Module 6

1. Unknown
2. Children in Kenya
3. Kenya
4. Voice, Membranophone
5. When I first saw this video when combing through YouTube, I fell in love with it.  Mostly because the one little boy that is called up second in the game is so happy when he's singing and dancing and having his turn to lead.  I thought that one moment truly showed the concept of children socializing through music and dance.  When he was chosen he was ecstatic, and his smile and dancing showed it.  These types of activities are important for children because it does encourage socialization with each other musically as well as enhancing their listening skills.  They are required to listen to the drummer and other singers in the group in order to keep time and on pitch.  They also call each other out during the song to come join them in the circle allowing them some independent time throughout the game.

Module 5

1. Unknown
2. West Virginia University Steel Band
3. Mixed cultures of origin
4. Steel pans, drum set, and Mariachi (violins, trumpet, guitar, singer)
5. After reading Chapter 6 in Campbell, the first thing that came to mind was actually a performance I participated in.  In college I was very active in the world music ensembles at WVU, including Steel Band.  The summer after I graduated, we were asked to spend a couple weeks in Washington, D.C. performing at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall.  It was a great experience seeing so many different cultures of music performed in the same place.  Our graduate assistant who came on the trip happens to be a composer from Brazil, and during this trip, he put together a piece for the steel band, and another performance group that was there, the University of Texas Pan Am Mariachi Band.  This song incorporated many different cultures of music, and followed along with the idea of "re-creating music" as stated in the reading.  Campbell states, "Straight from the mouths of culture-bearers, the message to teachers is that "It's OK to create and re-create 'world music'" Particularly for educational purposes, the performance and composition of songs and instrumental pieces that are association with various musical cultures other than mainstream are successful strategies for developing students' further understanding of music, musicians, and culture. (Campbell, p. 193)."  In my opinion, students can also include any audience member that you are trying to inform about music.  In the case of this particular piece of music, the purpose was to inform the audience about both mariachi and steel pans.  The music was still treated respectfully, and in fact, we had Ellie Mannette with us on the trip, who is considered to be "the father of the modern day steel pan", and he enjoyed this rendition of music.  I'm certain that as long as music from another culture is treated respectfully, many people from that culture would enjoy hearing different renditions of their music re-created.

Campbell, Patricia S. (2004). Teaching music globally: Experiencing music, expressing culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Module 4

1. Unknown
2. The University of Illinois Balinese Gamelan Ensemble
3. Bali
4. Bonang, Gendér, Gong, Kendang, Kenong/Kethuk, Peking, Saron, Slenthem

The four models in the Koops article are the continuum model, the historical and personal model, the reproduction, reality, and relevance model, and the beyond authenticity model.  When looking at the four models in comparison to this piece, they would have very different takes on it.  I think this particular performance falls into the model of reproduction, reality, and relevance.  The UI Balinese Gamelan Ensemble is "trying to reproduce the music exactly as it was first created" (Koops, 2010), attempting to reflect the actual Balinese Gamelan practices, and I would assume are creating meaning through their music making that could represent "personal authenticity".  I do believe that this performance would fall under the continuum model as being nearly as authentic as they can in their situation.  It is impossible to achieve the beyond authenticity model unless they are actually performing the original version of this piece in Bali, but I think they are as close as they can be.  As teachers, we have to consider if the world music we are teaching our students are at an acceptable level of authenticity, otherwise we are doing a disservice to our students as budding musicians.

Koops, L. H. (2010). “Can’t we just change the words?”: The role of authenticity in
            culturally informed music education. Music Educators Journal. (97)23.

Module 3

1. Unknown
2. Estrela Brilhante
3. Brazil
4. alfaia(rope drums), tarol(snare drums), gongue (cowbells), caixa-de-guerra(war-snare), agbe(gourd shakers), mineiro(metal shakers)
5. The piece I chose this week was a Brazilian maracatu piece.  I've always been interested in Brazilian music and when I was in college, I spent a semester in a Brazilian ensemble and we had the opportunity to play both maracatu and choros.  We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to learn from our grad assistant who happened to be a Brazilian composer.   The video description did not have a song name, but the group was performing during a Carnival celebration.  I've always been intrigued by the musical structure of maracatu as it's so different from the majority of our music here.  Rather than having a set form, maracatu mainly relies on a call and response system.  In a way, I guess that could be considered the form.  As it is a massive ensemble filled with percussionists and singers, there has to be a way to signal transitions.  This part is up to the solo singer.  As you can see in the video of Estrela Brilhante, the solo singer calls while everyone else responds.  He also keeps a whistle with him and plays it in different patterns.  By hearing these patterns and the calls from the soloist, the rest of the group simply falls in to place and knows what to do when.

Module 2

1. Vazgectim (Silent Cue)
2. Ara Dinkjan
    Tamer Pinabasi
    Ismail Lumanovski
3. Turkey
4. Oud, Kanun, Clarinet
5.  Though I have a very basic knowledge of a few Turkish instruments, I chose this piece when searching for a clarinet piece.  In reference to the Sachs-Hornbostel system that we learned about this week, anyone who did not know the instruments would easily be able to classify them into some sort of category based on what they are seeing and hearing in the video.  Had there not been a description under the video in YouTube, I would have had no idea what a Kanun (the middle instrument) was.  I recognized the Oud, and obviously the clarinet, but upon first listening, I was instantly able to recognize it as some sort of chordophone.  These classification systems also allow listeners (even with the most basic musical knowledge) to have an idea of what they may hear in a piece.  If someone tells me they are going to play me a piece of music featuring aerophones and membranophones, I will know that I am probably about to hear wind instruments and some sort of drums.

Module 1

1. Title of Piece: Not listed
2. Performers:
    - Bernard Woma
    - Mike Vercelli
3. Culture of Origin: Ghana
4. Instrumentation: Gyil

5.  One paragraph reaction in relation to course readings/discussions.  This week's theme: How does the study of ethnomusicology inform world music pedagogy?
As I was sifting through videos on YouTube trying to decide what to use for this blog post, I actually came across this video of one of my former undergraduate professors performing on gyil with the world renowned gyil player Bernard Woma in Ghana.  The first thing that jumped out to me when recognizing one of the people actually performing was a thought I had about the position of universalism in the Reimer reading.  Though I disagree with the concept that music is completely universal and transcultural and genuine experiences are easily created through simple means such as listening to a recording, I would argue that this video would perfectly represent my idea of a genuine musical experience within another culture.  Because of the studies of music in other cultures by ethnomusicologists such as Dr. Vercelli, students have an opportunity for a more authentic/genuine learning experience of music from other cultures.