Jte001's Blog

Gibaro de Puerto Rico

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:46:06 +0000

This song starts out with the beat of drums quickly added in with a guitar and what seems to a trumpet. There are multiple layers including two layers of singers. The first layer is the lead singer who calls to get a response from the background singers. The drums hold the tempo for the whole entire song. The guitar is on its own giving a swing to the music with its flashy style and solo. With all of the music together it is a duple meter with no syncopation. The articulation of the music is very good and you are able to tell that it was professionally recorded. The contour and range of the notes does not move around too much. The timbre of the song is to give something to Puerto Rican’s so they can dance to the music.

Puerto Rico Musical Culture Internet Findings

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:37:59 +0000

Everything in the packet described all that was needed. However I did go to the internet to find any additional information that could maybe once be used. An interesting thing that I found was that the word salsa translates to the word sauce. The weird thing about this is they named it salsa because they said it was the sauce that got parties going. Anything that was found was a repeat of what was in the handout.

Music in Puerto Rico Handout

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:13:36 +0000

The handout for Puerto Rico has covered all of the musical culture elements that are known. The activities of Puerto Rican music consist of dance. The popular dance style called Salsa did arrive from Puerto Rico. The ideas of the music is that it is created to dance just so the people can express themselves in a different way. The people who makes this music are highly trained professionals who professionally record all of their music soon to have it release to the public. The material culture of this type of music is very traditional with the acoustic guitar being played in old ways. Also the people who dance to the music typically wear an outfit that is traditional. The women will wear long skirted dresses while the men ared dressed in button up shirts with no jacket.

Bomba y Plena de Puerto Rico

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:07:07 +0000

The song starts out with drums, guitar, and some type of shaker. There are many layers that hold a duple meter that is no syncopated. There is a singer to lead the way of the dance, so it sounds. There is another layer of singers to form the chorus with what sounds like some type of call and response. The guitar layer plays a solo type of layer where it is there to show the flashy part of the song. The percussion layers simply hold together the tempo of the song. The singer does not move too much contour and range. However the guitar does range from high to low notes quickly and often. This song gives a feeling that it was meant to be danced to. The articulation of the song is very good and the instruments do not have any type of swing added to them.

This was Due on Monday November 30.

Salsa Listening Description

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:52:48 +0000

This song starts out with multiple layers with a duple meter. The contour of the music is in the same range of notes for the whole entire song. The first layer that easy to pick out is the single trumpet. This trumpet is played like a lead guitarist in a rock band, it leads the rest of the instruments and holds the rhythm. There are multiple layers of drums giving off a medium tempo. In the mix of all of the instruments there is an acoustic guitar being played to back both the drums and trumpet. For the whole song the layers play in tune with each other with no syncopation. There is no call and response between the instruments. This song seems to be made with great articulation and the purpose to get people to dance. This song does have something to it where it feels like someone could really express themselves through the dance that can go with this song.

This was Due on Thursday November 19.

Cuban Musical Culture Internet Findings

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:43:19 +0000

After looking on the internet I found the missing pieces of Cuban Musical Culture. The pieces I did not pull from the packet that was handed out were the activities and the ideas of the music. The activities of the music involved women dancing by moving their torso in a different type of motion. The website I found this on said that the women danced like it was a sexual act being performed. The ideas of the music being performed can range to just about any topic. It just depends what the singer wants to sing about on the particular recording.

This was Due on Wednesday November 18.

Music in Cuba Handout

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:29:55 +0000

After reading the handout given in class I found that it was more helpful than the Jamaican handout. The article told about the Santeria religion which inspired bembe music. Also the article told about what kind of instruments that were used. The instruments that were used were traditional instruments from Africa and American based instruments for a modern touch. The people who made this music were professionals and people in their homes. The main music that was heard were, of course, the professionals’ music that was played on radio. The pieces that were missing from the article were the idea components and the activities that took place during performance.

This was Due on Tuesday November 17.

Traditional Music of Santeria

jte001 — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:10:46 +0000

This song starts out with the beating of a drum quickly added with a type of shaker. The song holds a duple meter with little contour for the melody. This song does not have call and response between the instruments. The total number of layers is three layers with two congo drums and one shaker. The shaker is the percussion instrument that holds the duple meter and rhythm. The shaker does speed up slightly as the song moves on. The congo drums syncopate each other on some notes that are played but for the most part they are in tune with one another. At one point of the song there is a voice that is heard but it sounds like it was by accident during the recording. This gives the song slightly bad articulation compared to what it deserves.

This was Due on Monday November 16.

Bob Marley One Love Peace Concert

jte001 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:53:01 +0000

This song has a more raggae type of feel to it rather than an American based song such as the Redemption Song. This song’s contour is all over the place due to the range of notes he hits during the song. There are multiple layers to make up the song about politics. The first main layer is the lead singer stating what he thinks about the politics. The back up singers are a response group to the lead singer. There is a guitar in the mix of all the layers to give a swing feel to the song. This song does have a little bit of swing but not too much to destroy the meter of three. There is no syncopation in the song and the timbre of the song is to show how much the musicians care about the topic being discussed. The musical culture behind this song is the basic Jamaican culture. The music is about politics with professionals performing the song at a concert. The singer does dance while performing but not in any certain way. The instruments that are used are American based instruments giving it a modern feel.

This was Due on Thursday November 12.

Jamaican Musical Culture Internet Findings

jte001 — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:22:27 +0000

What I found on the internet was not much better than what was found in the article given in class. The article showed that professional musicians are the ones who make up all of the music. This music is recorded professionally and is performed in concerts and on the radio. The instruments that are played are American influenced instruments such as the guitar and drums. The article and the internet shows that Jamaican music was usually influenced by news and views on different things, such as politics and gaining peace. What was a key to finding out was the activities performed during the music. This was more difficult to find, but was eventually found. What I found was that there was not much activity going on with the audience. However, there is a lot of dancing going on with the musicians. This type of dancing is not any traditional type of dance. It is a type of dance because they are just moving to the music that is being performed in no particular way.

This was Due on Wednesday November 11.