Emotion and music tend to be intuitively linked. Music that creates vivid emotional responses is highly praised and respected for most humans. Music has a creative, uncanny ability to create feelings of sheer joy, or terror, impending doom, or yearning. This ability of music is manipulated and formed into many important types of cultural facets. For example, the Portuguese music, fado, has a distinctively solemn, longing sound. This kind of music has become highly sought after in Portugal, and very well respected. But when studying this music it becomes apparent that there is much more to it than simply sad tunes for guitars and voice. There are layers of depth and history within the music. In her journal article for Ethnomusicology, Lila Gray …show more content…
shows how Portuguese culture and fado music are well-linked and self-fulfilling. She also shows how the ties to Portuguese history help to connect fado music to their culture. From this article, ideas about identity and emotion can be drawn. How does fado music affect the cultural identity of Portugal? How does it affect the identity of a fadista? How does saudade and emotion relate to fado? Fado music is an important piece for the culture of Portugal.
It is typically found in small local bars, making it a social gathering and event. In fact, Gray mentions that visiting the bars to listen to fado is a routine for many men and women of Portugal (Gray 112). The importance of fado in relation to the identity is evident in how the patrons listen in the bars. The entire restaurant must fall silent before the performance can begin, showing respect for not just the performers, but the art itself. Silence is looked upon as another essential part of the performance. Also, during certain portions of the performance, the audience can chime in to respond to the lyrics with short yells of approval. The seriousness that befalls an establishment when fado is performed shows that the music is highly respected and generally grants importance in the spectrum of identity. In this instance, fado is stressed in the social identity, cultural identity, and musical identity of the persons …show more content…
present. The music also has an important connection directly to the performer, or the fadista. Due to the intensity and solemness of the music, a certain emotional physical presence is also expected of the performer. Common tropes seen in fado performance are the performer keeping their eyes closed, intense focus, convulsing, and even crying. Despite this, the performer is also expected to maintain a certain level of composure, as not to lose control of the performance. Many fadistas have direct connections to the lamentations they sing about. It is not uncommon for singers who have experienced tragedies to reference them in their music, or alter fado standards to fit more to their own story. This personalization of the actual lyrics of the songs shows just how deeply rooted the connection is of fado music to the musicians who perform it. Musically, fado maintains a somewhat strict aesthetic.
The rhythm patterns and melodies all must be similar in structure and feeling. The instruments of a Portuguese guitar and an acoustic guitar are relatively set in stone. Experimentation by changing the structure or feeling would not be accepted in the culture, as it would undermine the tradition that has become vastly important to the culture. However, creativity can still seep in through the performers signature abilities. Since fado remains relatively stationary and does not actively try to progress, it is much easier for people to try to objectify it. Its qualities could be seen as measurements or values instead of characteristics. Due to this objectification, lore erupts from the culture trying to define what the perfect fado sound is; however, despite attempts, fado (as with all music) can never be captured and precisely
defined. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, fado is prescribed to a potent collective emotion that runs rampant in Portuguese culture, saudade. Saudade is the feeling of longing after loss, or solemn internal reflection. If fado is the voice of Portuguese culture, saudade is the language it speaks. Saudade defines the emotion of fado, and also adds a layer of personal connection, as previously described. Saudade is uniquely Portuguese perhaps due to their empirical past, and feelings of longing to return to the era of Portugal’s greatness. Saudade puts the music in more personal terms, which gives more relevance to “amateur” fado establishments, instead of built up tourist traps. (This phenomenon of a typically sombre music gaining notoriety and lashing out against becoming corporate is also found in American blues music.) Gray’s thoughts and theorizations about fado can be expanded to encompass broader topics within musicology. Her descriptions of the subculture of fado are of especial value.The feeling of saudade is so easily applied to the music, and Gray explains the connection in terms that show that the two are inseparable and self-perpetuating. Fado music belongs to Portugal, and thus is heavily emphasized when realizing identity. The personal touches of the fadistas and performers show that fado is still evolving and coming into the modern era, despite it’s strict structure. The culture of fado is the culture of Portugal.
Music connects to the emotions present
Music comes in many shapes and forms, and has been a magical element of inspiration and encouragement throughout time. The art of music derives from many different things, such as culture and traditions. One such type of music is mariachi music, deriving from Mexican culture and traditions. Mariachi music is often an upbeat rhythm, consisting of a band of up to six to eight violins, two trumpets and a guitar. Unlike modern music and other music bands alike, mariachi bands lack in numbers when it comes to band size. Though they are small, their music brings great significance and life to the places they perform and the people that they touch with their joyous music. In this paper, I will be comparing the culture and style of mariachi music to twentieth century modern music.
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...
Music’s influence is felt everywhere and it brings about a stir of emotions in many people. Whether it is something as simple as relationship trouble or something deeper and more profound, such as one’s cultural history, music serves as a stimulant to the mind and in other ways, a stimulant to the body. Such music as country, rock, reggae and Zydeco all succeed in stimulating the body and convincing it that dancing will only increase the satisfactory feeling that the music tends to give off.
