tHe LaSt BlOg

Answer to Question No. 1
What interested me was the fact that all the cultures that we studied were more similar than they were different. From the nasal tones and rough vocal timbres to the fact that all of them seemed to have work songs as a seperate genre, most of the cultures outside of the Western culture seemed to have a lot in common. All of the cultures had lullabyes, work songs and dances. We are human and that is what connects us to other humans. No wonder we come up with similar styles of music.

Answer to Question No. 2
I have learned that my culture is deffinetly a diverse one with many influences from other cultures. I should know by now that this is the case (since I am of Scotch, German, Swiss, basically everything European - dissent), but it really puts into perspective how much my culture has absorbed other cultures. I have also noticed that my culture does not always know how diverse it really is, because we get caught up in how it should be rather than embrace it for what it is... a melting pot.

Answer to Question No. 3
I really want to learn more about the Indian culture. I have a small knowledge of Hinduism (and I find it fascinating), but the new sounds that I have discovered really interest me. I want a sitar! and meditaion bells! Also, I now want to go to Asheville and go look at all the cool music shops. I thought the flutes from Equador were really cool, too. I think that I am now on a cool, new instrument kick now. My poor mother!

Cool Stuff No. 3

Well, I have gone over the Blues in my cool stuff, so I am going on now. I decided to look up music from Indonesia, because I am less familiar with the music from that area of the World.



This first clip is of an "orchestra" of musicians playing traditional instruments but playing Western Music. There is a lot of the percussion instruments that we talked about and a lot of new string instruments that I have never really seen before. It is interesting that they play their guitar like instruments a lot like the Indians play their Western string instruments.. upside-down. There is a conductor insterestingly, unlike other ensembles in Indonesian music. At the end, the conductor gets the audience in on everything. It is really cool!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVSG5NEkyLU



Ok, for this next one, I found the Ravi Shankar and Phillip Glass "fun- fest". It is actually really cool though. You can really tell that this was written by Phillip Glass with the strings that never end in the background and the kind of creepy lady singing. However, you can also tell that their are some Indian influences in the piece. The rhythms are similar to the complex talas used in Indian music. I do not hear a sitar, but there is an aerophone of some kind in it. This is off the album that Phillip and Ravi made together Passages.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWbXobkWOyU

This next clip is from Japan. It is of two Maikos doing a dance called the goin kouta. A maiko is a geisha apprentice. You can hear the Shamisen in the background and the yo as well (I think it is yo because it sounds minor). Anyways, I love how these women dance. It is so graceful and precise. I would not want to be a geisha though.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvMpuAntnQo

Even Beethoven Protested Through His Music!

Thankfully, I had to do a paper topic about Beethoven and his views on Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars last semester. Beethoven was very into politics and had very strong views about society around him. Beethoven lived in Vienna during the time that Napoleon came and occupied it. The Eroica Symphony is a very politically driven piece. There have been many disputes about who the heroic character in the symphony is. It is widely accepted among musicologists that Napoleon was the figure about whom Beethoven was writing. In 1803, Beethoven considered dedicating the Erocia Symphony to Napoleon. There is a legend that Beethoven became so enraged when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor that he withdrew his dedication. However, there are some time discrepancies with this legend. Really, it probably had more to do with satisfying patrons. It was all about the money. In fact, it seemed that Beethoven really admired the grand, heroic figure of Napoleon. Beethoven was quoted on saying this about Napoleon's death in 1821, " I have already written a piece for that catastrophe." Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is also a political piece. It was political to Beethoven (he wanted to make a statement about ideal power in response to all the politics that were going on in Europe). The author of the book Beethoven's Ninth: A Political History suggests that there was also an undertone of nationality and a call for freedom from tyranny in the piece. However, the Ninth Symphony has been used in some interesting political ways throughout the years. For instance, Hitler had the piece played frequently in concentration camps and on his birthday. The piece was also played when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. These are just some of the interesting and sometimes odd uses of this piece when one keeps in mind why the composer wrote it in the first place.

Cool Stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNmYXUXPyVk&feature=related

This is one of my favorite spirituals. I have sang this before in my high school studio choir. We combined a Gospel choir with my last one, and we sang it for a church service. The soloist in this is amazing. I feel that spirituals have a haunting quality about them that is hard to find anywhere else. I go around singing this all the time. It is in b-minor usually, if anyone cares.

http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals/Freedom/coded.cfm

This is a website explaining some of the hidden meanings in African- American spirituals. Two types of coded spirituals were signal songs and map songs. They were there to help slave who wanted to escape to the North. They used these songs during meetings (usually church services) since most of the slave population was unable to write (and it would have been dangerous to write down escape routes). Signal songs had another message within them to tell the rest of the slave population that an escape was coming. Map songs actually planned out how to get North. "Follow the drinking gourd" is a very famous map song. This is the song were the Big Dipper was actually the "drinking gourd". This would help escaped slaves find the North Star.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K91Qj870HHk

This is a video of James Cotton and Muddy Waters playing together. I grew up in Mississippi, so I am quite familiar with music like this. My dad loves this kind of music, so I knew who James Cotton was before I knew who Britney Spears was. The blues are everywhere in Mississippi. From outdoor festivals to the State Fair, you can go and hear the Blues. Mississippi can have some negative connotations associated with it. However, I have found that Mississippi has a rich culture where are kinds of music are blended together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ny5ajCn0xw

Yes, B. B. King is from Mississippi. Yay!

