Rossini: Barber of Seville

The opera Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini is easily the most well-known opera by the composer. In this particular clip, the song employs very fast 16th notes and is forte throughout the majority of the piece. This contributes to the singings feel of snappy rhythm. The song's accompaniment, like most of Rossini's work, is very light and uses only strings and winds. Like nearly all opera, the singer himself uses a lot of vibrato. The vibrato may hinder the ability to understand the opera, but since I don't speak Italian it is a little hard to tell. While most of the song remains in forte, their are definitely a few of the 'Rossini crescendos' throughout the song.

The set up is very standard for a recorded for television performance. The singer is in front of the accompanists, with a microphone and standing up, while the rest of the performers are sitting. There seems to be a relatively large audience as well, though that could easily be a camera trick. The singer in the opera surprised me with his voice. While I did expect the normal low baritone tone to the voice, his stature and face just don't seem to match up. I also think the uncanniness may be linked to the fact that the audio is slightly off with the video.

The Music of Avatar

Wanda Bryant certainly had an interesting task with helping produce the film score for Avatar. While the movie definitely does contain a tribal "vibe" in the music, that is not always present throughout the film score.

How could it be? After all, a soundtrack that sounds like it came from the opening scenes of The Lion King can't exactly be expected to instill dread in the hearts of the massive amounts of people who saw the film. So while some of the nicer moments of the film, such as Jake's first flight with the dragon-like creatures contains a chorus and tribal drums with a happier sound, other scenes such as the toppling of the great tree the Na'vi live in calls for old-fashioned, loud, scary brass instruments.

Of course the culture of the fictional blue race is still obviously apparent, with a shaman like set of leaders, and constant gatherings of what appears to be the entire tribe. The only music they really make throughout the movie is a kind of chant where they all join hands. However, this kind of group music is the only kind that would really make any sense with the large tribes, real or fictional. Whether or not they are real, the Na'vi certainly do have their own culture in Cameron's three hour epic.

Musical Ethnography

Scott Easum

Professor MaryAnn Young

Music 1306

3/11/2010

Musical Ethnography

Introduction

I am covering the open microphone culture in and around Irving, TX. In my research of this culture, I have found that the main focus of the culture is on setting that goes alongside the music. Rather than the ideas and activities music itself being important, it is the social setting in which they are performed. The music is there to add to the environment the audience is in, rather than the audience attending to hear the music that is being played.

Methodology

Throughout the last five or so years, I have participated in many different music cultures, participating in things like bands as often as possible. However, even with doing those things, I had never seen an open microphone type of event done outside of a school up until this point. What I did to go learn about how these events operated was go straight to the source. In this particular case, the even was held at ZuRoma’s Sicilian Kitchen. Even though that sounds odd, the restaurant stays open late and has an entirely different atmosphere for the open microphone nights every other Wednesday.

It was immediately obvious as I walked into the “Sicilian Kitchen” that the event had changed it. Smoke filled the air, and the bar was full with about twice as many people it should even be able to hold. This restaurant was quickly turned bar. My main method of research at the now transformed restaurant was just going up and talking to the people who were there. Most of the interviews were done more as casual conversation, such as with the 15-year jazz drummer, whose band frequents the event, which happens every two weeks. Even though others there were talked to, they were more of the audience than the performers, and the drummer had given me the same information already. However, I also did a more formal interview with my guitarist Jasen Wagner at his much calmer and quieter house. He has a huge amount of experience in different types of music performance, and was a perfect candidate for the interview about the culture as a whole rather than specifically.

Aspects of the Music-Culture

The ideas of the culture are not complex, nor are they set in stone. For the most part, the culture of the open microphone exists to bring people together in a social setting. Both the audience and the culture seem to define their music as needing at least one guitar and a singer, though other instruments are both widely accepted and encouraged. The songs are usually faster to please the audience, since everybody is “[t]here to have fun and just hang out”(A). The dress is very casual, and in this particular case, the crowd. The music is performed at the event on stage at nights that change depending on where you go to this type of event. Once it starts though, the music is almost nonstop outside of the different acts changing between each other.

The activities in the culture are very open to everyone. Neither the audience nor the people running the event are picky about who is playing the music at all. Immediately when we walked in, we were asked what we would be playing. Though the instruments were certainly a dead giveaway, it shows that this really was “open”. Being a new act, the band that I played with at this open microphone went fairly early on into the night. The reception was there but the noise died down to minimum during us playing (ZuRoma). Though I was worried about it, he assured me “they may not seem like it, but they’ll remember it later” (Wagner). Sure enough, his statement was proved later in the night as somebody got up on stage and then as he hit a high note the crowd wailed along with him (ZuRoma). The ideas about the purpose of music are hugely different. Some of the performers are obviously passionate about their music, while others are just playing as they hang out with their friends. The music is always played, but for the most part, the crowd is always talking and being loud as well. Though I was there in the middle of the semester, the jazz drummer I met there along with just about everybody I talked to me said that the event was “standing room only in the summer. Sometimes even over one hundred people”(A). This creates a conundrum for the more serious artists. Even though they risk a crowd being louder than them and not even paying attention, if they can win over that crowd, they have a possibility of a huge following. However, most of the performers there are just people with their friends in a social setting. This means that the music is not really preserved on the internet or CD most of the time. It exists only in the minds of the performers and the audience members who frequent a certain place for an event.

