AII SEMINAR 6 World Music Task 1 -- Read the quotes, discuss your views with a partner, and present to the class. 1 It is the culture-conditioned mind, rather than the ears, that does the listening today. -- Ted Andrews 2 No music is totally "pure" and the vitality of a tradition can be measured by its ability to integrate new contributions^1. -- Ted Andrews, 20th century American author 3 Folk music is the "original melody" of man; it is the "musical mirror" of the world. -- Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900) 4 Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.-- Ned Rorem, American composer (1923-) 5 Music is the shorthand^2 of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed^3 to man in music, and in that is its power and significance. -- Leo Tolstoy, Russian author (1828-1910) 6 As the music is, so are the people of the country. -- Turkish proverb 7 After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible, is music. -- Aldous Huxley English philosopher and writer (1894-1963) 8 The language of tones belongs to all mankind, and melody is the absolute language in which the musician speaks to every heart. -- Richard Wagner, German composer (1813-1883) Task 2 -- Reading -- What is World Music? 1 Ethnomusicology is the academic study of world music. Usually, an ethnomusicology program has a dual^4 approach that combines both music and anthropology. The musical component involves theory -- analyzing the music itself as well as exploring the instruments used to create it -- while the anthropological study involves the culture itself, using music as the framework. What is the history behind the music? What role does music play in this particular society? What are the unique cultural aspects of this society which gave way to this kind of music being created and performed? These aren't easy questions to answer, and often require a total immersion^5 into the particular culture (referred to as "field work"), which includes living among the people, sometimes for years, and learning their language. An ethnomusicologist becomes a participant, not just a member of an audience. 2 To a lot of people I know, the term "World Music" makes us think of men in loincloths^6, banging on clay pots^7 in Africa -- a style of music that is particular to a specific, usually non-Western culture. To an extent, they are right: World Music is, to over-simplify, music from around the world -- sounds that reflect a particular culture through the use of geographically-specific musical structure, instruments, and lyrics^8 that also reflect a cultural or social reality. 3 World music often depends on your perspective. The clay pot banging^7 mentioned above is part of day to day life for those villagers, just as cabaret was in Berlin during the 1930's, and salsa and merengue is part of Latin culture. No matter from which genre the music originates, when a kind of music crosses over into world music, the listener gains a perspective of the culture behind the music. 4 Sometimes musical styles and cultures start to mix. This is when things get interesting. In general, music using a wide range of cultural instruments and styles is called World Fusion^9 or World Beat. Peter Gabriel made World Beat a household term when he founded Real World Records, a label^10 that supports and distributes the work of many World artists. It really doesn't matter where an artist is from or what his or her background is -- if a performer uses different ethnic influences that are obvious in the sound of the finished work, that's World Music. Discussion questions 1 Do you listen to ethno or world music? Can you give some examples? 2 What is the difference between these two concepts? 3 Do you think that music is universal? 4 Do you think that the music of a country can tell us something important about its people? Task 3 -- Listening Listen critically to the following pieces of music and do the following tasks: 1 What musical genre is it? a) ethno b) pop c) folk d) fusion e) world music 2 Guess where each extract is from. 3 Write the number of the piece above the following words that you associate with each extract: 4 Add any other words that you think of when listening to each piece. 1 Café Europa * 2 Izlel e Delio Haidutin * 3 Beet! * 4 La Tarara * 5 Granada en Flor live concert performance Spanish lyrics Arabic influence female vocals love song castanets World Music Spanish guitars North African sound flamenco slow tempo dance dulcimer (cimbalom)^11 clapping^12 American Indian influence up-beat tempo^13 string instruments (e.g. guitar, lute)^14 synthesizer percussion (e.g. bongos) ethno music voices in harmony sampling bagpipes^15 chanting^16 celebrating opening of new church cultural fusion electronic wind instruments (e.g. flute, piccolo)^17 mixed chorus^18 Bulgarian folk music line dance high shrill voice^19 trill (melismatic)^20 accordion^21 guitar accompaniment (ukulele) audience applause^22 Pacific island music Task 4 -- Follow up questions 1 Do you like this music? Why? 2 What is the function of this music? Task 5 -- Gap fill -- Music and Language World