World Music Chapter 12 Notes

Ginga

A back-and-forth motion used as the basis for capoeira dancing. This movement requires the performer to cross one leg behind the other and lean back before springing forward to repeat the same movement with legs crossed in the opposite direction. It is the starting position for all strikes bc it allows the performer to keep in constant motion and attain more momentum.

Bandoneon

A button accordion associated with the tango. Brought to South America by missionaries who found it a portable alternative to the organ. It has two square wooden manuals (keyboards) separated by a bellows made of leather (up to 72 buttons). It is a free-reed aerophone. As the performer compresses or draws out the bellows, air passes through a series of "free" metal reeds to produce the tones.

Bombos

A large drum used in sikuri performances from Peru. Bass drum. Cajas are the snare drum that provide a driving beat. Drums are often made of llama or alpaca skin face and are struck with a wooden mallet. Snare drum and base drum together are usually only heard with Easter celebrations

Guitarron

A large fretted plucked lute from Mexico, similar to a guitar but with a convex resonator

Berimbau

A musical bow used in capoeira music. Made from a wooden bow with a steel string. A piece of twine is looped through the base of the bow to attach a gourd resonator, which is pressed against the body to change the timbre and pitch. The smallest finger on one hand balances the instrument on this loop. A large coin or stone is held between the thumb and forefinger and is pressed against the string to change the acoustic length and alter the pitch, sometimes produces a buzzing timbre. The other hand strikes the string with a bow while holding a basket of pebbles or seashells that is shook, boing timbre like a spring.

Reco-Reco

A notched scraper idiophone

Vihuela

A small, fretted plucked lute from Mexico, similar to a guitar but with a convex resonator.

Site 3: Cultural Considerations

Buenos Aires is the birthplace of tango. Its port status made it become a place where sailors would unwind. Portenos, people of the port. Knife fights and brawls would often break out between drunk sailors vying for the affections of a seductive girl. Predatory nature "vertical expression of horizontal desire". Music echoes the love triangle. Rich hated it, but young people loved it. Rudolph Valentino made it popular in France in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse while Carlos Gardel became a superstar on the radio. Vernon and Irene Castle assured the US that it wouldn't corrupt souls, and they developed a more courtly version suited for ballrooms, unlike the salacious Argentine Tango. Rock n Roll pushed it from popularity.

Site 5: Capoeira Music

Capoeira Music is a dance that developed from a style of martial art created by runaway slaves in Brazil. It is laid-back and fluid. Call-and-response and polyrhythmic. Instruments include pandeiros (tambourines, frame drum), agogo, reco-reco, and atabaque (drum), as well as the most distinctive: berimbau (musical bow). Instruments created by African slaves from Angola and DRoC. The vocalist carries the melody but the springy timbre is the focus of the dance. In the capoeira angola style, the lowest-pitched berimbau plays the basic pattern while the middle plys a complementary rhythm and the highest ornaments these patterns with improv. The fundamental rhythm of 1-&3-4- is set by the drum with three low tones and a slap on the 4th beat that corresponds to the ginga movement. Tempo often increases but dynamics stay the same, ginga pattern does not change but other patterns may shift to increase density. Syllabic with descending contour. Portuguese lyrics, sometimes symbolic language.

Cuica

Common in Samba. A friction drum that is a mebranophone that has its face pierced in the center with a long, thin stick. When the stick is pushed, pulled, or twisted, it rubs against the membrane to produce a unique squeaking sound.

Martin Pereira Algarita

Created the 'Impromptus' band that developed the style of "New Colombian Music" that was Andean-derived.

Site 4: Cultural Considerations

Derived from semba - "belly bump". Samba folk dance begins with a gesture of bumping bellies as a dancer invites another dancer to enter the circle and dance together as one. Ruling powers initially di not like it, it was performed by the people in the favelas or the African descents in the bairro. It was popular during Carnival when music restrictions were less strict. Eventually it appealed to the mulatto middle class before it became popular for everyone. Vargas encouraged it as part of his Estado Novo campaign for a unified Brazil. He had samba schools made and financially supported to encourage over nationalism and made Carnival an official event. There are many samba styles: samba-enredo (theme), sambo-cancao (song samba, a staple of Brazilian nightclubs and the origin of bossa nova). Carnival is the last party before Lent.

Strophic

In song lyrics, the use of distinct units (strophes) that have the same number of lines, rhyme scheme, and meter. Music repeats with each new verse.

Arrival: Peru

Inca descendants live in adobe huts surrounded by the Andes mountains. Mestizos are majority. Both Spanish and Quechua, an indigenous language formerly associated with the Inca empire, are official languages. Centers of power and culture include Cusco and Machu Picchu. Tupac Amaru last Inca emperor. Inca heritage is still vital, but Spanish influence includes Roman Catholicism (but also shows pre-contact religious systems). Easter celebrations are popular.

