English Tone Chimes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iskqm0IqzKQ&list=PLD0E8302D68EA38CD

Title:  Yellow Bird
Performer:  Couple of Michio Wu (I'm not sure this is correct, but I didn't see anything else)
Culture/Origin:  unknown - My best guess is it is England because tone bells originated in England and tone chimes are a variation on tone bells.
Orchestration:  Tone Bells

In thinking about the application of world music in classrooms, it can be easier to think way outside the box and negate english speaking countries as too easy or too close to American culture.  Tone chimes are not something that is widely known about in American society as a valuable musical experience.  These instruments, however, create a great tone, while allowing younger students to be able to focus on rhythm with a pitch attached to it.  The harmonies are not far out from what American listeners would be used to, but the use of the instrument is not something we are used to.  I think these are valuable instruments to consider when incorporating world music into the curriculum and are basic enough to be used for lower levels, but can become very difficult for higher levels.  I especially like these instruments because the tone quality is much nicer than a recorder.  While the recorder has more note options and can be qualified by that reason, it would drive me crazy to teach it for a long period of time.  The tone chimes are a valuable alternative that can be beneficial in many different ways.

Kenyan children singing

Title:  Unknown
Performer:  Unknown
Culture: Kenya, Africa
Orchestration:  singing children

Other than this being the cutest video ever, the African tradition of moving while singing is seen here as well as the call and response structure that is common in Africa.  Although these are children, they are embedded with these distinct characteristics within their music.  I was thinking along the lines of what a concert may look like if students were to add their own expression to the music of other cultures like chapter 6 was saying in Campbell and "Prayer of the Children" came into my head for some reason.  This is a beautiful song by itself, but I began thinking about medleys and how I could incorporate a song like "Prayer of the Children"and incorporate other songs around it to make it a whirlwind of a concert that brought people from feeling bad for countries that aren't as developed to seeing what these people from other cultures make out of the music that they have and the environment they live in.  This is such a happy song and usually there are such heart breaking stories about sickness and poverty in Africa that it would be cool to take the audience from feeling their heart break to feeling their joy, or sandwiching joy around heart break.  It is just interesting to think about how I would use world music and what I could do with it.

Hindustani classical music

Title of Piece: Unknown
Performer:  Tihai (group name); Girish Makwana on tablas, Saby Bhattacharya on sarod, Nicholas Buff on saxophone
Culture/Origin:  North India
Orchestration: tablas, sarod, saxophone

This is an example of Hindustani classical music.  I saw the connection between our listening examples of Raga Jog and this group.  The saxophone is obviously not a traditional instrument to have in this ensemble and I'm going to guess that it is replacing the shehnai that is found in a group like this.  To my surprise, the saxophone added a very nice touch to this ensemble and I thought it was very interesting because in America we don't think of saxophones outside of band, jazz and classical.  This performance looses it's authenticity with the addition of a saxophone and an obviously non-Indian member of the ensemble.  However, if one was to close their eyes and listen to this piece, they may not be able to hear much of a difference in comparison to an authentic version.  The technique of the tablas was also an interesting observation that one can make.  The tablas are not played as an african drum, with more finger movements and it looks like more intricate hand movements to create the sound that it makes.  The sarod is also just a very interesting instrument with the many strings, tuning pegs, and round body. I find this video very interesting!

Jazz Composition/Improvisation Balance

Title:  Manteca

Performer:  Dizzy Gillespie's Dream Band

Culture/Origin:  American

Orchestration:  Jazz band

Along with the topic of improvisation and composition, the jazz band does both, where the structure of the pieces are set, but the improvisations are spontaneous.  The band rehearses the ensemble parts as a set composition and that comes across when they play.  The improvisational parts can be "composed" as the song goes along, though, as long as the chordal base is still there.  While different cultures depend on different things to signal changes, jazz compositions have set chords, but not set notes to be played.  The Western European way has set everything in compositions and Arabian and Balinese cultures vary length of the piece on the audience's response to the music.  The variety of how each culture structures and improvises is vastly different, but jazz is America's most improvisational music.

African Dancing and Drumming

Title:  "Zehil" and "Rugaro nekutamba"

Performer:  Etienne Cakpo, Laura Lue Chiorah (choreographer), Dance This dance intensive program, musical performers are unknown

Culture/Origin:  mixture of African countries

Orchestration:  African drum ensemble

I went looking for African dance because I remembered the reading on resources that can be used.  This includes bringing in other people who are experts in the field.  This dance is not an "authentic" dance of a particular African country, but a mixture of groups.  This is what I am lead to believe by the description, anyway.  (I tried looking into it on other sites, but found no such luck.)  In high school I remember going to about three different workshops on either African dance or drumming, so the idea of bringing culture bearers into the classroom is one that I can easily relate to.  Through Feierabend technique we are trained to teach our students folk dances, which we could say at this point in time is from a different culture.  Allowing our students the freedom to dance in an African style will help them open their mind to different types of dance and ways of expressing themselves through music.  

Bulgarian Singing

Title:  Malka Moma
Performers:  Neli Andreeva and Choir Filip Kutev
Culture/Origin:  Malka Moma is a folk song and this particular recording was arranged by Georgi Genov and is about a young girl saying a prayer.
Instrumentation:  There is a choir arrangement with a soloist that is singing the whole time

The discussion in class last week about forward singing and the aural art of the traditional Bulgarian singing had me intrigued.  The soloist, Neli Andreeva, sings with very forward vowels, while the chorus in the background seems to sing with more round vowels.  This helps her voice to cut past the choir, even toward the end of the piece, when there is a crescendo in all parts.  She seems to sharpen her vowels even more toward the end, but they are always very forward in general.  Something else that is more particular about this piece is the amount of melismas.  The singing is very smooth through the melismas and they seem to be more of embellishments of notes than part of the melody itself.  As I was looking for a piece, I thought it would be hard to appreciate the sound more than it was.  This piece is beautiful and very moving to listen to.