American Music

On a topic as broad as American music and culture, one cannot begin to provide such a large historical overview by including every detail, for they are endless. To begin it is more important to understand what is meant by the term American music. American music and culture refers to those styles and traditions whose origins took place, if not within national borders, within the North American continent. In considering musical traditions, it is necessary to recognize when something practiced in one region could very well have originated in another. This distinction is always difficult to make, especially considering the notion of tradition. Tradition inherently refers to those patterns of behavior handed down from one person to another, although in this process the patterns are indelibly altered. When considering music it is important to understand that its traditional heritage is inextricably tied with element of change, that nothing is static. Also, musical traditions are closely related with social identities, and in understanding the nature of these identities one can better understand the nature of their respective musics. The idea of social identities is open to interpretation as well, though more commonly they can be thought of according to distinctions of ethnicity, geography, religion, language, gender, and also sexuality.

The first inhabitants of North America were Native Americans. Their legacy has been handed down through oral traditions. Nothing describes music better than music itself though. I have chosen to include a listening example titled “Black Foot War or Grass Dance Song” that can be found on the CD accompanying the Prentice Hall textbook Excursions in World Music.

The arrival of European colonialism in North America in the 17^th century brought along with settlers and African slaves musical traditions this region had never heard of before. Though a legacy of European classical conservatories and instrumentation undoubtedly made the journey, something that could be distinguished as undoubtedly American had yet to develop. African slaves occupyed an entirely separate space in society yet had nothing material to show for it. Enduring persecution and eternal servitude, Africans brought with them the idea of polyrhythms and the call and response song form. Exposed to Christian choir music and long hard hours of manual labor in the fields, work songs became passionate and changed the field holler into what is commonly referred to as gospel. Here I include from the Excursions in World Music CD an example of this new type of singing with “Amazing Grace”.

Finally, the genre I view as an ideal example of something that is truly American is Jazz. With the development of blues music and a unique sense of rhythm pioneered by African Americans, the merging of these traditions with western harmony and instrumentation inevitably resulted in something that could be found nowhere else. With the influence of military bands, the transfer from vocal blues music to instrumental music occurred during the American Civil War. With western instruments and this new bluesy style of harmony there emerged the jazz band, an ensemble fit to rival its European symphonic predecessors. Thanks to the emergence of the recording technology engineered by the American inventor Thomas Edison we can still hear encapsulated within the historical era of their inception the way original jazz bands sounded. And who better to listen than the world renowned jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong. The example I have chosen to include here is the early recording he made with his Dixieland jazz band titled “West End Blues”.

Week 8

When examining the regional styles characteristic of African traditional music, one can in most cases find that certain characteristics of musical sound often reflect an image or identity its performers are attempting to convey. For example, in West Africa, the music of drum ensembles found in the Ewe tribes of Ghana has the characteristics of: call and response forms, interlocking rhythmic parts, a prevalence of ostinato-like patterns, and a polyrhythmic texture created by dense musical organization. This heavy emphasis on the strict regimentation of individual parts, the interdependence and collaboration of participating ensemble members, and the idea of responding to the call of a privileged leader creates in the mind of the listener the idea that somehow among these performers there exists a functional hierarchy. And of course this idea of a functional hierarchy holds true to lives of the larger Anlo-Ewe people, who reside in a society reminiscent of feudal chiefdoms. For even when it comes to musical culture, still the formation of ensembles, organization of events, who participates, and even what instruments are played must have the consent of the ruling chief.

One popular artist of recent interest to me has been the grungy alternative-rock band Nirvana. When I listen to songs like “Heart Shaped Box”, over heavy distortion, pounding volume, and crashing drums I hear clever minor harmonies and the lingering of a melody. The clarity of the lead melody’s sorrowful yet hauntingly memorable melody cutting straight through the band’s entire sound is really what grabs me as I listen idly to the album In Utero. And then I hear the quiet singing accompanying solo acoustic guitar on the song Polly. As the band’s front man Kurt Cobain plays he tells the story of a young, female rape victim. While enduring terrible physical pain, this young girl intelligently feigns affection for her abductor, and in causing the abductor to let his guard down she ultimately ensures her safe escape from the horrible situation. Such daring yet innovative lyrics in combination with superb musicianship give Nirvana just the grungy yet distinct type of image they are trying to convey. This sad, angry, ragged aesthetic, telling as it was of a popular grunge aesthetic sweeping the nation, even more so was a reflection of Cobain’s mental unrest. One week after escaping a rehabilitation clinic, Cobain’s body was found alone in his upstairs greenhouse. He committed suicide with a shotgun to his head.

