end where it cut off that sat very well with lyrics of the man singing. Overall I really enjoyed this music.

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.  

All three of the songs in this Islamic grouping are sung by men and use long phrases followed by long pauses. The first song, “Adhan”, has especially long pauses and moves very slowly and steadily. The voices of the men in all three songs seem to require a lot of breath and move up and down in range very frequently. All three singers trill their voices constantly.

The three songs very clearly sound like songs one associates with prayer, with their long, simple and steady phrases. The men who sing these songs seem to be well practiced in what they are doing, and must have a good amount of experience. It is interesting that only the last song uses any additional instrumentation or sound aside from voice. Very little is used even in that song, with only a consistent droning sound in the background and a few moments of piano when the voice is not singing towards the end. In all three songs all of the attention is focused completely on the single voice, and that voice is very powerful and involved on its own.

A very cool clip of Balinese kotekan that illustrates the principle of interlocking, where two people combine their parts to make up the whole melody.

Balinese interlocking