Module 6

a) "Ooki Na Kuri No Ki No Shita De (Under the Big Chestnut Tree)"
b) Elizabeth Mitchell
c) Japan
d) Voice, flute, cello, violin, oboe, guitar, bass recorder, banjo
e) Mitchell writes, "In the fall of 2008 our family traveled throughout the wondrous country of Japan on tour with our band Ida. Our friend Mimi came over before we left to help us learn some Japanese. She taught us this song that day, and we fell in love with it! On one of our many rides on the Shinkansen—the bullet train—we saw two little girls about Storey's age singing this song and doing the hand movements that accompany it." (Mitchell, 2010) What is clearly visible here is not only the presence of music but the element of play.  The movements as presented by Mitchell before performing the song is placed specifically as a form of interactive play between the participants.  In this particular performance the element of socialization is made evident in the third repetition of the song when Mitchell asks the participants to turn to a partner and perform the song with movement.  You can actually hear the smiles and gentle laughter of the audience members when this occurs.  The two young girls closest to Mitchell can even be seen wearing warm smiles as they face each other. The presence of such interaction should not be seen as arbitrary but rather an acknowledgement by the originator of the piece that, "(p)lay is an important medium for learning in young children's lives...wherever they may be. It assists them in their development of language and reasoning skills, and it fosters social competence and peer-group interaction.  Through the sensory and exploratory experiences they crave, little ones learn about themselves and others, and about the environment in which they live. Children learn how things (and people) look, sound, feel, and taste through playful experiences, and the more that young children can sense and explore, the more they come to know." (Campbell & Lew, 2005, p. 58).  Other musical factors that support the socialization aspect of this piece is the simplistic melody, lyric, repetition, and careful musical arrangement.  It can be inferred that the simplicity and repetition is to encourage more social interaction than focus on musical performance. Mitchell's arrangement of the piece seems to encourage this too, as she uses the instrumentation listed mainly during introductions and interludes while guitar-dominant, string accompaniment is used during the sung portions of the song.

Reference

Campbell, P. S., Lew, J. C. T. Children's natural and necessary play: Global Context, local application.

Music Educators Journal; May 2005; 91, 5; International Index to Music Periodicals Full text page 57.

Mitchell, E. (2010). Ooki Na Kuri No Ki No Shita De (Under the Big Chestnut Tree). On Sunny Day [CD]. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Module 5

a) "Joropo Quitapesares" 
b) Grupo Cimarron
c) Llenero plains of Columbia
d) Percussion, guitars, harp, bass
e) I enjoyed watching this performance. The musicians of the group made an impression with the forte, syncopated, quick-paced entrance to the piece. For teaching purposes, I would analyze this song in an AB type of form, with a division of a1 and a2 for the "A" section.  The "B" section is clearly an improvised solo on the various instruments with the entire ensemble re-entering toward the end of the solo with the last few bars of the a2 section. At the end they re-visit the "A" section with variation toward the end. What I thought was so interesting about the order in which they performed their solos was that they began with the bass player.  I assumed that the guitar player would have began the solos, perhaps because in Western music the more melodic instruments usually begin the solos. Also, the harp added an huge timbre and dynamic contrast from the rest of the piece which was aesthetically pleasing. Campbell (2004) states, "The art of creating new and original musical expressions is enveloped in the process of composing and improvising" (p. 196).  She goes on to use The National Standards for Arts Education as an example of the fact that even in our Western culture, we recommend the coming together of these two skills to produce a musical experience. The llenero culture obviously feels the same, as this traditional genre of music reflects this same concept.  Based on the suggestions mentioned in the reading this week, I would present this piece to my students by revelaing its form as analyzed previously. This way, they would be engaged in listening, and would have a clear format for creating a similar piece through composition; composing an "A" section (a1, a2), with the ending of the a2 section being repeated after each solo.

Reference

Campbell, P.S. (2004). Teaching music globally: Experiencing music, expressing culture. New York, New York: Oxford Univeristy Press, Inc.

Module 4

a) "Asi Kotama: The flutes of Otavalo, Ecuador" 
(b) Hatun Kotama; members of Otavalo in the Kotama Village (flute school) 
(c) Otavalo, Ecuador; Kotama Village 
(d) flute, conch shell, voice, dance (body percussion)

On the helm of my group's discussion and the Koops reading this week, I decided to investigate the learning model that presented the most difficulty/challenge with my current teaching view.  For me, the Reproduction/Reality/Relevance model was one that I felt would pose the most challenge as it required the teacher to access original recordings of pieces to be performed or recordings of performances that were similar to the one being performed.  Additionally, it asks for the teacher to maintain focus on the traditions of the culture being taught and then ask for the students to find relevance in it without adding to or altering the piece in any way. Authenticity is the most important aspect of the recordings, so when I found these two, I felt I understood the premise of the Reproduction/Reality/Relevance model more.  I began with the first video in which the reality and relevance aspect was presented so clearly. Koops defines reality as, "the examination of whether a piece of music actually reflects a musical practice in the world, and not just for the music classroom" (p. 25).  He goes on to say that, "Relevance refers to generating individual meaning in the act of music making" (p. 25). In this village, the traditional flute-based performance music of their indigenous ancestors is preserved through these performances at festivals in which they travel throughout the village performing.  Throughout the video, statements of relevance are made as the culture of the people is revealed in their respect for nature and its ties to sacred harmony with the lives its people.  They make reference to the elements and  its ties to the movement of the music. The second video is a performance excerpt of the same group, which could be used for the reproduction aspect of the model.

Reference

Koops, L. H. (2010). ''Can't We Just Change the Words?'' : The Role of Authenticity in Culturally Informed Music Education. Music Educators Journal  97: 23. DOI: 10.1177/0027432110376892.

Module 3

Title: "Let All Religions Come Together"
Performers: Akuseka Takuwa Kongo Group
Culture/Origin: Mbale, Uganda
Orchestration: Percussion, Strings, and Voice

In, Thinking Musically, Wade (2013) states, "In many instances, musical selections are structured in response to something in the context" (p. 48).  That is to say, the interaction involved in a selection bears significance to the overall piece.  In this selection, "Let All Religions Come Together", context is evident in what Wade describes as, intra-interaction.  She defines this as the interaction among members of an ensemble. This would include subtle and overt communication. One of the most commonly recognized forms of intra-interaction is, call and response.  This piece opens with a few bars of call and response before the soloist begins with the verses.  From that point on, the interaction between the musicians can be heard in the subtle variances made in their ostinati.  Also, the musicians clearly play off of their interaction with their improvisation on their own instruments.  The result is varying complex rhythms heard throughout the song.

Reference

Wade, B. C. (2013). Thinking musically: Experiencing music, expressing culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

Module 2

1. Title: There is no specific title given due to the nature of this piece; a demonstration of the Korean Chang-go at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2002.
2. Dong-wan Kim of the Silk Road Ensemble
3. Korea (traditional instrument)
4. Chang-go
5.  In the introduction of world music, it is useful to have classification systems as a guide in listening.  One such system is instrumentation. Campbell specifically spoke of sound awareness activities in the classroom during which students explore the origin of sounds, timbre and the relation to the source of sound to culture. In this particular example, Kim is demonstrating the traditional Korean instrument, Chang-go. Integrating the Campbell approach to sound exploration and the classification system of instrumentation/orchestration as discussed in the text, we would place the Chang-go in the percussion category. Upon further discovery, we would also recognize that either side of the instrument is covered in animal skin and that one side is "pitched" higher than the other.  This element adds aural perception of high and low to the existing percussive nature of the Chang-go. 

Module 1

1. "Back Tuva Future"
2. Kongar-ol Ondar
3. The Russian Republic of Tuva
4. Mandolin and Voice
5. This particular listening example caught my attention on the helm of a pedagogical discussion I was having with a fellow music conosuier. The discussion was on split tone singing or throat singing, which is the ability to sing multiple notes simultaneously. The appearance of this video is an example of how ethnomusicology can, "seek to broaden limits, including within the scope of ethnomusicology all sorts of things also claimed by other fields or disciplines" (Nettler, p.4).  I explained how I was taught in my undergraduate studies that split toe singing was possible but that it was not very controllable.  I was also taught that if you did access this phenomenon, you would not be able to dictate which notes you sang and how they sounded.  This performance shows that by studying different music of the world, we can remove our own creative and performance barriers.  Just watching this video exposed me to possibilities of the human voice and how it can be used.