Music Report 1: Shakespeare in Song

As I arrived into UTD’s performance hall, I noticed I did not get a chance to see their opening act to get decent understanding of the plot that played through the performance. The plot just went on without me, I guess. Everybody in the auditorium was silently paying attention to the music playing as some of them eagerly wrote down notes for some a class assignment. The auditorium was half-filled with some students and quite a few adults with their kids. I then went to get a decent seat to view the performance on the right side corner to see the pianist a little more.

Anywho, I sat there I noticed their peculiar Shakespearian attire that had put on for the performance. It did not really detract from the musical performance, but it added some character to the performers that stood off the benches to recite some lines. Even the conductor and the accompanying pianist had fit themselves to wear some of the clothing to make to blend in with their stage. Speaking of the stage, there was nothing out of the ordinary, just a simple layered out stage with the performers lined up from tallest to smallest.

The music itself varied throughout every act due to it constantly switching tones from the several of the actors that were singing alongside the performers. Often the performers would step off the stands to recite some lines of some play while the music still continued to play without starling anyone in the choir. Sometimes it was hard to catch what they were saying while the choruses were gleefully singing to the heart’s content. The story then was implanted to the music as the actors stood forth and continued to speak into the crowd freely. In certain songs, the actors would speak out normally during some the crescendos and codances.

Of course, I would see them stress out certain words in a full booming crescendo in almost every song they performed, but still audible to the ears. I’m guessing this common in most opera music. Of course their diction is still intact even though it’s hard to catch some of the lines.

The performers were giving it all and truly into their character, or so it seems. As whole group they varied in different facial expression. You could see a cheery faces on them sometimes in one of their energetic songs and sometimes see some static faces amongst them. Not that it affected the performance in anyway, but it seemed like the natural thing to do when standing in the benches. They are sort of limited in having some gestural movements compared to the soloist that freed themselves from clutches of the benches. Still, the soloist really didn’t feature any gestural movements at all, but they showed some signs of despair in their faces, especially the female soloist. I’m surprise she did not really took advantage of the wide space she was given to fully carry on their roles, including the actors who were reciting their lines from a visible script.

The audience seemed like they already know when it was appropriate for them to clap during the acts. Others were busy taking down notes for some crucial report or mildly enjoying the music. As I mentioned before, the auditorium was half full, but after the short break, the numbers dwindled a bit. Most of the time the audience was quite until some drunk character came into play and you could hear few chuckles in the crowd.

It wasn’t your typical Shakespearean play, but I did sort of expected to see them frolicking around the stage with the given space between the pianist and the chorus. The audience seemed to enjoy the music and performers were glad to share their music with them. Everybody in the stands then bowed to the crowd and walked off the right side of the auditorium, thus ending this musical adventure for today.

Gaetano Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia- Com' e bello

The song composed by Donizetti uses several chordophones like what seems to sound like a harp in the background and violins to accompany the woman singing somberly to the audience. You can clearly listen to these instruments accompanying the singer to support the melody, thus making this song homophonic. Of course, the first song played in the following video is pulsatile and has a pretty slow tempo throughout the song to show the character more emotionally struck. At the beginning of the song, her tone is light and brittle, but she then attempts to hits some high pitches here and there. I really did not see any changes in the tempo; just the instruments carry her through the first part of the song. As the song ended, the audience applauded without any restraint and quietly waited for to her to sing again.
There was a nice change from the tempo in the second piece. The piece had a cheery tone and sounded similar as to what you find commonly in most opera music. The song begins with a low, stressed out pitches and then all of the sudden; it becomes an upbeat song that moves the character forward. Finally, the song changes tempo to build up tension for the last few notes and ends it with a loud, booming crescendo.

The Struggle With Jazz

I apologize that I did not get any proper exposure to jazz music during the last few weeks due to me not having planned this far ahead in time. I seriously wanted to know more about jazz music, specifically free-formed jazz, for a long time, but I never really committed myself entirely into this ethnography project. There was a couple of obstacles that got in the way of researching and going out there to find a audience who is familiar to this twisted form of music.

Researching the history of jazz was simple and easy all thanks to the Internet and the library containing some useful information on the origins of jazz. The information was nice and precise enough to get an idea of the music. Gathering some information was a bit tedious at first, but it slowly became much more enjoyable as I got some helpful info.

