Hello all! For today's blog we are going to start in the Arabic world!
This past week in class, I found myself really interested in Arabic music and I thought it as especially cool (in all of the cultures we have studied so far) when these traditional styles or ideas get fused together with contemporary music- so I decided to look for other artists that were similar to Mona Haydar. While looking I came across a "Hip-hop Crew" that is actually from Palestine. Their name is "DAM" and they have been creating music since the early 90's, one of the first to rap in Arabic. Their music is tends to be grouped in with protest music, with lyrics talking about women's rights, poverty, political conflicts with Israel, and racism. They also make use of Arabic rhythms in melodies in their music as well! See here to read more about them!
Here is one of their songs, "Who You R."
Moving along to India, we have Odissi. Odissi is one of the 8 styles of Indian classical dance. It originates from Eastern India and it is one of India's earliest dance forms, typically performed by women in offering for Lord Jagganath, a form of Vishnu. It wasn't until the 1950's that it became widely known throughout India and the world, however. As this style is so old, there is quite a bit of history to it as time passed. One part this rich history is how women who dance Odissi, would have to claim devotion to Jagganath, often through a ritual (these people are called maharis, or devadasi). Much like if you were to become a monk or nun in devotion to the church, these women would then live in the temple as they were seen as "married to Jagganath." To read more about the dance style, see this link!
And here is an example of this dance!
Lastly, we have the nagaswaram (sometimes spelled as nadaswaram) from southern India. This instrument is a "conical double reed aerophone," that is often used in the southern "carnatic" traditional style. This instrument is typically used to keep a continuous melody going, whether that included the player using "circular breathing" or have several players at once alternating on a melody line. This, to me, is kind of similar to how in a western classical string section, in order to have a sustained sound on a note that is several measures long, each player will softly change bow directions at different time so it sounds uninterrupted. To read more about this instrument, see here. In the video below, it is a little hard to hear, but the "notes" are still akin to that of swaras.
And here is a little bit of a better picture of the instrument! In it, you can see that any extra reeds are actually tied onto the instrument.
Hello all! In today's blog post I’m going to be talking about Appalachian folk music. As the name suggests, this style of music originates from the Appalachian mountains, which runs all along the east coast. This genre is actually quite syncretic due to its origins, despite it being so isolated to the region.
Much similar to the origin of the blues, the roots of Appalachian folk music originated from the immigrants of the British Isles and from African-Americans. Specifically, contributing factors into this style include “fiddle music derived from the Scottish and Irish and African-American blues and religious hymns.” While there are other groups that have immigrated to this area, such as French Huguenots, Germans, and Eastern Europeans, these are the major influences. Common instruments include the fiddle and banjo, as we know, but also mandolin, guitar, and of course, there is singing. When it comes to music of this area of the country, the Appalachian mountains, you find a lot of overlap with other genres, and for this folk music, the closest you can find is bluegrass, the biggest distinction here being that bluegrass is more upbeat. These are often grouped together when talking about each genre, almost becoming synonymous. This is because each of these genres, for the most part, come from the same groups of people, with the same cultural ideals. This makes it a little difficult to define what actually is specifically Appalachian Folk music at times.
Many of these songs tend to go around themes like working, with lyrics talking about trains and working “in the coal mines,” which many immigrants at this time could relate to during this industrialization period. On the other hand, you also get many songs that tell wild stories, like murder or about love. It is similar to blues in the idea of singing about your day to day struggles, but in the form of work songs. Another common idea that runs here is that Appalachian folk is also passed down by rote, like many of these other genres. Many of these songs do sound similar to that of modal Irish or Celtic ballads in structure and melody. These songs, when brought over by settlers, started off as ballads, later adding instruments in.
In this video below you have a bit of a modernized version of an older tune. The women introduce the lyrics before they start and they also talk a little bit about what this kind of music means to them, being from southern Appalachia. When I first heard it, I couldn’t help think of Aaron Copland’s music, which much of it is inspired by this area (Appalachian Spring!) but what first came to mind was “Hoedown” from Rodeo because of all of the double stops that are typical of the fiddle style. We also here see different kinds of drums and a double bass to maintain this upbeat tempo!
