Ear This!

 

I like the first track, “Chicha Los Destellos” the most. It sounds like it has an electric guitar, a bass guitar, a shaker, and some hand played drums. It is relatively simple and has a pleasant melody. The rhythm is nice and makes me want to dance.  Of all the tracks for this week the first one seems to have the least western influence in it even though it clearly conforms to the 4/4 meter that is used in most pop music. At least the drums in it sound like they might come from the Andes. This music sounds like some old time friends getting together and having a jam session. The sound has a certain authenticity to it.

 

The last piece, “Explosion” is really terrible in my opinion. If I heard on the radio I’d turn the station immediately. It’s really cheesy and the instruments sound fake. It reminds me of the Bulgarian wedding music in that it is really peppy and high energy (not to say that I don’t like Bulgarian wedding music). This piece sounds like something that might be played over the loud speakers at a party or at the reception of a wedding. I could even see this piece being played live. In a live setting I think I would like it more.

The thing about hearing music from around the world is that many times the first time that I hear it it doesn’t make any sense because I’ve never heard anything like it before. Hearing music that I can’t understand can make me slightly angry , but I always find that by the second listen the music starts to grow on me. Once I start distinguishing patterns elements of the music that seem random at first start to reveal themselves as parts of a grand and beautiful whole. The process of the chaos I saw at first slowly budding into order becomes a welcome challenge. 

 

My first impression of ‘Lambango’ was that it didn’t sound right. It was hard for me to discern the pattern of the chordophone that opens the piece and the woman singing sounded bad. I didn’t understand why there was a man speaking between every verse that the woman sang. In short, I really didn’t like it. 

 

Then I listened to it again and I started to notice things about the piece. First that the chordophone plays a pattern that repeats. Due to the complexity of the melody I couldn’t hear it at first, but once I could it became an anchor that my ear attached to and looked for throughout the piece. The next thing I noticed was that there is tapping sound that appears at regular intervals in threes. It sounds kind of like the piece is in 4/4 time and 3 out of every four beats is tapped and then there is a rest.  This pattern also became something that I listened for. 

 

Noticing these things helped me to appreciate the intent behind the piece and upped my enjoyment because I felt like I had uncovered these things. The piece didn’t seem as foreign and strange.

 

 

Bibayak: Features one female single with a wide vocal range to start, when the first singer stops there is a pause and then a different woman begins and is soon accompanied by another woman whose voice is higher than hers and resembles a flute at first. These two women interlock to make a complicated melody. Another pause and them more singers join further complicating the melody making it hard to pinpoint the exact number of people singing. All of the singing seems to be accented with a high note that keeps the rhythm in a way. After each pause the melody is compounded as more people join the chorus. The entire track is female vocals. There is no instrumentation.

 

BaMbuti: Male chorus with a soloist and a chorus in the foreground interacting with the soloist and a secondary doing a melody in the background. Similarly to the Bibayak this is all vocal, but this time it all men. There are no high pitched sounds or extremely low sounds. All of the notes that are sung are around the same middle range. 

 

BaAka: This track sounds like a community free for all where everyone improvises and contributes to make a beautiful song. I hear children, boys and girls, of all ages and adults, women and men. IThere was also the accompaniment of drums and clapping.  

 

Ejengi Ceremony: There is a constant clapping rhythm that goes with the singing which is different from the rest of the pieces. In BaAka there is clapping, but it is sporadic and not unified. There is also a set drumming beat that comes in later that has has at least three distinct sounds to it. This song has many people in it singing in it. It sounds like a festival and it again sounds like the whole community is contributing, but the song has more organization than BaAka

The immediate difference I notice between gamelan belganjur and the other gong ensembles that we’ve listened to is that gamelan beganjur features an idiophone that sounds like some sort of cymbal. This new instrument seems to lead the ensemble and determine its tempo. At some moments the metal clanging of this instrument gets so loud that it just about out drowns out every other instrument in the recording. 

 

Another difference is that near the end there is a section where the beat changes completely. This is uncharacteristic for an indonesian gong ensemble because it every other one we’ve listened to has a beat that is cyclical and repeats with subtle variation through out the whole piece.

 

The context of this ensemble is also different because all the instruments are made to be carried during a procession which means that gamelan belganjur is probably played outdoors most of the time.

via videosift.com This is bloody brilliant!!! 

The question here is: If something is not intended to be music can it still be music?  If you thought my speaking voice was actually a beautiful singing voice and you recorded me whenever I spoke and listened to me on your ipod along with your music, would it matter if I insisted that my speaking voice wasn’t music? Would you care if I explained that it was just the way I talked and I hadn’t intended it to be music? Would me saying it wasn’t music stop you from listening to me and downloading recordings of me off the internet if you really liked the sound of my voice? Even if I got really mad and offended and threatened to sue you and everyone in the entire world would it change anything? What if I started an advocacy group for people with speaking voices that sounded like singing voices and got a million people to sign a petition saying that people with my condition really aren’t singing? What if the legislators put it in the constitution? What then? Would my voice finally stop being music to you? I think the answer entirely depends on YOU! If you say it is music then so be it. Music it is. If you say nay then that’s the final word. I am the creator of my world and my experience and what I say goes. The same is true for you and everyone else out there. SO in the case of the “Multiple Azan” the track that I listened to for this blog, my verdict is… No. The track appears to be a man reciting from the Koran and in my universe that is not music. I choose to respect and align with the view muslims listening to the same track would have. But my opinion only dictates the experience I choose to have in my life. The real question is: what do YOU think? 

  When I think of musical indices I think of an index in the back of a book and how it refers you back to another page in the book. In music an index refers you to a memory, thought, idea or concept. A good example is how a song from a movie soundtrack can conjure the image of a scene from a movie in your head. The 2007 movie Juno  has a soundtrack that is recognizable to people  who have seen the movie or even the trailers. I only have to hear the first few seconds of Barry Louis Polisar’s “All I Want is You”and ploop, the movie Juno is in my head.  —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— A musical icon links a sound/song to an object based on resemblance. If a song or an element of a song sounds like something you’ve heard before then it is an icon. An example is Al Bowlly’s “Guilty” because it sounds like old-timey music from the 30’s. In my mind I categorize it as sounding like other old music I’ve heard so that it will fit neatly into my catalog of experiences.