Portugal has a rich musical culture, with roots that go back to Provencal troubadours, followed by ballads and the fado, and as of late, incorporating the rhythms of Portugal's former West African colonies.
Each of these elements are stll alive in current Portuguese music like the French Provencal influence in the folk music played at festivals in the northern part of the country, as well as the rock and jazz most prevalent in the larger cities. An addtional element is added by a wealth of singer-songwriters, most of whom spawned from the extremely political 'New Song' movement. This movement began rolling during the 1970's when the country threw off a thirty year dictatorship under Salazar, and was forced to withdraw from its colonies.
In Portugese folk music, there are a wide variety of instruments. Some of the most common include bagpipes, harmonicas, accordions, flutes, drums (adufes, bombos, caixas, pandeiros, sarroncas), and numerous percussion instruments (ferrinhos, genebres, reco-reco, trancanholas). However, Portugal is most well-known for its string instruments: violins, twelve-stringed "Portuguese guitar", and six variations of "viola-guitars" unkown to other European countries. Design, character, and tuning are unique to each one of the viola-guitars. The most well known is the small, four-stringed cavaquinho. The others have elaborate combinations of single, double, and even triple strings.
One of the common combinations of instruments is the zes-pereira. Comprised of a large bombo, a caixa, and a bagpipe or fife, these are often used to announce special occasions. Another tradition combination popular throughout the country is the rancho, made up of violins, guitars, clarinets, harmonicas and ferrinhos, later joined by the accodion.
The singers of Porgtugal are excellent. In every town there is an amateur choir. It is customary for someone to begin an acappella following a good meal, and others at the the table will join in. It not at all unusual, if you go to a fado performance, to find the enitre staff of the establishment taking part, from the owner to the person working the coatroom. To listen to a vocal ensaemble of three women from Manhouce, or a male choir from Alentejo is to hear genuinely popular...
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... Its work is full of uneven swayings and sudden changes of direction.
More recent folk music has come be known as Musica Popular, which owes its renewed popularity mainly to the singer-songwriters who dedicated themselves to it and musicians who have made records devoted to these unique folk instruments.
Among instrumentalists, perhaps the greatest guitarist Carlos Paredes. he explores bot the folk and classical sides of the Portuguese guitar, with surprising results. Another excellent instrumentalist is Julio Pereira, who began as a songwriter but became interested in traditional stringed instruments and has recently experimented to great effect in combining them with synthesisers, rhythm boxes and samplers in compostions insprired by folk tradion.
As examined here, it is clear that Portugal's history and music had great influences on one another, particularly during the transition period that occured when Portugal became a democracy, and discarded a thirty year dictatorship. It is also important to take note that traditional Portuguese music still lives on in contemporary Portuguese music.
In 1967 Caetano Veloso felt that the Brazilian Popular Music after the appearance of Bossa Nova eight years prior had run out of energy and creativity. Velosos’ first idea was to get in contact with some big names in the Brazilian music industry to convince them that Brazilian music was in desperate need of new ideas but to no avail he got little to no support. Veloso then decided to gather a small group of young musicians which encompassed Bahian artists Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Tom Zé, the psychedelic rock band Os Mutantes, poets Torquato Neto and Capinam, and the conductor and orchestral arranger Rogério Duprat, who together would form the nucleus of a new “rebel” movement in Brazilian music (Perrone, Dunn 72-74).
Ethnomusicology: a short introduction is about describing the growing discipline of how ethnomusicology researchers are going about studying different music from around the world, looking for perceptions in both humanity and music. Ethnomusicologists believe that all people are musical, not just people that label themselves as “musicians” and that there is music in all beings. This thinking causes a lot of debate in which ethnomusicologists argue that we must first study all forms of music such as its Geographic’s and history in order to answer any questions. Not only are traditional forms of music acknowledged but also more contemporary musical forms.
Puerto Rican music was the ultimate expression of the “Areito” (indigenous artistic traditions) combined in a unitary fashion, oral narrative, dance and music. By the end of the fifteenth century, the Taino Indians had already developed musical instruments used in their ceremonies, religious rituals and daily life. Some of the instruments used during the “Areito” was the “Güiro” and “Maracas” which are still in use as part of the musical traditions. It is unclear whether the Puerto Rican folk music contains elements of
Throughout the years Latin music has slowly made an impact in the music industry in the United States, from the traditional mariachi to the vibrant Rock en Español. But it is the controversial folk-music genre called narcocorridos that has made a major impact in the last few years in the United States, mainly the southwestern states that border with Mexico. Also called drug ballads, this subgenre of the traditional corrido has emerged since the 1990’s as the principal instrument to chronicle the odyssey of Mexicans across the Rio Grande in a drug-infested universe (Stavans). Played by the tuba, an accordion, drums and a guitar, narcocorridos are about violent confrontations between cartels and the luxury lives of powerful drug lords. With the violent drug wars in the last ten years in Mexico, narcocorridos have been the music trend to many, mainly the young generation. People get influence by this music and want to live the expensive and exotic life these drug lords live by. In this research paper I am going to explain how the emergence of narcocorridos has influenced the young generation and societies in the United States and Mexico.
