MUCO 380 Midterm Listenings

“A Yeibichai Song” (Sandoval Begay) Characteristics

·      Intro: two high shouts

·      Rattles

·      Monophonic singing almost entirely using vocables

·      Tense energetic nasal timbre reflecting Navajo tribal style

Octave jumps

“A Yeibichai Song” (Sandoval Begay) Context

·      Navajo Tribal music

·      “Traditional”

·      Early indigenous music

·      We don’t know a lot about early indigenous music due to major disruptions and changes:

o   Disease

o   Government policies

o   Massacres

o   Displaced and reduced population

“A Yeibichai Song” (Sandoval Begay) Purpose

·      Success and/or beauty is linked to the social ceremonial context:

Was the person healed? Did it inspire dancing? Did it bring the community together? Etc.

·      Dual purpose: Ceremonial/healing ritual and social settings connected to dancing

“Shizhané’é (I’m in Luck) - Albert Sandoval Jr. and Ray Winnie -Characteristics

·      Monophonic

·      Nasal timbre characteristics of Navajo singing

·      Repetition of shorter phrases

·      Triple feel (common in circle dance songs)

·      No rattles

“Shizhané’é (I’m in Luck) - Albert Sandoval Jr. and Ray Winnie - Context

·      Navajo Trible music

·      Example of a circle dance song

·      Early indigenous music

“Shizhané’é (I’m in Luck) - Albert Sandoval Jr. and Ray Winnie - Purpose

·      Used in non-ceremonial contexts (since 1990)

·      Circle dance song

·      Offers opportunities for courtship

“Gizhebs” (Bear Creek Singers) Characteristics

·      Northern Plains Style

·      Drum introduction, one singer then whole drum group joins in

·      High-pitched, tense, loud vocals

·      Drumming in duple meter

·      Push-ups

·      Terraced descent

·      Check and honor beating

·      Vocables and Obijwe text

“Gizhebs” (Bear Creek Singers) Context

·      Intertribal powwow music (Obijwe text)

·      Intertribalism comes from long history of cultural sharing and alliances formed during political movements in response to conflicts with Europeans

·      Intertribal solidarity and a shared identity that embraces tribal variation

·      Powwow origins: emerged from dances among Plains tribes in mix with Wild West show participation

“Gizhebs” (Bear Creek Singers) Purpose

·      Powwow music: aims to inspire energetic and joyful dancing

"Thuggin and Snugglin" (Eyabay Singers) Characteristics

·      Maintains features of Northern Plains style but has fewer tribal specific features

·      High-pitched, tense, loud vocals

·      Triple meter

·      Goes into English

·      Push-ups that lead to the English section

"Thuggin and Snugglin" (Eyabay Singers) Context

·      “contemporary” powwow music

·      Maintains features of Northern Plains style but has fewer tribal specific features

·      Round Dances (Social Couples and Women’s Traditional Dances)

"Thuggin and Snugglin" (Eyabay Singers) Purpose

·      Powwow music: aims to inspire energetic and joyful dancing

·      Round Dances (Social Couples and Women’s Traditional Dances)

“Now That the Buffalo's Gone” (Buffy Sainte-Marie) Characteristics

·      Guitar and female voice

·      Lyrics focus on pan-indigenous political issues

·      Folk music

“Now That the Buffalo's Gone” (Buffy Sainte-Marie) Context

·      Native Popular Music

·      Relocation and activism

·      Red Power Movement (political awakening and intertribal solidarity) which established lots of acts and movements

·      Opened daily Radio Free Alcatraz broadcasts

“Now That the Buffalo's Gone” (Buffy Sainte-Marie) Purpose

·      Folk protest song that addresses pan-indigenous political issues

·      Messaging is a metaphor for cultural genocide

“Reservation of Education” (XIT) Characteristics

·      Incoorporates tribal and intertribal style

·      English language as well as Navajo lyrics (tribal)

·      Electric guitar

·      Rhythm of bells is reminiscent of ceremonial dance bells common in powwow dancing (intertribal)

