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