Morning Song

http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3100&c=22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAwGWptsOls&list=SRradiohead%20morning%20bell#t=25

As discussed in the latest chapter 5, by Cooley, much of European music can be summed down to just a few common traits. Many pieces use simple rhythmic structures, form, and melodies. The first example, “I Have Good Tobacco,” is a French folk song that attributes back to an Abbot in the early 1770s. It follows a simple ABA form, is written with a solid rhythm that utilizes a duple meter, and keeps to a single major key. However, not all modern music from Europe will fall into these guidelines. Bands such as Radiohead commonly twist the normal duple and triple meters for time signatures much more exotic, such as in “Morning Bell”. This piece is written in a 7/8 time signature, not the common 4/4 used in many popular songs today. It also does not follow the ABA form and utilizes modes of the minor scale as it shifts between minor and major keys as tonal centers. Though Radiohead has always been a band that shifts the boundaries of popular music, it is one of Europe’s most popular groups still performing and writing today. It seems that many of the traits of European music have instead shifted more over to American popular music.

Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z7c7dSbLrg

            Singing is one of humanity’s oldest ways of worship, and continues to be widely used amongst the various world religions today. The example covered today was an excerpt from a black Baptist church, titled Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah, a lining out hymn. This piece, nicknamed Dr. Watts hymn, is lead by the deacon while the rest of the congregation follows after by very slowly repeating the words with an altered melody. He leads with an open melismatic rhythm during the reply of the congregation after having previously ornamented the first melodic line on his own in a much shorter verse. His tone is majestic and when directly amplified rings out strong above the congregation, whom are simply picked up with room microphones. While leading the congregation in the longer verses, the deacon seems to adlib ornamentation that leaves the rest of the people somewhat lagging. Others in the assembly add their own ornamentation in tandem with the deacon’s. He then stops after the second verse and invites the mass to shout, “Yeah!” for a few times, inciting more energy into the crowd. He then explains that through singing the music one can be saved if they accept His way, the way of the Lord. Suddenly without pause, the deacon bursts out in the final verse before leading the congregation to the end of the piece. The camera during the entirety focuses mainly on the leader, only panning to the congregation occasionally during the replies and when the deacon talks directly to them. The people sway back and forth while raising their hands up as they sing out, illustrating what seems to be a powerful musical experience of worship. As the voices ring through the air warmly, even through an older video recording, it is clear that music is a powerful form of worship.

The Shona

While listening to the excerpts from the chapter, one piece stood out as a bit more unique from the others. This piece did not use rhythmic percussion under singing like the others, rather approached with a more percussive melodic instrumentation, the thumb piano from the Shona piece, Nhemamusasa. It did not seem like a piece that would be found in African music, but more a piece that borderlines a tune that would be used in a pop song. I had heard instruments similar to it used in many songs ranging from electronic music like Magnetic Man to Jamaican music. I even have one in my collection of instruments and love to twiddle on it.

It really would only make sense that the instrument hails from African roots, as Jamaica is largely inhabited by an African American population. But perhaps hearing it in an album by an electronic band before hearing it in Nhemamusasa had altered my view on the instrument and it’s origins. It seemed like it would be a melody used in a pop song or children’s tune more than a traditional African piece. The melody is very organized in triads in this piece, and the plucking of the keys gives it the rhythm instead of a drum following along. As the other mbira, or thumb piano, joins in the melody becomes even more scattered and upbeat. The hosho, or rattles, were the last to join in, solidifying the beat under the plucked rhythm of the mbira. This further validated that the mbira created the rhythm along with the melody, differentiating Nhemamusasa from the other selections.

The Power of a Musical Experience

            Have you ever been to a concert of any kind and found yourself so swept away by the music that you loose yourself entire in the sound? An experience so powerful that it can bring you to tears. It leaves the mind exasperated and the body numb to reality. All that remains true is the sound that envelops you. I’ve been to many shows, performances, and concerts; having found these intense moments in quite a few of them. One of the most recent and most powerful would be when I engineered the recording of the Cardinal Chorale’s performance this past semester.

            It was my first time engineering a recording of a choir, let alone the Cardinal Chorale, so I was not aware how powerful their voices can become. Upon testing the levels, they practiced a song that they would be performing that evening. They struck a chord that made the walls of the chapel vibrate with emotion. Perhaps it was simply the perfect environment for the song that brought it to life, or was it the performers? I didn’t have much time to meditate on this as I shuffled around the chapel adjusting microphone placements and heights. All I could do was eagerly await that song for the performance. As I took recordings of their practices, I found myself so bewildered by this activity involving music and its sheer power from the large number of singers. I had heard choirs in church while growing up over the years, but never one so pristine and practiced as the UIW Chorale.

            The concert began after I took my seat near the front, finally ready to record. The chapel had filled up with strangers and familiar faces, all eager to hear what was to come. I recorded song after song, constantly checking levels and adjusting gains, all while wearing a clunky pair of headphones. Finally that special song started, a beautiful piece that combined the Kyrie with Amazing Grace. I had to take off my headphones when those chords bolted from the choir and suddenly I was not sitting surrounded by my recording equipment, but by an audience so swept up in song that many were weeping. Even I couldn’t help but tear up at the passionate crescendos and swells of the choir. The aesthetics of their sound were close to what I would imagine heaven to sound like, the air vibrating so beautifully with the sound of all these souls praising their creator.

            It was one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve heard; the piece still haunts my ears. It left me in awe of what the human voice can do when united with so many others. The piano accompaniment was also phenomenal, as it blended so well with the choir of voices. The material culture of piano and voice can harmonize and balance so wonderfully for the chorale. It may have been my first time hearing them, but it will certainly not be the last. The power of music is awe-inspiring, and I will forever cherish that moment in time.