Title: Mirando (The group is performing their own distinctive style know as Currulao)
Performers: Cantadoras del Pacifico
Culture of Origin: Southern Colombia
Orchestration: Marimba, Drums, shakers, voices
When reading Chapter 6 of Campbells, Teaching Music Globally, I was reading about her creative "world music" experience about a groove. In the book, she describes a groove as "the way ensemble musicians interact during performance" (pg. 201). I feel that the video example I chose is a great example of a groove in a cultural ensemble. If you watch the very beginning and notice how each new instrument enters, beginning with the tempo and feel started by the marimba, you sense the connection between all the players. The added voices enhance the rhythm that is being played to further develop the groove.
As the video progresses, you see some drummers and the marimba player developing their groove to amplify was is being performed. The added dancers create another performance layer to the music.
My favorite part of this video is how the musicians feel the music and the groove they are creating. Any teacher can teach a repeated 8 bar rhythm to their students, but I believe it is the connection of the musicians that make this "world music".
This is a great example! There are so many uses for this example in teaching world music that have direct applications to our Western Art music tradition, including derivatives. It has been my experience in playing in small ensembles on bass or guitar that the initial rhythmic "primer," or small pattern, will completely control the drive of that groove. It seems that once the original pattern is internalized by the group, creating a home, then more adventurous rhythms are employed. Moments of hemiola and syncopated patterns are briefly used, but they all revert back to that strong, original pattern.
ReplyDeleteIf I were teaching world music concept this in a theory class, I might make a connection to the piece we heard a few weeks ago, "Take Five." Take Five also employs an idea of each instrument being added to the ensemble, with a derived rhythmic or melodic concept. A modern work that uses the same entry of small rhythmic parts would be evident by listening to "Bloom," a track off Radiohead's "The King of Limbs" album, which also incorporates the polyrhythm that persists on the non-strong beat.
About 45 seconds in, the music starts for "Bloom"
Your reflection on Campbell’s strategies could have been more in depth. Good points about “groove”, but how would you teach this to your students. Would any of Campbell’s creating strategies be useful?
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