1. After hearing the disheartening funeral music for a child in Ecuador, I was curious to hear the traditional music that would be played in a Sub-Saharan funeral. The song “Senzeni Na?” is traditionally a folk song resisting the racial segregation in South Africa. It is often sung at funerals and churches. I chose this particular video to show the terrible acts that have been occurring in South Africa for many years. I did not know anything about the apartheid before finding this song. The melodies and lyrics are sometimes altered, but this is a basic English translation:
What have we done?
Our sin is that we are black?
Our sin is the truth
They are killing us
Let Africa return
This is a link to an article in the British Journal of Ethnomusicology that discusses the relationship between music and the lifestyle of the people living in the southern and central Andes. I was curious about the instruments or songs that were used throughout the different seasons of the year. It seems that the alternation of instruments correlates with the agricultural cycle. The year is divided into the wet season, beginning on All Saints day, and the dry season, beginning at Carnival (a week before Lent). The instruments that are played throughout the year have specific purposes. The pinkillu flutes and kitarra are played during the wet season because they bring the rain and clouds from the valley to help crops grow. Charangos, wauqu panpipes, and siku panpipes cause frost in the dry season. Because of this and other unique roles music has within everyday life, the Northern Potosi can be considered to have a “sound culture.”
3. This last video is much lighter than the previous one. The first thought that occurred to me after we learned about the panpipes was that there must be a video on youtube with someone beatboxing on this instrument. I had seen the beatboxing flute player, so I hoped someone had tried this. Sure enough, I found a video! I might attempt to do this if I am ever alone with a panpipe.
In response to your first post, its insane the atrocities that go on in other countries that a lot of people within the general public don't know about. Africa is the home base for a lot of these things that aren't publicized like they should be.I think that there are things as individuals can do to stand up for people in these situations, but its our personal responsibility to make ourselves aware of what is going on in the world. Someone that I think you should research is Nelson Mandela. He's an amazing example of someone fighting to make a difference in his country and dedicating his life to achieve that goal.
ReplyDeleteSouth Africa, wow this was the first African song that I felt was truly beautiful. You can feel the sadness and questioning of the words in the music and voice.
ReplyDeleteI never realized that the instruments in different countries changed over time. But, it makes sense to not only have different dances and songs for the different seasons but also change out the instruments to change timbre and bring around certain desires from the world around them.
Panpipe Beatboxing was quite entertaining, I was surprised he actually got out a little bit of sound out while he was trying to beatbox. Pretty cool.
It seems that I am required to post on our most recent blogs, to I will say that Africa as an entire continent has been under some serious war, violence and political troubles for quite some time. As demonstrated by the video, though, there is always hope. Beat boxing with panpipes=awesome! It made me think of an 8-bit video game.
ReplyDeleteWow, I feel so old! :-) Apartheid was a big deal when I was in college--lots of college student associations would hold protests against apartheid in South Africa, and I remember so much about the entire transition to the current government.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm so glad you ran over to JSTOR. We'll be using it quite a bit in our spring Early Music class, so you've gotten off to a good start. I love JSTOR.