Exploding into pop mainstream with their album Nevermind, released 1991, the band Nirvana brought an enormous following of young listeners commonly referred to by the media with the term “Generation-X”. Although their appeal strictly speaking can only be explained by listeners individually, the depressing, mysterious, sexually explicit, yet bitterly true lyrics written and sung by the band’s front man Kurt Cobain are as difficult to ignore as they are exhilarating. Over a decade past the band’s abrupt end, Nirvana’s music retains its legendary fame and can still be heard across the airwaves.

Week 7

In the near closing of the film “Latcho Drom” the viewer finds the Roma people at the end of their migration through the Middle East, yet at the very beginning of their migration through Europe. Tracing their movement through the Eastern European countries of Romania and Slovakia, the scenes from this portion of Latcho Drom tell of the suffering and hardship the Roma people have endured throughout their migration from place to place in search of a home.

It is important to note here though that this film in documenting musical and cultural heritages also indirectly homogenizes the Roma people as an uprooted, ethnic race of wanderers and musicians. To some extent having a collective history is important to the developing of a culture, but this can at times ignore the fact that many Roma now have actually found permanent homes dispersed throughout Europe, Western Asia, South America, and also North America. Still, that the Roma people in their history have endured discrimination and persecution cannot be denied.

Against open fields of brush and grasses, a wandering boy finds on a riverbank leaning against a tree two thin Roma men playing fiddle and hammered dulcimer (perhaps the santur). The fiddler accompanies his singing of political revolution in Turkey using inventive techniques such as dragging a single horse hair across one of the fiddle’s strings. From this scene the movie’s focus wanders to a small community of peasant homes, where locals with their fiddles, hammered dulcimers, accordions, string bass, and flute (perhaps the ney) meet outdoors to form a playing circle in some small yard. The music here is lively, fast, and active, with the fiddles playing fluently and in unison virtuosic phrases with the accordion and ney while the santur provides percussive accompaniment and the bass harmonic enforcement. To contrast, the screen is then taken to a moving train car where a group of women and a little girl sing long narratives expressing feelings of hopelessness, rejection, and hurt, describing in particular the ideas of being cursed in the eyes of God and of belonging to a downtrodden social caste. In another scene there is an old woman bearing numbers tattooed to her forearm in front of her cottage by a river singing lyrics telling of the hunger and death swiftly brought by concentration camps at Auschwitz during World War II. Between the years 1941 and 1945, the concentration camps at Auschwitz had murdered between 1.4 and 1.5 million people. In another scene (as far as we got in the film at least) one finds a Romani family living out of a tree house surrounded by plowed fields and a gray sky, again singing lyrics whose themes express the condemnation and misfortune that has befallen the Roma people.

Strictly examining the music of the Roma, since these scenes travel from as far as Poland to Romania it is difficult to trace a development of musical styles and techniques. Even crossing language barriers with Slovak, Polish, and Romanian, there is little more to point to musically other than trends in instrumentation, that singing usually takes on a personal narrative form, and that melodies are narrow in range and are heavily ornamented with tonal inflections.

Week 6

The film “Latcho Drom” traces the musical heritages of the nomadic Rom people, following a small group of Romani as they travel the Asian continent from northern India through the Middle East and into Eastern Europe. During this journey the viewer witnesses an evolution of Romani music, one that corresponds to migrations typical to the Roma people as they adapt to new places and cultures. The movie’s first scene is of the nomads as they celebrate beneath a full moon. Accompanying themselves while singing are a group of females with their finger cymbals, also known as sajat or zills, who later swing bells on strings back and forth to the rhythm of the music. Providing instrumental accompaniment to the celebration and singing are also several males. One male sits with his legs crossed playing a large chordophone with features characteristic of a settar; another male decorates the music’s meter playing a clay pot type idiophone, perhaps the Indian ghatan; and playing in heterophony with the other melodic instruments is a man bowing a fiddle, one that resembles a cretan-lyra, or perhaps even a classical Turkish kemence. In another scene one witnesses the dancing of a couple in Egypt. During all this activity one hears: a chorus of fiddlers, all playing something similar to an Egyptian rababah; several drummers playing distinctly middle-eastern sounding percussion on the darabukka; and in addition the sound of a large tambourine, one that might be a bendir or perhaps a riqq. In the final scene (the final scene we saw in class at least) we are brought to a teahouse in Istanbul, Turkey. Providing accompaniment suitable to the occasion is a traditional tahkt ensemble, featuring distinctly Arab in addition to other more traditionally western sounding instruments, both of which include: the clarinet, the santur (a Persian hammered dulcimer), a couple of violins, again the riqq, and finally the ud (a Turkish plucked lute).

