MUS 2185 Exam 2

Bessie Smith

"Reckless Blues"; Vaudeville blues (theatrical form featuring singers accompanied by a small band (used in the Black Vaudeville Circuit); clear 12 bar blues form, call and response between Smith and Loius Armstrong, blues style singing and playing

Mississippi Fred McDowell

"Since One Mornin'"; blues influence: country blues (one performer on an acoustic guitar); this particular tune is not in blues form, but does use its melodic nuances; cyclical structure (ABAC), improvisation, call and response (voice and guitar)

Eskanye

"women's shuffle dance" performed by both genders but danced to by only women; relaxed open-throated singing, call-and-response, A-B repetition ("incomplete repetition), vocables,

Three Images of the Forest People

1) Primal Eden, 2) Primitive Savage, 3) Unique Culture in a Global Village

Ghost Dance

1890-Paiute Native American named Wovoka initiates movement; emphasis on peace to bring about eternal calm; process hastened by dance; themes: elimination of whites/living with whites in harmony; practice: circle dancing, singing, and dance; music: small melodic range, solo (phrases end on tonic), paired phrases

Ewe Music

Agbekor, originally a war dance, now a type of singing/dancing; Ewe people, West Africans that were also a historic minority

South India

Carnatic music: classical music of South India (passed down orally, came into modern form in the 18th and 19th centuries); Bharata natyam: classical style that featured dance heavily (conductor-type individual, nattuvanar, who sits among musicians and ensures rhythm with footwork

Intertribal Music

Community celebrations involving multiple tribes; two religious responses to colonialism, displacement, and dispersion: Ghost Dance and Peyote (Both combine Christian influence with Native American beliefs (syncretic)

Eurovision

Continent-wide song contest; nations vote on pop-music representatives to send to the international rounds; continent votes on international rounds; rules regarding length of song and the number of on-stage performers; in recent years, most songs were performed in English

Europe

Eastern versus Western Europe; Sociological and Political considerations: major religions- Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodox), Islam, Judaism

Fela Kuti and Afrobeat

Fela Kuti (1938-97); from region that would become Nigeria; Afrobeat - musical style that presents politically charged Afrocentric lyrics within popular music-based dance grooves (created by Kuti); Polticized by African American philosophers/activists like Malcom X; "Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsence" and "Zombie"

Musicians/Historians

Griots: musical historians/folklorists/storytellers (also called jali [s] or jololu [p], served the wealthy leaders of the area, transmit pre-Islamic religious beliefs, frequently perform on the kora)

Indian classical music

Indian history divided into "Kingdoms"; employed instrumentalists/dancers/singers to perform musical works that aligned with the spirit of the hours of the day or season; distinct traditions among regions; balance between composition and improvised sections; Key Terms: Raga (scales+ melodic content), Tala (rhythmic cycle), Swara (an individual note)

Building a kora performance

Instrumental sections: konkong (recurring ostinato performed on the resonator), kumbengo (instrumental ostinato), birimlingo (solo section for the instrumentalist); Vocal Sections: donkilo (tune with several phrases of text), sataro (open-ended section of spoken or chanted text)

Indian history

Musical practices dating back to the 1000s B.C.; Hinduism is the primary religion (ultimate reality-postdeath-heard as an all-encompassing sound); the Vedas, holy book including chants (not notated in the Western sense); class (or caste) system, generally very limited; musical practices passed on aurally/orally

Enemyway ceremony music

Ndaa: war dance songs; curing ritual in which it is believed that the sickness is brought on by the ghosts of outsiders who have died

"ceremonial grounds"

Polecat, Sand Creek, Duck Creek; a group of people sharing a common cultural background that assembles at a fixed location in order to undertake a regular calendar of religious rituals or ceremonies, possessing chiefs, orators, and other ritual officers, and they have a corporate identity as a group of people associated with that place

African American Music // Folk Roots

Pre-jazz African-American folk music traditions: spiritual, work songs, field holler, blues

European Music

Rhythm and meter: primarily grouped into 3s and 4s (occasionally differs); pitch, scales, melody (major, minor, modal); Harmony: both chords and harmonic rhythm

Spiritual

Sung collectively, religious function; Bessie Jones, elements in her music: cyclical structure, rhythmic layers, polyrhythm, call and response, improvisation

Tradition (NA)

Understood not as a way of describing an object or practice based on a particular set of qualitative traits, but rather as a social process whereby social groups selectively preserve elements of their past in order to serve contemporary circumstances

Nightway ceremony music

Yeibichai: masked dancers who impersonate the gods bring supernatural power and blessing to help cure a sick person

