Week 7: 05-17-2007
In these two Eastern European scenes, talk about the similar and different instruments (like your previous assignment), and then discuss other interesting things you noticed in the film.
The Ottoman Empire plays a major role in the music of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The various styles of music found in these have been influenced by the culture of the Ottoman Empire. The overarching principles that have made the music of the people from the Middle East and Eastern Europe include local variation, expanding ethnic groups and the similar instruments. In both areas, their musical elements focus on melody (makam), and they place great importance on improvisation.
In the remainder of the film, we explore the music of Eastern Europe, which compares largely to the instruments we saw being used in the Middle East. We see similar chordophones. Middle East has the rebabah and Eastern Europe has a more modern version, what we now know of as the violin. Men played the violin as women danced and sang (more like screamed, but that’s their definition of music…remember, not everyone defines the term music the same way). I thought their music was catchy and unique, especially since I saw mostly older women doing the singing. Another chordophone we saw was the cello and an accordion, all following the same melody. In Romania, an old man sings about the dictatorship and plays a violin, and does something I had never seen before in other countries. He pulls a string through the violins string to create a scratchy note. The women on the train sing about how the whole world hates them referring to the persecution in Nazi Germany. These gypsies use their music as a means of communicating and expressing their sorrows and feelings towards the dictatorship the way that other cultures use music to tell history or a lost love like the narrative songs of Eastern Europe. In Germany, we see the chordophones again: the violin, cello, and accordion. But we also see, like in the Middle East, membranophones, or better yet, an idiophone in replacement of the drum in other cultures. It looked like a canteen to put cows’ milk and the man was banging the inside of it. Another funny instrument I saw them use was two spoons put together and clapped together to the same melody. This was very similar to the Middle Eastern instrument composed of two pieces of what looked like wood and was also played in the same way. Further, we have the lute which is relatable to the UD in the Middle East. Finally, also another chordophone we see for one of the last scenes at a church, was a guitar, again very similar to the plucked chordophones we see in the Middle East.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Week 6 Blog
Week 6: 05-10-2007
After the midterm, we viewed a film entitled Latcho Drom ("Safe Journey") made in 1994 by director Tony Gatlif. He recreates the journey of a group of nomadic people, who eventually come to be called, usually in a derogatory manner, "gypsies." They are depicted traveling from the northern part of S.Asia into the Middle East and Europe. We saw three main scenes of music: 1) the nomads celebrating under the full moon 2) a celebration with a couple dancing in Egypt 3) a takht ensemble playing in a teahouse in Istanbul, Turkey*What were the common instruments found in all three scenes? How were they similar and different in each scene? Can you compare them to other instruments we studied from other parts of Asia? The director was trying to demonstrate how the "gypsies" absorbed the various music cultures they encountered into their own music. How did the director depict this? What else about this film interested you?
I really enjoyed this film, at least the parts that we were able to see. I had a hard trouble figuring out the names of the instruments after Professor Talusan asked us to identify any instruments that we see during the journey of the nomadic people. Despite that aspect of the film, I found it really interesting to see the journey of the people as well as the journey we take in watching the progression of the types of instruments from the Middle East to Europe. I loved loved loved the Egyptian woman dancing and the way she moved her hips. Reminds me of Shakira, and her song “Hips don’t lie”!
For the nomads celebrating under the full moon I noticed that they were playing some sort of mini cymbals on their fingers that gave a chimmy bell-like sound. They had an Ud, a plucked lute with five strings similar to the sitar. I described it in my notes as “the violin-looking one”. I’m also pretty sure I saw another stringed instrument but this one was played like a guitar. In addition, I saw something that I had never seen before, a man blowing into a pot looking thing, hitting it simultaneously. Finally, a lot of them including one of the little girls dancing as she walked and sang had a hand held instrument composed of two thin pieces of wood held together with something black. This one produced a clappy sound an I know my descriptions for these instruments are horrible but will do until we have lecture on these instruments.
Before the celebration where the couple was dancing in Egypt, a little boy played the Egyptian Rebaba, the violin-looking instrument that had a coconut in the middle and three strings, played how the violin is played. It is more like the fiddle instrument played during the actual dance with the couple dancing, which is very similar to what was played with the nomads playing under the moon. There was also a membranophone that was tapped both with a thin wooden stick and with the hands.
Finally in the Tahkt ensemble playing in a teahouse in Istanbul, Turkey, we see more modern type instruments like the clarinet, the tambourine (Riqq), a drum with a clear membrane, played similar to the drums in the previous ensembles, as well as the Ud, and my favorite, the Qanun (Zither) wit 81 strings stretched in groups of three. It reminds me of the harp! This instrument was not in either of the other ensembles. Finally, there was a Nay (end blown flute with 6 holes plus one more in the back for the thumb, which we were able to hear a sample with guest speaker Rami. His set of Nay were made out of reed from the Nile River.
All these instruments if played in more than one ensemble were played in similar fashions although some might have been made from different materials like the Rebabah the boy was playing which was made out of a coconut for the center of the instrument. The membranophones all pretty much look the same and even resemble certain instruments like the tabla from India and the Dabakan drum from the Kulingtan from the Philipines.
