Thursday, January 31, 2008

126. Music of the Great Tradition -- 26:Old Europe -- The Role of Women

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Is the "Great Tradition" a musical tradition only? Or are the musical practices I've been discussing part of a larger cultural...
Tuesday, January 29, 2008

125. Music of the Great Tradition -- 25:Old Europe and the Role of Women

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Is there some sort of universal cause and effect relation at work between the role of women in society and certain aspects of musical style?...
Sunday, January 27, 2008

124. Music of the Great Tradition -- 24:Old Europe & the Role of Women

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When Alan Lomax collected folk music in Spain and Italy during the 1950's, he was struck by certain differences in singing style between...
2 comments:

123. Music of the Great Tradition -- 23:Old Europe & the Role of Women

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Marija Gimbutas' last, and best known, book is entitled The Civilization of the Goddess:The World of Old Europe . In the Preface, Gimbut...
49 comments:
Saturday, January 26, 2008

122. Music of the Great Tradition -- 22:Europe

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The term "Old Europe" was apparently introduced into the archaological literature during the 1950's by an important but also s...
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Friday, January 18, 2008

121. Music of the Great Tradition -- 21:Europe

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According to Jordania, "unlike many countries in Europe, where the tradition of polyphonic singing is represented only in some of the r...
5 comments:
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

120. Music of the Great Tradition -- 20:Georgia

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As Jordania stresses in his book (see especially pp. 75-76), group vocalizing in just about every region of Georgia is so thoroughly polypho...
Sunday, January 13, 2008

119. Music of the Great Tradition -- 19:Georgia

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Shortly after I completed the last post, ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl, with whom I've been corresponding, sent me a pdf copy of a fasci...
5 comments:
Saturday, January 5, 2008

118. Music of the Great Tradition -- 18:Georgia On My Mind

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No, not that Georgia. The one in the Caucasus Mountains, the one that used to be part of the USSR. According to a very interesting Wikipedi...
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Sunday, December 30, 2007

117. Concept, Style and Structure . . .

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My music-theory oriented paper on Pygmy and Bushmen music (in response to Furniss and Olivier) is finally available. Here's how I just a...
Friday, December 28, 2007

116. Music of the Great Tradition -- 17:Gamelan

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As should be clear from posts 107 through 115, there are many correspondences, on many different levels, between Pygmy/Bushmen style and the...
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

115. Music of the Great Tradition -- 16:Gamelan

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Returning to Indonesia, let's listen to an example of some very interesting and unusual vocal hocket, from the island of Flores , near B...
1 comment:

114. Music of the Great Tradition -- 15:Gamelan

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As we have seen, the more elaborate gamelans are organized in terms of layers, in a manner roughly analogous to the stratigraphic layers so...
Friday, December 14, 2007

113. Intermezzo

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I must interrupt my disquisition on the "Great Tradition" to update my loyal readers (you know who you are) with respect to some n...

112. Music of the Great Tradition -- 14:Gamelan

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Now that I've listed several points of similarity between the Pygmy/Bushmen and gamelan traditions, it's time to focus on one very i...
Tuesday, December 11, 2007

111. Music of the Great Tradition -- 13:Gamelan

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More list items: 16. Polyrhythm can be defined as the simultaneous presentation of two or more independent rhythms in such a way as to prod...
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Sunday, December 9, 2007

110. Music of the Great Tradition -- 12: Gamelan

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The list, continued: 9. Tonal displacement -- notes from the nuclear theme are routinely displaced at the octave in gamelan music, to accomm...
Tuesday, December 4, 2007

109. Music of the Great Tradition -- 11: Gamelan

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Is the gamelan music of Java and Bali part of the "Great Tradition" I've identified, originating in musical practices ancestra...
Sunday, December 2, 2007

108. Music of the Great Tradition -- 10: Gamelan

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Let's look more closely at the two examples from the previous post, beginning with the BaAka pygmy song, as outlined by Michelle Kisliuk...
Monday, November 26, 2007

107. Music of the Great Tradition -- 9: Gamelan

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In earlier posts I traced an "African signature" along some Out of Africa pathways, illustrating the connections with various audi...
4 comments:
Monday, November 19, 2007

106. Music of the Great Tradition -- 8

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I have only one more item to add to the list -- for now. I'll sneak it in here: 19. Most songs in both traditions are sung to meaningles...
Thursday, November 15, 2007

105. Music of the Great Tradition -- 7: The List Completed

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16. Polyrhythmically related vocal parts. 17. Polyrhythmic percussive accompaniment, usually but not always, limited to handclapping. 18. Th...
Monday, November 12, 2007

104. Music of the Great Tradition -- 6:The List continued

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9. Tonal displacement -- pitches in a repeated motive or phrase can be displaced, most usually at the octave, but also at other intervals, s...
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103. Music of the Great Tradition -- 5: The List

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Last time I promised a list of certain points of similarity between the musical traditions of the African Pygmies and Bushmen that seemed pa...
Tuesday, November 6, 2007

102. Music of the Great Tradition -- 4

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I've been doing a lot of research and writing on "Pygmy/Bushmen" style these days, trying to make sense of all the various pie...
3 comments:
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

101. Music of the Great Tradition -- 3

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The narrative I'm about to relate is admittedly speculative. However, it is rooted in a premise that, as far as I'm concerned, is ro...

100. Music of the Great Tradition -- 2

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If my last post was a bit over- exuberant , it's because I am truly excited about the possibilities opened up by all the revolutionary n...
Sunday, October 28, 2007

99. Music of the Great Tradition

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No not THAT tradition. If you're into classical music you've heard all about the "Great Tradition," starting I suppose wit...
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

98. Did the Pygmies Ever Have a Language of Their Own?

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Sorry for the sudden change of pace, but a thought occurred to me the other day that won't let me alone. I've been thinking a lot ab...
44 comments: