Elvis

I don't think you can really put fault on any one person. Elvis could have given a little more credit to those that inspired him, but given the time it's understandable. Understandable not acceptable. He shouldnoglf given credit where it was do, but the fact that credit is at least given now is good. In relation to Eminem I don't think it's the same because from what I know he is pretty open about the inspiration behinds his music and respectful towards it.

MC 6

In the end I found that my piece matched the characteristics of Wester African Music to a great extent. The piece had a lot of polyrhythms as well as a call and response melody. There was a bit more harmony than what is common for West African music but beside that the piece I found was a great example of the culture. The only thing I could ask for to make it more like it would be the use of a talking drum and a hemiola. The most distinct part of western African music is the polyrhythms. In all the research I did it was always brought up and discussed in detail. Polyrhythms are the most distinct feature of Western African dance music and I saw it appear in every piece I listened to while trying to find the one to analysis. I found Western African dance music to be very different from what I am used to. I have seen polyrhythms in music before but never to the extent that it appears in this culture.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15qqM7ZUMmoEfFovB9AQ3BdTqroPCcC1hvJ2_1QkJF7E

MC 5

Example one:(00:08 - 00:13)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1JGYBy1UEtoYWdjaEVXdmRBMzg/view?usp=sharing

Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1JGYBy1UEtodHVmMUJwRWdLd1k/view?usp=sharing




Example 2: (4:29 - 4:40)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1JGYBy1UEtoWERWb1I1VFpKUkU/view?usp=sharing

Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1JGYBy1UEtoMXdqYkh2dHBMck0/view?usp=sharing

MC part 4

The instrumentation of the piece included two lead vocalist, one male and one female. It also has a chorus of vocalist. The piece also includes two membranephones, two drums identified in the track list as a goblet shaped drum and a cylindrical shaped drum. There is also some sort of ideophone (00:15) that could be an instrument or bracelets, because it is common for dance to add to the creation of music in West Africa and the ideophone sounds like bracelets hitting each other. The piece is in 2/4 time and  major key, this can be seen in the bottom drum that comms in at the begging and fro most of the piece plays a consistent note on each down beat. The entire piece is polyrhythmic which is common for West African Music. The polyrhythm can especially be heard in the two drums (00:11) where one drum is playing four eighth notes while the second drum plays two quarter notes on the down beets. The vocal part of the piece consist of a call from the female vocalist and response from the male vocalist with the chorus singing between the call and response(00:11 - 00:15). This call and response is common for Melody in West African music. The piece has the main Melody on top in the call and response of the voice and than ployrhythm in the two drums and ideophone on the bottom. There is also a lot of repetition in the piece. Up until 02:18 the entire piece is largely playing the same repeated rhythms an melody, it is at 02:18 that the rhythm of the top drum has a major change for the first time. Than by 02:31 the rhythm changes back and it begins to repeat how it was in the begging. It is not until the 3 minuet mark when there is another major change. It is at this point the vocal begin to sing a new part, but even the new part is a repetition of the same notes with the repeated "oi". It is than at 03:36 where the vocals change ounce again and the male begins to sing new lyrics and the drums fade out for a moment before coming back in and the call and response coming back at -3:50. At 03:50 the male voice comes back and sings over the call and response creating new polyphony in the melody. Still even at the moments of vocal change there is still alot of repition through the entire piece and even at small points like rhythms and lyrics for example lyrics at 4:11. At 04:36 the rythm changes ounce again as the bottom drum that has been constant changes to play an alternation between the original two quarter notes into a signal quarter note fallowed by two eight notes, and just before the bottom drum returns to normal the top drum has a short measure in which it switches from eighth notes to sixteenth before returning to repeat the original rhythm with the bottom drum.. In relation to harmony there is only a little. Between the drums and melody. This is to be expected because West African music puts little to no focus on harmony.

Sectional reflection

The beginning of the practice consisted of each individual looking through all their music and finding areas that they believed themselves or the group needed to work on in our pieces. After that we reconvened and shared what we thought needed work in Chabrier we decided 61-99, D-E, G-H, and K-L. In march we choose 15-37 and 69-77. In Finale 5-6. A lot of work was put into Chabrier, probably most of the time, I have worked out the fingering for 61-99 this in turn has slowed me to improve in that passage by a lot. I also put a lot of work into D-E and feel I have improved it a lot, I have come from having a lot of problems with passage to now only making a couple small mistakes every now and then. I also improved on K-L a lot, but I still need to put work into G to get up to tempo. March I improved on 69-77 but I still need to put work into 15 tonperfect it. Lastly in Finale I have put work into 5 and now have a better understanding of the passage that has improved my ability to play it.

Musical Cultures Part 3

The song I'm using is Giing. It's a traditional west  African folk song. Besides that it also includes  all the main  parts chartarisstic of the cultures music. It has polyrhythms, uses drums as well as the body to an extent, and has a melody. It is a good choice because it is a near perfect example of the typical characteristics of music from West Africa.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzdrcfghlAtXdmJBWXliZzNuOGs/view?usp=sharing

Musical Culture Part 2

The culture I choose to talk about is that of West Africa. This consist of the countries in the upper western part of Africa. It includes Mali, Niger, Chad, Benin, Burkina, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Guinea Bissau,  Mauritania, Cameroon, Sierra Leone,  Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, The Gambia, and Cabo Verde. West African Folk music originates from as far back as the 12th century in the Kingdom of Mali. The largest factor that contributed to the creation of West African Music was the mixing of music with in West Africa. The most distinct part of West African Music is its rhythm. The rhythm is most obvious in the use of drums. Originally war drums where what where used, but now the most common drums are the djembe and talking drum. Another important part in the creation of the complex rhythms common in West African Music is dance. It is very common for the music to also have a dance that consist of the stomping of feet and clapping of hands that adds to the rhythm. Different from traditional European music West African Music is largely polyrhythmic, meaning it consist of more than one rhythm. The most common structure for polyrhythm in West Africa is the Hemiola, three beats over two. The second distinct thing that makes up West African Music is melody. The music of West Africa puts little ficus on harmony but rather focuses more on the melody. Music plays a large part in West African society. The reason for it being played can be simple ones such as entertainment and celebration, but it is also played for religious ceremonies and for celebration of the cycles of life, birth, marriage, puberty, etc. Besides that music also had a political history as it was originally tradition for a royal court to have a musician called a jali. Where families would hold the position in the court and rase their children to take over the job when they got older.




Sources:

Music in West Africa by Ruth M. Stone

http://spotlightonmusic.macmillanmh.com/n/teachers/articles/folk-and-traditional-styles/west-african-folk-music

http://study.com/academy/lesson/music-of-west-africa-rhythms-dance-instruments-characteristics.html

http://www.brendansadventures.com/travel-guides/africa/west-africa/

MUsical Cultures Part 1: West African Music

My musical culture is West African Music. I choose it because I was not sure what I wanted to do and Mr. LaNoue suggested it. Although that was the main reason I am okay with this because from what I have heard I found interesting. I especially like the talking drum. I am looking forward to studying West African music in more detail.