While we often see mostly just the banjo and fiddle as primary instruments, another common one which originates from this region is called the dulcimer. The Appalachian dulcimer is what is called a fretted zither, with relation to the German zither, called the scheitholt. The “mountain dulcimer” is thought to have been created around the late 1700’s or early 1800’s and there are many different variations in the shape of this instrument, some being more common than others depending on the area of the region you are in. For a while, this instrument was starting to die off, especially when radios were introduced to the mountains giving people new exposure to other instruments and genres outside of what they know. In the video, the woman talks a little about her story and how she came across the dulcimer, followed by a demonstration. It is really interesting to me because unlike most other zithers, this is actually strum with a pick or quil of a feather, much like a reconstructed guitar. She also talks about how this music is ever changing and how while the instruments may continue, many of the styles and the culture around it are not as easily able to be preserved.
When talking about Appalachian folk music in this day and age, typically a lot of it revolves around the Appalachian revival. Originally, this folk music was very secluded to these communities and this region, with music like country being the more popularized genre, there was a “renaissance” of this old time music. Around the 1950’s and 1960’s, more and more college aged people had gained an interest in this kind of music as it started to spread across the country, especially with more “modern” songs in the style. With this genre growing, the traditional folk instruments started to travel as well and bled into other styles of music. For example, since the dulcimer was fairly easy to pick up and learn, people began to play all sorts of genres on the instrument trying to see how they could fit it in. In the revival, one of the most well known contributors was Jean Ritchie, also known as “The Mother of Folk”. She was a famous mountain dulcimer player and folk singer who has recorded over 35 different albums. Jean Ritchie has also written a few books and is known as a role model among people of Appalachia as she earnestly had shared their culture with the country and helped to preserve their music. Here is an example of one of her ballads.
Below is another example by an all female band based out of Kentucky, the Coon Creek Girls. This folk band made their debut in 1937 and continued performing together for another 20 years. They performed through the mountains and eventually made it into the Kentucky music hall of fame for their contributions to Appalachian folk music and essentially establishing what would become Kentucky country music.
Whilst going through our materials this past week "in Africa," I found myself very curious about griots and the kora. I really enjoyed listening to the kora and though that it was a very interesting instrument, especially when comparing it to other "harp-like" instruments, so I went searching for more background on griots and their music. While searching, I had come across a griot named Nomoucounda Cissoko from Senegal. Now, while he plays traditional instruments, like the kora and percussion, he incorporates hip-hop into his music. In the video below, he mentions how, while professionally trained on the kora, he draws a lot of inspiration from genres like salsa, house, and hip-hop. His ideas when it comes to modernizing his traditional music, I find, are very similar to Sona Jabarteh as he wants to incorporate modern genres as a way of preserving the kora and the stories of his people.
It really interesting to me how he is still able to make his music sound traditional but still very modern at the same time, without one genre outweighing the other. Below is a link to one of his songs off his album "Faling."
Moving on, I also found myself curious about other the music of other parts of Africa that we did not get a chance to talk about. I had wondered how different music would be from the opposite side of Africa, so I looked towards Ethiopia. In my search I had found an instrument called the "masinko". I found that it is a very prominent instrument in Ethiopia, made from horse hairs and animal hide. What is interesting about it is that you can get a variety of melodies out of the instrument, despite there being only one string. This instrument was really interesting to me because at first it kind of reminded me of the chinese instrument called the "banhu," which I had come across while on youtube in the past, but when I listened to the masinko, the timbre of the instrument was much more similar to the fiddle that we know. It was also really cool to me because it was pretty much the first bowed instrument I had come across in this class, other than the violins in the Andes! You can read more about it here!
Here is a demonstration of the masinko!
And here is what the banhu looks like for comparison.
Lastly, I found myself interested with another instrument from Western Africa: the balafon. While it was clear that the instrument worked similar to that of a marimba, I thought it was quite interesting how they utilized gourds underneath each "key" for resonance and tone. While doing more research on this instrument, I found that it can be dated back as far as the 13th century, and similar to the Native American flute, it has many different stories that are shared as its' origin story. One of these included a balafon player who had become so "one" with the instrument that he could do nothing but play it all day. The balafon's are made of kiln-baked wood (usually rosewood) and tied together by a piece of cord. What I had found interesting that I did not realize, is that each gourd that was to go under the keys had to be cut and "tuned" to its designated key. It was also interesting to read about how people are modernizing these instruments, like many others do around the world, by using materials like glue and plastic to aid them when building. See this link to read more about it!
In my experience over the years, while participating in different orchestras, I have noticed that there is definitely some sort of gender divide in music, especially when it comes to expectations from society on who can play what kinds of instruments. I noticed this as early as my beginning orchestra class, but it was much more prominent when I had gotten to the high school level. However, early on I did see much of it from the "band world" as I had friends in the school band as well. All of my friends who had decided to play in the band almost exclusively played flute or clarinet (all of them being girls), save for one who had chosen trumpet despite the section being almost completely boys. I clearly remember being given a sheet where I would select my top 3 instrument choices- viola, clarinet, and then alto saxophone- and being completely told against playing the saxophone, without being given much reason other than it's too "boyish."
