Last Blog

So I am actually able to get this blog in tonight because the weather in Virginia is pretty bad today with sleet and 5 or more inches of snow, so I decided to leave tomorrow. I was having slight problems with my computer (by slight, I mean my computer has spyware or something stupid like that on it AGAIN!!! I think I might need to invest in a Mac...), therefore I was not able to utilize the internet on my computer and I am typing on Meagan's computer...

1. What is something you learned about another culture this term that surprised or intrigued you?

I really enjoyed the section on Latin America.  One of my favorite instruments to listen to this semester was the imbabura harp, but I don't necessarily think it is because of the timbre.  I think it is the style and harmony they play with.  I think it's really neat to have a stringed instrument (other than the piano) that you can play a bass line and a melody with harmony.  I don't remember seeing that much in the other cultures that we studied.  I also thought the child's wake was a very emotional experience. 

2. What is something that you realized about your own culture through our discussions.

I would really like to hear the music of Western art history from the ears of someone from another culture.  I know for me, when I heard the music of some of the different cultures, I was able to make an opinion without an underlying perception that could have swayed the way I heard and thought of this other music.  I didn't realize that we are one of the fewer cultures that uses harmony in our music, which has made me feel grateful.  I have enjoyed the percussion and melody instruments in other cultures, but there is something about harmony that just can't be replaced.  Chords and suspensions are only two of the amazing things that I think really brings feeling to our music.  I was talking with Dr. Robbins the other day, and he was talking about improvisation and how using notes outside of the key or the chord really is what makes the music better.   Having the natural harmonies in our culture and adding non chord tones and things like these in our music really makes our culture special and different.

3. What is something that this course has inspired you to learn more about.

The accordion and tango!  I really enjoyed researching Argentina and I really love the music.  The "Libertango" by Piazzolla that we played (in audio form) in class is one of my favorite examples of music from that culture.  I am hoping that Mr. Law will let me play something by Piazzolla soon :) One of my favorite things about this course was getting my hands on all of the different types of instruments and learning how they work.  I've really enjoyed learning how to play the ukulele, and I think it would be neat to start learning the accordion as well.   

Cool Stuff 3

So Yo Yo Ma is a Chinese cellist so be prepared to be blown away by cello stuff in this blog!  One of the things that I love about Yo Yo Ma, is that he does so many different styles of music, and he is such a nice person. 

The first thing I am going to post is of the Silk Road Ensemble.  This is a project that I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs.  Yo Yo Ma was the one who initiated this project with the goal of innovating traditional music and also promoting educational programs.  Here is a link to learn more about the Silk Road Project.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_Project.

This video shows the importance that Yo Yo Ma sees in education.  He and the Silk Road Ensemble have taken a song that most of these kids know and they played it on their instruments.  So here is Yo-Yo Ma and the "Empire State of Mind". 



So I bet your next question is going to be "Did Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma ever do 'Flight of the Bumblebee'" and the answer is most certainly yes!

Amazing, right?  He also did a CD called "Appalachian Journey" with Edgar Myer (A bassist who I also love.  Go look up "bass fun" on YouTube and you will get a sense of his personality) and Mark O'Connor (A violinist and composer). 

And this next video, my friends, is how I came to want to play the cello.  Who wouldn't after seeing Yo Yo Ma play Dvorak on Sesame Street? 

So now that you have seen what my inspiration was to start playing the cello and to continue playing the cello for my career, I will show you a clip of who Yo Yo Ma's inspiration was. 

So I think you get the point.  Yo Yo Ma is a very talented musician who plays many different styles of music.  Just to recap, we have seen The Silk Road Ensemble, Empire State of Mind, Flight of the Bumblebee with Bobby McFerrin, Appalachian Journey with Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor, and Sesame Street.  And as we all know, he is a very good classical musician.  I really like Yo Yo Ma a lot because in addition to being a great musician (who is humble), he is also a really positive, amazing person who really cares about people and kids. 

Interview

First, I interviewed my mom (who is musically inclined).  Then, I thought it would be fun to go ahead and interview my dad as well (who is not musically inclined). 