Throughout the semester, various styles of music and the aspects of culture associated with these styles have been analyzed. Musical elements such as dynamics, texture, form, timbre, melody, instruments, etc., have been used to thoroughly explore each kind of music from different areas of the world, with an emphasis in music from Africa, India and Indonesia. These aspects of music go far beyond just music itself. Culture also plays a huge role in music and the accompanying musical elements. Each country and culture has a different style and distinctiveness that add to what makes the music of that certain culture unique. Music in Africa may differ dramatically from music in Indonesia or India not only due to those certain elements but also due to how it is interpreted by people and what it represents for those people. In addition to this, what one may consider music in one culture may not be music to another. These differences have been made apparent in the several demonstrations that we have been exposed to in class.
The United States was founded by immigrants; its whole culture consists of immigrant’s contribution to it along with their hard work and sacrifice. If it weren’t for Mexican immigrants the Mexican Americans, who were behind some of the major social movements of the 20th century, would not have been able to accomplish all that they did. Mexican American culture and politics was shaped by the three waves of migration after and during World War I, World War II, and the Cold War which created new identities, social movements, and migration laws.
It is true that music has a compact link to our emotions. Music assists people to overcome the bad situations in their life, just like it did for Sonny, the barmaid, or some other people in the Harlem. Music has a tremendous effect on people’s mind because it makes them feel relax and comfortable, especially the soft classical music. It helps distressed people to stay smooth and peaceful. In fact, music is a remarkable way to ease our stress.
"Music is a common experience and a large part of societies. In fact, anthropologists note that all human communities at all times and in all places, have engaged in musical behaviours. Music as a mode of human activity is a cultural phenomenon constituting a fundamental social entity as humans create music and create their relationship to music. As cultural phenomeno...
Some may say music is just music; a song is just a song. However, music plays an enormous role in our psychology, because a single song has the ability to bring about many kinds of thoughts and emotions in the listener. Music is subtly one of the main factors in which people identify with certain groups and establish their belonging in society. It shapes people’s perspectives on how the world functions and the roles they play within it. Music can function the same way in a culture; it can reflect many of the culture’s values and ideologies. Music can have many effects on culture and the people’s idea of who they think they are within that culture. Music can serve in a way that promotes cultural identity and pride, yet it could also play a role in the separation of social and economical identities in within cultures.
The musical performance aspect of my paper was not an issue to complete. If you go to Little Italy, New York on any given weekend, especially around the holiday season or the San Gennaro Festival, musical performers are usually playing on the streets. There are many restaurants in Little Italy, Manhattan that have live entertainment; most of these musical performers will come to your table. When it came to comparing the musical traditions of Italy to the Italian-American performance that I observed, I had a little more trouble. Italian music is such a large topic to delve into–there are so many composers and different types of music that it made it difficult to narrow down my research for this paper. In future research among this community, I would suggest that the student is aware of what type of performance they are going to observe—I was unaware of whether the musician would be a Classical Italian performer or an Italian American performer. In my opinion, most of the performers in Little Italy, Manhattan seems to be Italian-American.
Vaidya, Geetanjali. "Music, Emotion and the Brain." Serendip. N.p., 2004. Web. 7 Jan 2012. .
The influence that music has throughout the world is immeasurable. Music evokes many feelings, surfaces old memories, and creates new ones all while satisfying a sense of human emotion. With the ability to help identify a culture, as well as educate countries about other cultures, music also provides for a sense of knowledge. Music can be a tool for many things: relaxation, stimulation and communication. But at the same time it can also be a tool for resistance: against parents, against police against power. Within the reign of imported culture, cross cultivation and the creation of the so-called global village lies the need to expand horizons to engulf more than just what you see everyday. It is important to note that the role of music in today’s world is a key tool in the process of globalization. However, this does not necessarily provide us with any reasons that would make us believe that music has a homogenizing affect on the world.
“Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb; Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.” For centuries “Mary had a little lamb” has become one of the most universally recognized nursery rhythms since being published in 1830. Centuries later it is still one of the most popular songs of the world. Merriam Dictionary defines music as “the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” With that in mind, music is found everywhere. Whether it’s in the Great Wall of China to the jungles in Africa, music is found everywhere. The main purpose of this paper is to show that music is in fact a universal language by comparing music with other official languages, showing how music influences emotions and how music literacy and emotions helps people understand music as a language. In order to fully execute my purpose of proving that music is a universal language, I will be focusing on using personal experiences, researching articles and specific musical examples from class.
In conclusion towards the arguments and observations, musical expression consists in presenting emotion characteristics in appearance. It turns out people listen to music as having a purposeful nature and that it has an effect on psychological emotions. If there is a case in which music showing emotional qualities with no reference to feelings, there is a case of happy music that is not powerful of happiness.
Music, a form of art, made up of unique and special sounds containing elements of pitch and rhythm can powerfully soothe one’s soul. Firstly, there are different types of music, and each has its own features. These sounds and features are what I admire in music because to me it creates a new form of communication to one’s consciousness. It stimulates our mind and gives it a sense of harmony and peace through the hardships that life poses for us. As a kid, I would always listen to music from any genre, deciding which genre would complement me the most as I grew older. In middle school, I remember going on the computer and finding a website/program where I could make my own beats. From that day on, I spent countless of hours each day making sure the tune sounded proper and pleasurable for my ears. At first, it wasn’t good, but eventua...