Schedule and Assignments: Introduction to World Music (Fall 2017)

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Sep 6: Hearing music of the world: World Folksong, Alan Lomax, and Cantometrics

Lecture notes Sep 6

In class

  • Prelude: Listening and understanding the meaning of what you hear... Nay sounds (quarter tones), Sufi hadra, Ghana post office music (at 0:14), Rosie (on Global Jukebox, under Learning -> Accredited lesson plans)
  • Musical stretching: Rosie
  • Course syllabus and course mechanics
  • Definitions: "Music", "World Music", "Folk Music"
  • Lomax and Cantometrics. Documentary: Lomax the Songhunter

For the coming week (due Sep 13)

  • Read 15 pages:
  • Browse websites:
  • Write (1 short paragraph, 3-5 sentences): What do you think of Cantometrics and Lomax's enterprise as a whole? What worked, in your view? What didn't? Write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences maximum!) and submit via eClass for September 13.
  • Group work:
    • Develop your own group version of Global Jukebox: Rosie (under Learning/Lesson plans). OR Develop a collective table-top drum piece (with singing), along these lines. Perform in class (just 1 minute or so!).
    • Odd numbered groups (1,3,5,7,9,11): critique Cantometrics, but come up with a different way of comparing musics of the world; optionally, outline your ideas via Google Drive/Google Slides (or you can simply plan to talk through your points)
    • Even numbered (2,4,6,8,10): defend Cantometrics, and introduce refinements to make it even better; optionally, outline your ideas via Google Drive/Google Slides (or you can simply plan to talk through your points)

Sep 13: When is music not "music"? The sound and meaning of Qur'anic recitation

In class

  • Did you attend last Sunday's concert?
  • Remember to check our schedule, and let me know about concert events to share with the class.
  • World music concert September 23-24

Prelude: Sound and Meaning; Name that Tune

  • Rosie via David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj ("Hey mama")
    • What do you hear? World musical influences?
    • How has the meaning changed?
    • Celebration of the original? Or exploitation?
    • What are the implications for world music?
    • See this article by Jeff Miers.
  • Name that tune! Hearing and Understanding via Cantometrics' Jukebox...where in the world?
    • Social organization of the performing group
    • Nasality

Musical stretching

Singing microtones in the Arab maqamat (approximately "scales")

Group work

  • Admin
    • How did the group work go?
    • Reorganizing the groups? Some people have dropped. We can reconfigure.
    • A note about group performances: they are not graded; they are short; you can feel free to bring any instruments you play; you can be as creative as you want.
    • A note about group presentations: they are not graded; they are short; you're just presenting ideas briefly (usually in response to films)
  • Today's group work:
    • Performances (Rosie or table top music)
    • Opinions about Cantometrics and Alan Lomax

Review concepts

  • Ethno (culture) prefix
    • "Ethno" can mean (1) culture itself, as a noun, or (2) a modifier on the following concept, meaning: consider the "local" cultural point of view with respect to that concept
    • Ethnography: writing about culture
    • Ethnology: (approximately : cultural anthropology) study of culture)
    • Ethnobotany, the local perspective on "the study of plant life" (=botany), e.g. e.g. this Arabic edition of the Greek Dioscorides’s De Materia Medica (circa 1334) describing the medicinal features of cumin and dill. More generally: ethnoscience.
    • Ethnoscience
    • Ethnocentrism: bias due to implicit assumption of a cultural frame as the "center". Compare: Cultural relativism (evaluations always in light of an explicit cultural frame).
    • (Question: Are any concepts not cultural? Is "music" itself ethnocentric?).
  • World music: (a) an attribute of a collection of music from multiple places/cultures (universal definition); (b) an attribute of a single piece of music in comparison to an implicit musical model (ethnocentric definition).
  • Ethnomusicology: the study of world music (Ethno-musicology, or ethnomusic-ology?)
    • Comparative musicology (e.g. Cantometrics): cross-cultural, skimming the surface...more sound-centered: ethnomusic-ology
    • In-depth fieldwork (Lomax did that too!): getting into a culture...more meaning-centered: ethno-musicology


5 minute break

Introduction to Qur'anic recitation (tilawa)

  • Ramadan, Lailat al-Qadr: aural Revelation
  • Revelation resounded (610-632); Divine text, 6236 verses (ayas) in 114 chapters (suras)
  • Oral - written duality
  • Style emerges in sonic more than textual dimensions
  • Use of maqamat in improvisatory performance
  • Basis for education in language and (de facto) music
  • Etic: sounds like ritual music - so is "music" in a scientific sense ; Emic: it's not music! (more precisely: not musiqa موسيقى in Arabic)
  • Reciter is called a Qari'.
  • Public recitation is used in prayer, funerals, and other occasions.
  • Mujawwad vs. Murattal styles of tilawa
  • Try reciting al-Fatiha using maqam Bayyati, by following along with Toronto-based reciter Idrees Ally

Film: Qur'an by Heart (start by 8 pm)

Discussion

For the coming week (due Sep 20)

Viewing:

Read: outsider and insider introductions to Qur'anic recitation

  • The Qur'an Recited, by Kristina Nelson (from Garland Encyclopedia of World Music v. 6 - Middle East. If you have trouble with the above link click here and navigate to the article under section Part 2 Understanding the Musics of the Middle East: Issues and Processes). This is a sympathetic outsider's account of Qur'anic recitation, treated in broad context. (5 pages)
  • The Overnight Qari - Read from the beginning to the end of Section 2, plus Section 4 (equivalent to 15 pages of text; there are many images and half-full pages); skim the rest as you like. This is an insider's account of Qur'anic recitation by a Canadian, focused on teaching you to recite.
    • Click on media links and watch as you wish, but especially please watch: Surah al-Fatiha in Seven Maqamat. Listen to the first four maqamat: Bayyati, Hijaz, Rast, Nahawand (and the others if you like: Sikah, Saba, Ajam).
    • Practice reciting along with the recording in each maqam.

Based on the film and above readings, write:

  • What is Qur'anic recitation, and why is it so important for Muslims? What is the role of musical sound? Why isn't tilawa ever considered a musical genre? How do the insider and outsider perspectives exhibited in our readings differ (consider: audience, writing, topics of focus, strategies of communication)? Write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences maximum!) and submit via eClass for September 20.