“Reservation of Education” (XIT) Context

·      Native Popular Music

·      Rock group that blended 60s rock with instruments associated with intertribal styles and lyrics in tribal languages

·      Red Power Movement (political awakening and intertribal solidarity) which established lots of acts and movements

·      Boarding schools that assimilated Native American children

·      Membership reflects intertribal solidarity: Dakota, Navajo, Cherokee, and Pueblo

“Reservation of Education” (XIT) Purpose

·      Red Power activism

·      Lyrics focus on pan-indigenous political issues (critique of reservations, boarding schools, and government

"We Are the Halluci Nation" (The Halluci Nation/A Tribe Called Red) Characteristics

·      Powwow step combines tribal, intertribal, and urban music

·      Native languages (tribal) and English language

·      Samples of powwow singing (intertribal)

·      Dubstep rhythms and drum machines (urban)

·      Starts with man speaking

"We Are the Halluci Nation" (The Halluci Nation/A Tribe Called Red) Context

·      Native Popular Music

·      Red Power Movement (political awakening and intertribal solidarity) which established lots of acts and movements

"We Are the Halluci Nation" (The Halluci Nation/A Tribe Called Red) Purpose

·      Lyrics focus on pan-indigenous issues that extend beyond Native America, principally the rejection of the nation states

·      Connected to Red Power Movement

“Agbekor: Demonstration” (David Locke) Characteristics

·      Many different drums

·      Dancing

·      Gankogui (bells)

·      Axatse (shaker)

·      No words

“Agbekor: Demonstration” (David Locke) Context

·      Music and dance of the Ewe people

·      Battle, courage, and triumph are common themes in Ewe music

·      Initial performance context before and after war

Transmission involves formal instructions

“Agbekor: Demonstration” (David Locke) Purpose

·      Engaged with subject of war

·      Maintained by performers and no longer usually maintains in before and after war context

“Lambango” (Mariatu Kuyateh, Kekuta Suso, and Seni Jobateh) Characteristics

·      Kora (spike/bridge harp)

·      Kumbengo: ostinato accompanying singing

·      Brimintingo: virtuostic passages (interludes between singing)

·      Kongkong: rhythm tapped on resonator (played by another person)

“Lambango” (Mariatu Kuyateh, Kekuta Suso, and Seni Jobateh) Characteristics

·      Music of the Mande people

·      Social hierarchy reflected in Mande music-culture

·      Jalolu: symbiotic relationship between those who rely on praise/knowledge and those who provide it for material wealth and security. Served wealthy patrons, held only records of genealogy and history, only people capable of providing music required on important occasions

·      Today, most jalolu serve broader clientele and freelance

“Lambango” (Mariatu Kuyateh, Kekuta Suso, and Seni Jobateh) Characteristics

·      Praise song celebrating three 20^th century Gambian leaders and their generosity

·      Record of history indicating where important events happened

“Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense” (Fela Kuti) Characteristics

·      Jazz instruments

·      Long performance with space for dancing between spiritual and political messages

·      Stable and repetitive rhythmic structures

·      Rattle

·      Extended vamps

·      Participation encourages people to feel like they are a part of the movement

“Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense” (Fela Kuti) Context

·      Fela Kuti: political activist, arrested 200 times, released 50 albums

·      Nigeria

·      Afrobeat (developed by Fela Kuti): dance-party music with a message; brought together highlife, jazz, soul, Yoruban music, and aesthetics that value participation

·      Pan-Africanist agenda

·      Critique Western colonial agenda and its reverberations in postcolonial Africa

“Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense” (Fela Kuti) Purpose

·      Lyrics point to post-colonial conditions and call for Pan-African response

·      Cultural criticism

“Kutirimunapaq” (Ruphay) Characteristics

·      Triangle and drums enter first

·      No words

·      Panpipe ensemble (zamponas) enters

·      Doubling of melody in parallel fourths, fifths, and octaves

·      Hocketing

·      Pentatonic

·      Presense of ch’inisku and wankara

“Kutirimunapaq” (Ruphay) Context

·      Kallawaya of Bolivia (K’antu)

