Cool Stuff: Arabic and Indian Music

     Hooray for the final week of the semester! Today we're going to be discussing some cool stuff from the Middle East and India. I really enjoyed the Arabic music chapter, so I'm excited to share this blog with you! 

#1: The Music of Qatar 

    Qatar is a small, peninsular country located to the west of Saudi Arabia. It also happens to be where my sister has been stationed since July (☹️). Since I had some personal ties to the region I decided to research and see if there was any interesting music to discuss-- and there is! Of course all of the instruments and styles we discussed in class are there, but there is one style of music that is unique to the country, and it's something that I definitely didn't expect to find: sea shanties! As I mentioned, Qatar is a peninsula, meaning it is surrounded on three sides by water, so I guess when you think about it it isn't too surprising to find out that sea shanties are pretty popular, but I guess when I think of sea shanties I think of like, Ireland or something. 

    A sea shanty is a type of work song, with a very simple rhythm and melody, designed to accompany hard, repetitive labor aboard boats. In the past, one of Qatar's main exports and sources of labor was pearling-- diving for and retrieving pearls from the ocean. So, yeah, lots of hard work on boats make for pretty good sea shanty time. Of course, these particular shanties aren't like the ones that have been going viral on Tik-Tok lately, but they're still pretty cool, and I thought I would share. You can see that the melody is pretty simple, and like most sea shanties there's a call and response thing going on, but you also get aspects of Arabic melodic style and traditional instruments and, of course, the language

#2: Al-Ayyala 

    I decided to do some research on some popular Arab dances, since we didn't get to discuss it much, and came across the Al-Ayyala, which is an art form that combines music, dance, poetry, and a little bit of acting as well. It is traditionally performed in the UAE and Oman, as well as in neighboring countries such as Qatar and Bahrain, with some cultural variations. The dance is performed by about 20 men, who carry bamboo sticks to depict swords as they tell the story of a battle. There is drum music and chant poetry with a simple melodic and rhythmic line. The dance is very popular and performed many times a year, though the poem being sung will change depending on the event or reason for the dance being performed, like weddings or cultural celebrations. Here's a clip explaining more about Al-Ayyala and showing different groups performing the dance: 

#3: Ragas and Emotions 

    I loved discussing Raga and Tala in class! I think learning about different music theories has been my favorite part of this class so far, because it's just so interesting to see how different cultures interpret the same basic foundations so differently from us. Anyways, for my last cool stuff I wanted to share some info from an article I read on how different ragas were scientifically proven to elicit different emotional responses. You can read/browse the article here, though it has a lot of big terminology that I didn't enjoy trying to decipher, so you might not either. Here's a recap: The article primarily discusses Hindustani music which, as you may remember, is North Indian classical music, and the meaning/uses of ragas in Hindustani music. As you may remember, there are tons of ragas, which can be used for a specific celebration, time of day, feeling, etc. The article goes onto explain that a major reason ragas can have such a wide array of emotional interpretations is the different versions of consonance and dissonance that exist between all of them. Since they all have different patterns of intervals, they can elicit or at least express a huge amount of different emotional responses. I also found this cool graphic that shows the Indian names for intervals and their western equivalent. Fun stuff! 

Big Blog #1: Shape-Note Singing

Week 3!! We’re almost done with week 3!! I’m really excited to talk to you guys about shape-note singing today-- it’s something I find really fascinating and I was excited to do some research on it, and I hope you think it’s as cool as I do. Some questions I hope to answer are: what exactly is shape note singing? How is it different from normal singing? Where did it get its start? Does it still exist today? If you have any other questions that I don’t answer in the blog, feel free to comment them! Otherwise, let’s get started! 

Definition and History of Shape-Note Singing

You may remember from music history (or intro to Music Education, if you were in there) this idea about singing schools. Singing schools were 1) the first kind of attempt at some formal music education, and 2) created with the purpose of teaching people to read and sing hymns and psalms in a worship setting. They began in the late 18th century in New England, but soon spread to other regions of the country. Why does this matter? Because it is from these singing schools that the shape-note singing tradition was born. Shape-note is a type of music notation, not completely unlike the way we read music today. The notes are placed on a five line staff with a clef and key signature, but you won’t see traditional quarter, half, and whole notes that range from do-ti. Shape-note notation is based on, you guessed it, shapes. Each pitch has a designated shape that lets singers know what to sing. This way almost anyone could learn to read and sing hymns without needing to know about music theory or how to traditionally read music. Originally, the shape-note hymns were based on a four note scale that went fa-so-la-fa-so-la-mi. Here’s a short video of a guy explaining and demonstrating shape-note singing better than I can: 