Group activities:
Groups should discuss the film from one of the following topical perspectives, and present your ideas very briefly (3 minutes max) in class next time.
Each group pick any one topic or theme. Try to meet, but you can also work collaboratively on a Google Doc. Place your collective thoughts in your Google Drive folder. Next time one or two groups will volunteer to present their ideas.
What does this film about a Qur'anic recitation competition say about issues of:

  1. gender : male /female relations, patriarchy and feminism
  2. ethnicity (esp Arab and non Arab)
  3. nationalism (and nationalist bias)
  4. oral/written traditions
  5. sound / text , reciting / understanding
  6. politics and Islam
  7. center / periphery (urban /rural)
  8. tradition and modernity (especially technology, media)
  9. secular / religious (especially in the domain of education)
  10. Islamophobia / understanding
  11. fundamental and moderation in religion
  12. literacy / illiteracy
  13. competition
  14. family relationships

Sep 20: Arab music and history

In class

Prelude: Name that tune!

...sampling from the Global Jukebox...

Announcements

  • Group (re)organization: now that add/drop deadline is past we can finalize groups.
  • Take attendance by group
  • NB: Each group should make use of the Google Drive space to organize their weekly assignments. Please be sure you add an assignment for each week so that I'll know you've worked together. These will not be evaluated but simply count towards participation. (If you've done them, you get an A!)
  • GMSA World Music Festival: this weekend! You may use this opportunity to write your concert review.
  • Next week: Distinguished Visitor George Chunga Otiende. (Did you attend his event last night? He'll hold a free storytelling workshop on Sep 30. We'll do some (musical) storytelling in our groups as well.

Musical stretching

Review: Arab maqamat (approximately "scales"): Bayyati, Hijaz, Rast.

New: Arab Durub (approximately "beats"). Here's a simple notation system to represent them.

  • 3 letter alphabet (D, T, -): Dum (low sound) represented by D, and Tek (high sound), represented by T. A rest is simply a dash: -.
  • Sama`i Thaqil (10 beats): D-- T- DDT --
  • Muhajjar: how many beats do you hear?
  • Maqsum (4 beats arranged as 8 half beats): DT -T D- T-

New: A famous Egyptian Song Ghani li shwaya

  • in Maqam Rast and Darb Maqsum
  • sung by the Arab world's most famous singer, Umm Kulthum in the 1945 film Salama, telling the slightly fictionalized story of a singing slave girl (qayna or jariya), an actual figure in Arab musical history.
  • Composition by Shaykh Zakaria Ahmed, lyrics by Bayram al-Tunsi.
  • The work subsequently became famous as a standalone song.
  • Genre: Taqtuqah: verse/refrain form, each verse in a different maqam. See if you can hear the changes....

We'll learn the refrain only, and listen to the maqam changes in the verses....

Arabic:

  • Ghannili shwaaye shwaaye,
  • Ghannili wa khud ainaya

English Translation:

  • Sing to me softly, softly;
  • Sing to me, enchant me [literally, "capture my eyes"]

Verses change the maqam, always returning to chorus on Rast; the following maqamat are deployed on the verses as numbered below:

  1. Rast
  2. Bayyati (on the 5th degree)
  3. Hijaz (on the 5th degree)
  4. Huzam (on the 3rd degree)
  5. Rast (with a shift to Bayyati on the 5th degree)

Group work

2-3 groups present, one of the following:

  • Sep 13 assignment: Cantometrics assignment OR Rosie OR Tabletop music
  • Sep 20: assignment: "Qur'an by Heart"
    • General discussion - questions, responses
    • One or two groups volunteer to present their responses


break by 8 pm

Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt

  • Inadvertent institutions of musical training...
    • The kuttab (Qur'anic school): recitation trains in diction, memory, breath control, pitch, timing, maqamat, Arabic language...
    • The Sufi order (tariqa): Five Sufi hadras of Cairo: deploy inshad dini, melodic chanting of poetry, whether solo, choral, or call/response.
  • Introduction: linking Qur'anic recitation, Sufi hymnody, and singing
    • The crucial role of Qur'anic recitation and Sufi hymnody (inshad) in
    • training the Qari or imam or Sufi performer....but also....
      • training future singers
      • establishing their authenticity and respectability
    • The honorific "shaykh"
  • Umm Kulthum (1904-1975): Kawkab al-Sharq (Star of the East).
    • the most important singing star in the Arab world of the 20th century.
    • Why? What catapulted her to fame?
    • Her story is the story of Egypt
  • Film: A voice like Egypt (67 minutes - start by 8:23).
    • The dissertation and book (by Virginia Danielson) and the film (directed by Michal Goldman, 1996).
    • Some personal remarks on the film

For the coming week (Sep 27)

Storyteller George Chunga Otiende is our special guest artist next week. Browse his website, and watch one of his performances. Come prepared to participate, learn, and ask questions! What is the role of music, dance, and drama in storytelling? How does "music" include related arts, such as dance, literature, drama...?

Read:

(If you have trouble with the above Garland Encyclopedia links click here and navigate to the article in Volume 6: The Middle East.)

Watch: her film Salamah (unfortunately I can't find a subtitled version but a synopsis is available at this link ; you may like to skip just to the songs.) You might also like to listen to Novelist Ahdaf Soueif talking about the singer with Virginia Danielson on the BBC.

Write: In a short paragraph of 4-5 sentences (maximum): Why and how did Umm Kulthum become such a huge star? What were some of the most important factors? Her talents? Her upbringing? Her environment? (The development of the media? The historical moment? Politics?) Include the role of Qur'anic recitation and Sufi hymnody. Submit via eClass for Sep 27.

Group activity: Listen to the durub (rhythms) on the Maqamworld site. Develop a group performance of any selected darb whose meter is not in 2, 4, 6, or 8 (i.e. the "numerator" of the meter is not one of those numbers). You are welcome to develop a creative performance combining multiple rhythms, either sequentially or simultaneously. Use claps, foot stamps, tabletop raps, or bring any percussion instrument. You do not have to add any melodic parts or lyrics (but you can if you want to!). Record your rhythmic performance, and place on Google Drive. Once again, these assignments are evaluated simply for participation - if completed you will receive full credit. There should be no worry about musical ability, talent, quality of the recording, etc. (Note that you can record using any smartphone.)

Sep 27: Special guest: George Chunga Otiende, storyteller from Kenya

  • Did you attend the World Music Festival last weekend?
  • What is music? Here, in this class, we generalize! All the performing arts and practices, along with their associated artifacts, are connected, and in many cultures they are never disconnected...
  • .... music, song, poetry, rhythm, chant, dance, drama, liturgy, ritual....sound producing instruments, costumes...
  • Ethnomusicology seeks to expand the usual objects of musicological study ("beautiful sounds" as presented in the Western concert hall) to a whole world of sound, considered in performative context as a social activity with cultural meanings, as inextricably connected to related arts, and as studied from a broad spectrum of disciplinary angles.
  • These angles include the study of literature, dance, and drama, all inextricably linked to music.
  • Applied ethnomusicology also seeks to develop musical forms for positive social change, as in our Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology program Music for Global Human Development. See especially: Singing and Dancing for Health, in Northern Ghana.

