Eli Goshorn

This piece (or at least the part in the recording) is performed entirely by female vocalists. In many ways, it seems more like a chant than a song. The vocalists repeat phrases rapidly with the same melody. This gives the whole piece something of an ominous atmosphere. There are also a few climaxes within the piece that are built up to through the addition of separate parts and melodies. Once the climax is reached (often a sustained high note), the piece returns to a single melody low volume chant, as in the beginning. The overall atmosphere and intensity of the piece is to me reminiscent of religious chants and other ritualistic music. The complete lack of male vocal also suggested to me that this piece is part of a ritual. It is certainly not intended to be a lighthearted piece.

The ensemble is almost certainly trying to utilize a soundscape in this piece. The first instrument to enter is a guitar playing some arpeggios. Shortly after cymbals enter, quietly but rapidly tittering. Right before the actual melody enters, the sound of a breeze passing through is clearly heard. In my estimation, the group is trying to evoke some sort of environment. My first thought was a beach, but I quickly remembered that this is Andean music, so a mountain locale seems more likely. The main section of the piece pushes along at a fair pace and the melody is fairly lively. It seemed to be using the same scale introduced by the opening arpeggios. Ornamentation was being used extensively. Despite the tempo and general energy of the piece, the overall mood seemed calm to me. This fits in with the atmosphere set up by the breeze at the beginning, and makes me curious as to the actual context of the piece.

Admittedly, the first thing I thought of when I began listening to this piece was the image of the stereotypical “savage” tribal ritual. I saw in my head elaborate headdresses, costumes made of leaves, and people dancing around a bonfire. Something about the combination of the background drum rhythm and the woodwind melody reminded me of this. Perhaps I heard something similar in some ancient cartoon. Anyhow, this instrumental combination still strongly suggests that this piece is associated with some sort of participatory event. The drumming seems like it would helpful for dancing and the there are clearly several flutes playing at once, so Turino’s “cloaking effect” would certainly be effective here. The music is also fairly repetitive, varying in each verse but following more or less the same theme each time. So perhaps my initial picture wasn’t entirely inaccurate, despite its obvious stereotypical influences.

I recognized this tune by its lyrics shortly after it began to play. Even if I didn’t remember anything about this song in particular, it would have been easy to deduce that it was at least influenced by American music in the 1920s or 30s. After the first verse or so, the piece throws a curveball. “Here is Winston Churchill’s latest tear-jerker” In the span of a few seconds, it morphs from a light love song to a thinly veiled attack on Winston Churchill, Britain, and the Jewish people. Any offense I might have felt about this was dwarfed by astonishment at the sheer bizarreness of this song. The music continued to play lightheartedly. The vocalist was reciting now more than singing, perhaps because these new lyrics were a bit clumsy. Another thing I found odd about this recording was that the entirety was in English. This suggests to me that it was not intended for German audiences. I found this piece to be truly bizarre and I am very curious about its origins.

This piece fits the framework of participatory music fairly well. The first thing heard is a marraca or similar-sounding instrument, which sets down a simple beat that remains present for the duration of the recording. Many different voices can be heard entering and exiting, along with clapping and other percussive noises that are not quite as easily identified. Overall, the piece seemed to have something of a festive sound to it. The melodic component is upbeat and repetitive. While the vocalists seem to be verbally communicating everything, their singing is also upbeat. Overall, it seems pretty clear to me that the musicians playing in this piece are enjoying themselves. This makes sense, as Shona spirit possession events are actually very festive in many ways.

This piece begins by adding different instruments in sequence, each one repeating a phrase. The initial instruments make the piece sound genuinely pygmy, but this changes as the piece progresses. With each new instrument, western influence becomes more and more detectable. A bass is added, and then eventually a guitar. The origins of this piece become obvious when a drum set comes in, playing a very prototypical western beat. Shortly after this the distinctively Pygmy whistle fades out and the piece morphs into something much more closely resembling Jazz. It would seem that the Pygmy segment simply served as an extended intro for a more conventional Jazz piece. It strikes me as interesting that Herbie Hancock would choose to keep the two styles separate rather than synthesize them as some of the other artists did. Perhaps he did it because the morph between the two styles was an interesting effect. It did surprise me a little bit as a listener.

The first word that comes to mind when I try to describe this piece is “haunting.” It begins with a few lonely tones from a single instrument before the ensemble comes in. The piece continues at a subdued tempo. The main section of the piece seems to consist of several layers of repeating patterns. Some of these patterns interact with the melody while others remain mostly in the background. This has a net effect of creating a piece of music that draws the listener in without having a strongly emphasized melodic component. Overall, I found this piece to be very interesting and unique. I actually enjoyed the repetition because of the way it added to the atmosphere of the piece.

This piece immediately struck me as cheerful and upbeat. The piece originally struck me as fairly simplistic but subsequent listens revealed that it was a bit more complicated than I thought.  Over the course of its sub two minute duration, the piece seems to cycle through several clearly defined sections. The first section begins with a simple repeating rhythm. It was instantly apparent that several talempongs were playing this rhythm. Soon, another talempong enters with a higher tempo melody. A wind instrument takes over the melody (or perhaps improvises) in the next section while the talempongs play a slightly more complex rhythm. The final section is very similar to the second section. This sectioned approach suggests that there are some specific rules that define how a piece such as this one should be structured. I found this piece to be very interesting. It was surprising how many different sorts of sounds could be made with a very limited amount of unique instruments.

As the piece begins, several talempong enter one by one, each playing a different repeating phrase. The phrases seem to interlock. The patterns of each phrase begin to change subtly. I had difficulty telling how much the piece as a whole was repeating itself because each individual talempong kept altering its phrase. I could tell that each individual part was mostly repetitive though. Curiously, around forty seconds into the piece a cough was audible. I am fairly sure this was not intentional, but it made me wonder how old the ensemble players are. Perhaps they are all very advanced in age? Eventually a string instrument comes in and quickly becomes the center of the piece. I could very easily tell that it was a string instrument, but I found the sound to be much rawer and more abrasive than that of anything present in a western orchestra. The melody played by this instrument actually seemed more repetitive than the talempong parts to me. It seemed to center around one phrase and a few variations of it. This caused me to grow a little bored with the piece.

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