Arrival: The Amazon Rainforest

Logging companies have destroyed much of the Amazon. Some indigenous Amazonians have integrated into modern society, others retreated deeper into the forest, while others, such as the Kayapo Indians, managed to gather worldwide support to defy the logging companies. Amazonians today are educated about modern society and have modern goods while still keeping their ceremonies and traditional beliefs alive. Many tribes have diff. practices, but there are a few traits that many share.

Site 6: Mariachi

Mariachi is an entertainment music associated with festivals. It is usually peppy but can be sad and romantic. European musical characteristics such as incorporation of violin, guitar, and trumpet. Guitars are constant rhythm while violins and trumpets have the melody. Little percussion bc guitars are slapped with hands as well as foot-stomping from the dancers and handclapping. Vocalists use a full, operatic voice. Clear, often memorable melodic lines are used (La Cucaracha). Shifts in tempo corresponding to variations in instrumentation are common. Meters are clear-cut duple or triple. Major key.

Arrival: Mexico

Mexico City is built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the center of trade and military of the Aztec empire. Many people are descended from the Aztecs there. Hernan Cortes and his explorers intermarried with the natives when they conquered the Aztecs, so many people are currently mestizo, a mix of Spanish an ethnic heritage. Nahuatl and Spanish are popular languages. Spanish influence is in arquitecture and music.

Site 1: Cultural Considerations

Music is integral for rituals. This one is part of a naming ceremony, tahak-nhiok, which occurs in five stages over five years and they gain the elder knowledge of activities, such as hunting, and they earn secret knowledge in the form of myths, dances, body-painting, etc. The concluding chant goes from sunset to dawn and is identified by the opening call, the screech of the Harpy Eagle. The Hummingbird was believed to be the "jaguar remedy". It is the only bird that can fly backwards. Its feathers are burnt and mixed with a plant to produce an ointment that protects an individual from jaguars. Music is an important way of communicating with natural and spiritual forces. Totems (a plant, animal, or natural object used as an emblem for a person or group of people) are respected through music. Shamans often use music to communicate with or appease spirits of the rainforest. Some tribes believe that songs are taught to them by these spirits through dreams. The chants are bound up with issues of anthropology (kinship, gender, social organization, etc.)

Arrival: Argentina

Never inhabited by any of the ancient empires of the Americas. Spanish successfully colonized it. British tried to take over but were ousted multiple times. Buenos Aires became a port for smugglers. Gained independence after rebelling against the Spanish Crown. It is this sense of rebellion that dives the tango in its purest form

Site 6: Cultural Considerations

Origin of the word may be mariage (French meaning marriage) bc Mariachi was often found at weddings. Violin, harp, and guitar were originally brought by Spanish missionaries for church services. Harp was gradually replaced in mariachi by multiple guitars bc harp was too quiet. Early mariachi groups primarily played for festive events and in restaurants. Hollywood films made the charro suits and sombreros popular. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass also made it popular. Mariachi is also popular for relgious purposes, like mariachi masses at the Cathedral of Cuernavaca. Ranchera is a style of mariachi that emphasizes vocals, like Linda Ronstadt did in Canciones de mi Padre.

Siku

Panpipes common among indigenous populations from Peru and throughout the Andes. Made of several cylindrical reeds of varying lengths tied together to form one or two rows of pipes. Performer holds vertically and blows across the tops of the open pipes (shorter pipe - higher pitch). Aerophones, open-ended flutes. One Siku cannot play all notes on a scale, so two people usually play with an interlocking technique to produce the entire melody.

Arrival: Brazil

Portuguese colonized it and brought African slaves for sugar, tobacco, and coffee plantations, also for gold mining. Has the largest African diaspora. Portuguese royal family was ousted after end of slavery, but the majority mulatto, african population lived in slums while the wealthy European descent had most of the political power. Revolution once again came during the Depression, lead by Getulio Vargas. After becoming a member of politics, he initiated a revolution that allowed him to rule as a dictator, but his policies, modeled after Mussolini, encouraged a sense of national identity and a feeling of pride no matter a person's ethnic background or social class. His propaganda was instrumental in promoting samba.