Introducing a master storyteller/actor/musician who exemplifies world music in all these senses....actor/singer/dancer/storyteller George Chunga Otiende!

Kenyan born Chunga Otiende’s award-winning story performances have been seen across western Kenya and beyond, sometimes delivered in up to three languages and including music, dance and story. In addition to offering entertainment and connection to culture, his performances have had significant social impact in communities, including awareness of healthcare issues, government corruption, and youth education.

Note that Chunga will conduct a story creation workshop this coming Saturday, Sept 30, from 10-5. (Free of Charge but participants must register as there is a size limit. Contact: Jan Selman <jselman@ualberta.ca>). See course calendar for this and other events.

In class

Chunga

Storytelling workshop with Chunga Otiende, including performance, question/answer, discussion, and participation, towards a deeper understanding of musical storytelling, how it works, and what it can do.

Group performances

Group performance of any selected darb whose meter is not in 2, 4, 6, or 8.

For the coming week (due Oct 4)

  • Write: Why do you think we humans have evolved as the "storytelling animal"? What is the role of music and song in storytelling and drama/theatre, and what is the role of storytelling and drama/theatre in song? How does music harmonize with the narratives of storytelling and drama as a non-scientific "mode of thought"? Drawing on the readings (and showing that you read them!), be as creative and speculative as you like in your one-paragraph answers (5-6 sentences). Submit on eClass, as usual.
  • Attend (optional): Chunga's story creation workshop this coming Saturday, Sept 30, from 10-5. (Free of Charge but participants must register as there is a size limit. Contact: Jan Selman <jselman@ualberta.ca>).
  • Group work: In your groups, either create (1) a song that tells a story, or (2) a story that centers on a song. These stories should be quite short ; songs can be very simple too - using basic forms such as call and response or chanting. You may wish to incorporate previous group songs (Rosie, rhythmic composition of durub...), or develop something new. But be sure to make your story-song dramatic - and entertaining! Remember the theory of milestones (within which there may be improvisation), the dramatic curve of exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution; and the use of music in transitions, creating a mood, and breaking the fourth wall with audience engagement. You may draw on existing stories if you are focusing on creating the song, or draw on existing songs if you are focusing on creating the story, but originality is encouraged. As always, you will not be graded on "quality" (whatever that means), but rather on wholehearted participation. Enjoy the process, and prepare to present your works in class next week. (Don't worry - Have fun!) Attending the workshop on Saturday is recommended if possible. (See above and course calendar.)

Oct 4: Polymelorhythm: The Rhythmic Construction of Social Relationships in Africa and its Diaspora (& Cantometrics line 7)

In class

  • Distribute graph paper and attendance sheets

Music listening and stretching... and a few other topics: Classification, Fieldwork

  • Demonstrate kashakas (televis) - from film
  • Listening: Cantometrics examples - I've gathered examples of maximal integration from Cantometrics Line 7: Musical Organization of the Orchestra
    • 1 = no instruments
    • 4 = monophony (solo instrument - not necessarily solo player. Gray area: if instrument produces multiple timbral classes, e.g. playing guitar and rapping on the body)
    • 7 = unison (multiple instruments all playing the same melody)
    • 10 = heterophony (multiple instruments with slightly different takes on the same melody)
    • 13 = polyphony (including harmony: contrast in pitch, as well as polyrhythm: contrast in time)
  • Interestingly, many of the polyrhythmic examples represent the African and its diaspora in the New World, especially the Caribbean and South America. What does this mean? Musical connections follow socio-cultural connections.
  • Classification and understanding in ethnomusicology (and anthropology)
    • Hornbostel-Sachs classification of musical instruments (top level: chordophones - aerophones - membranophones - idiophones), an ETIC view (scientific, designed to be universal, one-size-fits-all)
    • Local classification schemes (e.g. strings - woodwinds - brass - percussion), an EMIC view (reflecting local knowledge and belief)
    • ETIC vs EMIC distinctions
    • OUTSIDER vs INSIDER statuses (a distinction different from ETIC vs. EMIC ! the OUTSIDER is not necessarily carrying a scientific frame at all times, but may also carry his or her own cultural biases into a foreign culture; the INSIDER is not necessarily privy to all EMIC distinctions, since the latter depend on the social and linguistic domain)
    • What happens when the OUTSIDER carries her or his own EMIC scheme for classification or understanding to another culture? Result: ETHNOCENTRISM! (seeing the entire world from your limited cultural point of view, assuming that it is universal when it is not)
    • For instance: we might hear music employing quartertones as being out of tune, simply because the pitches aren't found on a piano - we're so used to the piano that we view it as an absolute and scientific frame, though it's not.
    • In ethnomusicology we strive for cultural relativism - or what Lomax called cultural equity: all cultures are equally valuable.
    • However we noted that it's easier to be relativistic when making aesthetic judgments (you call it beautiful, I call it ugly - but that's ok) than when making ethical judgments (you call it right, I call it wrong - not ok).
    • This state of affairs leads to a host of unresolvable problems in fieldwork...
  • Fieldwork in ethnomusicology:
    • We've explored a few musical areas so far...a question arises...
    • How can we know anything about music?
    • Positionings and modalities (observation, participation, participant-observation, interview, lessons, performance, recording...).
    • Local patterns of sound and meaning known to culture bearers (emic) - but also broader patterns of sound and meaning OUTSIDE the ken of culture bearers (etic).
    • Fieldworkers are often cultural outsiders, but can also be cultural insiders (as in this week's reading).

Group performances of story-songs

ALL GROUPS TO PERFORM IN CLASS! :)

short break

Polymelorhythm, social status and structure in Ghana

  • Melorhythm: "...rhythmic organization melodically conceived and melodically born". (Prof. Meki Nzewi)
  • E.g. Arab rhythms (demonstrate on duff), Ghanaian rhythms. Drum language.
  • Polymelorhythm: polyphony of melorhythm (multiple contrasting simultaneous melorhythms)
  • How to notate melorhythm using graph paper. (examples: Maqsum, Sama`i Thaqil, Ewe bell sequences)
  • How to notate polymelorhythms (ex: 3 against 2, 8 against 3)
  • What is the relation between rhythmic and social integration? Is Cantometrics on the right track?
  • Polymelorhythm and expression/generation of social structure and status in Ghana
    • Back to the post office! Solo (but not monophonic!)
    • Exploding the drummer (ppt)
    • The Ewe people of SE Ghana, and concept of Drum. Atsiagbekor: an Ewe war Drum now used as a funeral drum. (ppt)
    • Social relationships in Kinka: an Ewe social drum, also used for funerals (http://kinkadrum.org)
    • Social status and structure among the Dagomba in Northern Ghana (videos - watched in class only (sorry - I can't make the raw footage public at the moment).