Mom Interview:

Me:  What kind of music did you listen to as a child?
Mom:  Rock, Swing/big band, and classical.  Bands like Jimi Hendrix, Benny Goodman, Queen, James Taylor, and Rise Stevens.
Me:  Was there any dancing involved?
Mom:  No, not really.  I didn't go to many dances; I didn't dance much or well. 
Me:   What sort of environment did you listen to music in?
Mom:  At home and in the car.  At home a lot because my parents also listened to big band and classical.
Me:  How did you parents or teachers feel about the music you listened to?
Mom:  My parents didn't have a problem with it.  They weren't interested in rock, but they weren't opposed to it either.  My choir teacher loved James Taylor.  I don't really know how the other teachers felt about that kind of music, but they were all pretty cool, so they probably didn't have a problem with it.
Me:  How do feel about what Annie (my sister) and I listen to now that you are the parent?  And when you were a teacher, how did you feel about popular music?
Mom:  I have no problem with what you and Annie listen to, but I do oppose music that promotes violence or that is vulgar to no purpose.  Music ought to make a contribution or be innocuous some how.  It ought to be there, but shouldn't make things worse. 
Me:  Did you play an instrument or sing?  And what kind of music did you play or sing?
Mom:   Yes.  I played violin and upright bass and sang.  I played only classical music, but sang typical concert choir music.  I was also in the Richmond Symphony Choir when I was about twenty, so what you would expect to hear from that group. 
Me:  Were you exposed to music outside of your own culture?
Mom:  Yes, especially choir. 
Me:  How?  What kind?
Mom:  Music from around the world.  Russian, German, tonal from the South Pacific, and Hebrew.  My dad had an album called Tijuana brass, a lot like the music from Mexican restaurants.  He also had a record of whale sounds which was kind of neat. 
Me:  What kind of music did your friends listen to?
Mom:  Disco!  That was painful!  A lot of my childhood memories revolved around music and were impacted by music.  My first album was "Big Moment"  by Paul Simon.  One of my guy friends from high school gave me an album by Earth, Wind, and Fire.  Music was so important in my life.  Life growing up was like a soundtrack because music was so important.
Me:  So why did you listen to music?
Mom:  Because it was a big part of my life.  It made me feel happy and comforted when I was sad, just like a friend would. 

Dad interview:

Me:  What kind of music did you listen to growing up?
Dad: Pop and country. 
Me:  What kind of bands?
Dad:  I dunno
Me:  Dad!  Like Queen? Or did you listen to any rock or rap or something?
Dad:  I hate rap.  I dunno, a little bit of Queen.  More like the Seals and Profts, Chicago, and Bread.
Me:  Was there any dancing involved in the kind of music that you listened to?
Dad:  No.
Me:  Why not?
Dad:  I don't have rhythm, therefore, I don't dance.
Me:  What environment did you listen to music in?
Dad:  The car.
Me:  What did your parents and teachers think about the kind of music you listened to?
Dad:  Well, I don't think they cared.  They never said anything about it.
Me:  What do you think about the kind of music that Annie and I listen to and that is popular today?
Dad:  Ya'll listen to good stuff.  I don't agree with rap.  I don't get it.
Me:  Why did you listen to music?
Dad:  I dunno, I turned it on because it was there, and to drown out the silence. 
Me:  Dad!  You just listened to it to drown out the silence?
Dad:  I'm just givin' you a hard time.  I like music, I like the melodies.
Me:  Did you play any instruments or sing?
Dad:  You already know the answer to that.  No.  I wasn't musically inclined.  I played sports and stuff which took up most of my free time.
Me:  What did your friends listen to?
Dad:  Pretty much the same thing.
Me:  Did your parents influence your choice of music?
Dad:  No, not really.
Me:  Alright, anything else you would like to add?
Dad:  Well, your mother had a little bit of an advantage over me when it came to music, because she is younger and there was better music then.  I was impaired because disco was popular when I was young and when music would have influenced my life most.  (Mom starts singing "Shake, shake, shake! Shake, shake, shake!  Shake your booty! Ya!  Shake your booty!)
All:  hahahahahahha


And this concludes the interviews that I did on my parents. 

cOoL sTuFf 2!