    Now, I know you're probably thinking: "Taryn, didn't you say this was in New England? That guy looks and sounds like someone I'd see in a Walmart down the road" or possibly "I thought you said this was a place to learn hymns for church. That definitely doesn't look like any church service I've been to". Which brings me to my next point: While the idea of shape-note singing did originate in New England church settings, it quickly became a very social event, especially among the rural south. Events called “singings” often took place once a week, where people could gather and rehearse, socialize, and make music. Again, the need for incredibly in-depth knowledge of music theory isn’t necessary, which allows for people to really enjoy the act of making music and the social aspect of it. Another thing you might have noticed is the title of the above video: “Kevin Barrans explains Sacred Harp Singing”. What on earth is sacred harp singing? Well, it’s basically shape-note singing! The Sacred Harp was one of the first and remains one of the most popular collections of shape note hymns. As shape-note singing became less about strictly music education and more about socialization and fun music making, people began to refer to it as “Sacred Harp singing”. As the tradition became popular among rural southerners, it did undergo a few changes. Some sacred harp singing that you hear may not be based strictly on the original shape-note scales, but may utilize a five note pentatonic scale that a lot of traditional folk tunes are based on, as well as some dotted and upbeat rhythms that might look complex written out, but are pretty standard in a lot of folk tunes. Here's an example of sacred-harp singing:

Some things to notice and think about: 

• Most of the people in this room probably can't formally read music. That is, if you were to write out this hymn with the same harmonies on a single staff with quarter notes and whatnot, they'd probably have some difficulty reading it
• Notice the first time they sing it, they're using the four note syllables, fa-so-la-mi, then the second time they transition to words. 
• Notice that funky thing they're doing with their hand? That's to help keep the beat. In some groups everyone does it, in some only the leader does it, and sometimes, like here, just a few people do it. 
• Do you hear any instruments? No! Sacred Harp singing is almost always a capella. In fact, sometimes they don't even have formal pitches given to them-- the leader will pick a note, give it to the group, and say start. Crazy, right?! 
• Lastly, what do you notice about the vocal timbre of these people? Do they sound like classically trained musicians? Ready for the MET stage? ...probably not. Again, remember that a lot of Sacred Harp singing was and is about socialization and the joy of making music, not a polished performance that meets the requirements and standards of western art music. 

Shape-note singing today

    Does Sacred Harp singing still exist today! It sure does! While not as common as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries, there are still churches that sing this way and always have. It's true, however, that in recent years the amount of shape note singing has begun to dwindle. Something interesting is that it has started to get a kind of revival among an unlikely group: college students and young people. Many universities around the country, especially in the south, have taken an interest in the art form, saying that they like the "non commercial" aspect of it as well as the low pressure environment and history. A quick google search will take you to plenty of websites where you can locate singings near you, as well as groups and communities of sacred harp singers. Finally, here's a heart warming video that shows lots of people from different walks of life who've all come together to help the Sacred Harp tradition live on:

Citations and stuff:

Eskew, Harry. “Shape-Note Hymnody.” Grove Music Online, Jan. 2001, www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000025584#omo-9781561592630-e-0000025584-div1-0000025584.4.

Thanks for reading :)

Cool Stuff: Music of Sub-Saharan Africa

 #1: Black Panther

    Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE superhero movies, especially Marvel, and ESPECIALLY Black Panther, so I thought it was so interesting to learn about the talking drum and how it was used in the Black Panther score. Something I loved about Black Panther the first time I watched it was how rich in culture it was, and how different it was to every other superhero film I've seen. The costumes, the characters, and especially the music were so immersed in African culture, but there was also evidence of western influence (especially in soundtrack), because it still was a movie about a superhero, which is a very western idea. ANYWAYS, I found this pretty cool clip of a documentary about the composer, Ludwig Göransson, on how he went about scoring the film, what his influences and inspirations were, and how he decided what instruments would be used. 