For the coming week (Oct 11)

Read

  • Kinka: Traditional Songs from Avenorpedo (read Ewe Music and Culture, by M. Frishkopf, and listen to clips here from the track list. Also browse lyrics and transcriptions as you like at http://kinkadrum.org. If you would like to purchase this CD for $10 let me know. Proceeds support the composer, Norvor, and singers performing on the album. 10 pages (equivalent).
  • Melo-Rhythmic Essence and Hot Rhythm in Nigerian Folk Music, by Meki Nzewi. The Black Perspective in Music. Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 1974), pp. 23-28 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/1214145): 5 pages. (Prof. Nzewi is a highly respected Nigerian composer and ethnomusicologist)
  • The Social Mechanics of Good Music: A Description of Dance Clubs among the Anlo Ewe-Speaking People of Ghana, by Kobla Ladzekpo. African Music, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1971), pp. 6-22 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/30249952). Read pp. 9-13; the rest is notation - browse as you like: 5 pages. (Kobla Ladzekpo is a master drummer from Ghana as well as music scholar, recently retired after 38 years as adjunct associate professor of West African music and dance at UCLA)

(NB: the above two articles are from jstor. If you're offcampus you'll have to login first via http://www.jstor.org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/ then search for the titles.)

Watch: Listening to the Silence, last 15 minutes or so or via the Library catalog here.(we watched most of this film last time, so just complete it, unless you didn't come to class last week...) and also watch The Drums of Dagbon or via the library catalog here. Note: You need to have an account with Films on Demand to use the direct links - if you are unable to log in go via the UofA Library.

Write: How can polymelorhythmic performance express or forge social structures and statuses? How can we find out, in any given society, whether they do that (express? forge? both?) ? How can we know and what is the role of fieldwork in finding out? What is the evidence from this week's readings and films? How do you evaluate readings and films differently when they are the product of cultural INSIDERS (as some of this week's are). Write just one-paragraph (5-6 sentences). As always, submit on eClass.

Groups: compose a polymelorhythmic piece, using graph paper, such that each group member has a unique part to sing or play; the parts should fit together as in polyrhythm: different, but related. Invent your own instruments, perhaps featuring more than one timbre or pitch, or use body percussion (clapping, stamping, mouth sounds...). Develop a performance, record and upload. Also upload the score, in graph notation. Class performances are welcomed!

Oct 11: Cantometrics, Cultural Equity, and Applied Ethnomusicology

In class

Midterm quiz format (Oct 18)

  • Please arrive promptly at 6:30
  • Quiz: 6:45 - 7:45 (one hour only, then break for 10 min)
  • I will distribute a Review Sheet containing terms and phrases to know. Each term or phrase appeared either in class or in a reading or film. If you missed some classes you should get notes from your group or others.
  • Review each term or phrase for its significance in this class
  • Quiz: You will receive a xeroxed sheet containing a list of terms drawn from this Review Sheet, and an exam booklet. You will select a certain number of those terms and phrases. In a paragraph of about 4-5 sentences (but no more than one page of the exam booklet), you will discuss the meaning of each term or phrase, as presented in this course.
  • There will be no additional homework or reading for next week. However you may like to study together in your groups.

Musical stretching

Cantometrics: line 7 (Musical Organization of the Orchestra), training tape.

  • Monophony
  • Unison
  • Heterophony
  • Polyphony

Melopolyrhythm in African music and its diaspora (line 7): Social structure and status

  • Melorhythm (Nzewi): "rhythm that is melodically conceived and borne"
  • Example of melodic membranophoning (drumming): the lunga
  • Example of melodic idiophoning: the mbira
  • Combined they become polyphonic - polymelorhythm
  • More colloquially we might call each such polymelorhythm a "groove"

Tactus focus: Ghana (Ewe of the SE, Dagbamba of the north)

  • Each polymelorhythm in the pan-African traditions is bound together by a basic beat and tactus (pulse).
  • Example: pattern in 12 (review 12=4x3: 12 pulse divided into 4 beats of 3)
  • Review
    • Review Agbekor rhythms using this Groove Mixer, from the Ewe people of SE Ghana
    • Review Agbekor rhythms (speak UPPERCASE aloud; whisper lowercase)
  • Perform and check tactus focus
    • Divide ourselves into four parts, each sing one melorhythm of Agbekor.
    • Go silent on signal. Check our communal tactus: can we all rejoin the texture?
pulse (tactus) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Meaning
gankogui L H H H H H H
kagan MIA VA mi A FIA MIA VA mi A FIA we are going to show our bravery
totodzi dzi DZO GBE dzi dzi we will be on the battlefield
kidi kpo FE GO DZI kpo FE GO DZI Look back at home


  • Tactus Focus: Video examples from Dagbamba people of Northern Ghana: two status-structure ensembles in conflict at a status-affirming funeral. The two groups co-exist in the same space, maintaining separate

Group work

Group performances:

  • Polymelorhythm graph paper compositions
  • Storytelling with world music (?)

short break


Applied ethnomusicology and Participatory Action Research (PAR): Refugees and Health

  • What can ethnomusicology do beyond knowledge creation?
    • Ethnomusicology as action in the world: positive social change (This year's International Week: Arts for Change)
    • Cultural equity (Lomax): promoting the idea that all cultures are valuable
    • Development: social, economic, cultural. Related Issues: peace, health, employment, cultural continuity
    • Participatory Action Research (PAR)
  • Music for Global Human Development: PAR Ethnomusicology
    • Mainly in Africa (Liberia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Egypt) but also in Canada
    • Liberia projects: mediated and popular music for peace and for health
      • Giving Voice to Hope (CD): postconflict healing
      • Sanitation: health
  • Ghana projects: live and traditional music for cultural continuity and health
    • Kinka: http://kinkadrum.org (among the Ewe people of SE Ghana)
    • Singing and Dancing for Health: http://bit.ly/sngdnc4h Use of storytelling, drama, comedy, costume - along with music, song, dance (among the Dagbamba people of Ghana's Northern Region)

For next week (Oct 18)

Listen to tracks from "Giving Voice to Hope" and read the notes. (I meant to give you each a copy of the CD itself - next time!)