Music makes use of a lot of styles from many different countries. As a result, World Music also includes a lot of different ___________ in different languages. Many of these languages are only spoken in those ___________ countries -- African dialects; French in France and Quebec; German; Hebrew; Spanish in Latin America and Spain . . . the list goes on. This linguistic diversity^23 can be one of the most appealing^24 ___________ of World Music. Songs become ___________ into the particular culture of the artist in every way from instruments to language. In some cases, music becomes a way in which a person ___________ another language. When I was a student, I found a good way to remember almost anything was to put it to a ___________. How does this apply to music and language? If someone studying English was struggling, then when an English-language artist with a fascinating sound is ___________, all of a sudden pronunciation becomes ___________. But the act of simply listening to music in a particular language is not enough to make one ___________. The only way to master a language is to live for a while ___________ native speakers: become interested in the culture, read books and magazines in the language, and write e-mail messages to new-found friends. As a World Music enthusiast, however, I ___________ to music in many languages. It's unrealistic to expect that I will learn every language in which I hear someone sing, any more than I will learn how to play every musical instrument used to ___________ the music. It raises lots of questions, but one in particular: why listen to songs with lyrics you don't ___________? create discovered particular rhythm lyrics fluent amongst understand learns aspects windows easier listen Task 6 -- Grammar -- Focus on so, such, and such a 1 That was really an outstanding performance. __________ great musicians are hard to find. 2 It was a super concert. We had __________ good time that we will always remember it. 3 I didn't enjoy the music. The singers were __________ loud and shrill^19. 4 The lyrics were __________ difficult to understand; I really couldn't catch even a single word. 5 We can't decide which performance to attend; it's __________ dilemma. 6 It was __________ difficult music, that we had a hard time appreciating it. 7 He is __________ good a composer that he gained worldwide recognition. 8 The open-air concert was excellent but it was _________ bad weather that we left before it ended. Task 7 -- Grammar -- Focus on few and a few; little and a little 1 __________ of the band members gathered for a jam session last night. 2 There was very __________ applause after the embarrassingly bad performance. 3 Very __________ people came to the concert, as it was not very well promoted. 4 Could you turn up the volume __________? 5 There was __________ attention paid to the event in the media, therefore almost nobody came. 6 I was really lucky to get the tickets, because there were only __________ left. 7 Just _________ people can read music these days. 8 I listen to this kind of music just ____________ bit. Vocabulary 1. *contribution příspěvek 2. shorthand zkrácená forma 3. *to convey sdělit, vyjádřit 4. *dual dvojí 5. *immersion pohroužení, zahloubání do 6. loincloth bederní zástěrka domorodců 7. banging on clay pots bušení do hliněných nádob 8. lyrics text písně 9. fusion spojení 10. label (record company) značka nahrávací firmy 11. dulcimer (cymbalom) cimbál 12. clapping tleskání 13. up-beat tempo rychlé tempo 14. string instruments (lute) strunné nástroje (loutna) 15. bagpipes dudy 16. chanting liturgický zpěv 17. wind instruments (flute) dechové nástroje (flétna) 18. mixed chorus smíšený sbor 19. high shrill voice vysoký ostrý hlas 20. trill (melismatic) trylkovat 21. accordion tahací harmonika, akordeon 22. audience applause potlesk obecenstva 23. *diversity rozmanitost 24. *appealing půvabný Word bank 1. to have an ear for music mít hudební sluch 2. to have a good ear mít hudební sluch 3. to play an instrument hrát na hudební nástroj 4. to sing out of tune zpívat falešně 5. tune nápěv, melodie 6. lyrics slova, text písně 7. to play by ear improvizovat 8. to read music číst z not 9. to sing in a choir zpívat ve sboru 10. classical music vážná hudba 11. serious music vážná hudba 12. drums bubny 13. percussion bicí 14. flute flétna 15. accordion tahací harmonika 16. to conduct an orchestra dirigovat orchestr 17. conductor dirigent 18. band/group skupina 19. to practise cvičit (na hudební nástroj) 20. brass band music dechová hudba 21. scales stupnice 22. applause potlesk 23. to applaud tleskat 24. record nahrávka, deska 25. live concert živý koncert 26. to compose music skládat hudbu 27. composer skladatel 28. dance to music tančit na hudbu 29. masterpiece mistrovské dílo 30. interpretation of a song podání písně 31. rave reviews nadšená kritika 32. bad reviews nepříznivá kritika 33. chorus refrén Reading text modified from http://www.insideworldmusic.com/library/bl1011b.htm; viewed on 3.30.2004. Gap fill text modified from http://www.insideworldmusic.com/library/bl1013.htm; viewed on 3.30.2004.