I have also seen this kind of divide when it comes to popular music and discussions around popular music. In my personal experience, I've found that women are expected to listen to music like pop, country, or ballad-like songs, while men are to solely listen to anything of the rock, hip hop, or jazz style. I believe a lot of this has to do with the culture around toxic masculinity. This is because these songs that women are expected to like tend to be about love or romantic relationships, while rock tends to follow the typical tropes of being a rockstar (traditionally, at least). Because of this, this cultural divide can be found in discussions around music as these pop songs have lyrics that can often be highly emotional, while men are expected to not partake in liking things like sappy songs as a fear of being over emotional because society believes men to be "not emotionally invested" and assertive. I have definitely seen and experienced this growing up, as there was a period of time where I solely listened to rock music and I did have a quite a few people close to me tell me that this music is not for girls, or that they did not even believe me when I said I enjoyed this music, as if it wasn't possible.
Overall, I think in this newer, younger generation, a lot of these ideas that are pushed by society are being broken as you see more people playing instruments that they stereotypically would not have played, and a lot of people are becoming more confident in expressing themselves and the kinds of music that they enjoy, going against the backlash.
While learning about Native American Music, I found myself curious about the Native American flute's origins and uses. I found that the flute is much more diverse than I had thought; it can very in many ways. I found that you can make them out of very different materials and you can create many different ranges with different sizes as well. I found it interesting that even the history of the flute has many different stories. Some include a young man hearing birdsongs in the woods while hunting for elk, and some are about a hunter "hoping to gain the affections from a beautiful women." In the website linked, they go over many aspects of the flute, from origins, characteristics and to how it has changed overtime.
I was also really interested in the culture of the Andes, specifically about textiles. I found that things like trading were very necessary and that things like weaving were at the forefront. In the video, I found it interesting how she had mentioned that these traditions that have been passed down since the Incas are starting become a little lost within the new generation, as many are choosing to go to school instead. This is creating a large gap because with schooling, these children start to move away and kind of miss out on learning from their community, but many eventually move back. It was also interesting to see that there were different methods when it came to weaving as well.
Lastly, I was very interested in the panpipes, or siku from the Andes. I thought it was really interesting how diverse these instruments could be. I found that they could be made of pretty much anything, from metal to bone, and that they can be in a variety of sizes. Like the referenced article suggests, these instruments have a very breathy quality to them, akin to the sound of wind. They can be used in a variety of ceremonies, like funerals and religious celebrations, but also in everyday life! What is most interesting to me is how you can be able to play two different melodies at once, due to the two layers of pipes.
Hello! My name is Aimee Boudreau and I am a sophomore violist with a major in music education. I grew up for the most part in Upstate New York, but spent my high school years in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where I live now while not at school. I've had experiences growing up in both school choirs and orchestra, while I don't really sing as much anymore, and I have played a few other kinds of instruments as well.
A piece of music that has meant something to me for a while is the song "Yellow" by Coldplay. While it's not tied to a specific event, I first heard this song in middle school when I was looking for new songs to learn on my first guitar. I found that I really loved this song and with it, many other Coldplay songs and it kind of acted as a bridge into more styles of music for me. It quickly became one of my favorite songs to play! Over the years I found that I kept going back to it, especially if I'm going through a rough patch because it feels very nostalgic to me and in a way, it feels very uplifting to me. Somehow, I always feel a little bit better after listening to it.
An example of music that helped me get through the pandemic was Hozier's album " Wasteland, Baby." While I've always enjoyed his music since as early as his first album, I kind of had the time to "rediscover " his music as I had gotten away from his music for a bit and missed some of his more recent releases. I really enjoy how he describes what his ideas are that he is singing in his lyrics; his lyrics are very poetic and heavily linked to nature. While he does have some more "rock" sounding songs, I tend to favor the ones that are more acoustic sounding as they sound very comforting, warm, and light.
An example of music I don't actually like is country music. While I truly do like most genres of music and music from all around the world, I've always had a hard time trying to get myself to like country music. Most of my family play it all the time around the house, on the radio when we are in the car together, and go to country music concerts (pre-covid), but I've never seemed to be able to jump on the bandwagon with them! There are a few songs here and there that I do enjoy, but for the majority it just isn't for me.