Browse various Participatory Action Research projects under Music for Global Human Development:

  • Songs for Sustainable Peace and Development: typically mediated, these songs induce change through lyrics
  • Music for Cultural Continuity and Civil Society: encouraging a "culture of music" to promote continuity, maintain identity, develop a participatory society

Otherwise - no new homework. Just review for quiz. (Review sheet coming soon!)

Oct 18: Midterm quiz; Music and Refugees

Midterm quiz

Please arrive promptly at 6:30 with a sharp pencil. We'll start the quiz by 6:40 and end by 7:40. (Class will then continue after a short break, so don't go away!)

Review sheet for midterm quiz, 18 Oct 2017


Applied Ethnomusicology and Participatory Action Research: Music and/for/by Refugees

Reading, listening, watching


Writing
Review the works: the film, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, the CD, "Giving Voice to Hope", and "The Long Road" -- in three paragraphs, the first mainly descriptive, the second more critically evaluative, and the third analytic (submit on eClass, as usual):

  1. Describe: What is the scope and content of each production? What are the aims of the two projects? What strategies are deployed? What did each project involve? What are the differences between the two situations? the differences between the projects?
  2. Critique: To what extent are the aims achieved? Can music really make a difference? What do you think is the impact of each project? What do you think of them and why? What does music do for these refugees? What can music do for refugee situations generally? What can't music do? What really drives these projects - who funds them, and why?
  3. Analyze: The refugee music we've heard combines local/global, acoustic/mediated, old/new in various ways. How and why are tradition and innovation combined in refugee by/for refugees? (refer to the article, "Tradition in the Guise of Innovation"). Consider factors: context, creative participation, audience. Do you consider this combination to be a strength or a weakness?

Group work

  • There are over 65 million forcibly displaced people in the world today, including those forced from their homes due to conflict, hunger, political instability, economic dislocation natural disasters, and other causes. What can music do in such situations? Select a current refugee situation -- anywhere in the world-- and outline a collaborative music project that you believe could help in some way. Imagine that you are applying for funding. Define your project and a convincing argument for funding it. Your project could involve live music, or music media -- and you may draw the boundaries of "music" broadly to include allied arts (dance, poetry, storytelling, drama, comedy, costume, film, etc.). What would your project do, and how? Define the project, draw up a plan (how would you find people with whom to collaborate? would refugees themselves be involved, or not? what would you do together exactly? how would you ensure & maximize impact?) and a rough budget. How might you make your project sustainable? Explain why you think your musical strategy has a good chance of success.
  • Upload a 1-2 page summary to your group's Google Drive folder, and come to class prepared to present your project to the class.

Oct 25: Music of India, with special guest Dr. Deepak Paramashivan

In class

Please make every effort to attend this class. The following videos will be shown and discussed:

For the coming week

Read

Read the following articles

Browse: any other article or documentaries (in addition to the ones we watched in the class) on Indian classical music on the internet that might be of interest to you.

Become familiar with the basic terms introduced in class and supplemented by the readinags, especially: Raaga, Taala, Swara.

Write: How did ritualistic music influence presentational music in India? What are the fundamental differences between Karnatak and Hindustani music? How did urbanization facilitate social mobility of hereditary musicians? (One paragraph of 5 sentences).

Nov 1: Music of Nepal, with special guest Subash Giri

In class

Note: please find materials listed below in the Nepal folder on Google Drive

Introduction to Nepalese drum - Madal

Nepalese Traditional Rhythms in Madal (pdf on Google Drive)
Khyali (4/4) Rhythm (audio on Google Drive)
Jhyaure-Terso (3/4) Rhythm (audio on Google Drive)
Jhyaure-Thado (6/8) Rhythm (audio on Google Drive)
Newari (4/4) Rhythm (audio on Google Drive)
Samhala (4/4) Rhythm (audio on Google Drive)
Sorathi-Laami Taal (14/8) Rhythm (audio on Google Drive)
Sorathi-Choti Taal (4/4) Rhythm (audio on Google Drive)

Musical stretching

Resham Firiri (Famous Nepalese folk song)
Original
Japanese singer Aoi Sano
Chinese singers
UK singer Alexander
Korean kids - 6:09 - 8:27 minutes
Class singing - Resham Firiri (Text and Sheet music on Google Drive)

Sorathi - Nepalese Dance Song

Introduction
Performance (Text and Sheet music on Google Drive)
Watch documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5eDlhX2Zfw
Watch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REWbm-84ocI

For the coming week

Read: Madal: The most popular drum of Nepal - Read all (pdf on Google Drive)
Nepalese musical instruments - Read pages 398-401, 411 (pdf on Google Drive)
Dances of Nepal: Sorathi - Read all (pdf on Google Drive)
Gurung music and cultural identity - Read all pages - focus 211-212 (pdf on Google Drive)

Write: How is Madal used in different traditional music of Nepal? What is the significance of Sorathi dance song in Nepalese music and culture? (write 1-2 paragraphs)

Group work: With your group select one traditional song or rhythm that is very common in one of your communities, with a historical or mythological meaning. Everyone should learn it and develop a performance together.

Nov 8: Interlock (& Cantometrics line 1)

In class

Midterm results

Prelude: Cantometrics listening (line 1)

World Music: Humanism, Science, Critique

  • Humanistic value: interlocked vocals are valuable
    • Musically and emotionally powerful
    • Everyone is so deeply engaged with one another
    • Vocal music is more immediate, intimate - no intermediary: the VOICE
  • Scientific value: Cantometrics makes two claims
    • First: The INTERLOCK style is related to certain styles of social organization: interdependent, often non-hierarchical, sociocentric
    • Second: The INTERLOCK style along with these forms of social organization are very OLD: and song data can support genetic data pointing to connections among diverse populations, especially "Pygmy" and "Bushmen"
  • Critical value
    • Representations of "the other" - even when idealized and romanticized can often fall into stereotypes and ethnocentric generalizations.
    • Such representations are valuable as a means of honing our critical skills
    • SOURCE vs. REFERENCE
      • Reference: containing truth statements about the world
      • Source: containing statements which may not be true, but that will teach us something when placed into context
      • That context is typically implicit; the critique makes the implicit explicit.
      • Example: Richard Wallaschek's book on Primitive Music tells us about music of the world, but tells us even more about the author's world of the late 19th century.
      • Claim: everything in the world is a SOURCE. We turn SOURCE into REFERENCE through the process of CRITIQUE:
        • Making assumptions explicit.
        • Adding enough qualifying, conditioning, contextual information to make sense of it.
        • That which is untrue in general may be true in relation to a context.
        • The goal of critique is to excavate that context: the author's life and times, and society, for instance.
    • We urgently need a CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE on the whole phenomenon of "WORLD MUSIC"! Many statements about world music are designed to SELL. We find statements that World Music is...
      • Exotic
      • Primitive
      • Percussive
      • Organic
      • Natural
      • Mysterious
      • Mystical
      • etc.