#2: Baaba Maal

    If you watched the above clip, then you know that one of Göransson's biggest inspirations was Baaba Maal, a Senegalese musician. I decided to do a little more research about him and thought he needed his own section of the blog! Maal is a very famous and grammy nominated musician, who has been active since 1989. He is from the river valley region of northern Senegal, and belongs to the Fulani people, who are somewhat nomadic. He says that this has influenced his music greatly and inspired him to travel the world, saying that"travel and music are inextricable. “It’s part of my culture. The songs travel from village to village, from country to country. It’s something natural to my tribe and this part of Africa.” He is known for blending traditional African music with funk, reggae, and rock. He credits his love of music and travel partly to his mother, who encouraged him to become a musician. You can read more about Baaba Maal on his website, and here is a video of the opening track from his newest album "The Traveller". I will also leave you with this quote, which I really liked: "Most of the problems we have are because people don’t travel enough and discover other people and enjoy their company. By traveling you discover that humanity is so beautiful: different faces, different cultures, different colours, different sounds. To live in one place is very boring. When you travel you realise that humanity and the planet is a very big gift, in spite of some of the man-made horrors. This is what I want to celebrate." 

#3: Female Artists in South Africa

    I felt as though we talked about and watched a lot of men, not only in this unit, but in all of the units we've covered so far, so I decided to do some research into some popular South African female Artists and share that with all of you. I found an article that lists the top 10 most streamed South African women, complete with playlists with lots of their songs. Number one on this list is Shekhinah, a singer-songwriter from Durban, South Africa. Her first album, Rose Gold, is certified platinum, and is REALLY good! A quote I really like from her is "Music is my first language, no matter where in the world I am. I chose these songs to represent all the places I've been and favourite moments I have lived, each one holds a special place down memory lane and each artist is a Queen in their own way and space, these are must know hard hits on my playlist."

My Musical Culture: Music and Religion

 Hello! I hope everyone has survived the first week of classes and is having a great start to their second. For this blog post I decided to talk about music and religion, partly because its something that I've recently taken a lot of interest in and have decided to do some independent research on, but also religious music is a REALLY big part of my life (and my income). For backstory: at the beginning of my sophomore year I took a church job as the alto section leader for St. Christopher's Episcopal church here in Spartanburg. I've never been an avid church-goer, mostly because I hated the church I grew up in, as well as any of the other ones I visited, and I was never exposed to anything outside of southern Baptist. For the first few weeks of my church job, I had to really struggle to get my head on right. Everything was so different than what I was used to! But I actually grew to love it! Everything is very liturgical in the Episcopal church-- you do things in a certain order, for a certain reason, every Sunday, and it makes sense. And there is a LOT of music! Opening processionals, sequence hymns, anthems, communion hymns, and closing processionals, PLUS the sung Gloria, Sanctus, and fraction anthems. And sometimes there's more than that! On special occasions our priest will chant a portion of our service, which I absolutely love, and sometimes we chant psalms rather than just saying them.There's something really special about chant to me. I think it's because chanting is so intentional. When you're speaking the words it can be whatever, just reading from a book, but if you're singing/chanting them, you really have to feel every word and think about it as you say it. Here's an example of anglican chant, if you're curious, plus a video explaining how it works, if you're REALLY curious: 

Something that took me a little while to adjust to was the "seasons" of the church year (there's a lot of them!) and the corresponding music that went along with them. As I mentioned before, we sing A LOT, and some of the things we sing are the same every Sunday, namely the Gloria and Sanctus. These are always in the same place in the service every Sunday, and the same words, but not always the same settings. Depending on the season, a different musical setting will be sung. When I say seasons I don't mean winter and summer, but different times in the Church's liturgical year that go along with important celebrations, so things like Easter (and lent before it), Christmas (which is preceded by Advent) and so on. There's a lot more that goes into this, but I'm not qualified to explain it all 😬 nor would I know how to. The point I'm trying to make is that I often sing the same words in several different tunes, depending on what it is I'm celebrating that Sunday, and I think it's really cool. Each of the settings have their own mood and feel. Here's two different versions of the Sanctus (the first one is my favorite!) with the words "holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!" 

