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, post office music, Rosie
  • 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
  • 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: ritual music
    ; Emic: not musiqa (موسيقى)
  • 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

Announcements

  • Group organization
  • World Music Concert: this weekend!
  • 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. Please browse

Prelude: Name that tune!

...sampling from the Global Jukebox...


For the coming week (Sep 27)

Browse George Chunga Otiende's website, and watch one of his performances. Come prepared to participate, learn, and ask questions!

Group work: Cantometrics and performance

  • One or two groups volunteer to present Cantometrics assignments
  • Introductions to each of the groups (and checking that everyone is assigned to a group)
  • 10 minutes of group self-organization!
  • 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!)

Discussion: "Qur'an by Heart"

  • General discussion - questions, responses
  • One or two groups volunteer

More definitions

  • Phonemic difference vs. Phonetic difference in Linguistics
    • /p/ vs. /b/ in English: distinguishes "park" and "bark" hence different phonemes in English. NOT distinguished in Arabic! But they are phonetically different.
    • /ه/ vs. /ح/ ( /h/ and /H/) in Arabic: distinguishes "هرم" and "حرم" ("haram" = pyramid, "Haram" = sanctuary) hence different phonemes in Arabic. NOT distinguished in English! But they are phonetically different.
  • Etic vs. Emic difference in Culture
    • Phonemic -> Emic
    • Phonetic -> Etic
    • E.g.: the half flats in Arab maqamat are musically significant - but might be perceived as merely out of tune in Western music. They are emic in Arab music, but not in Western.
  • Compare: Outsider vs. Insider views. (Thought question: is any frame truly "etic"? How do you see Cantometrics?)
  • How can we represent world music?
    • Sound
    • Writing
    • Notating
    • Drawing and photographing
    • Film and video
    • Status of film and how to critique filmic genres (especially: ethnographic and documentary, but also feature). The film may appear seamless but is the outcome of so many decisions...
  • Source vs. Reference, and critical thinking about representations.
    • A pure reference contains true assertions
    • A pure source cannot be assumed to contain any true assertions; all we can assert is that its creator --operating in a context -- asserts something (which may be false)
    • Critical thinking (critique) moves source towards reference, through widening circles of context.
    • Consider the work of Austrian psychologist and musicologist Richard Wallaschek (1860-1917), who wrote on comparative musicology and the origins of music. Its assertions may be false. But that the author said these things is true; that these things may have been believed in his contemporary Vienna is true, etc.
    • (Thought question: is there any true reference?)


Telling stories through music: the epic.

Sep 27: Special guest, George Chungo Otiende

http://www.chungaotiende.com/

Oct 4

Lecture notes Oct 4: Introduction to World Music (Fall 2017)

Oct 11

Oct 18: Midterm quiz

Oct 25

Nov 1

Nov 8

Nov 15: No class

Nov 22

Nov 29

Dec 6: Final quiz

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) [1] 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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