Caitlin Roseum

Listening to “Hristianova Kopanitsa.”

The things that fascinate me most about this music are the meters and the instrumentation. The Roma use SO MANY DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS! It creates a really unique style and constantly evolving, rich texture. When I listen to this clip, I never know what instrument will be featured next-accordian? Clarinet? A brass instrument? They all can be solo instruments, it seems, and I really like that quality of variety in music. The meters are also something to be talked about. I really love folk music with weird and uneven meters. They have this sort of lilt to them that makes them easy to dance to – but only if you can get rid of the feeling that you’re limping while you’re dancing with that extra-long beat in there somewhere.

This is different than what I would probably imagine if someone just told me to think about what “gypsy music” sounds like. I might come up with something slow, with tambourine and stringed instruments…but I much prefer this new outlook I have thanks to these examples. It sounds very jazzy, like they’ve taken some western styles and slowly molded them into their own. The sense of ensemble is also impeccable! Despite the really fast tempos and the crazy meters that are difficult (for me) to follow, the musicians change and move at exactly the same time. It’s very tight, very well put together. Something else I noticed was the incredible skill of the soloist(s). The all have incredible power over their instruments, and know how to do things with extended technique and cool sounds beyond what we often hear in virtuosic Western classical music. The clarinet in this example really reminds me of an album that I recently found that I really enjoy “New King of Klezmer Clarinet.” It’s an awesome album of Klezmer music, which I think shares much of the same musical properties

Listening to “Valicha” by Los Destellos”

Perhaps it’s my upbringing or what I’ve been socialized into, but when I hear this piece, this is exactly what I associate with the Andes. The sound of the  shakers doing the 1 +a 2 +a rhythm is probably what makes it the most, but also the cool sounding drums. I love the use of electric guitar and bass. They add a really great dimension and depth to the texture. They’re definitely not indigenous instruments, though, so it’s obvious that this is meant to be a popular genre form.

This would be a very easy thing to dance to, which is why I would probably call it a hybrid of particpatory with presentational elements mixed in. The segment insn’t long enough to tell for sure, but it seems as though the soloing instrument is the only one doing anything sort of virtuousic. The other parts seem easy enough that with some sort of sense of rhythm you’d be able to jump in and at least shake the shaker around on the right beats. I would hestitate to say that it’s completely participatory, however, because I can see this being something that would be performed for large dancing audiences, probably on a stage if they have all of that equipment, so there’s more separation between who’s in the band and who’s not.

Overall, I really love the swinging dancy feeling, *starts bobbing head and tapping foot* it’s so catchy!

Listening to “We Are Not Afraid.”

Just as I was talking about the other day with Nazi propaganda music, it’s amazing how powerful and influential music can be. Listening to a choir full of people singing this song brings me goosebumps. I imagine that this song was even more powerful during the height of the civil righs movement. Functionally, it is perfect for a social movement in that it is a very basic, participatory framework. There are a few divided parts that create some harmony, but the main focus is the melody, and that the melody is heard loudly, whether you are an expert singer or not. The words are simple, and whoever is leading identifies the next verse coming up, so it is very easy for someone to join in singing.

The sound of many people singing such powerful words “We shall overcome” and “we are not afraid” with as much heart as you can hear in this recording give a feeling of power and understanding that the group is united for their cause.

Listening to “Stormy Weather.”

When I first started listening, I was curious as to why we would listen to this song for Nazi Propaganda music…then it got to the third verse. It’s very interesting that the Nazis would choose to use jazz to get negative messages like this one onto the air. At the time, everyone (young people especially) were infatuated with jazz, and so I suppose it makes sense to insert different words into the text as a way of subliminal messaging.

It was alarming to hear phrases like “my ships are sinking all the time, oh blimey” and “When we walked into Poland the Germans met me, my hair turned grey when France turned on me.” The quality of the man’s singing became more of a speaking voice to accentuate the meaning of the text and show that he was clearly making fun of Churchill, and the Allies in general.

It’s definitely scary and awesome how much control music can have over one’s life, decisions, outlook, etc.

Listening to “Shuramurova.”

Listening to this music, you can tell that it is a VERY participatory setting and is for a special event. The piece starts off with shakers, a feature that is really present throughout the piece. A few soft voices join in after the beat has been established, and few quickly becomes many. They are accompanied by a (probably double-headed?) drum that makes it easier to keep things in time, clap, and dance. The song has the same tune, over and over again, and it sounds as though many of the words are the same as well. Both of these things establish a participatory field in that anyone could potentially walk in off the street and participate in the celebration.

I think it’s a really interesting example because just from listening to the music, it’s a bit difficult to tell EXACTLY what’s going on, but you can tell it’s important and its about strength and community because everyone is so involved.  I really love when I find music that requires a sense of community or tight-knit ensemble in order to sound its best (which I think is most music) because it really encourages communication between everyone involved in the process.

Listening to “Watermelon Man.”

Okay, I love Herbie Hancock. I really do. “Watermelon Man” is a great blend of funk and jazz and misappropriated pygmy pop. Sorry Herbie, but it’s true.

It’s really interesting how he takes concepts of pygmy music and works them into this piece. The panflute, humming, and vocals all are strikingly similar to things we listened to in class on Wednesday, only with more syncopation. The first thing that we hear that counteracts this pygmy music is the bass, followed by the drums. They add more rhythm and interesting sounds to the texture, and begin to fade out the panflute and voice. The entrance of both the synth and saxophone helps to funk this up and help it become more like a funk standard.

Oh Herbie Hancock, you’re so cool, even if you abuse authentic pygmy music.