Cool Stuff: Music of the Americas

     

#1: Hoop Dancing and James Jones

Hello again! When we first started this unit I remembered a Native American Youtuber/Tik-Toker (is tiktoker a noun yet? anyways he has a lot of Tik-Tok videos) that I discovered over quarantine. He posted a lot of traditional dances and songs as well as the history and meaning behind them. His name is James Jones and he is a member of the Cree nation, which is one of the largest groups of Native American tribes and is based primarily in Canada. You can look him up on Youtube, Instagram, or TikTok @notoriouscree. Something he posts a lot about that we didn't discuss in class is hoop dancing, which I will not do justice trying to explain so I'll post one of his Tik-Toks: 

    After a little bit of research I found out that hoop dancing is thought to have originated in tribes near the western Great Lakes, such as the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Potawatomis. As James mentioned in the video, the hoop dance is a healing dance. It was originally intended for religious purposes, but has since become modernized and has become a public dance rather than just ceremonial. Something interesting to know: the hoop is considered a sacred symbol in many Native American cultures, representing the cyclical nature of life (kind of like how we talked about balance in Navajo ceremonies). Oftentimes different hoop dances depict things found in nature such as animals or plants. While these dances are performed at powwow competitions, it isn't as common as some of the other dances we saw in class because it is considered a specialty dance. Here's another one of James' hoop dancing videos which he captions: "The hoop dance, is a healing dance. It has the power to heal through movement & story telling. In times of turmoil, remember Mother Earth is a powerful healer. She has the power to create life, and take life. and if she becomes sick, we will become sick. the air she breathes, the water she drinks. how we treat the land, is how we treat ourselves and our future generations. Mother Earth. an elder, a story teller, a life giver. she is now healing herself. As humans We can no longer take, without giving".

#2: Pamyua

    I was going to make this section just an overview of some other modern native bands/artists I found, because I wanted to see what else there was beyond what we listened to in class. PBS has a great article on Native American musicians, as well as Spotify playlists of some good songs. ANYWAYS, through this article I discovered Pamyua (pronounced bum-you-wah), and they really deserve a whole section to themselves. Pamyua is a group of four indigenous Inuit musicians, who combine traditional Inuit music and storytelling with R&B and funk genres. Their songs are mostly sung in Yup'ik Inuit, and when performing they try to tell a story through their music and the use of masks that they wear. The two songs I've linked below are pretty different, but it's easy to tell where their influences come from. In Ocean Prayer there is a constant, steady drumbeat, much like the Native American music we've listened to in class. The song has a relatively small range and is very chant-like, which makes sense considering it's a prayer. It goes between unison and harmony, almost like a call and response set up. The second song, Bubblegum, sounds like it could be on any pop radio station. The song is sung in Yup'ik Inuit, but even if you can't understand the words it's impossible not to smile and dance along as you listen. There is still a very steady and repetitive drum beat, but the rhythm is a bit more complex, and there are aspects of American music like the guitar and the harmonies. 

3: Natural Dyes in the Andes

       Okay, I was really excited to write this one! I thought it was so cool to see how the textiles were dyed in the before-quiz materials and I wanted to learn more about that process and the type of plants that can be used to create colors that vibrant, and also how the knowledge has been kept alive in the Andes. I found a great article on the plants used to make the natural dyes, and I'll highlight a few of the really important ones here: 

Red: apparently red is super important to the Andean people! It's rich, vibrant color is most often achieved using Cochineal, a type of scaled insect that kind of looks like a red roly-poly. The shell is left to dry out in the sun and then ground into a fine powder. 

Green: There are a lot of ways to create the color green, and the shades and hues of green vary widely depending on what region you're in. This is obviously due to what kind of leafy plants are available and how much sunlight exposure they get. 

Blue: The use of tara is mostly used to get a blue hue. Tara is a plant that kind of looks like a pea pod. However, when it can be found, many Andean natives love to use indigo to dye their yarn. Indigo does not grow naturally in the region so it can be difficult to find. 

The video below is from an exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art that displayed several textile works such as bags, clothing, and tapestries. While most of these are from the Inca, which isn't exactly what we talked about, it's still really cool to see how the tradition of textile making continued and developed. 

Blog #1: My Musical Culture

     Hello to anyone reading! My name is Taryn. This is my third year here at Converse; I'll be graduating this coming December with a B.M. in Music Education. Since coming to Converse in 2018, I've done a lot of things. I've changed my major and career plans a bunch of times, I've been involved in student government and residential life, I'm on the swim team, and I've been in quite a few performances here at the PSOM. However, before coming to Converse, I wasn't nearly as involved with extracurriculars or music. 

