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).
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.
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...
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. ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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
Music is a form of communication, letting others knows what is going on in the country, political, social or economic and any other problems the people of the Caribbean faced. With so many different ethnic backgrounds in the Caribbean, they are people with Asians, Indians, and Africans descents. This created a language and culture barrier but each ethnic background shared a common link music. Music bridged the gap between the different ethnicities Music is part of everyone’s culture especially here in the Caribbean. Our culture is recognized worldwide for its music. The Caribbean has different genres of music such as calypso, reggae, dance hall, zouk and many others. Our music has roots in both African and European cultures. The drum rhythm comes from the African in...
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...
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 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.