The first one I'd like to share with you is a Christian singer, Nicole C. Mullen, who sang a song about the African people being freed in America. What's really interesting about this, and I didn't notice this until I listened to it today, you can hear the call and response, repetition and simple melodies, and even the complex drum sounds that we heard in the purely African music. Here is "Freedom" by Nicole C. Mullen:
The next video I am going to show you I discovered today while looking for images for my sidebar. I was looking at pictures of Mbiras and Koras and found performances centered around those instruments that I thought were really cool. This particular video has a man providing commentary, giving some information about the instruments and some of the culture.
The last video I would like to share with you is very different from both of the videos I have already shared. This group of musicians has found a way to combine Native American techniques with a European Christmas carol (although I doubt they realize it). The Piano Guys use only one instrument to create many sounds, using it as a drum, a string instrument, a keyboard, and other percussive instruments as well. It reminded me of the Native American music at first because they were able to use one instrument (instead of using several) to create many sounds.
I hope you enjoyed these songs :-) The first one is my personal favorite haha. Have a wonderful weekend!
As I am typing this I am listening to the Piano Guys' performance for the second time. It was absolutely gorgeous and it was so interesting to see how they used each part of the piano to create a different sound! It was interesting because I didn't realize the connection to Native American music until I read your description, and you're right! I feel like a lot of musicians may use characteristics of different culture's music without realizing it, which is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs for your other videos they were also very interesting! I really liked being able to hear the call and response as well as other African music characteristics in both of those videos.
I like all these videos, Lydia. Perhaps tomorrow's Paul Simon video and Chris's lecture on the Blues will provide some illumination as to how those African-sounding things showed up in an American pop song. And, to see more of how the Piano Guys came up with that particular way of using the piano, head over to YouTube and watch pretty much anything under "John Cage Prepared Piano." Then go find out who John Cage was--he's pretty important, though you won't get to him until the end of sophomore music history.
ReplyDelete