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.