by Prof' Lydia Ayers

1
Exploring Music Introduction 8

• by Prof. Lydia Ayers

2
Chordophones Strings

• A vibrating string produces sound.
• Important elements are the string and a rigid
  frame to hold it tight.
• Plucked
• Struck
• Bowed
• Air

3
North American Folk Music

• Where was the farmer who wanted to win the Nobel
  prize?

• Out standing in his field.

4
African Bow Harp

• lt807gt lullaby
• accompanied by bow harp with gourd resonator,
  struck with stick
• Zulu people, Republic of South Africa
• African myth about the origin of the bow harp

Swazi man plays a musical bow http//viewimages.l
ycos.com/LycosPurchase.asp?imageidAR000357partne
rid12
A young girl went out for a walk. She knelt down
and drank water with cupped hands at a stream. At
the very moment when she had satisfied her
thirst, a man dealt her a strong blow on the nape
of the neck. As she died, she immediately
transformed into a musical bow her body became
the wood, her limbs the cord, her head the sound
box, and her spirit the melancholy and
sentimental music.
5
Berimbau

• bow and arrow-like instrument
• folk ritual
• from African jungles of Angola to Bahia, Brazil
• played by striking the string with a stick while
  stopping the string with a coin and holding a
  shaker

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Berimbau

• How to build and play the berimbau probably came
  to Brazil from Africa
• Often compared to the moans of slaves longing for
  their African homeland
• African musical bow primarily a solo instrument
• Brazilian bow developed into an ensemble
  instrument, employed in public performances of
  capoeira and samba
• The word berimbau is Portuguese

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lt808gt Capoeira

• Brazilian dance from martial arts
• accompanied by berimbau
• high note produced by coin pressed against string
  (stopped)
• low note on open string (unstopped)

8
EKTARA / GOPI YANTRA

• Bengal folk instrument
• Spherical resonator made of dried pumpkin, wood
  or coconut
• Split bamboo cane neck
• String attached through skin membrane on the
  bottom of the resonator

http//www.indian-instruments.com/stringed_instrum
ents/ektara_gopiyantra.htm
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One String Phono Fiddle

• A web search for one string instrument produced
  a picture of the phono fiddle
• The bell amplifies the sound!!

http//www.carolenoakes.co.uk/market/otherstrings/
CNS730.htm
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Monochord Ðàn b?u

• Vietnamese
• Wood box resonator, with a flexible vertical
  stick (neck), to which one end of its string is
  tied
• Uses mostly harmonic overtones
• Subtle ornamentations, glissandi and imitation of
  the human voice produced by simultaneously
  plucking the string and pulling the vertical
  stick
• iii38 Hanh van from Tieng Ðàn b?u

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lt78gt Bow Harp

• man singing and playing 2 bow harps
• Baule people, Ivory Coast

http//www.artichokeguitars.com/published/our_coll
ection/string_ethnic_instruments.htm
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lt79gt Kora

• body half a large gourd
• thick center pole with 10 strings on one side,
  and 11 on the other

kora player
kora maker
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lt55gt Kulibit

• Bamboo tube zither from the Philippines

http//www.geidai.ac.jp/odaka/gcat/image/212.jpg
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Zheng

• popular during the Warring States period

• 12 to 21 strings, with movable bridges like
  flying wild geese
• plucking techniques
• pressing techniques
• lt313gt shaking techniques

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Zheng

• iii8 lt314gt The Lotus is in Blossom Above the
  Water
• The beginning of the music, like the red lotus
  blossom out of the water, symbolizes the
  prettiness and tenderness of the lotus blossom

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Qin

• the most ancient Chinese string instrument used
  today
• playing was cultivated as a literary pastime and
  for spiritual elevation
• Typical performing environment
• privacy and intimate surroundings of a
  gentleman-scholars study
• Programmatic titles dominate

17
Qin / Guqin

• 7-string zither
• an instrument that has survived more than 2,500
  years
• an indigenous musical instrument (not imported)

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Qin

• The sound of the instrument is extremely soft
• dynamic variations are confined to a small range
• Minute differences in finger techniques produce
  many shades of musical timbre
• e.g. many kinds of vibratos, glissandi,
  harmonics, etc.
• lt315gt video of qin on No 17 Cotton Mill
  Shanghai Blues, Music in China

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Qanoun

• zither
• groups of three strings, like the piano, but is
  plucked
• tremolo technique
• tuning levers

Umut Yesilmen
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Harry Partch's Instruments
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iv37 Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo,Get Along Little Doggies

• Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer accompanied by
  guitar and violin

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Listening Practice

• 11 Samma means raining in Mandinka
• Rain is a blessing that helps new life to grow
  and a hindrance that prevents a man from visiting
  his girlfriend.
• Foday Musa Suso, Kora
• Pharoah Sanders, Tenor Saxophone

• M1831.M36 J35 CD3510

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Sources

• Books
• Nettl, Capwell, Bohlman, Wong and Turino
  Excursions in World Music
• Willoughby The World of Music
• Mickey Hart Fredric Lieberman Planet Drum
• Jeff Todd Titon, ed. Worlds of Music (3rd
  edition)
• Web
• http//music.acu.edu/www/iawm/pages/enhed.html
• http//128.174.172.76/mjwetzel/mjw.inhsCAR.html
• http//www.pubaf.bnl.gov/pr/bnlpr092299.html
• http//www.patsweb.com/Lightning.jpg

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Sources Videos CDs

• Videos
• The Nature of Music, RM Arts ML2790 N478 1988
• Exploring the World of Music, vols. 1, 4 MT7 E97
  1998 v.4
• Dizzy Gillespie an all-star tribute to the jazz
  master M1366 .G555 1989
• JVC video anthology of world music and dance
  v.29 M1627 .J4 1991 v. 19, 29
• Personal videos from Bali, Korea and Vietnam