12.10.2010

I learned how to use different technologies during this semester. I learned how to use Prezi and Flickr. I used Prezi, an online presentation tool, for different classes. My goal for Prezi was to learn how to create a presentation. I can do that now comfortably. This will help me in the future when I want to use the presentation, I will have an option to use either the power point or the prezi.

For Flickr, my goal was to learn how to upload the pictures and actually create an account. I created my account and learn how to put the pictures up. I could possibly use this website to put pictures of different works that my students will accomplish, or put up their homework assignments and such.

These programs were easy to learn, but there are a lot more that I can do with these programs in the future.

12.07.2010

Every piece of music that is out in the world has different idea components depends on the origin of the music’s culture. All the components of idea are strongly connected to the sound components of each piece of music. The similar connections made between the idea components and the sound components are found in many different cultures. Individual culture has its own musical style and different idea components, but it is oblivious that there are similar connections made between the idea and sound components. A Circle Dance song, “Shizhané’é”, from Navajo tribe, Gamelan music from Balinese of Indonesia, and a ritual worship song, “Devi Niye Tunai”, from India are all from completely different culture, but they have similar connections made between the components of idea and sound. Each music piece has its own functions, contexts, and aesthetics which are connected to their distinguishable sounds and based on the each cultural group.

A circle dance song, “Shizhané’é”, from Navajo tribe is a part of the Enemy way which is the ritual ceremony that the Navajo tribe perform for the members of tribe to cast evil spirits away. They believe that the sickness comes from the evil spirits or the ghosts. Gamelan music from Balinese of Indonesia is performed for an entertainment purpose. A ritual worship song, “Devi Niye Tunai”, from India is performed to ask their goddess to protect them. Their purposes might be different, but they have the similar musical characteristics which can be connected to their idea components.

First, these three pieces have either the repetitive rhythmic or melodic patterns which help the audiences to join to create the music. Navajo tribe’s the Enemy Way, a ritual performance, could possibly last as long as the ritual performers feel like the sick person is healed. “Shizhané’é” has the cycle of repetitive rhythmic pattern and melodic patterns to help the performers and the audiences to keep the ritual ceremony to go on without losing the track of it. Gamelan music from Balinese is not really focused on the ritual ceremony, though it could be used if a composer ever intends to use it that way. Balinese’s Gamelan music has different percussion parts with individual lines with repetitive patterns. “Devi Niye Tunai” from India has tala rhythmic pattern which can be either vocalized or played by an instrument. Audiences are informally trained to keep the tala while the music is performed. Their functions might be different, but the repetitive rhythmic pattern, one of the musical elements, can make these pieces to have the similar effect, to help audiences and the performers to be engaged in the creation of music.

Second, the aesthetic of each piece is based on the culture of where the music comes from. For the musicians who were trained by western music might find these pieces a little bit different from their points of view. Navajo’s piece might not be focused on the beauty; however, tribe members from Navajo might think this piece as a beautiful piece. The sound of this piece might be similar to what Navajo tribe might be familiar to. The narrow range in vocal melodic line and percussion based music is familiar to different Native American tribes as well as for the Navajo tribe. Gamelan music has the shiny effect which Balinese find it very interesting and beautiful. Balinese create music with the shiny effect which is created by the overlap of two or more different sound waves. Third piece, “Devi Niye Tunai” would be considered as a beautiful piece of music for Indonesians. This piece has the drone sound that Indonesians which they use it for most of their music. The hollow sound of drone interests Indonesians greatly.

There are many different cultures in this world with their own musical culture. Their creation of music is based on their cultural background many times. Each distinguishable sound from different cultures is many times connected to the idea components of each piece. Musicians from each culture use different musical elements to bring out their best interest in idea components.

Technology I

Prezi:

http://prezi.com/t2reisboknae/pythagoras-and-my-voice-lesson/

 

This presentation was created for my Philosophy class for the midterm.