The director tries to demonstrate how the "gypsies" absorbed the various music cultures they encountered into their own music. He depicts this by showing to us the journey that the gypsies are making and how they relate with the townspeople for their time being there. For example, the boy watches intently as he plays the rababah to the sounds of the music of the dancing couple in Egypt. Also, there is a little girl who sings and plays the little wooden clapper things with her hands before arriving to Egypt. Finally, although we didn’t see a lot of the tahkt ensemble in the Istanbul teahouse, we could tell that they adapted the use of their instruments like the rababah to the violin or the Ney to the clarinet.
After the midterm, we viewed a film entitled Latcho Drom ("Safe Journey") made in 1994 by director Tony Gatlif. He recreates the journey of a group of nomadic people, who eventually come to be called, usually in a derogatory manner, "gypsies." They are depicted traveling from the northern part of S.Asia into the Middle East and Europe. We saw three main scenes of music: 1) the nomads celebrating under the full moon 2) a celebration with a couple dancing in Egypt 3) a takht ensemble playing in a teahouse in Istanbul, Turkey*What were the common instruments found in all three scenes? How were they similar and different in each scene? Can you compare them to other instruments we studied from other parts of Asia? The director was trying to demonstrate how the "gypsies" absorbed the various music cultures they encountered into their own music. How did the director depict this? What else about this film interested you?
I really enjoyed this film, at least the parts that we were able to see. I had a hard trouble figuring out the names of the instruments after Professor Talusan asked us to identify any instruments that we see during the journey of the nomadic people. Despite that aspect of the film, I found it really interesting to see the journey of the people as well as the journey we take in watching the progression of the types of instruments from the Middle East to Europe. I loved loved loved the Egyptian woman dancing and the way she moved her hips. Reminds me of Shakira, and her song “Hips don’t lie”!
For the nomads celebrating under the full moon I noticed that they were playing some sort of mini cymbals on their fingers that gave a chimmy bell-like sound. They had an Ud, a plucked lute with five strings similar to the sitar. I described it in my notes as “the violin-looking one”. I’m also pretty sure I saw another stringed instrument but this one was played like a guitar. In addition, I saw something that I had never seen before, a man blowing into a pot looking thing, hitting it simultaneously. Finally, a lot of them including one of the little girls dancing as she walked and sang had a hand held instrument composed of two thin pieces of wood held together with something black. This one produced a clappy sound an I know my descriptions for these instruments are horrible but will do until we have lecture on these instruments.
Before the celebration where the couple was dancing in Egypt, a little boy played the Egyptian Rebaba, the violin-looking instrument that had a coconut in the middle and three strings, played how the violin is played. It is more like the fiddle instrument played during the actual dance with the couple dancing, which is very similar to what was played with the nomads playing under the moon. There was also a membranophone that was tapped both with a thin wooden stick and with the hands.
Finally in the Tahkt ensemble playing in a teahouse in Istanbul, Turkey, we see more modern type instruments like the clarinet, the tambourine (Riqq), a drum with a clear membrane, played similar to the drums in the previous ensembles, as well as the Ud, and my favorite, the Qanun (Zither) wit 81 strings stretched in groups of three. It reminds me of the harp! This instrument was not in either of the other ensembles. Finally, there was a Nay (end blown flute with 6 holes plus one more in the back for the thumb, which we were able to hear a sample with guest speaker Rami. His set of Nay were made out of reed from the Nile River.
All these instruments if played in more than one ensemble were played in similar fashions although some might have been made from different materials like the Rebabah the boy was playing which was made out of a coconut for the center of the instrument. The membranophones all pretty much look the same and even resemble certain instruments like the tabla from India and the Dabakan drum from the Kulingtan from the Philipines.
The director tries to demonstrate how the "gypsies" absorbed the various music cultures they encountered into their own music. He depicts this by showing to us the journey that the gypsies are making and how they relate with the townspeople for their time being there. For example, the boy watches intently as he plays the rababah to the sounds of the music of the dancing couple in Egypt. Also, there is a little girl who sings and plays the little wooden clapper things with her hands before arriving to Egypt. Finally, although we didn’t see a lot of the tahkt ensemble in the Istanbul teahouse, we could tell that they adapted the use of their instruments like the rababah to the violin or the Ney to the clarinet.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Week 5 Blog: Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! :)
Week 5: 05-03-2007
1. Can you think of any examples in our day and age in which real life influences theater (or film or music or music video) and in turn these representations influence society?