"Pygmies": Humanistic, Scientific, and Critical Views

  • Humanism: Way of life is threatened and disappearing.
  • Science: cantometrics supports genetic evidence pointing to old links to San peoples (Bushmen) despite no social linkages
  • Critical: training our critical eyes
    • The word "pygmy" actually covers many different linguistic groups with different traditions (as does "Bushmen" or San), and is often considered pejorative
    • Indigenous populations in central Africa; forest dwelling hunter-gatherers formerly interdependent with local Bantu farmers
    • Marginalized groups with very little power, even in their own marginalized nation states (Congo, Central African Republic…
    • Atrocities: discrimination, exploitation, environmental destruction, slavery, cultural destruction... violence...even genocide (in Congo, Rwanda...)
    • More subtly: violence of representations. The discourse of “pygmies”:
    • stereotyping, racism: exotic, semi-human, primitive, “ancient peoples”
    • Often appears in FILM: we must critique films (source/reference).
    • Easier to view as SOURCE by looking into the past - 1970s documentary films.

FILMIC and ETHNOGRAPHIC representations.... watch and critique

We'll watch the first of these today; you can browse the others at home.

  • Pygmies of the Rainforest, by Kevin Duffy
  • The Pygmies
  • The Pygmies of the Ituri Forest
  • Critique these filmed representations. Consider: narration, musical soundtrack, image.
    • How do they represent the “other”?
    • How do we stereotype people? Where is the line between stereotype and racism?
    • What role does music play in this process?
    • Is romanticization always a positive thing?

Colin Turnbull was a famous anthropologist who romanticized the "Forest People" as he called them. His book "The Forest People" is a truly beautiful ethnographic portrait. Yet there is bias also: his representation of their world can also be critiqued once one understands the larger context, including his own life. You'll read more about and from him for next time.

Creative perspective on INTERLOCK

  • Group work: create an interlocking vocal texture
  • Example: my own creation inspired by Baaka singing

For the week after next (due Nov 22)

(Nov 15 is Reading Week - our next meeting is Nov 22)

Assignment:


WRITE: CRITIQUING CULTURAL REPRESENTATION
Critique these representations ( the book, film, and recording) of music and culture, in light of Colin Turnbull’s own life, the times in which he lived, and the circumstances of their creation (as represented in part in the bio, and reviews) . How can you interpret these documents and deconstruct their biases, by adding contextual information? What do you learn in the process? In 2-3 paragraphs: unpack representations of “pygmy culture” as presented in the film, recording, and book, placing them into the context of Turnbull's life story (Grinker), the world of anthropology, and audience expectations. What is represented and how? What is omitted? What is the intrinsic value of these representations? What do we learn from these works of scientific or humanistic value about the "forest people" ? On the other hand: what do we learn about those who created these representations? How are typical "world music" attributes ("mystical, primitive, authentic, natural, ancient...") instantiated here? How is the subject matter romanticized? What kinds of statements strike you as overgeneralizations, idealizations, distortions, or racist? Where is there bias and why? Consider all aspects of the productions: images, music tracks, narration, documentary soundtrack/score, narrator, descriptions, selection of scenes…The bio and reviews will provide some ideas on how to critique, though they too can become subjects of your brief statement. Submit via eClass.

Group assignment: Creating Interlock
See my piece: "Mbaka Experiment", inspired by “Mbaka” song. Note how the four parts interlock…they don’t start at the same place, and they fill each other’s gaps. Also see this clever circular representation of the interlocking Balinese Kecak Dance(cinematic version from the film Baraka).

Your group project: Perform either piece, or compose and perform your own interlocking vocal group performance (an instance of line 1 = #13, Interlock). Record and upload and be prepared to perform in class.

Nov 15: No class

Nov 22: Throat singing, from the Arctic to Mongolia

Announcements:

  • Korean music concert this Saturday evening - FREE! Great opportunity for your world music review papers. Also: workshop on Friday, 10 - noon. See course calendar
  • Final quiz review will be prepared for next week (Nov 29)
  • Final quiz is Dec 6 from 6:35 - 7:35. Please don't be late! Afterwards I want each group to perform any of the term's group assignments. (Meanwhile we'll celebrate with a small party!).

In class

Cantometrics line 1: Interlock

Group performances of interlock: volunteers to perform in class?

  • Kecak?
  • Mbaka experiment?
  • Your own inventions?

Throat singing

Generally this "etic" term refers to the use of guttural sounds in the throat. Many different genres are lumped together under this heading. But is it merely an exoticization of certain kinds of singing? Or does it refer to a united phenomenon?

Smithsonian folklife festival, 2006

Throat singing in the Arctic

The Inuit of Canada

Inuit = "the people". The Inuit are one of three indigenous or aboriginal peoples in Canada recognized in the Constitution Act, 1982, along with Metis and First Nations. All have lost the vast majority of their lands with the coming of settlers. Music is an important means of connecting to others, and maintaining identity - both in performance, and across generations. For the Inuit, traditionally living in the far north, throat singing has taken on that role.

Map of Inuit peoples

  • The indigenous name for throat singing varies with the people. Called Katajjaq in Nunavik (northern Quebec)
  • Human voice is masked, linked to nature.
  • Technically: guttural sounds, production of sound on both exhale and inhale creates continuous sound.
  • History is unknown - links to shamanism? Banned by priests for 100 years. Recent revival over past few decades only. Vastly predates "Canada" (linked to other circumarctic styles)
  • Current style: Interlocking game, played mainly by girls and women, at first for entertainment
  • Absorbed as Inuit identity symbol in popular culture as well as art/fusion musics, and music for change -- also adopted as a national Canadian symbol.
  • Trudeau swearing in ceremony
  • The Man and the Giant: An Eskimo Legend: nationally-funded representation in filmed folktale

Throat singing as identity and continuity:

  • Juno award winning singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark, on the importance of throat singing for cultural continuity

Throat singing and the avant-garde: identity and feminist/social-political/environmental criticism:

The Ainu of Japan

Today's Ainu live primarily in northern Japan (Hokkaido island). Formerly they were living in (now Russian) Sakhalin and Kuril islands as well ; Japan seized these areas, and after WWII they were expelled to Hokkaido. It is these Ainu who performed the throat singing tradition, or Rekuhkara. Map

Rights as official indigenous people were recognized only in 2008 by the Japanese Diet (parliament).

