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

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
    • OUTSIDER vs INSIDER (a different distinction! the OUTSIDER is not necessarily carrying a scientific frame at all times, but may also carry his or her own cultural biases)
    • What happens when the OUTSIDER carries her or his own EMIC scheme for classification or understanding to another culture? Result: ETHNOCENTRISM! (seeing the world from your 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)

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: 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

Midterm quiz: Please arrive promptly at 6:30 with a sharp pencil. We'll start the quiz by 6:45 and end at 7:45. (Class will then continue after a short break, so don't go away!)

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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