·      Incan religion disappears due to Catholic colonization; folk-Catholicism emerges

·      Kallawaya ceremonial music connected to annual agricultural cycle and Christian calendar

·      Panpies played during dry season

·      K’antu ensemble

“Kutirimunapaq” (Ruphay) Purpose

·      Connected to Incan agricultural rites and Christian calendar

·      Ceremonial

“Muyu Muyari Warmigu” (Efraín and Rafael) Characteristics

·      Imbabura harp plays phrases first, then vocals come in

·      Repetitive rhythms

·      Typical Cotacachi Quichua sanjuanes form: repetitive, isorhythmic, bimodal

·      Vocals delivered in couplets

·      Body struck by golpeador (second player)

“Muyu Muyari Warmigu” (Efraín and Rafael) Context

·      Quichua of Ecuador (Sanjuan/dance music played on harp)

·      Imbabura harp arrives from Europe

“Muyu Muyari Warmigu” (Efraín and Rafael) Purpose

·      Sanjuan: dance music played on harp

  Ilumán Tiyu” (Segundo ‘Galo’ Maigua Pillajo) Characteristics

·      Violin starts with repetitive

·      panpipes come in

·      isorhythmic

·      bimodal

  Ilumán Tiyu” (Segundo ‘Galo’ Maigua Pillajo) Context

·      A “classic” Sanjuan

·      Lyrical content reflects Andean poetics dating back to Incas

  Ilumán Tiyu” (Segundo ‘Galo’ Maigua Pillajo) Purpose

·      Autobiographical text by composer battling tuberculosis and fearing he was near death

“Quichua Mother’s Lament” with Vacación (Sergio) Characteristics

·      Semi-performative ritual “sobbing-singing”

·      Harp

·      golpeador

“Quichua Mother’s Lament” with Vacación (Sergio) Context

·      Ecuador

·      Wawa Velorio: All-night wake for deceased child

·      Vacación: opens wake, drives out devil

·      Directed at deceased child at time child is removed from platform. When casket is taken outside, mother bids farewell to child for last time (sunrise)

“Quichua Mother’s Lament” with Vacación (Sergio) Purpose

·      Ceremonial during Wawa Velorio (all-night wake for a deceased child)

·      Mother bids farewell to child

“El Aparecido” (written by Victor Jara, performed by Inti-Illimani) Characteristics

·      Charango, kena (end-blown notched flute) and guitar start

·      Male singer

·      Sesquialtera: simultaneous sense of ¾ and 6/8

“El Aparecido” (written by Victor Jara, performed by Inti-Illimani) Context

·      Chilean cueca of the Nueva Cancion (New Song) movement – Pan-Latin American music of resistance against totalitarianism – emerges in “southern cone”

·      Victor Jara: Chilean voice of political resistance

·      Ernesto “Che” Guevara: Marxist revolutionary, author, and guerilla leader

“El Aparecido” (written by Victor Jara, performed by Inti-Illimani) Purpose

Lyrics use metaphors to praise Ernesto “Che” Guevara (compares him to a mythological figure/Jesus

“¿Qué dirá el Santo Padre?” (Violeta Parra) Characteristics

·      Swinging feel

·      guitar

“¿Qué dirá el Santo Padre?” (Violeta Parra) Context

·      Vicoleta Parra: Chilean singer, songwriter, advocate for the poor, ethnomusicologist, inspired others and sowed seeds for Nueva Cancion – sought to reproduce “authentic” and “traditional” styles and put them in dialogue with current events and issues

·      It took the pope 20 years to speak out against oppression in Chile

·      Chilean

“¿Qué dirá el Santo Padre?” (Violeta Parra) Purpose

·      “What Will the Pope Say”

·      Satirical content – cry out for injustice, appeal to pop to say something