Isicathamiya

Zulu musical traditions crossed with Christian hymn-style four-part harmonies (short rhythmic cycles); also called Mbube (named for the most famous selection by Solomon Linda and His Evening Birds)

Africa

a giant continent with global musical impact; two broad zones: Maghrib (North of the Sahara) and Sub-Saharan Africa

Agbekor

adzo, short introductory section; vutsotoe, section of fast drumming; adzokpi, solo section; vulolo, slow processional drumming; instrumentation: gankogui, bell playing the recurring phrase; music should be felt as though it is in 12/8

Music of the Forest People

commonly known in the west as pygmies; located in the Congo Jungle Basin in Central Africa; Music as a part of daily activities, but also performances; Eboka (performance event): esime (rhythmically intensified sections) and mabo (music associated with net hunting); polyphonic texture

revitalization movements

creative cultural responses to the forced displacement and dispersion of Native American tribes that occurred throughout the nineteenth century United States

Shona Music

cultural group located within southern Africa (largely within Zimbabwe); Bantu-language group; music serves role int interacting with the spiritual plane (mapira-all night rituals that include instances of trance); mbira (kind of like a thumb piano)

Northern Plains singing style

derived predominantly from the aesthetic practices and preferences of the tribes of the Great Plains; musical texture featuring unison singing to the accompaniment of a steady drumbeat performed on the "big drum"; a high-pitched tense, loud vocal production is generall preferred; a terraced, descending melodic line is the typical melodic shape; rhythmic displacement of melody and drumbeat (melody being sung slightly behind or slightly ahead of the drum beat)

giveaways

formalized proceedings within a powwow where gifts are distributed to various participants and audience members

Asymmetrical repetition

found in many Stomp Dance performances

Dagbon drumming

from the Dagbama people in the southern savanna of western Africa; two kinds of drums: gung-gong and lunga

Peyote

known as the "Native American Church," established during the 19th century; Quanah Parker: influential early peyotist; emphasis on brotherly love, care of family, self-reliance, and avoidance of alcohol; ceremonies begin at sundown and last through the night in structures with doors that face the east; music: perhaps based on phrasing of Christian hymnody

Navajo Music

largest Native American group in the U.S.; communities now look largely like standard western affair; Navajo ceremonies conducted in circular patterns, requiring some circular buildings; two ceremonies, centered on maintaining/creating harmony between people and nature; Nightway: heal the sick; Enemyway: curing ritual

Carnatic Instruments of Note

melody: voice or melodic instrument (violin actually used occasionally); drone: tambura (four stringed instrument, known for drones); rhythm: Mridangam drum

Haudenosaunee (NA)

member s of the Iroquois Conderacy

Yuchi (NA)

minority group within the larger Creek/Muskoge Nation; stomp dances

polyrhythm

multiple meters sounding simultaneously

vocables

nonlexical or meaningless syllables ("hey ya ho ya way yoo")

General Qualities of African Music

not art for art's sake; centered on social experiences; global musical influences; emphasis on polyrhythm; transmission via enculturation (learning music via childhood); reliance on rhythmic cycles; duple meter, major scale, harmony

Blues

orginally individual, later collective music-making based on stories of heartache; AAB pattern

Powwow

originally associated with healing; today, denotes a wide variety of celebrations and dance events within and between Indian communities; though many emphasize intergenerational participation, it has become increasingly more youth-centric; strict division of dance and song categories

Tribal style (NA)

originate from within the tribe and are fined by a unique set of musical style traits (Ex. Navajo music or Ojibwa music)

Mande Music

region of West Africa, slightly inland from the Atlantic; Mondingo culture spans numerous international boundaries; iconic instrument: kora; role/purpose: folktale

Vedic Chant

religious musical setting (less stark distinction between sacred/secular than in European traditions); Drone: fundamental tone or open intrval that serves to ground a work ("om" sacred sound, all notes derived from "om"); Brahmin: hindu priest class

Stomp dancing

social dance, used to refer to the broader ceremonial practice of an all-night song-and-dance event as well as the most common genre o song and dance performed at the event; take place in full darkness except for the ceremonial fire light; between dances, participants sit on lawn chairs in groups arranged by different delegations; line dance with a "leader" followed by a head female "shell shaker"; call-and-response; asymmetrical repetition

Field holler

sung by individual performers while laboring

Work songs

sung collectively to coordinate labor

Two broad genres of Native American music:

tribal and intertribal

Kora

two-handed string instrument, sometimes including resonators; bi-lateral symmetry (performer alternates plucking motion between hands)

cadential phrase

used to end both phrases and to mark the endings of all Eskanye songs

Intertribal (NA)

widely dispersed and shared among a number of different Native groups and communities (Ex. powwow or Ghost Dance)