evan ziporyn

Title: Gamelan Gender Wayang


(If link does not work, watch it on youtube and skip to 5:44, the clip I am referring to ends at approximately 15'')

Performers: Evan Ziporyn and Christine Southworth

Culture: Balinese/American

Instrumentation: two gender paired (tuned) Jegog or possibly Jublag/Calung (pronounced "Chalung"

Context:

This is a very common genre of music in Bali. The name "Gender Wayang" comes from the paired tunings of the instruments used in this recording. Often, when two of one instrument are present, they are tuned in gendered pairs, the male instrument being slightly higher, the female being slightly lower. The pitch classes are the same, but there is difference of several cents between the similar bars, creating a whirring sound which "brings the sound of the gamelan to life", and to some imitates a sort of breathing.

What I find most intriguing about this recording is the performer Evan Ziporyn. Evan, a new virtuoso of the Clarinet was previously a member of the Bang On a Can All-Stars, and has released recordings of solo music and new works for clarinet such as "This is not a Clarinet"consisting of 21st century music for the instrument. He is also a Kenan Sahin distinguished professor of music at MIT. With this list of achievements, one would expect only a devout clarinet player and classical musician. Instead, he is an incredibly diverse musician; he composes music for gamelan ensemble, is heavily involved with his own gamelan ensemble at MIT, and the Gamelan Galak Tika from Boston. Unless I truly need to say more, I believe that this man is a truly stellar example of a 21st century musician.

Seu Jorge

Title: Rebel Rebel

Performers: Seu Jorge

Culture: British Glam rock

Instrumentation:
Original
-Electric guitar and bass, drumset, voice, piano, cowbell
This version
-solo nylon string guitar and voice






Reaction:

For this weeks listening blog assignment, I listened to Seu Jorge’s Life aquatic sessions, for the Wes Anderson film “The Life Aquatic”. Particularly, I listened to his version of the song “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie. Seu Jorge’s version is not only performed with a different, calmer arrangement, but also in portuguese. I find the concept of singing songs and translation fascinating. I also believe that there is much to be said for this song’s connection to the reading for this week.

Seu Jorge is a brazilian singer/songwriter who cites some of his biggest influences as samba schools and Stevie Wonder. Seu even lived a portion of his life in extreme poverty, however he continued with practicing music, eventually to record several albums, including this set of David Bowie covers. The album portrays these classic songs from American and British pop culture in a more laid back, sentimental and intimate setting, using just voice and guitar, instead of amplified instruments and a rock drum kit.

One of this weeks readings discussed the transmission of information in regards to oral and written traditions. Could this song be evidence that all of our music is or will become folk music in some respect? This was originally a famous David Bowie song from his “Glam Rock” period in the 1970’s. Although this may have been commissioned by director Wes Anderson, David bowie himself has praised these recordings, saying that “Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs in Portuguese I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with”.

Bali (Michael Colgrass)

Title: Bali
Listen to it here(naxos link)

Performers: Rutgers Wind Ensemble

Culture: Contemporary American/Balinese

Instrumentation: Wind Ensemble

Reaction:

For this weeks blog entry, I listened to Michael Colgrass's  "Bali" for wind ensemble. The piece employs a westernized version of a five note pentatonic scale native to a corner of the island of Bali. I say “westernized”, because it is well known that equal temperament is not used in the country of bali, as there is no mathematical tuning. In fact, for many instruments native instruments, there is a male and a female pairing of two pitches which we would say are in the same class, but microtonally separated far enough to create beats.

Regardless, what Colgrass has done in this work is make pitch approximations that are suitable for western staff notation. Colgrass also spent 2 years in Bali observing the native music and learning about their way of life. Using this knowledge he has written a piece for the American wind ensemble setting, using a Balinese style of melodic writing with interlocking accompaniment parts combined with the western practice of exchanging placement of melody in the texture to create a piece which is suitable for public school usage. This piece also has a middle section which represents an explosion from a muslim extremist bombing in 2002. The offstage oboes are the majority of peace-loving muslims, who are grieving for the Balinese victims.

Regina Carter

Title: Hiwumbe Awumba

Performers: Regina Carter (Violin), Will Holshouser (Accordion), Adam Rogers (Guitar), Chris Lightcap (Bass), Alvester Garnett (Drums/Percussion)

Culture: Abayudaya (Ugandan/Jewish)

Instrumentation: Violin, Accordion, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Percussion

Reaction:

This week, I listened to Regina Carter’s album “Reverse Thread”. I will be talking about the the first track, entitled “Hiwumbe Awumba”. It is a traditional Abayudaya piece, arranged by composer Xavier Davis for Regina Carter’s band. Abayudaya, the “People of Judah” refers to a specific community in Uganda. The members of this community are not of jewish heritage, but practice judaism. Because this is arrangement is for different instrumentation than it was originally intended, a more “authentic version” might be desired. A sample of this can be found here.

I find Regina Carter’s music delightful to listen to and extremely fascinating. It often combines traditional folk music from many sources with Jazz influences. Ms. Carter is an accomplished african-american jazz violinist. She has been on tour many times and even made a performance at The Hartt School last school year. Often, all of the musicians in her band will take jazz style solos, that are played in a stylistically appropriate manner for the piece, making it seem as if it was originally designed for that instrumentation.

Gamelong Gong Kebyar

Title: Baris/Gambang Betjak

Performers: Gamelan Gong of the village of Peliatan

Culture: Balinese (Gamelan Gong Kebyar)

Instrumentation: Specifics are unknown, Gongs, Keyed instruments (metallophones with struck keys), gong chimes, Suling playing melody in many places

Reaction:

For this week’s blog entry I began to listen to music from the album “Music from the Morning of the World” by David Lewiston. Lewiston traveled to Bali for the first time in 1966 and made the first recordings of Balinese music. The first track on the record is of a style of music known as “Gamelan Gong Kebyar” which did not appear in Bali until the early 1900s . This particular subtype of Gamelan music is very complex, and features frequent tempo changes, rapid dynamic changes, reductions and increases in texture size. To me, it resembles many elements of the orchestral styles of Western European traditions, only with different instrumentations. The musicianship present in these recordings is remarkable. I am unsure of specific performance practices for these pieces, but from what I am hearing, it appears that they are composed works, which are not notated, but nonetheless performed widely by many in Bali.


The exact instrumentation used in this performance is unknown; David Lewiston did not write it in the liner notes. However there is a standard instrumentation for Gong Kebyar, which consists of Gongs a (membranophone), Keyed instruments similar to vibraphones but higher pitched and more ornate (metallophones), Many kinds of chimes and pans, and purely melodic instruments such as the Suling (aerophone), similar to a recorder.