World Music Exam 3

Agbekor: Culture

Ewe Culture

Agbekor: Region

Ghana, Africa

Agbekor: Purpose

To raise an Army, Military recruitment tool

Agbekor: Form

Through Composed

Nag Biegu: Meaning

“Ferocious Wild Bull”

Nag Biegu: Culture

Dagbon Culture

Nag Biegu: Region

Ghana, Africa

Nag Biegu: Purpose

Working up one’s courage, to prepare for a contest

Nag Biegu: Form

Cyclic Form - elements keep coming back

Nhemamusasa: Meaning

“Gathering Branches for Shelter”

Nhemamusasa: Culture

Shona Culture

Nhemamusasa: Region

Zimbabwe Africa

Nhemamusasa: Purpose

A work song - music made while someone is doing work

Nhemamusasa: Form

Cyclic Form

Makala: Culture

Ba’Aka culture

Makala: Region

Congo Basin, Africa

Makala: Purpose

Preparing for the Hunt

Makala: Form

Through Composed

Kosalia Arini: What kind of music

Gamelan Music

Kosalia Arini: Region

Bali - Indonesia

Kosalia Arini: Composer

Wayan Baratha

Kosalia Arini: Purpose

Concert Music

Kosalia Arini: Form

Through Composed

Shufflendang- Shufflending: what kind of music

Fusion Music - worldbeat

Shufflendang- Shufflending: Region

Sunda, Java - Indonesia

Shufflendang- Shufflending: composer

Diwiki Dharmawan

Shufflendang- Shufflending: purpose

Concert Music

Shufflendang- Shufflending: Form

Cyclic Form

Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi: Meaning

“My Wanderer Has Returned Home”

Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi: Composer

Hamayan Sakhi

Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi: Purpose

Concert Music

Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi: Region

Afghanistan

Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi: Form

Sonata Form

more complex, has 3 themes which are development and return of these themes

What does excerpt 1 sound like from Agbekor?

Contains the entire ensemble, drums and all

Call and Response: singing is the song leader + responding chorus

Complex percussion playing, lead drummer playing flourishing solos while others played interlocking patterns

What does excerpt 2 sound like from Agbekor?

Drums have dropped; only the singers

Call and Response

Solo Drummers, only drumming heard in this excerpt (If used on exam, this will be heard)

What does excerpt 3 sound like from Agbekor?

Everyone joins back in

Percussion and singers are moving at a fast and furious pace

Singers + Drumming

Call and Response

What is the Ewe Religious Worldview?

“ The sea, lagoon, river, streams, animals, birds, and reptiles, as well as the earth with its natural and artificial perturbance is worshipped as divine or as the abode of divinities”

Meaning that: Absolutely everyone on this planet is divine

What can be easily identified in Nag Biegu?

The male voice with an intense vibrato, he is singing about being dangerous

What does Nhemamusasa contain that none of the other pieces have?

It is the only piece that involves the membera

What kind of singing is in Makala?

Polyphonic singing - intertwined

What kind of hunters are the Ba’Aka?

They are cooperative net hunters

With the entire tribe

The women and children make the noise

The men hold the nets and the spears

What does the beginning of Kosalia Arini sound like?

The beginning starts and stops constantly

Sounds like bells ringing and then stopping again

Gamelan Instruments - nothing else sounds like this

Clock-style polyphony

Gong at the end of each phrase

Sounds like someone is trying to crank a lawnmower on a cold day, and it sputters to life and then stops

What does the middle of Kosalia Arini contain?

It contains a flute solo made by the suling

It goes up and down, episodic

What do all the cyclic sections of Kosalia sound like? What is the one thing they all have in common?

1st Cyclic Section: soft and suddenly loud chiming

2nd Cyclic Section: loud and soft alternation, deeper than the 1st section, chiming

3rd Cyclic Section: fastest section, crescendos and decrescendos

They ALL have alternation between loud and soft that cuts across the form of the piece

What is Shufflendang- Shufflending version of music? What does that mean?

Worldbeat - fusion, fusion between western and eastern elements

What instrument has a solo in Shufflendang- Shufflending? What form does it play in?

The Rebab, which is in free form, percussion has disappeared, but little by little they will sneak back in

Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi is the only piece of music that contains this instrument?

Rebab

Opening instrument and has a nasal quality

string instrument

What is the structure of Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi? What happens throughout the piece?