As one can see, all of the instruments here cannot be found within a single geographic region. The director develops the movie’s soundtrack by subtly altering its instrumentation, rhythmic style, and melodic characteristics to show both the versatility of Rom musicians and the intense diversity within their repertoire. As the viewer follows the Romani musicians through their long migration one can hear Arabic, Indian, Persian, Turkish, Egyptian, and even Baltic influences and their adaptation to Rom culture. Throughout this journey the Roma are always shown on the street, pulling carts, or grouping amongst the rural poor in crowded shelters. While the background changes from desert roads to small settlements and urban cities one can detect changes in the characters’ clothing. Shawls, tunic, and robes change to dresses, pants, and shirts; bright, vibrant colors turn to more muted and lighter hues. During this transition bare feet begin to have shoes and ox pulled carts take on metal-spoked wheels more suitable for the journey. Wandering from place to place without home, the viewer is reminded of the Roma’s rude history as a bunch of gypsies. Even if these people seem poor in wealth and power to me, they are rich in their liveliness and cultural heritage.

Week 5

When looking at the history of Japanese of Kabuki Theater, one can see the many ways in which society and artistic culture influence one another. Again, in the era of Kabuki Theater’s inception, Japanese society was strictly governed by rules created by the office of the Shogunate, which were enforced by the warrior Samurai class. Following what seemed to generate public interest and favor, the themes popularized by Kabuki Theater reflected a culture obsessed with the forbidden. Popular stories included upper-class men falling in love with prostitutes, forbidden lovers enticed by the choice of double suicide, and other plots dominated by elements of sex and violence.

No art is made in a vacuum, and in this sense modern film continues the influential exchange made between society and artistic culture. In the 1995 film “The American President”, one sees a divorced United States president lose public approval when his personal relationship with a lobbyist turns into romance. Reflecting the controversy surrounding actual President Bill Clinton and his connection to Monica Lewinsky, “The American President” depicts American values behind marriage and their influence on daily life. In the TV miniseries adapted from the novel “Roots”, author Alex Haley traces his family’s lineage back to his Gambian ancestors, who were captured and taken from their home by early American slave traders. “Roots” reflects the rise of racial minorities against political and social discriminations during the 1960’s and the mark left by slavery on American society. Fascination with violence is also an element seldom forgotten by modern film and in “Saving Private Ryan” is shown to great detail with the depiction of America’s infamous Normandy invasion during World War II. In “We Were Soldiers” and also “Windtalkers” the element of violence is again heavily emphasized while recounting the history behind America’s involvement in both World War II and the Vietnam War. In one way these examples show how politics and society influence American cultural, while in another way the values probed by these examples reflect the interests of the individual. More importantly, it is through the art of cinema that the values of American society and culture can be represented.

Week Four

When discussing the music performed for tourists by the native Naxi of Lijiang County in the northern region of China’s Yunnan province, Professor Helen Reese suggests that the Naxi traditional music is not as “ancient” as it is marketed to its foreign audience. Investigating the history behind this popular “authentic” Naxi musical tradition, Professor Reese points out that the Naxi, like many other ethnic minorities throughout China, inherited many of their cultural traditions from the Han Chinese, which included the musical-religious organization known as the Dongjinghui or Dongjing associations. At first these musical imports included poetic and sacred scripture, garb, melodies, tune titles, notation systems, and a heterophonic texture, although over time secular and informal practicing of these traditions evolved them to their truncated modern forms. Even though the Naxi musical ambassador and performer Xuan Ke presents his ensemble to tourists as being all Naxi, two of his players are in fact Han Chinese. And though the Lijiang ensemble points to their plucked lutes, double reed pipes, and heavy vibrato as being entirely Naxi developments, these differences are relatively superficial when compared to the structurally Han background over which they are superimposed.

