The Amateur Ethnomusicologist

In the song “Valicha” by Los Destellos, the beat/rhythm is a traditional chicha beat, and you can really hear it in the bass line that is being played by the electric bass.  The melody is very pronounced in the foreground, being played now on electric guitar, rather than the traditional charango.  The timbre of the instruments makes them sound a bit on the cheap side, which makes sense, since most players in the region probably could not afford the high end expensive gear that would give a better sound.

The next song, “Valicha” by Julio Benavente is a more traditional version of the song, played on the charango.  The meter is a bit ambiguous, seeming to switch between two and three during different parts of the song.  There is no percussion involved, and the players seem to be quite skilled at their instruments.

The song “Somos Estudiantes” by Los Shapis starts of with an introduction on the traditional pan flutes instrument.  It also features a synthesizer playing a chordal backing to the song, which shows how they are melding many cosmopolitan influences in with their traditional instruments.  The electric guitar is also featured briefly.  The lyrics are very nationalistic and uplifting with “Somos estudiantes, somos profesores” (we are students, we are professors), and then talking about being architects and doctors and engineers.  The lyrics inspire and uplift.

Here it is played by Gheorghe Zamfir, the Romanian master of the pan flute.

The song Tarkas of Huata Community, Carnival in Conima really sounded like carnival music to me.  The constant, unvarying drum beat gave it an energetic, upbeat feel.  The wind instrument players sounded a bit amateur.  They did not always play exactly together, with some players seeming to lag during the transitions to new notes or sections, and they played out of tune on occasion.  It did not exhibit the same levels of professionalism that we have heard in other listenings.

The rest of the songs sounded quite similar to me.  They all had simple drum beats with wind instruments playing a melody.  I could not help but be reminded of playing recorder in 3rd grade (like many people I suspect did in elementary schools around the country), because the timbre of the wind instruments reminded me of the recorder.

The first song, Lambango, has a melody that sounds dissonant, almost out of tune, to me.  The vocals are sung by the woman and spoken by the man, and they alternate taking the lead.  It sounds as if they are telling a story to us.

The second song, Ale Lake (kora), seems as if it is being played by someone who is skilled at playing the instrument, judging by the fills of rapid notes interspersed throughout.  The music is repetitive, although it changes what it repeats several times throughout the song.  It sounds folky.

The third song, Saheli yeri, sounds more “western” to me.  Perhaps this is because of the use of a guitar.  It retains an African feel by making use of the percussive xylophone-like instrument.  Like, the first song, there is a male and female vocalist, and they alternate taking the lead, sometimes singing in unison.  The female vocal part reminded me a little bit of the female vocalists we sometimes heard in gamelan music in the timbre and use of vibratto in her singing.

The fourth song, Saheli Diallo, appears to be a new interpretation of an old song, using electric guitar, electric bass, and drums.  The guitar part is seems similar to the acoustic guitar part in Saheli Yeri, in that both play a melody consisting of single notes that repeats for much of the song.

The fifth song, Pirates, made me wish I could understand the language of the lyrics, so I could understand what they are saying about piracy.  The male singing in it sounded as if he were rapping.  It uses several modern effects that are often found in pop music, such as those modifying and double tracking his voice.

The yodeling song was very different from the styles of yodeling that I am used to.  It sounded harsh and unfamiliar to me, and upon listening to it for so long, it got tiresome.  The harmonies sounded strange to me, once the other singers joined in.  Clearly their ideas of beauty in music are very different from traditional western ideas.

The molimo song first brought to mind call and response, since that appears to be the central element in this song.  It is called “darkness is good,”and I think I could hear crickets chirping faintly in the background, which recalled to mind imagery of a group of people singing around a campfire at night.

The last two songs had some singing in them that reminded me of the yodeling in the first song.   The singing and music making appeared to be a very social event, with people laughing, playing, and dancing along to it. Both of the songs were very rythmic with strong drumming in them.

The Balinese gamelan beleganjur differs from other Indonesian gamelan in that it is a more processional style.  It is often used to accompany the processions surrounding impoertant life-cycle events, such as funerals and temple ceremonies.  The instruments consist of portable versions of other common gamelan instruments.  For instance, the big sets of gongs are broken up and carried by one person each, and drums are hung around players’ necks so they can be easily carried and played, and hand-held cymbals (ceng-ceng) are carried by other players.

The ceremonies that this music accompanies are Hindu-influenced events, as the large majority of Bali’s population is Hindu, in contrast to the predominantly Muslim population in the rest of Indonesia.  And while other gamelan styles have processional styles, this balinese style is more processional.

The music appears to have a strong beat (one gong plays the beat-keeping role by playing on every beat), which makes marching to it in a processional group more natural.  The complex interlocking parts of the instruments is amazing because most of the musician can play only one note on their instruments.

Multiple Azan in Sumatra:

This call to prayer reminded me of my trips to Indonesia to see my mom’s family.  Just about every summer, my family makes a trip to Jakarta where we stay at my grandmother’s house and see our relatives.  For the first night, I am usually quite jetlagged from the two day series of long flights we must make to get there, so I often find myself waking up before dawn.    Sometimes I will go out to the porch and read while I listen to the call to prayer and watch the sunrise, and it immediately reminds me that yes, I am in Indonesia now.  While listening to the call to prayer for the first few days can be a relaxing way to start off the day, it soon becomes an annoyance that wakes me up on many days before dawn, and I have to struggle to get back to sleep.  The dawn call to prayer is the only one that you can hear clearly in Jakarta, as the sounds of congestion on the city streets quickly fill the day.

The Call to Prayer Ringtone

I thought that this sounded extremely cheesy.  The epically slow crescendo of the synthesizer introduction brought to mind the cheesiness of bad 80s pop songs. The copious reverb on the singer’s voice and the piano melody at the end only added to the cheesiness.  In the reading assignment, it was said that the call to prayer was often broadcast on TV with images of Mecca and Medina as visual background.  All I can say is that I hope they don’t use this as the audio, and I hope no one uses this as their ringtone.  It would probably not be the best ringtone considering the low volume of the introduction.

Back in the USSR by The Beatles.

This is an example of an icon.  The whooshing air sounds that begin the song immediately remind one of an airplane coming in for a landing.  Then the chug-chugging of the electric guitars that follow remind one of the sounds of an engine.  Of course when the lyrics come in, the picture in our minds becomes clearer, as we realize that we have just landed in the USSR.  These are not the only iconic aspects of this song.  The style of this song is a parody of surf-rock songs by bands like The Beach Boys, so the listener is instantly reminded of this genre of music, despite the fact that the lyrics are very different from those in a typical surf-rock song.

Brick by Ben Folds Five

This song is an example of an index for me.  Whenever I hear this song I am reminded of my 13 year old little brother and being at home.  This is his favorite song, and he used to play it constantly on the piano.  He would play it so much that it drove the rest of us at home crazy.  Whenever I hear this song, I get a little homesick, and I miss my little brother Daniel.  Hearing this song, I think of our dark red baby grand in the living room, the summer sun shining through the windows looking out on the lawn and deep blue sky above.  Daniel would be sitting on the piano bench playing this song and adding his funny little fills and rhythmic variations on the song, which you can always count on him to do. And of course he would be singing with his deep new voice, the voice that I first heard upon coming back from Oberlin last May.

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