Music 110 A

Music can be heard throughout the world. It’s in every country, practiced by all and could practically be considered as a universal language. Although not all style are the same, the general idea of music can be understood by all. Even if you do not speak the language of the song, you can still enjoy the rhythm, the melody, the tone, and all of the other components of music that make up a song. There are so many different types of music out there, each unique and adapted to custom, that can be explored and from this class I have learned of five new styles of music and songs that I had never heard before.
The first piece I enjoyed listening to was Kumbaya which is a traditional African folk song. While I had heard this song before, I didn’t know the history of the song. The author stated that the recording was entirely vocal with a solo singer imitating the sound of an acoustic bass (Chiego p. 122). With that knowledge, I tried to focus more on the harmony of the words spoken by the singers and listen to the rhythm provided by the singer who was impersonating the bass.
Another piece I enjoyed was Peul’s Dance from Senegal, a piece that represents West African folk dance music in its entirety. We are told by the author to listen to the rhythm and note whether or not it changes the pulse. When I hear this song I can feel the beat getting faster and faster which energizes the song and makes me feel that way as well. The drums create the beat and you can’t help but feel energized along with the changing rhythm. The “4th Movement” in Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony #4 includes a Saltarello at the end, which is fast triple meter dance. This incorporates a jumping motion (Chiego p.108). When I listen to this song I listen to the melody and which sets the feeling of the song. I feel like this song is very quickly paced and light. It is upbeat and makes listening to it enjoyable. Additionally, I appreciated the Dance of the Skeleton, not only for its music but for the history and explanation of the song. The Tibetan Buddhist monks preform this sacred dance during religious rituals, in order to ward off evil spirits (Chiego p. 4). For this song, we are told to listen to the beat or rhythm. While this is hard to do because the song doesn’t seem to take on a specific form, I still found the culture of it to be very interesting. The final piece I enjoyed listening to was Ozatsuma, which is a traditional Japanese Shamisen piece that can usually be found in Japanese Kabuki theatre. This type of music is more simplistic than most but it serves to dramatize the scenes in the theatre. It is usually preformed with very few instruments which attributes to the over all simplistic tone of the music. When I listen to this song, I try to distinguish each instrument individually. These are five pieces of music that I really enjoyed listening to because of their unique musical elements and defining characteristics. These pieces show the variety and complexity of music we have throughout the world, which demonstrates that you can find music every where and is something that everybody understands and enjoys taking part in.