The repertoires of music in the culture are widely varying. This music culture most definitely fits into the rock genre, but it does have the pop music focus on vocal melodies, especially with acts that just use an acoustic guitar and singer. However, these genres are not the only ones that are present in the performances, with people just doing things as jokes. Parodies of slow rap songs, and at the event I attended there was even a prerecorded song using auto-tuning and R&B styling as a joke (ZuRoma). The repertoires also vary greatly between cover songs done by other artists and originals. The music is composed outside of the formal event itself, and if it is transmitted from one person to another, it is usually in smaller areas practicing for events like this. Movement can accompany the music, but it is not a choreographed movement. Rather, some people movie with the beat of the song, most often when there is a lot of energy or a fast tempo in the song. There are lyrics, but they are unimportant to the audience. Though at my particular event the audience did keep yelling for somebody to “play us a sex song”(ZuRoma).

On that note, the material culture doesn’t include too many things. However, it most definitely includes alcohol. And judging by a table of 8 wailing at as high of a pitch as possible, the culture includes copious amounts of it. There are other things like guitars necessary for purchase for some people to play. However, since the event has no music being purchased, the places running it need some way of making money, which is why there is so much alcohol being sold. This, of course, is why the event is such a social setting. The plan also obviously works since the particular restaurant I went to is Sicilian Kitchen by day, and loud music playing bar by night.

Conclusion

Even with the focus on the social aspect in this culture, the music is still very important to the culture in many ways. Whether just to play and mess around or to try and win over the crowd and gain a following for other places, there is always a reason for the music to be playing, and the crowd will always be wailing along with it.

Works Cited

Person A. Personal Interview. 17 Feb 2010.

Wagner, Jasen. Personal Interview. 20 Feb 2010.

ZuRoma Open Mic Night. ZuRoma’s Sicilian Kitchen, Grapevine. 17 Feb 2010. Performance.

Pre-Musical Ethnography: A Work in Progress

Just as a small note, this is blog post 8. Its just a little late.

My music culture, which is open microphone events at different places around the western Dallas area near Irving, has an interesting problem. The problem itself is actually as much of an asset as it is a hindrance, making it unique, though unsurprising issue and intrinsic property of the culture. Quickly into the night, people tend to get extremely drunk. Though this helps research, by letting me interview people without even the slightest hesitation, it is a little bit hard to believe outrageous claims made by a man who almost just fell out of his chair while making them.

However, as I said, this is an intrinsic value. When you see two men walk up to their guitars, and set down a pitcher at their feet just in case their glass runs out in their less than 15 minute set, you begin to see this is a common thing.

Of course, there are more mundane problems of getting into researching these music cultures. Scheduling is always an issue, especially when trying to participate as both an audience member and a performer with others. Not to mention just finding the small signs in the sides of buildings pushed back away from the roads, as you drive up to an event starting far after the sun has gone down.

As an interesting note, one of the biggest hindrances in the music culture is just the general timing. Something to do at 8 the next morning? Have fun until 3 A.M. anyway, then drive 40 minutes and wake up in a few hours. However, there is a general sense that everybody is doing this, and just putting off sleep for another fun night.

Japanese Noh Theatre

Japanese Noh Theatre is easily the hardest thing I've been asked to describe in a long time. The act of the play itself is lost on most Americans, since it is about the beauty of the text along with the dance. The dancing, while seen as elegant, is extremely slow, making an understanding of the act of performing Noh necessary to enjoy watching it.

The elements of the plays include very nonpulsatile music from three different drummers and a flute, called the nohkhan, which works differently than the standard flute. This small ensemble is known as the hayashi and accompanies the actors. Another very frequent aspect of the performance I saw was kagekoe, which are the loud shouts from the different drummers in the performance. Another element was the singing style, where the pitch did not seem to be the main focus of the song. The play is performed on a stage with three open sides and a different back, much like many types of Western plays. However, Noh has no changes in the back ground never changes throughout the play and the props are minimal. Lastly, the masks in the plays obviously play a huge role, though a boy will never wear a mask in Noh theatre according to this site.

Indian Classical Sitar

After finding what I assume to be Indian classical music, I still don't understand how the behemoth of a chordophone that is the sitar is played at all. Though my song might be nameless, it certainly has the qualities of Indian classical music.

The accompaniment in the piece is very light, as it seems to just have the sitar playing along with a few drone notes throughout the piece. Even without the drumming the piece is very obviously Indian with the sitar, who seems to be improvising by doing different embellishments throughout the entirety of the piece. Much of this particular song seems to be going between a lower monophonic melody and a high chord back and forth, though most of the melody itself is the ornamentation.

Another interesting thing about the piece is its rhythm. I would say it is nonpulsatile, but the speed of the subdivisions in the music seem to be the same. The eighth notes always happen the same length apart from each other, but each phrase seems to come in at a random point. Because of this and normal Indian classical music tendencies, it is hard to tell if the song has a quasipulsatile beat or if is going through systems in its tala. Even though I don't know how to tell, I do really enjoy the sporadic rhythm of the piece, and personally find the song itself rather calming.

Googoosh: Man Amadan

Throughout Iran, the famous actor and singer Googoosh is very popular, and used to make pop music that was extremely well known in the 1960's and 1970's. In the song Man Ramadan, it is very obvious that the music is based in the Middle East, while still borrowing many more Western elements.

The first very noticeable thing about the piece that makes it so clearly Middle Eastern are the very quick melismas that appear frequently throughout the song. Both Googoosh's voice and the instruments do many of these at the very beginning of the song. Another big Middle Eastern element is the heterophonic melodies, played by many instruments at once with different embellishments. Usually the largest amount of embellishments come from Googoosh herself. Lastly, the instrumentation is very Middle Eastern, with stringed instruments rather than electric guitars accompanying the pop singer throughout the song.

As previously stated, the song has some Western elements too. The most noticeable is arrangement of the song itself, which seems to follow the standard verse refrain verse refrain pattern. Also, the refrain seems to have a more Western melody, without the complex and fast melismas occurring throughout the song. These multiple elements together mix to make a very interesting Iranian pop song.