Cited: Alexander Akorlie Agordoh, African Music Traditional and Contemporary, Nova Science Inc, 2005
Cited: Alexander Akorlie Agordoh, African Music Traditional and Contemporary, Nova Science Inc, 2005
Polyphonic music uses two or more independent melodies; whereas monophonic music has only one independent melody.…
Place: The music, art, literature, and cultural practices of Africa have provoked interest and respect throughout the world. The old belief that Africa is somehow childlike in its cultural development has been denounced as people become more familiar with the rich traditions of the continent. The music and literature of the people have found their way into houses and classrooms around the globe. We are beginning to learn through the works of scholars, film makers, and writers that Africans can teach us much more than we can show them.…
2. Why is the study of prehistoric and ancient music important? What can we learn from it? One must understand the past to prepare for the future. We must…
Within the music of the twentieth century can be seen influences of folk and popular music, Asian and African music, and European art music from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century. The principal parameters of music — tone color, harmony, tonality, rhythm, and melody — undergo vast changes in relation to the music of earlier periods. New musical innovations in this period include the prominence of the percussion section, new ways of playing conventional instruments, polychords, fourth chords, tone clusters, polytonality, bitonality, atonality, and polyrhythms.…
1. Live musical performances, in several aspects, are often associated with heavy partying, drinking, and promiscuity. Professional harpists are no exception to the pressure of caving to this kind of lifestyle. Don Cesar Muquinche explains in his interview that his father was subjected to a great deal of pressure to engage in heavy drinking that could last up to several days. Professional harpists were integral to a variety of celebrations and ceremonies in Tungurahua and the surrounding regions. For this reason, harpists were in extremely high demand and travelled the country for events frequently. Harpists not only suffered from the exhaustion of playing for several days at these celebrations, but were also highly encouraged by the attendants of these events to engage in drinking. The temptation was often difficult to ignore for these harpists, as they were subjected to witness the party-goers engaging in what seemed like never-ending drinking. Don Cesar Muquinche’s father was of the very few professional harpists to successfully resist the urge to submit to such heavy pressure throughout his entire career. He saw how many harpists suffered the harsh consequences of spending all their earnings on alcohol and leaving their families penniless in the end. Muquinche Sr. swore to himself that he would not cause such hardship for his family, and worked hard to obtain property for his family to inherit. For much of Don Cesar’s life, the suffering a professional harpist went through kept him from becoming one himself. From reading Don Cesar’s personal accounts, it seems as though Cesar believed he was not strong enough to bear the temptation and exhaustion that accompanied harp playing. However, Don Cesar eventually gave up his first career as a hat maker in order to become a professional harpist because he could not ignore the joy it brought himself to see others love his music. Cesar greatly admired his father’s hard work and found…
Instruments like drums and guitars were used, and changes in tone, along with clapping and stomping [8], are traits that made African music so distinctive. Improvisation and the call and response method described the type of music that was so highly different from that of the Europeans. The variation in rhythm is another trait that distinguishes African music from that of Europeans.…
The cultural legacy of West Africa is music. Music marked important events, communicated people and also was for celebration. One term was the call and response. A call and response is a song style in which a singer or musician leads with a call and a group responds. Instruments that were used in West Africa were goni, kara, balafon, rattles, and drums. West African music and dance is still performed all over the world.…
There is a wide variety in types of music in different geographical locations. For instance, African music has had a long journey. The beat of the music that tribes created travelled with the Africans when sailing over to America. Eventually, reggae evolved in the Caribbean. In later years, African Americans started singing revolutionized versions of their previous music (Bebey 83). Using the beats of their ancestors, they eventually created gospel, blues, jazz, and etcetera. Even these genres would later branch off and evolve into more contemporary genres such as hip hop and rock n’ roll. (Bebey)…
My favorite composer and musician is Trent Reznor. Mr. Reznor has been the solitary mind behind the “band” Nine Inch Nails as well as a creating force within many other musical ensembles. He has been referred to as “the most vital artist in music”. When considering historical figures in music, I tend to recognize similarities more within the life and works of Robert Schumann than any other. First and foremost, Schumann was a musical master of the Romantic Era. If Reznor could be placed in any historical era based upon his music, there would be no question that he too would have been a “Romanticist”.…
The History of African-American Music through the Centuries African-American music has influenced modern artists and songs quite heavily, but the music itself has developed immensely over the years. Every century has seen innovative genres come to life, and you’ll see that African American musicians have contributed tremendously in this. 19th century With the prevalence of slavery and the Second Great Awakening of the 1830s, African Americans created spirituals and work songs to ease their pains and sufferings they felt working under the control of white masters. Following the U.S. Civil War, the music changed tremendously with a lot of foreign and popular influence.…
Blues is the root of modern pop music. Blues is after the civil war, by American black Africans in poor underlying life creates music. In the process of development, as the change of black life circumstances and the thought emotion, it has experienced the change of different style. Its on the development of contemporary pop music in the world is produced an indelible effect. In this paper, the development course of Blues, to explore the impact of its pop music to the world.…
There are many different forms of music all of which have individual styles and characteristics. These forms and styles are generally categorized, by the media, music industry and audiences, into musical genres. These genres are more or less determined by such factors as geographical location, for example Nashville and Country & Western; time period, for example 1950’s and Rock’n’Roll; social relevance, for example 1970’s and Punk; and of course the variables of musical form itself including instrumentation, technique and particularly the distinctions made between Art, Pop and Traditional music. The emergence of new genres, or sub-genres, can in truth occur from an almost infinite number…
In the American culture, there are non- African songs that have been influenced by the African culture. This influence can occur either in the instrumentation or the way it is composed. Those songs that are influence by the African culture have elements similar to that of African music. There are many musicians that have composed their music similar to African music. Some of these musicians are Shakira, Juan Luis Guerra, and Paul Simon to name a few. The purpose of this paper is to present songs that have been influenced by African songs both in their instrumentation and composition.…
As someone who understands both the simplicity and the complexity of music, I am very opinionated as to what makes music “good” or in better words, worth listening to. Composers such as Vivaldi, Mozart, and many others helped to define music of their generations. Everyone knew and appreciated the works they composed, and a great number of people still find the time to appreciate it. In the rock and roll era, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin started revolutions in their own ways. These artists each helped to shape today’s music. Other artists that have changed music as it is known today include Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Queen, Billie Holiday, and many others. My respect for the aforementioned artists is overwhelming. These artists of the past are definitely still worth listening to.…
1. Scope and Objective of the Course: This course intends to inform the debates, issues and development of Indian music over the last century. The course will be mostly theoretical which will include weekly readings, occasionally supplemented by audio recordings. Apart from the development of Indian classical music, the students will also examine other musical forms including popular and folk music and the contemporary practices around sound. 2. Text Book: Roy Ravindra, An approach to Sangeet Notes EDD 2005 3. Reference Books: 1. Amanda J Weidman Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern: The Postcolonial politics of Music in South India Duke University Press 2. Janaki Bakhle Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition Permanent Black 2008 3. Ravi Shankar and Peter Lavezzoli The Dawn of Indian Music in the West Continuum 4. Matthew Harp Allen and Tanjore Vishwanathan Music in South India: The Karnatak Concert Tradition and Beyond: Experiencing Music Expressing Culture Oxford University Press 5. Lakshmi Subramaniam From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy: A Social History of Music in South India Oxford University Press 2011 6. Subramaniam, Lakshmi Veena Dhanammal: The Making of a Legend Routledge 2009 7. Sheila Dhar Rag N Josh: Stories from a Musical Life Hachette India 2011…