First things first – playing gamelan is SO much different than passively listening to it! Learning how to play gamelan and putting all of the pieces together really changes the way I think about it. It’s also much harder than it looks! All that counting and dampening and counting and dampening – it can get confusing very quickly.

When I first sat down, I was amazed with how many different instruments were in the room. I had no idea that there were so many types of metallophones, or sets of gongs, or anything like that! I started out on one of the metallophones, and when Prof. Fraser started reciting our part to us, my head started to spin. The first phrase wasn’t bad, but the second phrase? Phew, that was tough. Maybe it’s just my lack of training and professionals can do this, but I found it incredibly hard to get back on track if I lost my place. The only thing you can really do is listen to the 10 other people playing your part and hope that they know what they’re doing. In a practiced ensemble, there’s probably a much stronger sense of awareness and cohesiveness, so all of the instruments that signify certain beats are right where they’re supposed to be. While I was playing, I found it a little strange to be playing without music, as I am so used to. I also found it challenging to think about at least two beats at a time – the one you’re playing and the one you’re dampening!

For the second half, I looked on to the gong section. THAT PART WAS SO COOL. I wish I had had a chance to play it, although I’m not sure I would have been very good at it. There was a lot of moving around and trying to memorize where you were supposed to go next.

I think the biggest challenge of the day for me was the feeling of irregular phrase lengths. I felt like the phrases never had any closure and just sort of rolled into one another (which I guess is part of what makes gamelan so interesting and different) but it sure makes it hard to play!

What a fun class period.

Listening to “Kembang Pacar.”

Okay, I have to admit, I feel like whenever I first listen sit down to talempong or gamelan, I have to remind myself that it’s more than just banging and clanging. Of course, after I listen to it again, it becomes clear that it’s much more refined than that. This piece was a little different. When I first started listening, I had a really difficult time finding the tempo.This piece has a very different quality It seemed as though it started out fast and immediately slowed whenever a new instrument came in. The piece has a very different quality than I was expecting. The soft, smooth tones aren’t as abrasive as Talempong. There are a lot of subtle nuances that affect the way I hear this, like the balance between the instruments. I’m able to clearly pick out each part – parts that play on the beat, off the beat, the most rhythmic part – and the more I listen to it I feel like I might actually be hearing the patterns and cycles. That’s definitely something I haven’t been able to do before, so I’m happy about that. When I got to the end, the ensemble slowed down again. When I think about it, I guess that’s a pretty effective performance teachnique; bookending a piece with ritardandos. It serves two functions, at the beginning, so give the other performers a chance to figure out what’s going on, and at the end, to let the listener know the song is coming to a close. Overall, it is a very cool piece that has afforded me some knew outlooks on gong ensembles.

Listening to “Tihai 4″ and “Drumming: Recitation and Drumming.”

I (probably just like everyone else!) am so happy to be studying Indian classical music. It’s definitely something I’ve looked forward to since the start of the semester. I’m very interested in the rhythmic patterns of this music, so these listening examples are very engaging for me. My first impressions on the pieces are: YES. EXCELLENT. WHAT?!

I think I would be completely lost if I had not seen Rod Knight  lecture once on tala. Since I have, I think I’m getting along fine, but in parts of Recitation and Drumming, it’s difficult to get my bearings. Some of the drumming/speaking patterns they use are so amazing and complicated that it’s easy to get mentally lost in them. I also love how smoothly tala syllables are! Between the inflections that individual performers put on the syllables and the way they mimick the tabla sounds – it’s just a really cool effect.

Rhythm is always something I’m curious about; how rhythms and patterns can be heard then carried across the globe and transformed and modified for someone else’s use, but still hold a piece of it’s heritage.  Similarly, I think it’s amazing that parallels can be drawn between styles of music that (apparently) have no direct connection or lineage together. What I’m thinking of here is the metric changes and sort of syncopation that you can hear and in more experimental jazz music. You’re going along just fine in one sort of metric sense, then BAM! They switch it up and the audience is sitting there thinking “whoa.” That’s the feeling I get when I listen to “Recitation and drumming.” The performers are constantly changing what they’re doing and sometimes the shifts are seamless so it’s a few moments before you realize what’s happened, and others are sudden and so violently different that it’s startling.

All in all, for this piece, I just love the interaction between the tabla and recitation. The placement of where drums are present is really effective, it brings a sense of climax to the piece, about 2/3 of the way through where the table gets really loud, then the recitation comes back in this crazy triplet feel. It’s an awesome combination.

Listening to “Violin Taqasim.”

The word “violin” in the name sort of led me to expect different things from this piece than I initially heard. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard though. My first impression was that again, the pitches used in these ragas are really different than what my Western ears are used to hearing.  As strange as it sounds, the first thing I associated the beginning of the piece was bees. The way the performer vibrated on one note, then goes back and forth over a few notes, using really good vibrations just made me think of the humming of bees wings I guess.  This piece makes me feel a couple different ways. I like that it plays around with rhythm a lot, but the fact that most of it feels unmetered to me makes it more difficult to feel completely comfortable with it.

I think it is interesting that there are some similarities in the ways that the violins are used (western vs.  eastern). In both ensembles, the violin is used as the melodic instrument, and is very versatile for embellishments. One thing that sticks out to me is that the violin makes it incredibly easy to slide between notes, particularly at the end of phrases, so that there is a definite sense of cadence. The sliding also allows access to the entire range of semi-tones between notes…after sitting through orchestra rehearsal and listening to the concertmaster lecture the others in her section about proper and immediate placement of notes, this sliding around really jumps out. I like it. I think the unfrettedness gives a little freedom, and gives the performer plenty of room to experiment.