Music 190W Week 8

World Music: The Western Hemisphere

Reading

Chapter 8; Hacker 13 & 14

Listening

CD 1 tracks 29, 30, 31-32, 33-34, 35, 36

Chapter 8 is the first of two chapters on world music, which David Willoughby describes as a bridge to understanding of other cultures. Music is especially well suited to this purpose, because we can experience it directly in a way that's impossible with the literature of other cultures, for example: while the lyrics might need translation, the musical sound doesn't.

These chapters draw on research by ethnomusicologists, who study music in its cultural context. This includes social aspects of music, technical description of music, often in the terms the local musicians use, and the study of culture change. This approach can be applied to familiar music as well as music from other parts of the world.

Keep in mind that each of the world musics in these chapters can be explored in greater depth, and that the diversity of each of the musics discussed will make it necessary to modify some of the generalizations in the chapters.

Study questions

  1. What purposes does Native American music serve?
  2. How are new Native American songs created?
  3. What are vocables and how are they used in Native American songs?
  4. Which instruments are used most often in Native American music?
  5. Describe the style of Native American songs (see p. 150)
  6. What happens at an intertribal gathering? Have you ever been to one?
  7. Which European folk music tradition is found more strongly in Canada than the U.S.?
  8. South American music blends which national and ethnic traditions?
  9. What kinds of musical acculturation took place in Latin America (see p. 156)?
  10. Review the style of Latin American music as outlined on p. 157 and ask about any terms you are unsure of.
  11. What influence did the Catholic Church have on Latin American music?
  12. Be aware that Latin American music is as diverse as music in the U.S.: there is folk, popular, indigenous, and art music.
  13. How is nationalism shown in music (Mexican music, for example)?
  14. Understand the ethnic origin of cajun and zydeco, klezmer, salsa, Tex-Mex, mariachi, and reggae.
  15. Why has reggae become such a popular worldwide style?

Listening review

"Butterfly Dance" (excerpt) performed by San Juan Pueblo Indians in New Mexico.

The text states on p. 148 that Native American music is "essentially different from any European-based music, both vocally and instrumentally." What aspects of the style of this piece are essentially different? Which are similar? We'll listen in class to review.

Listen to the entire track (1:43).

"Dance of All Beings," Paul Winter with Arlie Neskahi

This track combines Native American singing and drumming with a sustained organ sound and a soprano saxophone solo.

first half: drone (sustained organ sound), drums, singers (track 30, 00:00-01:04)

second half: saxophone enters, organ goes through more chord changes (track 30, 01:04-03:47)

Listen to entire track.

"Collaguas," Aymara Indian dance of Peru

This track illustrates a mestizo, or blended, musical style from South America. Indigenous (native) music uses mainly flutes and drums along with the vocals. What indicates that this is mestizo music is the combination of European-derived instruments, such as the harp and the charango, a string instrument with a curved back that is sometimes made out of armadillo shell, with native drums and singing. The alternation between major and minor mode is also characteristic of mestizo music from this region. There are two sections: a slower one leading up to a shout, and a faster one.

"Corcovado," by Antonio Carlos Jobim

This is an example of bossa nova, a gentle style of Brazilian samba that became very popular in the U.S. in the 1960s. Listen for the syncopated guitar part, the quiet percussion, the interesting melody line, and the sound of Astrud Gilbert's voice and Stan Getz's tenor sax. The lyrics are romantic and refer to Corcovado, a famous mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; first the lyrics are in English, then in Portuguese. The form outline presented here is different from the one in the text.

chorus 1
8 + 8 bars, vocal in English (track 33, 00:00-00:30)
8 + 10 bars, vocal in Portuguese (track 33, 00:30-01:05)

chorus 2
8 + 8 bars, tenor sax (track 33, 01:05-01:36)
8 + 10 vocal in English (track 34, 00:00-00:34)
tag, sax (track 34, 00:34-00:50)

Listen to the entire track.

"Get Up, Stand Up," reggae performed by Peter Tosh (track 35)

This song presents a rich and varied texture (the blend of layers or lines of musical activity). Try to focus on each instrumental part in repeated listening to this track.

Use the links below to focus on the formal units. In class we'll discuss what the lyrics are saying and focus our listening on what each instrument is doing to create this distinctive rhythmic feel.

Play entire track.

"Tu Le Ton Son Ton," by Clifton Chenier, track 36

Zydeco is played by African-Americans of French heritage in Louisiana. The word "zydeco" comes from a line of a song in French that states, "les haricots ne son pas saleéees," or "the beans aren't salted." It's a song about hard times. "Zydeco" comes from the pronunciation of the first two words in the phrase: "les haricots."

Zydeco has a strong element of blues and features the accordion prominently. This song uses blues form and includes 12 choruses of blues. Listen to the entire track as you follow the outline:

1 instrumental(00:00-00:20)
2 vocal (00:20-00:39)
3 vocal (00:39-00:57)
4 instrumental (0:57-01:15)
5 vocal (01:15-01:33)
6 instrumental (01:33-01:51)
7 vocal (01:51-02:09)
8 vocal (02:09-02:27)
9 instrumental (02:27-02:45)
10 instrumental (02:45-03:03)
11 vocal (03:03-03:21)
12 instrumental (03:21-03:41)

Hacker handbook exercises

Hacker topic no. 13 is a review of adjectives and adverbs, something most of you handle with no problems.

Topic no. 14 deals with a common mistake: sentence fragments. As the handbook says, don't treat a sentence fragment as if it were a sentence. Fragments can be fixed by joining the fragment to the sentence before it, or by making it a complete sentence on its own.

The second sentence is a fragment:

The most important instrumental genre of the Classical period is the symphony. Which is a long work in four movements for orchestra.

The second sentence is a subordinate clause, not a sentence, and can be smoothly combined with the sentence that precedes it:

The most important instrumental genre of the Classical period is the symphony, a long work in four movements for orchestra.

Fragments can be acceptable when they're used consciously, for emphasis (see the example on p. 40).

Quiz

Take the week 8 quiz.

Music 190W page
This file was last modified on 16 May 2000.