Oct. 29: Puerto Rican Music Between Rafael Hernandez and Rafael Cortijo. Guest Lecture by Prof. Lise Waxer, Music Dept., Trinity College
Young, innovative musicians have attempted renewed classic tango styles, repertoires and practices by creating innovative projects. This refurbishment of tango has allowed local identities to be celebrated. Ensembles like 34 Punaladas has renewed the image of Gardelian tango, including old and new lunfardo lyrics and including elements of poverty, bitterness and injustice. Other artists create a spin on original compositions such as Daniel Melingo who includes electronic instruments, sampling techniques, rock styles, and Latin American idioms.
World music may sound as simple as its name suggests, however the world music phenomenon expresses a deeper story that many people seem to miss. There is so much that makes up a world music genre, but what we hear about it is not always the easiest to decipher and generally comes from powerful and large organisations, where not all of it is explained thoroughly. A lot of their understanding comes from what they are only interested in and most important stories and factors are either ignored or incomplete (Stokes 2003, p. 297). Not receiving the full picture, gives us a limited understanding of world music and its sub genres. Different genres of music over the globe have been shaped in many ways by influences such as the; historical and traditional root, people and their culture, migration, globalisation, politics and commodification. Nueva Canción is one example of a world music genre that has been influenced in such ways, and of which has a strong historical and political story worthy to be recognised. This essay will focus on the way the genre, Nueva Canción has become a significant genre of world music, by exploring the influences stated previously.
Western Music has developed in many ways since the middle ages through its form, sound, and message. Throughout these different periods in western music one thing has remained constant, the true essence of music, a way to communicate with someone on a much more divine level than be by rudimentary conversation. Though Ludwig Van Beethoven and Paul McCartney may seem completely opposite they have one in common through their music they changed the world’s perception of its self
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.
Music has shaped the lives of people throughout history. Even in its earliest forms, music has included use of instruments. One of the oldest musical instruments known is a variation of the flute; the original flute is thought to date back nearly 67,000 years ago. Tonight we are going to move throughout the eras with a history of instrumental music. This concert will begin with the Renaissance Era and continue through time until we have reached modern instrumental music.
The Unique Make-Up of the Mariachi Ensemble consists of the standard European instruments six to eight violins, two trumpets, and a guitar. Then there is also a high-itched, round-backed guitar called the vihuela, a deep-voiced guitar called the guitarró and a Mexican folk harp. ...
To better understand why samba represents the Brazilian’s national identity, one has to understand the history of Brazil and samba. Samba can be heard all throughout Brazil. It is a musical genre complemented by song and dance that includes a group of percussion instruments and guitar. The puxador (lead singer) starts the samba, occasionally singing the same song for hours at a time. The obligation of maintaining thousands of voices in time with the drum rests on his shoulders. Bit by bit, the other members of the escola (samba group) come in, and with a whistle from the mestre de bateria (percussion conductor) - the most exciting moment of the parade occurs as the percussion section crashes in. The surdos (bass drums) keep the 2 / 4 meter, while caixas (snare drums) and tamborins accent the second beat. This percussion ensemble, speak of as the 'bateria', frequently includes instruments such as the agogo (double bell) and reco-reco (scraper), as well as the prato, repique, pandeiro, tamborim, and ganzathe. The only stringed instrument is the great pitched cavaquinho (ukulele). Together these instruments combine to create polyrhythms that cross and align, contrast and reinforce with each other in an animated style less formal than marcha or maxixe. Couples often dance to samba in physically tight, close movements similar to the lambada and l...
Latin Music is combination of all types of sounds, rhythms, beats, and vocals. This type of music is the product of influences of different cultures from different periods and the behavior of society due to the Columbus exploration of the Americas. Many things were exchange and adapted because of this. Even though there were a lot of tragic and traumatizing events that happened the development of Latin music was one of the positive things that happened. This essay is going to be about the History of Latin music and how it has become very popular in America and the World.
The instruments used to make Mariachi music, like the guitar or violin, were introduced to Mexico by the Spaniards. Nowadays, Mariachi Music is known all around the world and there are many band groups that will go to different cities and play at events, parties, and festivals (Roldan, "Vestimenta De Los Charros O
The second period of time for music is the Renaissance period. During this time frame music was reborn and it went through a lot of changes and the way music was written and understood. In this period of time, the composers were expe...