    I grew up in a very small town outside of Columbia, SC. I can't say that my family didn't care about music, because both of my parents LOVE music, just not the classical kind. I was raised on strictly 70s and 80s rock/pop--The Eagles, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, CCR, etc, but the only classical music exposure I got was choir at my high school, plus going to see The Nutcracker at the Koger Center. When I came to college I had no idea how to play an instrument, I had never seen an opera, and I could just barely read music enough to squeak by the sight-reading portions of my audition. Deciding to study music in college was less a question of passion and more one of money-- I was lucky enough to get a music scholarship, and I needed all the help I could get to pay for this place I was trying to convince my parents to send me to. Thus, in August of 2018 I walked through the doors of PSOM as a music freshman. 

    I wouldn't say that I never looked back. In fact, my lack of knowledge about basic theory, standard repertoire, and general cluelessness to all things music gave me a lot of insecurities and a bit of imposter syndrome, especially during my first year. Did I really belong here? Were the constant headaches from staring at one chord on a piece of paper worth it? Did everyone secretly hate me and think I was stupid? Did I need to just give up and move back to the farm? Luckily I managed to (mostly) overcome those feelings, and I discovered that music was so much more than just a way to pay for school-- it had a rich and exciting past, present, and future, and there was some kind of music for everyone. I love the idea of always getting to learn something new-- there's always some piece of music I haven't heard, some new composer I get to discover, some obscure 17th century opera I get to watch... you get the idea. 

1. Music that is important to me 

    This is a song by The Eagles, my dad's all time favorite band, called Take it Easy from their 1972 debut album. As I mentioned before, I grew up mainly listening to 70s and 80s music, but this song is particularly special to me because of a memory I have. I was probably about 13 or 14, and my family took a week long trip to Folly Beach. I was obviously in the throngs of teenage angst, plus my dad and I didn't really have a lot in common. I mostly thought of my dad as some guy who gave me money sometimes. I had brought a friend with me on our vacation, and I was mostly spending time with her, but one day my dad asked me if I wanted to walk to the pier with him. We walked down the beach and when we got to the pier he bought us ice cream, then as we were walking around we came across a guy playing the guitar and busking. My dad gave him a $5 and asked if he knew any Eagles, and the guy started playing, you guessed it, Take it Easy. My dad and I didn't really say much, just sat and ate ice cream and watched the water. But after that I made an effort to be a little nicer to my dad (as nice as a 14 year old girl can be) and I started listening to the Eagles myself. 

 

2. Music that has helped me through the pandemic

    I had to think about this one for awhile. I've listened to a lot of music since March. I recently have gotten into listening to vinyl records, which is fun because normally the old classical records are only a few dollars. I was going to share my collection with you, but I thought I'd share something a little more fun. Since all of this mess started I've started watching a lot of comfort shows-- mostly cartoons or animated shows that make me happy. I decided to rewatch Steven Universe, which if you haven't seen I HIGHLY recommend. A quick synopsis: the show is about a young boy named Steven who is half human and half crystal gem. The crystal gems are essentially aliens, magical gemstones whose bodies are made out of light. His mother, Rose Quartz, gave up her form so that he could be born, and he now has her gem and lives with the rest of the crystal gems: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. His dad, Greg, is a musician/ex-rockstar who has passed his love of music down to Steven, so most of the episodes have one or two songs within them. While they can sometimes be cheesy, the show has a lot of good messages and is really quite beautiful. Here's my favorite song from the show (if you don't listen to anything else, please listen to this one!) and my favorite quote from the song: "Is there anything that's worth more than peace and love on the planet Earth?" 

3. Music I really don't like 

I really, REALLY, hate atonal music. Music History IV was a nightmare for me. Occasional weird harmonies are fine, but an entire piece (or an entire OPERA) where I have no idea what the tonal center was, if there even was one? 0/10. A total headache. What is the point? Anyways, here's a Shoenberg piano concerto we listened to in Music History IV. My jaw was more or less on the floor the whole time. What is the point of listening to music that doesn't sound like music? 

Edit: I just remembered that we were supposed to try and say something respectful about it anyways. My previous comments still stand, but I will add that I often get into arguments with my girlfriend, who is a fantastic artists, because she absolutely despises contemporary artists like Pollock, and says that it isn't real art, to which I reply that art is less about what it's supposed to be and more about what someone takes from it, meaning that if someone looks at that and really thinks "wow, that's a great piece of art", then how can you say it's not? I suppose music is kind of the same way. There are some people out there who love atonal stuff-- they love analyzing it, figuring out what's going on, and good for them. Still can't stand it though.