Site 2: Sikuri (Panpipe) Ensemble

Pounding drum beat and breathy Siku. Joyful timbre , out of tune like a carousel ride. Sikuri ensemble is common to many Andean communities. Parallel polyphony occurs when two melodic lines follow the same melodic contour but start on different pitches. Melodic line is short and repetitive with only minor variations. Whistles are sometimes heard at the end to signal to musicians to increase tempo

Site 4: Samba

Samba is a dance music that has a boisterous beat, wailing whistles, and shouting sambistas associated with Carnival. It is Afro-Brazilian. Polyrhythm underlies the instrumental organization (so majority are percussion), including African-derived double bells (agogo), tambourines, scraping instruments (reco-reco), and drums, large (surdo or bombo) and small (caixa). Call-and-response in Portuguese is common. A prominent "samba" rhythm usually played by the largest drums or an electrified bass guitar is what stands out. It is based on a duple meter but emphasizes the third beat by inserting a short pause just before it. In a 4 beat pattern, the samba rhythm would sound on the first beat, and the "and" of the second and the top of the third beat (1-&3-).

Site 2: Cultural Considerations

Siku dates back to pre-Colombian times. Common among the Aymara-speaking peoples. Living and farming in these highland areas requires collective effort and social cooperation; sikuri ensemble reflects this. Sikuri is typically performed during monthly festivals that are a mix of indigenous ceremonial rites and Roman Catholic holidays. Males traditionally play instruments while females sing. Emphasis on performance and social interaction, not accuracy. "Playing as one". Sometimes competitions occur between villages, but the response of the community is the judgement in determining which ensembles are successful, not the musicality.

Site 3: Tango

Tango embodies passion. Originally meant to symbolize a battle between two men over a fickle woman. Violin, guitar, flute, and piano are also commonly found with a vocalist. Frequently syncopated. The rhythm in this piece is articulated by the underlying chords. Most of the melodic phrases begin on the offbeat, creating an "off-balance" feel that never commits to the real beat, echoing the symbolism of the song. Most begin on the & of 1, Americans begin on 1. The indecisive seductions of the female tango dancer are also manifested through fluctuations in dynamics, tempo, phonic structure, and key. Minor key is characteristic, but variations in key are common for mood change.

Site 5: Cultural Considerations

The runaway slaves did not have guns or swords, so they created a martial arts style with emphasis on the feet (compe). When slavery ended, many of these people formed gangs and attempted to disguise their gang wars by performing music with the martial arts, which tricked the Europeans bc they thought the strange movements were just dancing, but eventually music actually became a part of capoeira. A capoeira performance takes place in a roda, a large circle approximately 18 ft in diameter that is outlined by the capoeira musicians and participants watching the dancers. The two dancers begin by bowing to the lowest berimbau played by the oldest master and then begin a cooperative section where they do not fight but rather work together to pull off cool moves. Only the hands, feet, and head are allowed to touch the ground. The control section is next where the movements slow, intended to develop strength and balance. Then it moves into confrontational where the object is to knock the other person off balance and onto the mat. The music is used to prod the dancers. Vocalists may tease the losing opponent while the berimbau mestre may lower the intensity if the performers look like they may actually fight. Advanced performers listen to the berimbau to perform more intense choreography. Break-dancing helped make it popular in US.

Background Preparation

Tourism is growing. Has many beautiful places (Amazon rainforest). Early inhabitants include the Maya, Inca, and Aztec empires that may have rivaled Rome and influence the cultural identity of Mexico, Central, an South America. Spaniards decimated their populations with diseases like Small Pox and measles. Spanish and Portuguese colonialists brought African slaves. Europeans brought Indian and and Indonesian slaves to work on tobacco and sugarcane plantations. French transferred many prisoners. Eastern coastal areas (Brazil) are populated with mulattos (African and Iberian mixed) while the interior of South America has mestizos (Spanish ancestry indigenous). The rainforests of Brazil have natives (pre-Columbus). Music has been preserved there while in the urban areas it shows influence from Europe (Spain and Portugal) as well as West Africa. The three major ingredients are indigenous traditions, European-derived music, and African-inspired musical activity

Site 1: Amazonian Chant

We focus on the Kayapo-Xikrin who live in the southwestern area of the state of Para in central Brazil. Chant begins with an eagle cry. Singing appears to be a part of a community ceremony or shamanic ritual. Parallels Native Americans. Amerindian tribe musical traits: unison group singing (often unaccompanied), a style characterized as chant and uses only a few pitches). Unaccompanied unison (monophonic) group chanting is a trait that most tribes of the Brazilian rainforest have. Men and women usually sing separately. Many songs have a descending melodic contour. Often syllabic. Consistent dynamic level. Vocal pulsation adds rhythm. Rattles, flutes, or small drums sometimes accompany these performances. Handclapping or footstomping used to keep rhythm. Big sticks beaten against the ground add another rhythmic element. Steady pulse, but metrical units are usually irregular as they usually follow the phrasing of the text and not an arrangement of units. Characteristic "drop off" pitch.