It's All in the Beat

Title: Balinese gamelan song

Performer: street musicians in Bali

Instrumentation: idiophones, flutes, reeded aerophones, jaw harps, metallophones

Culture or Origin: Balinese culture.

Connection: I chose to pick some Balinese gamelan music because I am reading the cultural context guide for Bali and I find it very interesting. In Javanese, gamelan translates to 'musical ensemble'. During a class discussion a few weeks back we talked about different cultures tuning systems and how some preferred to have 'beats'. I find this extremely fascinating because in our Western Classical culture we strive so hard to eliminate this. During rehearsals this past week we worked a lot on tuning between the upper woodwind players in symphony band. I couldn't help but really listen to the beats and the musical purpose that they have in other cultures. They were interesting to listen to and recognize briefly before they were gone.

I bring this up because many people would consider this music as headache provoking. Our other Balinese CD track: Kotekan norot has similar elements to the one above. I think it would be an interesting experiment in the classroom to have students try and play as out of tune as possible in an ensemble setting to get them really aware of the beats. They can experiment with the width of the waves. I find my self playing with beats when practicing with the tuning CD. It's very interesting and a great learning experience. In order to play 'in tune' in the Western Classical sense, I think its important to understand beats and how to make them slow and fast and the differences between beats when different timbres and tone colors are added.

Transmission

Title:
Tarantella- Sicilian Folk Song

Performer: Unknown- probably people from Mt. Altesina

Instrumentation: Accordian, guitar, tambourine, drums

Culture or Origin: This is a Tarantella dance from Italy, more specifically: Sicily.

Connection:
I chose to share this Italian video because I had recently been to my grandmother's house this past weekend and she was talking about Italy and shared some of the music and dance from when she lived there as a young girl. The Nettl readings this week placed heavy emphasis on how music is transmitted and how one becomes master of music in many different countries. I picked the Italian tarantella because there are many different versions of it. Each one is similar yet completely different. The tempo is always fast because the whole premise of the dance is about a person who has been bitten by a wolf spider and needs to engage in a frenzy dance in order to prevent death from the disease. The tunes and melodies are different in each tarantella one can find. However, the instrumentation stays pretty consistent from tarantella to tarantella.

Many folk songs are passed down orally from person to person. From the reading, it is interesting to think about how one song can change into many variants and versions depending on the culture and instrumentation of people. If we were to perform the tarantella in the classroom from what we hear from different versions of the song and perform it on different instruments while changing some of the tunes, wouldn't that also be considered a variant? The history of the song, which Nettl talked about it chapter 27 is changed. It started off as one thing and ended as another, while keeping some aspects of the original.

Pitch Centers

Title:

Raga Jaunpuri - alap

Performer:

Brigitte Menon

Culture or Origin: This is an Indian Raga. It is thought that is sometimes takes years for performers to really understand and connect with what they are playing.

Orchestration: sitar

Connection:

           This weeks readings talked a lot pitch and the differences of pitch in different cultures and country's music. Pitches are not always fixed when setting it. This is what you find a lot with sitars. A lot of times music styles from different traditions often dictate where the pitch placement is going to be. In Western Classical music I think we are so used to fixed tuning to A 440 that we really don't get a chance to be exposed and try many other tunings and pitch variants. In many Arab and Indian music you hear the oriental scale. They use the augmented second. Also when you listen to the above example you can hear the pitch bends and pitch functions talked about in the chapter. Specific pitches were given more importance in a set.
            I think it's really interesting to learn about the traditions and customs of other people's cultures. We have our own traditions with the traditional Western Classical orchestra set up. Our instruments are fixed and we follow a fixed set of pitches. To be able to experience some of the other systems and methods would be beneficial and interesting especially as educators.