In regards to an entirely different situation, when students from China’s Central Conservatory of Music led by Fang Kun performed their orchestrated “national music” at Durham England at the Second Oriental Music Festival in 1979, an American scholar criticized their choice of repertoire as reflecting more the traditions of Western classical music than the styles found in Eastern traditional music. In terms of authenticity, the argument raised here was that the Chinese orchestra in perfecting, redefining, and reinterpreting its own traditions, was in fact adopting practices not only foreign to its own culture but also destructive to its maintenance and growth. The argument in response to this went to suggest that this conservative view aims to arrest the development of Chinese music and that Asian music, following Taoist thought and tradition, is best preserved by recreating the moods found in older styles and genres. Although supporters and opponents for both of these arguments can be found on either side of the East-West divide, more accurately this debate boils down to a matter of individual preference. For even though conservative English patrons praise the Naxi for their “authentic” sounding music, the self-conscious musical fodder used at these foreign tourist oriented attractions is by no means authentic when compared to the musical styles played by the informal secular groups of neighboring villages for their own private entertainment.

This authenticity debate though can be interpreted in many different ways that fundamentally point to vagueness of the entire matter. Following the words of the Russian writer Peter Goullart, authentic in this context can mean “credible” or “convincing”, both of which correspond to the responses of the English tourists to the traditional Naxi performances. A different interpretation of authentic could also suggest that it mean “duly authorized, certified, or legally valid”, which has been adopted by the professional Chinese Central Conservatory of Music and the Communist government behind China’s cultural revolutions. Then again, authentic can also be thought of as exactly copying the form of previously inherited traditions, such as those of the Han Chinese. If such is the case confusion then surrounds the nature of what is being copied, from what historical era the original is taken, and whether the judge of this authenticity is a tourist, a Chinese minority, or a Han Chinese. Again, heavily imbued within this topic is the element of individual preference, which through subjectivity corrodes all attempts toward substantially identifying what constitutes being authentic.

Week Three

In performing the piece titled "Ratna Ayu", the Balinese gamelan ensemble of the California Institute of the Arts brought a traditional Indonesian artform to the Western stage. Despite the possible religious and cultural significance behind the performance's musical and theatrical elements, the environment surrounding the event is entirely secular, especially considering that many members of the audience most likely have no Indonesian family heritage whatsoever. Also, the intimate stage setting here allows for there to be both 'soft' and 'loud' style musical instruments, which together are conducted by the dancers through movements ranging in dynamics and tempo. In this performance the gamelan ensemble is parted into two groups by the stage, and the both colorful and formal attire of the musicians camouflage them well behind their golden instruments and the purple stage lighting. The Balinese gamelan ensemble here is presented as accompaniment, as an aesthetic inseparable from its use in Balinese dance and drama.
Contrasting the former performance is the presentation by the Balinese Gamelan Nyepi ensemble. Unlike "Ratna Ayu", the gamelan ensemble here plays facing the ocean on a beach laden with tourists, is amassed together as a single group beneath some beach tents, and accompanies no extra-musical groups. In this outdoor setting members of the gamelan ensemble are dressed in white gowns with white headbans. The gamelan instruments are arranged with the smaller instruments nearest to the shore bordering the front of the group and the larger gongs oppositely forming the border at the ensemble's rear. Following a solo intoduction, the ensemble proceeds in its performance by developing the song with layered, interlocking percussion patterns that grow in both rhythmic and technical complexity. Surrounding the gamelan ensemble are observers with their cameras, shoppers wandering between nearby stalls, and people both walking along the coast and swimming through the waves of the ocean. In this scene the primary focus is on the gamelan music itself and its composition by trained professionals musically communicating with one another through melodic cues and signals given by the larger gongs. Instead of being viewed as a regional aesthetic, gamelan music here appears to be more of both a cultural tradition and carefully developed school of music.

William T

In my free time and when I am tired of studying I play the piano. On campus I play in Bobby Rodriguez's Latin Band and am enrolled in George Bohanon's Combo as well. I am part of no cultural groups and my performances are limited to the quarterly concerts required of Jazz Studies majors. Like everyone I have my own tastes in music, which of course change over time according to what am I interested in. I am very particular to what I listen to, so when I am in the car (which is not in LA) I am trying to get in as much of the music as I can, sometimes thinking and other times not. With so much available media though, one's own voice can be easily drowned out, and with whatever remaining energy I have I bring it to my rehearsing.

I am interested in Ethnomusicology 5 because it is a general education class that pertains to my own interests. Picking up the scraps of the remaining classes offered each quarter I have too often taken classes from departments I really have no interest in. I am using this general education class to charge my spark for music and to solidify in my mind an idea of how ethnomusicologists think about music. The furthest I have travelled to is Japan, and that was only for a week and a half. My only family traditions are my dad's CD collection, the piano in our living room, and the Ken Burn's DVD documentary titled Jazz.