11.23.2010 Britteny’s Homework

This homework was pretty good. I would say it could have been better if she was able to merge the video clips together to make a longer video.

It was hard to write a long description from first two video clips because of their lengths.

This homework was discussed in the classroom and which helped the students to make the connections to both previous lesson and the lesson that followed.

The length of homework was not long, but still required students to think about what they have learned and reinforce the students to use their listening skills and such.

11.22.2010 Brittney’s Homework

MOV00798:

In this video, I see three males on the stage dressed up as in North American Indians. This video’s music is very melodic and in those very short seconds, I heard not so much layers that are complex, but it seems like it can become very complex. There seems to be a drum that is playing under neat which sound like a melodic instrument also. There is a flute that seems to play the melody line of this piece.

 

Mov00799:

For this video, I see three males and one female performer on the stage. There is a male who is playing pan-pipes, one male who is playing shaker, one male who is playing a flute, and a female who is playing a flute as well. This video contains the continuation of the first video’s music. This music is very melodic. The range of the piece seems to be pretty narrow and has the contThe harmony created between the pan-pipes and the flutes are very constant. It is hard to identify the meter system for this piece, since the piece is pretty short. The dynamic and the tempo of this video’s music is constant.

 

MOV00805:

This video’s music sounds a lot like western classical music. There are three Native American looking performers on the stage. They are also playing flutes. This piece is melodic as the first two video’s music. The movement of each note seems fairly slow. There are three layers that are moving together, but with different melodic and rhythmic lines. They are creating very constant harmony.

 

The music from the video clips are fair easy to pick and demonstrate by humming, I would say if a person is from Andean culture. This music sounds like it is performed for everyone, not for just a particular group. I do not believe that this piece contains many different phrases. It sounds like the melodic line is repeated, but I am not 100% sure because of the length of the video.

From what we have discussed about the Andean music, it is obvious that I can see the flutes and panpipes on the stage as well as the drums such as shakers. However, from what we have talked about I feel that the video is not the best example of Andean music, since the musicians are play both melodic instruments and percussion instruments. In this piece, I only see four performers playing flutes and one of them is playing the percussion instrument, a shaker.

 

11.19.2010 Pasibutbut (Prayer For A Rich Millet Harvest), Excerpt

Pasibutbut is a music piece from Taiwan. This piece is a vocal piece which is sung by a group of males from a village, Mingde, from Taiwan. This piece is an excerpt from Pasibutbut which is sung for agricultural or hunting rituals. Pasibutbut has multiple layers with simple patterns that are repetitive in each part. Each melodic line has varying narrow ranges which are usually found in pieces that have very repetitive parts. The first voice part comes in at the very beginning of the piece. Then, the second voice part joins in almost a beat after the first voice part enters. At 0:06, the third voice part joins in with the other voice parts. Then the fourth voice part comes in at 0:10. The dynamic of this piece gets louder and louder as all of the parts join in. When the fifth voice part enters, all the parts try to blend with each other by adjusting their volumes to one another. There are five layers that are very dissonant from each other. The tempo of this piece is very constant throughout. This piece makes it difficult for listeners to find the pulse and figure out the direction of the piece.

When this piece is performed, there are a group of males who gather around in a circle. They are dressed in their robes which are  worn when they are performing this ritual prayer piece. Its purpose is to thank the supernatural being. They place their hands on the backs of people who are standing right next to them. It is important that males dress up for this event because of how seriously they take this. It is very important that people work together and understand each other to know how their singing parts fit together. This piece is performed by males only because of its context which is hunting. Taiwanese culture shows that females are to do the housework and males are to go out and gather food.

Males who are participating in this ritual have been exposed to this for a long period of time since they are to go out and hunt animals since they were young. The simplicity of each line is connected to how males learn this piece. They learn this piece through oral tradition.

