Blog post 6 - Japanese Noh

Japanese Noh is not just a musical style, it is actually a kind of theater performance. Noh theater is an ancient practice that dates back to the 14th century. In both the acting and the music there is a strong emphasis on tradition. The actors of Noh theater do not wear makeup, but instead where very ornately carved masks. On such mask can be seen in the below video. The elements of the music in a Noh theater play are drums, flute, and chanting. When I searched for Noh on youtube, The first video I found was this:

But after some research I noticed that this resembled a slightly different style, which one source called Heike katari. The difference being that there was no chanting or voice element in this music, and rather than including a flute, this music included a biwa, or lute. So I continued searching and came upon this video:

As you can see, this includes all the above elements. Most importantly, in this video you can see the Noh acting. Noh can be described as a dance, though sometimes, in order to build tension, the dance is extremely slow (like the beginning to this video) with very little movement. But at other times, it is very vigorous and fast. These are all elements of the Noh theater, which cannot be separated from the music itself because they go hand in hand.

Blog Post 5

This particular performance of Hindustani Classical music included the characteristic drone that seems to follow you throughout the entire song. The lead vocalist was a woman who used the equally characteristic quarter-tone voice fluctuations throughout the pieace. It also included one man playing a set of membranophones, two women playing chordophones, and one man playing an instrument that looked like a box which I could not decipher which family of music instruments it belonged to.

They performed at a music festival, and the atmosphere was reverent, yet relaxed. I suppose that could be expected from music that is thousands of years old. Interestingly, Hindustani music is traditionally passed down orally, and, since this performance occurred in 2009, that would make this piece the result of generations and generations of preservation. I find that very intriguing.

The crowd, or the small glimpse you get of them, looked entirely Indian. The performers were also Indian and were dressed in traditional Hindustani attire. All these elements contributed to the feel of the performance, making it seem very traditional. In some videos I found, the performers were dressed casually, or it was performed by college students in a music ethnography class, and while the performance seemed good to my ears, it gave a different feel to my eyes. So I do think what the performers wore contributed to the music they played.

Blog Post 4, Better late than never

Similarly to what we discussed in class, I observed the trend of westernized instruments, especially the percussion, while staying in a very middle-eastern style vocals. Truly, the primary aspect of this song that set it apart as distinctively middle-eastern was the vocal melody.
It was good hearing about Googoosh and watching the video about her life before seeing this performance. One can really sense the passion and power in her music. It is also good to see such a crowd at this performance, and to know that she is so well accepted and respected now. Obviously this is a more recent video, but I also watched an older performance as well.

The more traditional Iranian instruments are easy to pick out, and she is dancing in this video, whereas in the newer ones she is more mellow and dances less. The passion can still be felt in her music.

Post 3 - Music Faculty Concert

Unfortunately, I lost my notes to the concert.
However, I do remember one song in particular, although I do not know its name. It was a very distinct piece or music: short, disjunct, fast paced, dissident, and it used one of the instruments in a unique way. This piece was performed by Mary Medrick on the piano, Ronald Neil on the violin, and Winston Stone on the clarinet, as well as a woman I did not recognize on percussion. All are members of the music department and have years of performance experience under their belts. This piece, like all the pieces of the night, had a Latin American theme, but it also had a few very different aspects as well. First, Ronald Neil, who had up to this point played skillfully on the violin, played his instrument by repeatedly plucking only one note very loudly, and, as if to show the absurdity of this, stood up, walked down into the crowd, and had the professor who introduced the musicians, even pluck one note, all while the other musicians simply carried on. In this aspect, the crowd was involved in the music experience in a very interesting way.
As far as time and space goes, it happened on a Friday night, which (at least for me) gave the concert a feel of entertainment, of fun. It didn't feel like an assignment!