A self-described “world music singer”, Yasmin Levy combines modern Spanish flamenco, the Ladino language of Sephardic Jewish people, and Persian and Turkish music in her music and has brought awareness to a the dying musical genre and Ladino language. Widely unknown to most audiences, Judeo-Spanish, commonly known as Ladino, is an ancient form of Spanish spoken by the Sephardic Jews who fled Spain in the fifteenth century. Over the last five hundred years the language has absorbed aspects of Arabic, Turkish, Balkan, and Greek. Today, it is spoken by less than 200,000 people. Levy’s performance of Sephardic music has brought the language and music of Sephardic culture to the public spotlight, helping a dying language stay alive.
Born December
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With each song, the lights changed to a different color or pattern. For example, when singing a song about “gypsies”, the lights changed to a pattern that could be interpreted as a wooden wheel, perhaps alluding to the travel and roaming lifestyle that “gypsies” had. With the exception of the last song, all of her songs are sad, which she explained in the beginning to the audience. The songs are usually three to four minutes in length, are in a minor key, and have a clear, tonal melody and similar instrumentation and harmonies. When not performing, Levy acted as a storyteller. Between almost every piece, she spoke to the audience in English with a heavy Spanish(?) accent, often telling a short story while giving an explanation for the upcoming piece. Occasionally she tells a joke in Spanish and members of the audience laugh. Levy spoke of her father’s life and work and performed a duet with a recording of him singing Ladino music. Before ending, the group performed an upbeat, happy song that the audience clapped to. In total, the performance lasted around an hour. Given the change, some questions that would be interesting to ask Yasmin are:
If your father had not been a researcher of Ladino music, do you think you would have been as interested in Sephardic music and culture and the Ladino language?
How has your life changed since the release of your album? Has your relationship with the people of your country or of Sephardic musical culture changed?
Have people reacted negatively to the mixture of genres within your
heart beating her Spanish words which were she learned when she was in her childhood.
Canciones de arargue, or songs of bitterness – was the original name for the creolized form Bachata. Many closely associate Bachata with the other Caribbean styles of the African diaspora such as merengue and son. In Intro to Music Cultures of the World we were tasked with attending a world music concert. I chose to attend a Bachata concert because I already had an interest in Caribbean music. The concert was not as I had expected, but was rather intriguing and thoroughly enjoyable. In this report I hope to analyze Bachata’s roots, report on its concert style, and compare it to another piece in the genre.
In this piece, two male musicians took turns during the performance to sing their parts. It starts off slow, as opposed to most of the music played that afternoon. During the middle of the piece, the guitarron continued strumming while Stacy Lopez, the vihuela player, made noises that sounded as if the vihuela itself was being struck. “Para Que Me Haces Llorar” soon came to a close; at least, it sounded like it was. As immediately as that song ended, the next piece started just as quickly and it had a song that had a familiar rhythm- and sure enough, it was the song “Stand by Me” but in Spanish. This part starts off with violins being plucked and with a calmer tone with a pace that builds up. Later on, all the musicians snapped their fingers as one of the singers were singing. After the singer finished his part, the violinists took over the microphones and made a deeper sound than what was heard out of the eight pieces
== Ø Finn, W. Falsettoland (New York: DRG Records Inc, 1990) --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] LaChiusa, M.J. ‘I Sing of America’s Mongrel Culture’ in New York Times 14 November 1999) [2] Finn, W. Vocal selections from Falsettos (Warner Bros Publications Inc, 1992) p.86 [3] Storr, A. Music and the Mind (London: HarperCollins, 1997) p.187 [4] Rossoff, R.D. What is Judaism’s view on Homosexuality?
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.
Over the course of history, music has developed from a personal, academic pursuit to an extension of a global marketplace and an attribute of this global community. In order to better address this conversation and the surrounding idea, Feld utilizes the platform he has developed to pose the argument that music has long been cultivated as a means of communication and interaction. This relationship is developed and analyzed as a case study in this article, which happens to be in discussing a traditional lullaby first developed in the Solomon Islands, which was in turn recorded by a European pop group that sold millions of copies of a rendition of the song. Furthermore, the article goes to show the trend of music to be redistributed and developed in the sense that it is later reused by a popular jazz musician in Europe. Feld then begs the question about the nature of the redistribution of music and whether this facilitates a hybridization of music or an alienation and artistic degradation of the original work for the indigenous artists.
Music is essential to any culture. Its a vital part of being human and can significantly impact our lives. No matter where one is from, music is an escape that everyone seeks because they can relate to it. This social link keeps us tied to the world, even with different cultures and languages. Afro-Latinos have helped shape the music in America, many times with help from other cultures. Many types of music Hispanics have produced have impacted the United States. One of these types of music is named Bachata. Hispanics in the US have helped shape bachata, even though it originated in the Dominican Republic. With its profound lyrics many can relate to, its catchy rhythm and simple dance, bachata is as popular in the US as it is in Central America. In the 1980s and 1990s, the growing Dominican population in the United States became an important fan base for bachata. Dominican Yorks influence of traditional bachata with the artistic and cultural diversity of life in New York, making bachata one of the fastest growing music genres of the 21st century (Pacini Hernandez.)
Miller, Terry, and Andrew Shahriari. World Music: A Global Journey. New York, London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2006.
The world music phenomenon has been shaped and has evolved overtime. Its distribution has affected much of today’s music. Nueva Canción is one genre that has a deep historical story, of which gives us understanding of how the people and events of history influenced the way music is today by globalisation, migration and commodification and their political and social struggles of which they endured and found hope through their music. Many people worked together to get through this upheaval, and even when some were persecuted for what they stood for, they persevered. The music that came from this revolution is a testimony for their memorable work, making this genre of world music significant and worthy of recognition and respect.
Music, in the history of Puerto Rico, has played a role of great significance as a means of cultural expression. The five centuries of musical activity shows that Puerto Ricans have created, developed and promoted a variety of genres ranging from folk music, concert music and new genres. The Puerto Rican music and native musicians have shaped and enriched the identity of the Puerto Rican people and their roots.
"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...
It's thought that Jesus of Nazareth was born in springtime. A Pope, Julius I, chose December 25th for the celebration of his birth in the 4th century -- to include a Christian element in the long-established mid-winter festivals.
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
The Latin American music scene is an amazingly diverse, engaging and entertaining music culture. Thomas (2011) explains, “…Latin American music has engaged in ongoing dialogue and cultural exchange that has profoundly affected music making in Europe and the United States and, more recently, in Africa and Asia as well”. This paper will be describing different aspects of the music culture from its musical features, to the historical aspect of this interesting music culture. Also, I will discuss a personal experience with Latin American music. After researching the music culture, I attended a concert performed by Boogat, an Emmy award nominated Latin American musician from Quebec who has toured all over North America.
Music has played a role in society since the dawn of man. Said to be the beginning of communication in early civilization, music and dance have influenced how we think, act and treat members of our own society. Song and dance is used in rites of passage ceremonies such as births, weddings and funerals throughout the world. Jamaican and Yoruba cultures have made many contributions to our society. The uses of this music as a vehicle for political issues, values, and beliefs have been used by many musicians from different cultures. I intend to discuss the Contribution of these two contemporary cultures music and their effect on society.