11.13.2010 Saturday Homework Critique

I really think that the homework showed what Paul was going to do related to the classroom. He tied his first lesson to the homework assignment that was due indirectly. Since Paul decided to do this, students could have understand or figure out that the next lesson would  somehow be connected to how African music has impacted the music throughout different countries.

Paul used video clips for the musical examples so students actually had the chance to see what was going on while the music was made. I believe that this will help the students see what is exactly going on and help them understand the concepts better. To improve his lesson, I think that Paul could have used an alternative to video-clips such as mp3 files to see if  the students were able to see where the music was created.

10.23.2010 Kembang Pacar

Kembang Pacar

Kembang Pacar is a piece from Indonesia, precisely from Java. This piece is performed by a gamelon which is a percussion instrument ensemble made up of percussion instruments. Percussion instruments used in this piece are pitched and has different ranges and sounds for each percussion.

There is only one instrument playing from 0:00-0:50 which essentially represents the melody line of this piece. The melody line is repeated throughout the piece, but is becomes less important when the other parts join with the melody line.  The whole sound is more focused rather than the melody itself. Melody line in this piece has fairly narrow range with conjunct movement. During the first 50 seconds, the melody line is played in a duple meter system. However, it sounds like the accents are not on the down beats. During this part, there is only one layer being played. There seems to be some dynamic changes, but it is not really noticeable or dramatic.

At  1:05, Kenong, another drum is played on every 4^th beat of a measure. When the second instrument comes in, this piece is played by two layers. Second instrument sticks out more than the melody line percussion instrument because of it loudness and because of the number of times it is played. When the second instrument is played, there is a syncopated rhythmic pattern created between the first and second instrument.

There is third instrument coming in at 1:20. This instrument creates the third layer for this piece. This instrument is not really heard over the first two instruments, but it is still playing underneath the two. This instrument creates another syncopated rhythmic pattern related to first and second instrument.

Almost the right after the third instrument enters; there is a fourth instrument that is played with the first three instruments. The fourth instrument is played on the every other beat creating syncopation with the other three layers. The dynamic of this piece is gradually increases as the number of instruments increases.

Another instrument is added at the 1:43. This instrument is played to fill up the rhythmic pattern for the each length. Then Saron peking enters to create another rhythmic pattern and adds another layer to the piece. The piece is still played in the same tempo, but because of subdivided notes that are moving fast, the piece sounds like it is moving faster than the beginning.

Even after about 7 layers, there are two more instruments that are added. They also create syncopated rhythm and the piece sounds almost like there is no more space to add more notes or rhythms. This piece is full and all the instruments are creating different syncopated rhythmic patterns from one another.

When this piece is heard by the people who are used to hearing Westernized music, people will say that they are a chaos and very loud. However, if they study Indonesian music, they will understand that this is the beauty of Gamelon music that is appreciated in Indonesian culture.  They are absolutely in love with the “Shinny” effect that is caused by the different timbres or sound waves overlapping with other sounds.

The instruments are created by the whole ensemble’s great participations and group work. The music is the product of a group of people working together. Through the study and this musical example, people can see that Indonesians highly respect the community and the different individuals which will help the whole group with the final product.

10.21.2010 Annotated Bibliography

Campbell, Patricia Shehan. Teaching Music Globally Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York. Oxford University Press Inc. 2004.

 

• From this textbook, I was able to find the rhythmic patterns of claves and the other instruments that fit with the claves during a piece. This book did not talk a lot about the salsa history, rather, this book explained a salsa piece, “Mi Bajo Y Yo” which I will be using as a homework example for WMS students to do. This piece sounds like the original salsa music.

 

 

D’Leon, Oscar. “Mulata Coqueta.” The Rough Guide Salsa. World Music Network. 1992.

 

• I am going to use this piece as an example that I will play for the WMS class students. This whole CD provides 14 tracks that are all different from one another. This CD gives the different musical examples that I can use for my lessons. This CD has a lot of different musicians who had different backgrounds and influences in their music.

