Blog 6- Japanese Noh Theater

In today’s blog I will be discussing the Japanese Noh and some of its elements. As the textbook briefly states, “Noh is the classical theater of Japan.”(W. Alves p.208) Like any other fine art, noh is very popular among its culture and it highly developed, fashioned, and kept as a classical theater. The roots of Noh classical theater came about in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries and are based on folk drama. The famous Japanese Noh theater youtube video that I choose for this blog is the Japanese Culture Styling: Noh youtube video. The first thing that stands out in this video is the bright attractive colors and a mask in which the dancer had on in the performance. The performer seems to glade across the stage while moving to the song. The beautiful colors and setting of the performance grabbed my attention from the beginning of the play to the end. Once closely observing the Noh classical theater performance I noticed the slow tempos of the music, the sense of space between the notes played, and the different sound joined together. For example, nohkan bamboo flute and three other small drums which I believe them to be the kakko, tsuri-daiko, and shoko drums. The flute was the loudest instrument being played. All of these instruments are played and have a different sound. Instead of actually singing in the performance, it sounds like there is chanting with fushi to help produce great sound. Something I found to be funny is the fact that there was a man on the set who seemed to be a performer or musician but just sat on the stage doing nothing and finally just go up and walked off the stage as if nothing was happening.

Blog 5- (North Indian Classical Music)

The one you tube video featuring one Hindustani (North Indian Classical Music) and not featuring Ravi Shankar performances that I choose is Darbar on sky arts by Ashwini Bhide who is a melodic improvisation soloist. The first thing I noticed was the different versions of instruments, the tempo of the beat, and raga. The clip began with different clips of North Indian classical music and a fast tempo played by the drummer. Then the song actually began with a slow but stead rhythm with both high and low pitches. When watching the video I also noticed how the leader of the performance began the song with her vocals and chordophone or bin and then added homogeneous instruments and the drums to the song. The instruments being played were chordophones which was the theme sound throughout the song. The membranophones or tabla was played under the harmony of the chordophones which gave the song a soft and exciting melody.

Blog 4- Googoosh Golden Hit

When watching Googoosh Golden Hit entitled "Man Amadam" on www.youtube.com I found the piece difficult to comprehend as far as meaning is concerned. Though I could not translate the meaning of the song I felt as if the woman singing was at peace and in high spirits because of her body movements and facial expressions. The white clothing, setting, and the way she sat with her legs crossed made it seem as if she was singing a prayer of some sort. Also in the video the lady wore her hair in what we call today a wrap; around the year 1975 this was Googoosh famous short haircut and is still popular among females in Iran. My ideas about the music in the video is positive because the melody and harmony was soft, pleasing to the ear, and had a fantastic mixer of instruments to produce great sound. The video clip sounded as if it began with an aerophone instrument like a flute of some sort. Then the beat picks up with idiophone instrument which sounds like mallets with a bell to keep the pitch. The melody and some of the lyrics seems to repeat throughout the song which the textbook calls it strophic.
The Googoosh Golden Hit entitled "Man Amadam” is song by Faegheh Atashin whom goes by the nicknamed Googoosh. Faegheh Atashin was born in 1950 on the fifth of May in Azarbayjan which is an area in Iran. Googoosh started singing as a child and as her career grew she became more popular which lead her to do duets and sing with other famous people like Ray Charles and Tina Turner.
If you want to learn more or watch this clip you can go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8-duSlrJYY .

Blog 3

This is blog three and the topic is "An Evening of Latin Music" performed by the University of Texas at Dallas Music Faculty in celebration of the 40th anniversary at UT Dallas. I found the music concert to be overall wonderful and a great experience. The show was held around eight o'clock on Friday, January 29, 2010 at the Conference Center. I personally thought the time and place was chosen perfectly because it gave students time to prepare for the event with it being later in the day. I like the fact that it was in the conference center because you can just park in the student apartments or the parking lot across the way and not have a huge walk with it being cold outside that night. Though it was a bit cold outside the weather was okay because the concert was over before the weather could get to bad. With the setting of the concert being so great it lead to a full diverse house of students, teachers, and parents. You could tell that the audience love the concert because everyone applauded after each performance and knew the performers. The performers where faculty members dressed in all black and very skilled in there profession, might I add. There were both male and female performers; I noticed some of the performer were very into there music playing because you could observe them taping there feet while playing there instruments. The music played that evening was Latin music which I thought was pleasing to the ear. The Latin music sound fantastic with harmony. There was a chordophone, aerophones, and membranophone instruments being played by performers at the concert also. I enjoyed the part of the show entitled “How Insensitive and Lamento” because the beat was fast and you could dance to it if you like. My favorite part of the show was when the lady did a surprise number and song. The melody was great and lyric were easy to learn.

Blog 2

For my music ethnography assignment I would like to use gospel music that is mostly found in African American churches. I choose this because I find it very interesting; especially in the way the people in those kinds of churches sing the gospel. I think that there beliefs are in God but more as singing to praise not just singing. There music is a form praise to rejoice to the Lord. I noticed that in church more women tend to just jump up in sing that man do. I guess it’s a gender thing but at this point I am not sure. The music is transmitted from one person to another because you all just get this feeling inside that makes you want to participate. Also the gospel songs that are sung are general songs that are sung every Sunday so that most new and old church members will already know the songs. Music found in the church that I attend does have actual lyrics but sung in many different ways do to how you praise. If you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch you can see a great example of songs you no with lyrics but sung differently.