So I am watching the Lion King (re-mastered) right now, which is amazing!  I know that some people may have mentioned the African influence in the music in this movie already, but I thought I would talk about it a little bit.  When this film was released in 1994, it was the highest grossing film that year taking in $783 million worldwide.  The music was composed by Elton John and the lyricist was Tim Rice, and Hans Zimmer (my favorite composer of movie music) created the original score.  So as I said before, there is some African influence in the music.  If you would like to know more about the film visit this website where I got all of my info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King.  And finally, here is a clip!

I love this part because you see all of the different animals.  You can hear the percussion and call and response in the music, as well as the repetitiveness.  This is the African influence.

Another Disney example of one of the cultures we have studied is Pocahontas.  This movie has a lot of Native American influence.  One good example is the song called "Steady as a Beating Drum".  This song really shows the drum heartbeat, and some vocables as well.

And of course since I'm a cellist, I found a video of a cello quartet playing "Oblivion" by Piazzolla! 

Piazzolla was an amazing Argentine tango composer.  To find out more about him, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81stor_Piazzolla. 

Music and Gender

I have been racking my brain trying to think what experiences I have had that have showed gender differences in my musical encounters, and I was having a really hard time thinking of where I had seen an imbalance of gender in music.  I think I have pretty much come to the consensus that all of the orchestra's that I have played in have been pretty much equal in gender.  There are a few instruments that I can think of where there is a tendency of one gender or the other to play them.  One of them happens to be the harp.  I can only think of one guy that has played a harp in an orchestra with me.  I think the flute and maybe the violin is another example of an instrument that tends to draw in more girls than guys.  One instrument that is the opposite is the upright bass which seems to attract more guys than gals.  I think that there is one difference between this generation and maybe some of the earlier ones.  Whereas before, it might be weird or improper for a person of a certain gender to play one instrument or another, I believe now, that if there is an instrument that tends to attract a specific gender and someone of the opposite gender plays it, it is not really thought of as improper.  I feel like this is on a younger level though.  It seems like when you start to become competitve in the classical music world, things start to balance out.  As a whole, I feel like the orchestra is pretty balanced with men vs. women.


Another example that I can think of in the music world is conductors.  I have actually had more women conductors than I have men, but I believe that this is a fairly new thing.  Most professional orchestra concerts that I have been to, and YouTube videos that I have watched of professional orchestras, have a man as a conductor.  I followed around a conductor for a month as my senior project in high school and her name was Dr. Erin Freeman.  She conducted my youth orchestra as well as a few other good groups.  She had mentioned how it was just now that women were starting to be accepted as conductors and that she still had trouble sometimes being a woman in that field.  She said that there are things that some people don't think of when it comes to being a women conductor, such as what a women conductor should wear that is appropriate. 


One last topic I wanted to touch on was cello and gender.  I was looking up if there was some kind of count of female cllists to male cellists and this is what I found http://www.imerc.org/research_gender.php.  It seems that when it comes to recordings of classical musicians, there seems to be more male recordings then female, in particular, the Bach cello suites.  There are 55 recordings by men, and 5 by women.  I found this interesting because I feel like things are balanced when it comes to gender in the professional classical music world, but I'm not sure anymore.  I do feel like it might be changing from being more men to being balanced. 

Cool Stuff!

So for my cool stuff blog, I automatically went to youtube to find something cool, because I thought to myself that youtube is where all of the cool kids go to look for cool stuff and sure enough, I found three really cool clips.  Now that I have accomplished my goal of using cool in one sentence five times, I will tell you what I found.  It is choreographed African dancing!

I thought this was really neat because it also had the Djembe drumming.  The definition that I got from wikipedia of a Djembe drum is that it "is a skin-covered hand drum shaped like a large goblet and meant to be played with bare hands. According to the Bamana people in Mali, the name of the djembe comes directly from the saying "Anke dje, anke be" which literally translates to "everyone gather together" and defines the drum's purpose." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djembe). 

I also found another really neat video that explains a few of the instruments we talked about in a little more detail.  I know this video is long, but I thought it was interesting.  This guy talks about a few instruments, and then he plays a song on the kora, and it sounds really cool.

