Mickey Hart is the long-time drummer of the rock group the Grateful Dead. But Hart is not an ordinary rock drummer. He has introduced his audiences to an every-growing collection of percussi
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is the long-time drummer of the rock group the Grateful Dead. But Hart is not an ordinary rock drummer. He has introduced his audiences to an every-growing collection of percussion instruments from around the world and fueled his desire to learn about the various cultures that produced them (see Chapter 8). Hart’s album Planet Drum (1991) reached #1 on the Billboard World Music chart, remaining there for twenty-six weeks. It also received the Grammy award for best world music album. Planet Drum is one of twenty-nine world music recordings in Hart’s WORLD series, released on the Rykodisc label. In 1999, Hart was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. In 2002, he established the Endangered Music Fund, whose goal is to return royalty payments from many of these recordings to the indigenous peoples who produced them.
Planet Drum, by Mickey Hart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4VY8U2r0-E
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Foday Musa Suso and the Kronos Quartet
The Kronos Quartet, founded more than thirty years ago, has devoted itself to pursuing a singular artistic vision with a commitment to expanding the range and context of the conventional string quartet. The Kronos Quartet has presented thousands of concerts worldwide, released more than forty recordings, and received numerous awards, including Musicians of the Year (2003) and a Grammy for best chamber music performance (2004).
The Kronos Quartet counts numerous artists from around the world among its collaborators, including the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, the American soprano Dawn Upshaw, the Modern Jazz Quartet, David Bowie, Nine-Inch Nails, Nelly Furtado, and Dave Matthews. Pieces of Africa (=(1992) from which “Tilliboyo” is excerpted is a collection of music by African-born composers.
Foday Musa Suso is a hereditary griot (musician-oral historian) of the Mandingo people of Gambia. Suso says that he “started on the kora because I’m from a kora-playing family…from that I went to the ‘talking drum,'” the tama.
“Tilliboyo” (“Sunset”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNBDsjQiPJ0
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Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland is considered one of the greatest American composers of the twentieth century (see Chapter 13).
“Hoe-Down,” from Rodeo. This is a selection from the ballet, Rodeo, a classic of the American dance repertoire, originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille. It was first presented in 1942 at the Metropolitan Opera House. The four episodes in the orchestral suite are “Buckaroo Holiday,” “Corral Nocturne,” “Saturday Night Waltz,” and “Hoe-Down.”
This is a good performance of “Hoe Down” by a youth orchestra. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVuV0ijqFng
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Bela Fleck
Bela Fleck, born in 1958 in New York City, is a virtuoso banjo player. His diverse musical interests include bluegrass, bebop jazz, classical, and other genres. He has been recording since 1979. One of his strengths is his gathering of outstanding artists for his sessions. The Flecktones, formed in 1989, perform a mix of classical, jazz, and bluegrass.
“Hoedown” by Aaron Copland in a jazz setting by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
https://streaming.uco.edu/media/Live+at+the+Quick%2C+Hoedown/0_jzaumanr/26986922
A further note for those of you who are not familiar with woodwind instruments. The long instrument made of reddish colored wood is a Bassoon, generally found only in classical music settings.
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Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre (born January 2, 1970) is a Grammy-winning American composer, conductor and speaker, known for his choral, orchestral and wind ensemble music. [website: http://ericwhitacre.com/ ] He is also known for his “Virtual Choir” projects, bringing individual voices from around the globe together into an online choir. Born in Reno, Nevada, Whitacre studied piano intermittently as a child and joined a junior high marching band under band leader Jim Burnett. Later he played synthesizer in a techno-pop band, dreaming of being a rock star. Though he was unable to read music at the time, Whitacre began his full musical training while an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, eventually taking a BM in Music Composition. Whitacre states that the first work that he sang, Mozart’s Requiem, changed his life. (Wikipedia – for full biography see this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Whitacre )
Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 4: ‘Fly To Paradise’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8oDnUga0JU
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Wu Man
Wu Man, perhaps the world’s foremost pipa virtuoso, moved from China to the United States in 1990. The pipa, a lute-like, plucked instrument capable of many different effects, has a history spanning more than two thousand years in traditional Chinese music. Wu Man has used the pipa’sversatility to give it a new role in music by Western composers and performers in all genres. A composer as well as a performer, she has developed a place for the pipa in solo and quartet works, concertos, opera, chamber music, electronic music, and jazz.