 

Falcon, Rafael. Salsa A Taste of Hispanic Culture. Connecticut. Greenwood Publishing Group Inc. 1998.

 

• This book rather talks and focuses a lot more in the people and the cultures of Hispanic people. This book talks about the meaning and how the salsa has created, but not so much in detail. This book actually gave the most of amount of Social Organization components of musical culture. This book looked at people’s lives and how they are related to the creation of salsa music.

 

Moore, Robin. Music In The Hispanic Caribbean Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York. Oxford University Press. 2010.

 

• This book is a textbook that is used for World Music class that is taught by Dr. Armstrong. From this resource, I was able to find the activities components of musical culture and the ideas of components of musical culture. This book talks about how the Salsa’s sound elements changed because of the context of one piece. Also, this book talks about the dances that are rooted to the sound of New York Salsa.

 

Muleon, Rebeca. Salsa Guidebook for Piano & Ensemble. Sher Music Co. California. 1993.

 

• I found this book the most helpful out of all the resources. This book not only talk about the importance of claves in a depth, but also talk about the history of salsa music. This book gives a lot of material culture related to the common salsa style music. This book also gives a lot of activities that are connected to the salsa music. This book gave me the clear understanding the foundation of salsa music, Claves.

 

Quintero-Rivera, Angle G. “Migration and World View In Salsa Music.” Latin American Music Review 24.2 (2003): 210-32. JSTOR. Web. 2 Oct. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/3598739&gt;.

 

• This article gave the background of the great migration which that took place in the beginning of 1910 through 1940. This article gave me the background of people which are related to the social organization of salsa musical culture components. This article shows how the growth rate of the salsa music was impacted by the number of Afro-Latin American moving from Latin countries and South to New York and North part of the United States.

 

Rondon, Cesar Miguel. The Book of Salsa A Chronicle of Urban Music From The Caribbean To New York City. Caracas, Venezuela. The University of North Carolina Press. 2008. Translated by Aparicio, Frances and White, Jackie.

 

• This book was written by a Venezuelan author and was translated for the English readers. This book talks about the growth of Salsa in New York City. This book starts the book from 1949 when the salsa started to develop in New York City. This book talks about how Afro-Latin Americans have brought the musical culture of Latin African music to New York and mixed up with Jazz music to create a new genre which ultimately becomes Salsa. This book helped me to understand the Idea components of musical culture and some of the information about Social organization.

 

Wade, Bonnie C. Thinking Musically Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York. Oxford University Press Inc. 2004.

 

• From this textbook, I found out the basic meaning of salsa. This book also talks about surface level of what Claves mean when students are learning about Salsa music. This book was the way to give little information about salsa which helped me to what to look at or study.

 

Waxer, Lise. Situating Salsa Global Markets and Local Meaning in Latin Popular Music. New York. Routledge. 2002.

 

• From this source, I found more information about social organization related to New York Salsa. This book gave me the information related to Cuba’s dance music and how it is used to bring people together. This book focused on different time frames on salsa. The chapter about the socialism and Salsa music talked about 1959 throught 1999.

 

 

10.16.2010 Goals for my lessons

A musical skill

• Students will be able to demonstrate the common salsa rhythmic pattern of claves.

Non-Musical skill

• Students will be able to name the major root countries that developed New York salsa.

Musical Content

• Students will be able to describe the characteristics of New York Salsa by recalling the vocabularies that they have learned throughout the course.

Cultural Content

• Students will be able to explain how the Great Migration of African American during 1910 to 1930 effected the growth of New York Salsa.

Musical Content+Cultural Content

• Students will be able to state the connection between the growth of New York Salsa and the Great Migration of African American which took a place in United States during 1910 to 1940.

 

 

I picked my goals to help the students to see how New York Salsa started to develop in the United States. Though salsa is one of the music that is generated from the U.S. this genre has really strong characteristics of both African music and Latin American music.