One last awesome video that I found was of the FIFA World Cup 2010 theme song.  For more information about this, click this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listen_Up!_The_Official_2010_FIFA_World_Cup_Album.  And here is the video.

To: Dr. Vaneman; Baleen is what whales use to filter out small animals and such when they are trying to eat. :) 

Music and Religion

I grew up in the rural county of Fluvanna in Virginia, so as you can imagine 64% of the community that is religious is Baptist.  My mom and my sister and I are all musical people, so when I was little, maybe around five years old, about once a month or so my mom would pick out a song and she would play guitar and my sister and I would sing in church.  The church that we were members of at that time probably only had about thirty regular attenders and almost all of them were elders.  A typical church service consisted of...well I'm not really sure because at that point 11pm on the church pew leaning up against my dad was my nap time.  But really we always sang about four or five hymns during a church service while the pianist (who always played out of tune) would plunk out notes on the piano and the pastor would say the longest prayers and sometimes after the service we would even have a big potluck church lunch and boy do some of those people know how to cook!

The second church that I started to go to when I was about eight was also a Baptist church.  After I started going to this church they split the service into two different services.  The 8:30 service was the contemporary service and there was a band with drums, guitar, bass, piano and two vocalists (one of them being my mom) and they would play newer contemporary Christian songs.  We also had the choir who sang along and sometimes they would throw a hymn in there.  This service was typically loud and sometimes people would clap along or do the sign language motions to go along with the songs.  The ll o'clock service was the one that a lot of the elders went to and it was a traditional service with hymns and sermon.  This service was a lot quieter and a little more dressy.  In the contemporary service people would mostly wear jeans and whatever they wanted, whereas with the more traditional service, people would wear dresses and slacks and things of that sort.

I haven't had a lot of experience outside of the Baptist church except for when I have played gigs at churches.  I have played in quite a few churches and they all seem to be different, but similar at the same time.  At most churches that I've played in, people don't usually clap along and raise their hands in the air.  I guess it is a respect thing because what you are expected to do is dress nicely and behave well and use your inside voice.  I personally think that everyone has their own way of worshipping and that there is no wrong or right way to do it.  This is what I have observed in my many years of wisdom :)

I started playing the cello when I was ten years old because a few years before that I saw Yo Yo Ma play on Sesame Street. When I started playing the cello, my mom would bring home CD after CD of cellists especially Yo Yo Ma and one day she brought home something particularly interesting. It was done by Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. I popped in the CD and heard a whole different sound than I was used to. I grew up on Country and Classic Rock and Classical music amongst other things, but I had never heard anything quite like this. I sat there and tried to name the instruments that were being played, but I could not figure them out. This was a CD that Yo Yo Ma wanted to put together to initiate unity and getting to know your neighbors and he wanted it to also be a reminder of the Silk Road in Asia. If you want to know more about it, the website is http://www.silkroadproject.org/. This was probably my first exposure to music from a different continent.

A genre of music that most of you would probably not guess that I listen to is rock, and I don't mean John Mayer, I mean bands like Three Days Grace, System of a Down, and Crossfade. My sister was the one who introduced me to this type of music, and as I got older I wanted to play more than just classical music on my cello. A perfect opportunity came along when I met a cellist who was in college at the time and he wanted to get a group of four cellists together so that we could play stuff written by Metallica that Apocalyptica also played. So about twice a week, we would get together and play Metallica which was much different than the Kol Nidre that I was working on in my private lessons at the time. The sight of us was pretty funny actually because you would expect three big guys in college to be in this group, but not with a 5'2" fifteen year old girl from the booneys. The cellist who asked me to play with them was actually the person who got me started on my first cello concerto ironically enough. Here is a link to one of the songs Apocalyptica did that we worked on:

I got a little older and my junior and senior year I played in a coffee shop. I was just playing some of the pieces that I had learned over the years as background music and a couple of guys who play guitar and sing also happened to work there. One day when I came in, one of the guys had brought his guitar and asked if I knew any classic rock and if I wanted to play some with him and of course I said yes. So I ended up improvising to some Classic Rock and we actually got a few gigs together too. Overall, I have been introduced to a lot of genres that we hear in America, but not particularly to those that exist in other countries. I am really eager to hear more music that is played all over the world!