Wu Man, lecture/demonstration of Chinese Pipa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69jtrNmNaFw
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The Silk Road Ensemble
Silk Road Project is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and flow of ideas inspired by the cultural traditions of the historical Silk Road. The Project encompasses a number of artistic, cultural and educational programs. It has been described as an “arts and educational organization that connects musicians, composers, artists and audiences around the world” and “an initiative to promote multicultural artistic collaboration.” (Wikipedia)
Driven by complex additive rhythms and improvisatory melodic lines, “Arabian Waltz” is a propulsive work by Lebanese-born composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, whose works fuse the musical traditions of the Arabic world with jazz improvisation and European classical techniques. The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma (cello and leader) and Wu Man (Chinese Pipa) performed this piece at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, NY. Other instruments featured are the Tabla (hand drums: India), Shakuhachi (end blown flute: Japan), Violins, Viola, Double Bass, Tambourine, and Dumbeck/Darbuka [and many other names] Chalice Drum (Middle East).
The Silk Road Ensemble performing “Arabian Waltz”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZpEjrdf56k
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Tan Dun
Tan Dun was born in Changsha, Hunan Province, China, but now lives in New York. He is a multifaceted composer whose repertoire spans the boundaries of Western classical, multimedia, and Eastern musical traditions. He has received a Grammy Award, Musical America’s Composer of the Year award, and an Academy Award for his music for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Performance by the Taichung, Taiwan City Symphony Orchestra of Tan Dun-Crouching Tiger Concerto: (In this performance the solo is played on a Chinese Erhu rather than a European Cello) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W21NJDGwHuw&list=PLJ7UEqSjRAKTaN4ILkuGzW1SQAxTGvjur&index=8
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Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon, born in 1962, is an award-winning American composer. She has accumulated a long list of prestigious commissions from leading American symphony orchestras. Higdon hold an Artist’s Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently on the composition faculty of the Curtis Institute.
Blue Cathedral was commissioned by the Curtis Institute for its seventy-fifth anniversary. The piece is also a memorial on the loss of her younger brother, Andrew Blue. His death moved her to reflect on the “amazing journeys that we all make in our lives, crossing paths with so many individuals, singularly and collectively learning and growing each step of the way.” In tribute to her brother, Higdon chose to feature the clarinet (her brother’s instrument) and the flute (her own instrument). They participate in dialogue, but it is the “flute that drops out and the clarinet that continues on in the upward progressing journey.”
To Higdon, “blue is the sky, where all possibilities soar,” and “cathedral [is] a place of thought, growth, and spiritual expression.”
This is a link to a live performance of Blue Cathedral by the New England Conservatory Youth Orchestra, beginning with a short explanation by the conductor. He speaks for four minutes before the performance of the music begins. (Note: this a High Definition You Tube video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_uFd83ExMg
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Summary
This summary of Chapter 14 is to some extent also a summary of the entire textbook. Performers from many regions now travel internationally and composers create music that is no longer limited to – or by – traditional definitions of particular styles of music. Perhaps these older labels – such as “Western classical” – no longer describe the realities of today’s music. It is becoming increasingly clear that musical languages from around the world are expanding to accommodate the creative attitudes and practices of twenty-first century composers, arrangers, and performers.
The names of performers may sound different. They may communicate in spoken and musical languages that are unfamiliar. Their instruments may look and sound different. Nevertheless, many of the great artists from every culture have responded to the need to grow, to exchange information and skills, and to expand their insights for the benefit of all.
Assignment:
Consider the music you listened to in this final chapter and think about the global community in which we live. We are bombarded every day with news of the conflicts we endure in our own country and that go on constantly among the peoples of the entire world. We have learned that the language of music does indeed engage the global community.
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