Favorite Styles and Genres Of the topics discussed in class, my favorite world music culture, Western art musical style, and American musical genre were West Africa, Middle Ages, and secular/popular, respectively. There were many topics discussed in class, but I feel like these topics appealed to me the most, which made them more interesting. It is actually pretty hard to pick a favorite in each style and genre because each one is interesting in its own way. All of these topics were important to discuss in class, but a few made more of an impact on me than others. Firstly, my favorite world music culture we discussed was West African music. Honestly, I was biased when we were beginning this section. Since I grew up in South Africa and Botswana, I was already interested in learning more about West African music because all I had been exposed to Southern African music. I found that this music was far more native and traditional, which is critical in maintaining heritage and culture. The music was orientated towards everyday life unlike most Western music. It was dance, religious, storytelling, and speech based music, which is very different from listening to music in a concert hall. Community is the main focus of West African culture. With that being said, the people prefer everyone to get involved. Polyphonic textures were apparent and used in a few ways. Call and response was a interesting style of music and fairly simple to understand. Listening to music in a different language can be boring at times, but I believe that West African music is better than most because of the percussion. They almost always have some sort of percussion beat in their music, which keeps things interesting. Next, my favorite Western art musical style... ... middle of paper ... ... classics. Learning about all the styles and genres of music was a great experience and I have learned a lot from it. I did have my likes and dislikes; however, it was all relevant and necessary. Works Cited Columbia Encyclopedia. "Sitar." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition (2013). Encyclopedia.com. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. . Cutchey, Peter. "Sitar - About Sitars." Buckingham Music, Inc. (1997). Web. 20 Apr. 2014. < http://www.buckinghammusic.com/sitar/aboutsitar.html>. Myriam Chimènes and Roger Nichols. "Poulenc, Francis." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. . Schwartz, Steve. "Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)." Classical Net. Classical Net, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)9: 708-709
1Grout, Donald J. and Claude V. Palisca, A History of Western Music, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1996) 104-105.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980)16: 752-774
Ripin, Edwin M., John Barnes, Alfons Huber, Beryl Kenyon de Pascual, and Barry Kernfeld. "Clavichord." Grove Music Online. 2014.
Van der Lee, Pedro. "Sitars and Bossas: World Music Influences." Popular Music 17.1 (1998): 45-70.
As defined in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, culture is “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.” These customary beliefs could also be described as a set of morals or values commonly practiced by a group. Social forms are understood as being the institutions in which interaction and socialization between people take place, such as at school, church, or work. The material traits within a culture would include clothing, food, and art to name a few. Music is a distinct, diverse culture in itself, a subculture. Each musical era had its own code of values, social forms, and material traits.
These ragas, along with the rhythms played by the percussionist, convey the particular “tranquility, natural beauty, and spirituality” of Indian music and are the very backbone of its expression (Wright 432-433). Raga has a much richer meaning beyond its melody. Bailey (115) notes that the music theory behind raga stipulates specific emotions, “the deities with which they are associated,” and even the appropriate times they should be performed.3 Tala is cyclic in nature and may be linked to the spiritual importance of reincarnation within Hinduism (Wright 433). The sitar is a “North Indian stringed instrument related to the lute, consisting of two gourds connected by a teakwood neck with 20 movable frets, six or seven main playing strings, and 11-13 sympathetic strings on separate bridges” (Rain 116). The tabla are two drums played in accompaniment to the sitar, one of which will produce one sound, while the sound of the other is influenced by the amount of force with which it is struck (Wright
...f. Th.Reinach, La musique grecque, Payot, Paris, 1926; C.Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, W.W.Norton & Comp. Inc. New York, 1969.
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
I learn a new form of music that was actually interesting, I was able to appreciate and understand some instrument the moment its play, unlike before I wasn’t able to identify
Poulenc developed a deeply collaborative professional relationship with the baritone Pierre Bernac, which dominated the majority
Throughout the semester, various styles of music and the aspects of culture associated with these styles have been analyzed. Musical elements such as dynamics, texture, form, timbre, melody, instruments, etc., have been used to thoroughly explore each kind of music from different areas of the world, with an emphasis in music from Africa, India and Indonesia. These aspects of music go far beyond just music itself. Culture also plays a huge role in music and the accompanying musical elements. Each country and culture has a different style and distinctiveness that add to what makes the music of that certain culture unique. Music in Africa may differ dramatically from music in Indonesia or India not only due to those certain elements but also due to how it is interpreted by people and what it represents for those people. In addition to this, what one may consider music in one culture may not be music to another. These differences have been made apparent in the several demonstrations that we have been exposed to in class.
Nunzio, Alex Di. "Trevor Wishart." musicainformatica music computer resources. 1 6, 2012. http://www.musicainformatica.org/topics/trevor-wishart.php (accessed 1 3, 2014).
Music is a form of communication, letting others knows what is going on in the country, political, social or economic and any other problems the people of the Caribbean faced. With so many different ethnic backgrounds in the Caribbean, they are people with Asians, Indians, and Africans descents. This created a language and culture barrier but each ethnic background shared a common link music. Music bridged the gap between the different ethnicities Music is part of everyone’s culture especially here in the Caribbean. Our culture is recognized worldwide for its music. The Caribbean has different genres of music such as calypso, reggae, dance hall, zouk and many others. Our music has roots in both African and European cultures. The drum rhythm comes from the African in...
Burkeholder, Peter J. et al, A History of Western Music, New York, W.W. Norton & Company Ltd, 2010. 626 -632