Music and Rites

There are quite a few rites in the life of an American teenager. First, there is birth. I do not think that music plays a huge role in our culture in regard to birth. No one really did anything, except my dad handed out pink bubble gum cigars. Now, later on in life, birthdays are celebrated using music. For one thing, there is the mandatory out of tune "Happy Birthday" singing at every birthday party. Turing sixteen is a huge deal in our culture, and a few songs have been made about that. At birthday parties, music is usually played in the background. Sometimes, the lucky kids can hire a band for their birthday parties (or in my case my friend's band played for my other friend's birthday). Usually, it is playing while kids are stumbling about playing "Pin the tale on the donkey". Another rite of passage for the American teenager is high school graduation, and the horrible listenings of "Pomp and Circumstance". I had a huge class, and we were almost all in tears after listening to that a million times. Next, is marriage. Now, music plays a huge role in marriage in our culture. There is the wedding ceremony music which is usually formal. At my cousin's wedding, there was a harpist and a pianist. Usually, there is the traditional wedding pieces that evey musician cringes when heard. "Pachabel's Canon"and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" are just a couple. The most famous wedding song is "Here comes the bride" written by Felix Mendelsshon. The audience stands up when this is played. At the wedding reception, the music is usually less traditional. Typically, there is a DJ or a band. At my cousin's wedding, there was a rock band that my brother annoyed the drummer all night long. There is a dance between the bride and her father, then a first dance between the bride in her husband. Then, we all dance. Good times are had. Another rite is death. Funerals are how our cultures deals with death. In my life, I have gone to a few funerals. The funerals that belonged to my classmates were very different from the ones of older people. At the younger people's funerals, their favorite music was often played. Usually, people would sing hymns together to try to make sense of why a person could die so young. Music offers comfort. In an older person's funeral, its more along the lines of celebrating a full life. There is mourning, sure, but it has quite a different feel. For instance, my grandma did not really have any sad music at her funeral. It was more of her favorite hymns during life, and a celebration of how she touched people during her life.

Music and Religion

Wow, there is so much that could be said about music and religion. Geez, where should I start? Well, I was raised in the Methodist church. Our co-founders were the Wesley brothers, and they were famous hymn writers as well. So, I was exposed to a lot of well-known hymns in my youth. We had an organist who played a lot of traditional organ music, including Bach. Our choir masters were Doctors of Music, so we had a lot of very good music. I was basically raised in a traditional church with traditional music. It was not until middle school until I learned how other people used music in their church services. My piano teacher was also the choir director at a local Catholic church. The music was quite different. First of all, a lot of the music was written in a chant format without any harmonies, just a simple melodic line. Within that church, my teacher did all kinds of different things. She incorporated one African- American church into one of our services. The children's choir and the African-American choir sang a lof of music together, including "Wade in the Water" and "Ride on, King Jesus". That was a great experience. The two styles were completley different, but somehow they ended up working together. In high school, I became part of my church's Youth praise band. That was much more rock and roll than normal church services. Towards the end of my experice at the Methodist church, we switched choir directors, and we got a director who was a lot more contemporary. She was totally into the slide projector with the words to the songs kind of woman. I did not like it. I am not quite sure what it was, but the contemporary worship style was just not for me. Whatever my religious life has been, there has always been music accompanying it. Music is a good medium in which to practice a faith, because music can stir basically any emotion in a person. Music is by nature able to inspire, make a person think outside of themselves, make them focus and so many other things.

Cool Stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR01igcQ8MM
This is an interesting video of an African dance ensemble. I have participated in African dance lessons since high school. Not only is it a lot of fun, it is a great workout. It is all about the beat and the rhythms. I knew an African drummer, and I learned a few techniques from him on the conga drums. I have found African music to be very vibrant, exciting and natural.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JtEyn8NhE0
I have also done a lot of Irish dancing during and after high school. When I was in my Irish band, I crossed paths with a local Irish dance trope in Jackson, Mississippi frequently. We would have dances to raise money for local causes, and I would learn how to Irish dance. It is so much fun. If you ever have an opportunity to learn, it is worth trying. I thought this video was cute, and those kids are quite amazing.