Jazeera documentary about the Ainu

  • The Ainu's throat singing tradition -- called Rekukkara or Rekuhkara -- closely resembled that of Inuit, but last singer passed away in 1976.
  • Ms. Rie Kochi of the Hokkaido Museum in Japan explained the situation to me as follows:
Rekuhkara (rekuxkara) belongs to Karafuto (Sakhalin) Ainu’s tradition, not to Hokkaido one.
After World War 2, Sakhalin Ainu people were obliged to move from Sakhalin to the south
of Hokkaido because their nationality were Japanese and Sakhalin islands was occupied by Russia.
Some of such immigrants were well known as inheritors of Sakhalin Ainu Culture, 
and some of the women remembered and played “rekuhkara.”
Among them,  Ms. Ume NISHIHIRA (1901?-1977) and Ms. Haru FUJIYAMA (1900-1974) are 
famous as a fine inheritors and musicians of Ainu music.
  • Old recordings sent by Ms. Kochi:
    • "I don’t know if Ms. FUJIYAMA performed rekuhkara or not, but Ms. NISHIHIRA’s performance of it is exactly recorded in 1960’s. Hear File 1 (from “Ainu Dento Ongaku, “ edited and published by Nihon Hoso Kyokai, 1965). It is performed by only Ms. NISHIHIRA. It is guessed that perhaps she could not find a singing partner of rekuhkara in her neighborhood at that times. So this is not an entirely traditional style of rekuhkara."
    • "There are some older recordings of rekuhkara by Sakhalin Ainu people. Hear File 2 and File 3 (from “Karafuto Ainu no Koyo, “ recorded, edited and executed by Nihon Hoso Kyokai, 1951). I think these are the best example for rekuhkara performance."
  • More recently youth are reviving the art, though not without reference to Inuit throat singing. Ms Kochi sent the following links, saying "But today, with a currency of revival of Ainu culture, some young Ainu (most are the descendants of Hokkaido Ainu) find the interest with rekuhkara and they have tried to restore it."
  • "More than Inuit’s katajjaq and Sakhalin Ainu’s Rekuhkara, there are some throat singing tradition among indigenous peoples in Far East Siberia. At least, Chukchee and Koryak peoples have the tradition, which is rather “throat singing" or making sounds than “throat games”."

Throat singing, indigenous rights, and colonialism/nationalism

What is your view? Should throat singing (katajjaq) be used to represent Canada, a country that stole indigenous lands and decimated indigenous culture? Is it cultural appropriation? Or awareness and respect for aboriginal peoples, instilling pride in these traditions? What about the strong links to other Arctic peoples? Have these links been obscured by colonialism and nationalism? How can katajjaq function as a symbol of Canada without erasing pre-colonial connections? What are the dangers of mere lip-service as a cover for continued oppression? Empathize: how would you feel, were you Inuit? Or consider: if you were in charge of planning an Olympics event in Canada - how would you integrate indigenous symbols such as throat singing? (Note that answering "ask the indigenous" would not generate a clear-cut answer!)

Throat singing in Mongolia: Khoomei, China (Inner Mongolia), and Russia (Tuva, Siberia)

Throat singing in Mongolia, Russia (Tuva, Siberia), and China (Inner Mongolia) is quite different from the the throat singing of Inuit and Ainu (See map)

  • This kind of singing is called Khoomei in Mongolian, and features the simultaneous production of more than one vocal tone: multiphonics.
  • Sometimes it is also called "overtone singing" in English.
  • Khoomei is listed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and was made famous also by the film we will view today.
  • Khoomei may be performed solo, or with instruments - it is not an "interlocking" form.
  • Its distinctive feature is multiphonic singing by emphasizing overtones and developing their melodic potential.
  • Overtones are richly present also in Inuit and Ainu throat singing, over a low fundamental, but here they are fused and so the impression of multiphonics doesn't arise as strongly.
  • What are overtones? For a pitched sound they are the harmonics above the fundamental frequency.
  • Mongolian throat singing -- emphasizing overtones -- has become famous both as a local identity and as a musical curiosity.
  • Probably the most famous group is Huun Huur Tu, known within world music circles as they perform often in the West.
  • Here they are performing at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, August 2006.

Is there any link - historical or cultural - to Inuit or Ainu throat singing traditions? Unclear. Perhaps the word "throat singing" is simply a form of exoticism - to describe unusual singing styles, reflecting a western ethnocentrism. However all three exhibit several of the same attributes:

  • Guttural sound
  • Sound is said to be closely related to environment (imitation of natural sounds, animals...)
  • Indigenous peoples who may represent an older social stratum, closer to nature
  • Possible link to shamanistic voice masking and spirituality

In the modern period there have been efforts to connect them as on the Smithsonian site viewed above, or this fusion performance.

How to perform this kind of singing? Let's try it, using the following videos as a guide:

Film: Genghis Blues,, featuring Paul Pena, 1950-2005.

For next time

  • GROUP ASSIGNMENT: practice any kind of throat singing together - following models set forth in this unit, or creating your own - and develop a performance. Record and upload or prepare to perform in class. You may add additional instruments if you wish.

Nov 29: Music of Indigenous Peoples

Cantometrics/global jukebox: So many indigenous tracks are missing from the map ("subject to tribal permission")…why? Contemporary sensitivities towards the rights of indigenous peoples:

  • Genocide
  • Marginalized, impoverished within wealthy societies: cultural and linguistic genocide
  • Citizens of societies who supposedly espouse liberal values

I presented a paper on machine learning for cantometrics at the recent meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology - focus on "nasality". Selecting two tracks of opposite extremes of nasality I was shocked to find that one of them was recorded from a Fuegian ethnic group that was exterminated by Spanish colonists.


