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MUSIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY (Northern Indian Music (Northern Indian Music…
MUSIC AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Northern Indian Music
Raga Bhimpalasi
Ascending and descending raga
Complex rhythm -> 2+4+4+4
Improvised melodic elaborations
Form
Intro - Alap
2nd Section - Gap
3rd secion - jhala
Overview
Centuries-old performance tradition linked to Hinduism (12th century)
Music passed down via oral tradition
Repertories of motives and themes- not a piece of music
All memorized- no notation
Northern Indian Music system - Raga
Descent sequences- avaroha
Vadi- most important note
Ascent sequences- aroha
Played on sitar
Tala- complex rhythmic cycle; translation- clap
Drone- form of harmony; striking of strings that sustain pitches
Ravi Shankar (1920–2012)
Apprenticeship system
Influenced Indian music in 1960 & 70s
pop music
One best known sitar players and teacher
Chinese Opera
Overview
Leading form of entertainment in China
for centuries (13th century)
Beijing opera
Themes - novels and politics
Blend music+mime+dance+costumes
Most prestigious
Cultural revolution ( 1966)
Opera
After the Cultural Revolution, Beijing opera enjoyed a revival
8 approved as “model plays”
Traditional operas were banned
Communist regime
Purge China of class-structured society
The WEST the ENEMY
Leader- Mao Zedong
The Story of the Red Lantern
Singing styles and accompanying instruments very different from Western opera
Heard on radio, film, and live performances
Based on1958 novel- Will be Followers of Revolution by Daoyuan
To be such a person” for soprano soloist accompanied by traditional Chinese instruments
Japanese Music
ECHIGO JISHI (THE LION OF ECHIGO)
Two versions presented here:
Simple tune played on the shamisen
1811
Kabuki play
Overview
Little contact with the West until 1854
US Navy ended isolation
Japan adopted elements of Western culture
Pentatonic system
JAVANESE GAMELAN
Overview
Passed down from master to apprentice
Interaction of the melodic movement with a cyclical rhythmic
structure determines the form of the work
Oral tradition & performed by memory
1889 Paris World Exhibition- introduced to Western culture
Mostly metallic percussion instruments
Performed at:
Ritual ceremonies, court performances
Hindu, Islamic, and Buddhist influences
Shadow-puppet theater (wayang)
Traditional ensemble music of Java, Bali, and Sundan- Indonesia
Patalon
Melody based on pentatonic scale
Drum marks transition between
sections
Story from Hindu epic- Ramayana
First section slow & stately
• Overture to shadow-puppet play
Singer elaborates melody
East African Drumming
Overview
Passed down from master to
apprentice
Repeating patterns that
superimpose on each other
Oral tradition
Royal Drum Ensembles of Uganda -Entenga
Consist of both pitched and unpitched drums
Ensemble has 6 musicians and 15 drums
Music played at courts
Use pentatonic melodies and polyrhythms
Influenced by Arab, Indonesian and British cultures
ENSIRIBA YA MUNANGE KATEGO
Gapped melodies with interweaving new patterns
Story - One night the headband disappears and he feels so unprotected that he falls ill and dies.
Polyrhythmic
Pentatonic
Modern American Sound 2
LG 51: Country Band March 1903
Simulates an amateur band’s skills
Harshly dissonant, polytonal
Complex mesh of tunes, mostly well-known musical quotations from Ives’s childhood
Sense of humor
March for wind band
London Bridge
• Arkansas Traveler
• Semper Fidelis
• Battle Cry of Freedom
• Yankee Doodle
• Marching through Georgia
CHARLES IVES (1874-1954)
Decided against music as a profession and became insurance
agent; composed in his spare time.
Experimental Composer
Studied composition at Yale
Gradually became known to the general public; famous by age 73
Church organist (13)
Used vernacular heritage
Born in Danbury, Connecticut
AARON COPLAND (1900-1990)
Born in Brooklyn
Studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (Composition teacher)
Returned writing jazz and neo-Classical styles
In the 1930s and ’40s changed directions- populist style
Popular ballets & film scores
Billy the Kid & Appalachian Spring
Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, The Heiress
Investigated in 1950s as Communist supporter
Wide appeal and music useful in a variety of contexts
Rooted primarily in Appalachian and other Anglo-American
folk melodies
APPALACHIAN SPRING (LG 52)
Portrays a pioneer celebration
Section 1-
Opening section of the suite evokes daybreak
Slow & Tranquil
Polychordal- gentle dissonance
Ballet Suite in 7 sections
Collaboration with choreographer Martha Graham (1894–1991)
Section 7-
Lots of changing tone colors and individual instruments featured
Shaker song
Majestic closing
Set of variations on the song Simple Gifts
Modern American Sound 1
The Harlem Renaissance
Growing sense of a new black identity
Sculptor Richmond Barthé
Location- Harlem, NYC
Poet Zora Neale Hurston
In the 1920s and ’30s, African American artists paying tribute
to their heritage
Musicians Duke Ellington and William Grant Still
William Grant Still(1895-1987)
Search for a “modern American sound”
Opened wider range of opportunities for African American
musicians
Moved to Memphis, then New York
Afro-American Symphony (1931)
Studied Violin
1934 moved to Los Angeles- film and television scores
Grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas
1949 opera Troubled Island
LG 49: GRANT STILL’S SUITE FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO
1943
II- Johnson’s Mother & Child
III- Savage’s Gamin
• I- Barthe’s African Dancer
All movements use modal harmonies and blues-style melodies
Established practices to evoke images of black America’s artistic efforts
The last movement (LG 49) flashy and syncopated, with a “stride” bass
MODERN AMERICAN NATIONALISM
Compelling American sounds from attempts to integrate vernacular and “serious” music
traditions
Art should “serve the American people” (Copland)
Patriotism a part of national identity
Music from various parts of the country
Non-concert traditions played a vital role in North American musical life of the late 1800s