What really got in way of further developing my research was the lack of any knowledge about my surroundings in Dallas. I had no idea where I could listen to free-form or just plain jazz anywhere, but when I did find one, the usually asked me if I was 21 years old to go to these bars. I honestly told them I was doing some research for class. They still would not let me in. Maybe I was going to the wrong places at the wrong time. I thinking to of doing Celtic music as a back up as well, but that sort of went no where. Still, I managed to get a decent understanding of where free-form jazz comes from.

Japanese Noh Theatre

Here is list of examples that you expect to find in Japanese Noh Theatre.

- Noh served ,in a way, as a emblem to preserve their Buddhist and traditional values during the late fourteenth century and early fifteenth century.

- Most noh music is nonpulsatile.

- The musicians did not rehearse their music at all, but they try pick up after each other to keep up.

- The hayahsi is a musical ensemble that is made of four instruments: The aerophonic instrument called the nohkan bamboo flute, and three membranophone instruments called the ko-tsuzumi. the taiko cylindrical drum, and the o-tsukumi drum.

- The ko-tsuzumi is considered the most important drum in the hayashi because they are able to control the pitch with the strings attached to the drums.

- Nohkan bamboo flute produces a floaty tone through overblowing.

- Drummers play separate distinctive beats throughout the play.

- The singin style of noh is related to Buddhist chants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quqqc1shAtU

Hindustani: North Indian Classical music

Hindustani has several elements familiar to many music cultures around the world. Though the piece may sound Arabic or even Iranian to some, the nature of the song sounds different with the use of synthesized beats. You can hear a steady beat throughout the song or sometimes the drummers can take over the beat. The song is clearly homophony due to how there is lead male singer, and a lead female singer accompanied with what I believe sounds like a sitar and bansuri playing along.

There is a bansuri solo played between the lead parts of the singers, but the roles in this piece does not change much at all. The singer have these long, noticeable cadences in the song create some sort ambient mood around it. The drones, a string instrument, ornaments the piece while the aerophones and drums are played in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBHyZd2qr3k

Googoosh? Why yes...

As we further explore deeper into the music culture of of various countries, Googoosh's music uses several instruments that I find surprising to hear as well as her peculiar style. Googoosh sounds like she was influenced by bit swing and jazz in some of the songs due to number of well-known aerophones used throughout her work like the french horn. From the videos of her performances, I assume she trying to convey a story about love through her usage of the rasa and interweaves them with the jazzy sound to create a rather familiar blend know to westerners.

Her music style was homophonic. She manages to sustain a candence pitch in one of her pieces, but I'm having trouble if its whether samvadid or plain vadi due to lack any proper knowledge of the Indian music culture. The gamak is present throughout the piece and creates a rather alluring sound to reach in grab the audience's anticipation. The large absence of her singing in certain periods of the song help create the anticipation of the audience. It doesn't try to be exotic in any way, but it achieves in creating an atmosphere of remorse for the lover in the song. The french horns give off the sounds of panic and distress through this piece while her singing seem to be rather guidance. Exploring the Iranian music culture made me think how much western music has influenced other countries and how they seem to welcome it.

Edit: I just realized that I categorize this type of music as Indian when it is clearly Iranian. Well, there are some common Arabic sounds throughout her music to fool people into believing it was done by them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x36bTfKOLIE&feature=related

40th Anniversary of UT Dallas Concert

The UT Dallas Music Faculty Concert pulled off a thrilling performance last Friday night. Though the weather was a bit chilly, that did not stop some students from attending. The students seemed to have enjoyed it as well based upon how frantic their applause were. There was a wide variety sounds that I never would of expected to come from Latin music. Ranging from the eerie distortions from The All-Purpose Rag to the smooth sound of How Insensitive.
The Tango di Tango was the last piece they performed for the night. Before they played the tune, they informed us how this type of music consider a taboo for some religions many years ago. From what I heard that night, I can see how someone feel "dirty" listening to this form of music. The song felt like the violin had the main lead and the piano supported the melody while the accordion kept up with a slow, monotonous pitch throughout the piece. Most of the song was loose and kept the violin player from overthrowing the piano piece.
The students remained stiff throughout each piece that played until the violinist got off stage and plucked the string into some random student's face during the Jig. Everyone had a hearty laugh afterward and swiftly reverted back to their natural state. I like that they portrayed well their love for music and as well in their enthusiastic audience.