  • What is indigenous?
    • Etic term - hard to define - like “music”.
    • Related terms in English: First nations, aboriginal, native...
    • May map into various terms in local languages around the world, either those of the indigenous peoples themselves (insider emic), or others (outsider emic).
    • Note that the outsider terms used by others may be pejorative, e.g. “pygmy”, or “berber”, or “eskimo”. A scientific def is hard to come by.
    • Indigeneity as a common property - what remained after violent cultural expansion: History of human population expansion and the impact of "civilization": the powerful displacing the weak..
  • What links such groups? Hard to generalize...
    • Existence in close relation to the land, prior to their dispossession by settler societies of so-called "civilization"
    • Hence, ways of life that are often incompatible with the displacing legislated state - often no traditional land ownership
    • Medicine, spirituality, music - close to the land ("shamanism", "animism")
    • Political considerations: marginalization, exclusion, oppression, hence: poverty, addictions....genocide
    • Criss-crossing modern nation-states (e.g. Arctic peoples)
    • Linked to older lifeways, smaller scale, closer to nature

UN film for awareness of indigenous issues


  • What is to be done to restore rights? What can music do? Ethnomusicology?
    • Celebrating achievements
    • Issuing compensation and apologies for past wrongs (TRC, Canada's residential school system=cultural genocide)
    • M4GHD - repairing the world by weaving connection
    • Music as a form of social and political protest. Musical fusions: gather attention by combining traditional and contemporary forms of music.

Examples: popular musicians raising awareness of indigenous issues...

  • Australia: Didgeridoo and Australia
  • Honduras: Aurelio Martinez, Honduran musician. Served in Congress ( 2006 to 2010). Fought for the rights of the Garifuna people of Honduras. Focus on Indigenous resistance through music. “We’re not going to let this culture die. I know I must continue the culture of my grandparents, of my ancestors, and find new ways to express it. Few people know about it, but I adore it, and it’s something I must share with the world.” Developed a style known as paranda, created in the early 1800s after the British colonizers forced the Garifuna people from its original homeland in St. Vincent to Honduras. Most famous song, “Laru Beya,” a symbol of the fight of Indigenous people against oppression. short doc, [16]

Impact:

  • Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life
  • "Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World": how indigenous people shaped popular music of North America. Our society is more complex than we think! Top honours at this year's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Sundance Film Festival hit. about indigenous musicians who have shaped popular music, won the $50,000 Rogers Audience Award for best Canadian feature-length film. (We weren't able to watch this one due to restrictions - but catch it if you can!)

Dec 6: Final quiz

Review sheet for final quiz, 6 Dec 2017

Vote on eClass for topics and areas below

Epic singing

Sira: songs of the crescent moon

Circumpolar music: throat singing around the arctic...and beyond: Inuit, Ainu, Tuva...and Bantu?

Genghis blues, 1:27.

Inuit
Susan Aglukark, throat singing https://www-nfb-ca.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/film/breaths/ 
also http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/exploreorg/inuit-throat-singing-eorg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTqweU3SXq4
Katajjacoustic - Traditional Throat Singing of the Inuit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPI2dXcn8Vw
Punk Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dumvYzfuT0w
The Man and the Giant: An Eskimo Legend https://www-nfb-ca.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/film/man_and_giant_eskimo_legend/
Learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=kbg6BltCr-g (from http://icor.ottawainuitchildrens.com/)

Ainu: history and revival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA7BILX-q4I
https://www.youtube.com/user/pehkutu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMQ5H0YZDfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ijAaLHBi18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maaJiJq7Gow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSnbN_OyRms



Activity: Try to learn to produce these sounds yourself.


Read: Throat singing (Smithsonian) [17] Film reviews

The Nile Project: Music along the world's longest river

Transnationalism and ecology.

http://nileproject.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj4OqEAk7aY

2016 Nile Gathering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZuZfRL4CAk

Musical Speed Dating https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THtnRv8V7-A

2016 Nile Project Collaborations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwrPkNPxLwk

Nile Project Conversations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj4OqEAk7aY


Many links on press page: http://nileproject.org/press


For Nile hydro-political background: Al Jazeera's Struggle over the Nile: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/struggleoverthenile/

https://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/264/the-nile-project-uses-music-to-transcend-borders

Non-musical ritual sound: Qur'anic Recitation

Koran by Heart

Music, Culture, and Ecology in Bali

Three Worlds of Bali

Activity: creating an interlocking pattern

World music theory: Indigenous conceptualizations of 'Are'are music of the Solomon Islands

Music cognition, perception, classification.

Hugo Zemp Are’are Music

also see: https://ualberta.kanopystreaming.com/video/shaping-bamboo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtKQws9ZOfs

readings: filmmaker article

activity: make a flute out of PVC pipe

Music, Religion, and Politics in Turkey: the Alevi

Religion and Politics

Sivas, Home of Poets. The songs and traditions of the Ashiks, poet-musicians in modern Turkey, who see themsevles as the voice of the people which they defend with their music. From Ecouter le Monde / Around Music series, on Rutherford Reserve.

Also see: https://ualberta.kanopystreaming.com/video/asiklar-those-who-are-love-1996

Music and Forced Migration: Afghanistan and Liberia

Amir, directed by John Bailey 53:46


Related: http://tvmultiversity.blogspot.ca/2011/03/two-ethnographic-films-on-muslim-music.html http://search.alexanderstreet.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C764448 read accompanying booklet

Giving Voice to Hope: Music of Liberian Refugees (you will all receive a free copy of this CD!)

John Bailey and I spoke at this special event

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

Music and Protest in Zimbabwe

Mbira music: spirit of the people - ML 350 M35 1993 Music Media University of Alberta Rutherford Humanities & Social Science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hF2Hstvrfc Readings: afropop worldwide... http://www.afropop.org/6814/interview-thomas-turino/ http://www.afropop.org/7041/thomas-mapfumo-2-the-mugabe-years/

Romani ("Gypsy") Music around the World

Latcho Drom

Read Silverman in Garland, and her review of the film itself

Music and Ritual in Iran

Music, Mysticism, Architecture....and Martial Arts

Zurkhaneh: The House of Strength: a unique sport, from Iran to Korea

Mystic Iran

Music and Baptists in the American South

Powerhouse for God is a portrait of an old-fashioned Baptist preacher, his family, and their church in Virginia's northern Blue Ridge Mountains. Audiences who were born and raised among old-time southern Baptists say this film captures the fierce preaching, determined singing, autobiographical witnessing, and stern doctrine that characterizes these religious communities.

also available here

Read: select three film reviews to read and compare; note impact of this film on multiple fields of study.

World music and Western Art Music

Hallelujah!: This film presents an African talking drums version of Georg Friedrich Händel’s Hallelujah chorus, as staged and performed by legendary drummer Ghanaba together with the Winneba Youth Choir, in Ghana, West Africa.

Experimentalism and the ‘Whole World of Music’

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