The introduction, which picks up speed

Long stretch in the middle of the piece that is in Sonata Form

Coda, separate section at the end

Has cyclic sections

Steady crescendos and building of excitement from beginning to end

What is the language spoken in the film Djemefola?

Malinke - over 300 malinke rhythms

Drum Language

Vernacular Meaning of a drummed phrase

What is the relgious view of the Ewe Culture? What does that mean basically Quote and Comment on it

The sea, the lagoon, river, streams, animals, birds, and reptiles as well as the earth with its natural and artificial perturbances are worshiped as divine or as the abode of divinities

What are the two drums in the Dagbon Culture?

Lunga - solo drum, slender owerglass drum that can talk, chord that run from head to head, hold the drum under your arm and can squeeze the chords and this is tightening it which tightens the drum head therefore raising it’s pitch

Gung-Gong -base drum, used from pronunciation, used an accoumpying, not as flexible

What does drum language in Djembefola relates to the music in the film

Their drumming can translate in their language, you have to know the language to understand, resembles smoke signals

Allows people to communicate from far away especially in the jungle

Imitates human speech

What is the Sennasounian tradition? Hint: this is described by Mamady Keita in the film

What the relationship between Mamady and Balanka Sidiki

Balanka was a recruiter for the ballet who recruited Mamady when he was a child

“He is your son” was repeatedly translated and he is your father was also said

However, he was upset and wouldn’t hug him at first because he was mad from taking him away from his family, He felts responsible and was worried about him

In Dagbon Culture what are the drummers called and what is their role in society?

Lunsi - hold a higher position (philosophers, historians, genealogists

Allows them to know the degree of relatedness to distribute the inheritance of someone fairly

These people are best mnemonic device which is a way of memorizing - drum language as a mnemonic device

No written language, designated group to memorize and replay,

What is the mbira?

It is the African thumb piano

Made on a plank, with spring, steal, times or keys

It has a chevron style of the keys - the higher notes are on the outside

You hold your fingers down and press with your thumbs

Could be made from bottles caps and create a more buzzing sound

Originated in Zimbabwe Africa

What is the Ba’Aka culture

Culture of the Congo Basin, they are the last remaining hunter and gather tribes on earth

What is the Ba’Aka hunting technique

They are cooperative net hunters

They prepare by singing and dancing the night before, early that morning they leave very quietly, men will go around one side at the base of the hill holding the net and a spear to kill the animal, women and children go on the other side, they run up their side of the hill making noise, banging and screaming to make the animals scared and then they run into the net

What is the difference between Kasalia Arini and Suffledang-Shuffleding?

Kasalia Arini - is by Wayan Bartha and is pure gamelan music

Shuffledang-Shuffleding- By Dwiki Dharmawayn and is a fusion of both gamelan and western jazz sounds

What is the Pelog Scale?

A 7 note scale you only pick 5/7 to play with intervals between the notes that are the same size

What is the Slendro scale?

5 note scale with different pitches and with intervals between the notes that are the same size

What is the origin of gamelan music? - REVIEW VIDEO BEFORE ANSWERING THIS QUESTION

Explain the composition of Shuffledang-Shuffleding?

It is a portamento: made by combining words, compound nouns, like the word smog

Shuffle- Dance

Dang - Kendhang (the drum in gamelan, unpitched)

Ding - Gendhing (musical composition)

Explain the gong family?

Hanging Knob Gongs- played with beaters, strike with the knob

Kettle Shaped Gongs - sitting in racks, striking with the knob at the top or playing on the side, making different sounds

Shaped like a bell or kettle

What instruments are in the gong family?

Kempul

Gong

Slyem

Bonang

Kempyang

Kethuk

Kenong

What is the Gender Family?

REVIEW VIDEO

What is the suling?

The flute style instrument, 2 flutes because there is one for each scale

What is the Rebab?

A two-string violin

What is the Rabab?

A plucked string instrument not bowed, a lot more strings

5 melody strings

The rest are resonance

What does Djembefola mean?

not just play but are able to make the djeme (drum) speak

What can Mamady do that the other drummers can’t and why?

He can wander in his solo, he responds to the dancers

He can do this because others are playing the constant rhythm behind him creating this constant back drop

What is the Sennasounain Tradition as described by Mamady Keita in the film?

This is to help people who can’t farm their own land

The young people plow the fields of the old and sick

Does not depend on the occasion, or farming the dejeme is always present

They always help each other out and work together because good will is more important than money