First I want to apologize for turning in the blog late. I didn’t realize I had work today and it took away my entire evening. Anyway, I wanted to respond to both of the questions since they’re both interesting and I have a story for both. When it comes to the relationship between society and theatre or music or videos, Mexican “corridos” immediately come to mind. Corridos are narratives in song or poem form that originate mostly from the Southwestern regions of Mexico like Sinaloa and Michoacan. Corridos are basically stories about romance or about someone’s death, about crossing the border, or even about drug trafficking and getting caught and the gunshots that come with it, but this is the more current stuff! They can also be stories of old legendary heroes like Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution and how he was a friend of the common people—maybe to influence the politics of today. They came to influence society during the Mexican Revolution because a lot of people were illiterate and the corrido was used to sing the message to people whether it was something that had to do with religious movements of the time or about the corrupt Porfirio Diaz government. Everyone knows the “La Cucaracha” corrido, Im sure. The meaning of this song was rephrased to talk about Pancho Villa’s abusive army against Venustiano Carranza during the Mexican Revolution. It isn’t actually about a roach that cant walk! The old corrido style was more educational, imformative, romantic, and religious but a lot of today’s corridos are automatically associated with drug dealing and shootings and violence, which sure it does reflect some of the unfortunate realities of Mexico today but it is unfortunate that its losing its primacy as a means of mass communication. This has a tremendous influence on society because what you hear on the media or in music for one, is what people are going to go out and do and in this case, some of the effects may be unfavorable.
2. Can you think of an encounter with some type of representation in the mass media (give a musical example if possible) that you felt strongly about? It doesn't have to be about ethnicity--you could choose to write about gender identity, religious identity, or something else. I will write very briefly on this one. I liked the presentation with the episode of The Simpsons that showed to us how the mass media tries to represent the cultures, ethnicity, identities, etc of a certain population. The infamous George Lopez does this with the Mexican/Latino culture. He is a stand-up comedian meant to be for the Latino audience who understands exactly what he is talking about when he brings out these “inside jokes” of Hispanic people. He talks about how we are “afraid of the cucuy (monster)” and that we run as little kids when we get something from the closet; we never want to admit that were getting old, we don’t go to the doctor because we think were fine and are afraid of finding something wrong; how parents always have “no” as an answer and how we get “spanked” or “hit” for whatever reason; how we take our own food and lunch to Dodgers games for example because food there is too expensive; this and other things (including religion, foods, values, dress, jobs, etc) that you can hear about by typing George Lopez onto the search engine on Youtube.com. I didn’t want to put it up because it might offend some people. This is just one example. I personally don’t have a liking for this comedian even though a lot of the things he says are true and they give us a good laugh if we are able to understand the inside joke.
1. Can you think of any examples in our day and age in which real life influences theater (or film or music or music video) and in turn these representations influence society?
First I want to apologize for turning in the blog late. I didn’t realize I had work today and it took away my entire evening. Anyway, I wanted to respond to both of the questions since they’re both interesting and I have a story for both. When it comes to the relationship between society and theatre or music or videos, Mexican “corridos” immediately come to mind. Corridos are narratives in song or poem form that originate mostly from the Southwestern regions of Mexico like Sinaloa and Michoacan. Corridos are basically stories about romance or about someone’s death, about crossing the border, or even about drug trafficking and getting caught and the gunshots that come with it, but this is the more current stuff! They can also be stories of old legendary heroes like Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution and how he was a friend of the common people—maybe to influence the politics of today. They came to influence society during the Mexican Revolution because a lot of people were illiterate and the corrido was used to sing the message to people whether it was something that had to do with religious movements of the time or about the corrupt Porfirio Diaz government. Everyone knows the “La Cucaracha” corrido, Im sure. The meaning of this song was rephrased to talk about Pancho Villa’s abusive army against Venustiano Carranza during the Mexican Revolution. It isn’t actually about a roach that cant walk! The old corrido style was more educational, imformative, romantic, and religious but a lot of today’s corridos are automatically associated with drug dealing and shootings and violence, which sure it does reflect some of the unfortunate realities of Mexico today but it is unfortunate that its losing its primacy as a means of mass communication. This has a tremendous influence on society because what you hear on the media or in music for one, is what people are going to go out and do and in this case, some of the effects may be unfavorable.
2. Can you think of an encounter with some type of representation in the mass media (give a musical example if possible) that you felt strongly about? It doesn't have to be about ethnicity--you could choose to write about gender identity, religious identity, or something else. I will write very briefly on this one. I liked the presentation with the episode of The Simpsons that showed to us how the mass media tries to represent the cultures, ethnicity, identities, etc of a certain population. The infamous George Lopez does this with the Mexican/Latino culture. He is a stand-up comedian meant to be for the Latino audience who understands exactly what he is talking about when he brings out these “inside jokes” of Hispanic people. He talks about how we are “afraid of the cucuy (monster)” and that we run as little kids when we get something from the closet; we never want to admit that were getting old, we don’t go to the doctor because we think were fine and are afraid of finding something wrong; how parents always have “no” as an answer and how we get “spanked” or “hit” for whatever reason; how we take our own food and lunch to Dodgers games for example because food there is too expensive; this and other things (including religion, foods, values, dress, jobs, etc) that you can hear about by typing George Lopez onto the search engine on Youtube.com. I didn’t want to put it up because it might offend some people. This is just one example. I personally don’t have a liking for this comedian even though a lot of the things he says are true and they give us a good laugh if we are able to understand the inside joke.
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