Ravi & Anoushka Shankar - Raga Anandi Kalyan

Pitch: Indian classical music sounds like it doesnt use a normal melodic western scale structures beacuse of this idea of the pitch bends. Scalic runs are inlcuded and repeated throughout the piece. Melody incorperates both the leaps and scale runs. There is a repeated tonic note creating a drone under the melodic sound. Sitar ostinatos are used within the first
Texture:
Thin layer including tabla (untuned), Sitar, background drone.

Indian Music

Indian classical music is principally basd on melody and rhythm, not on harmony, counterpoint, chors, modulation and the other baiscs of Western classical music.

The system of Indian music known as Raga Sangeet can be traced back nearly two thousand years to its origin in the Vedic hymns of the hindu temples, the fundamental source of all indian music.Thus, as in western music, the roots of Indian classical music are religous. To us, music can be spiritual discipline on the path to self-realisation, for we folow the traditional teaching that sound is God - Nada Brahma: By this process indivitual consciousness can be elevated to a realm of awareness where the revelation of the true meaning of the universe - its eternnal and unchaing essence - can be joyfully experienced. Our ragas are the vehicles by which this essence an be percieved.

The ancient Vedic scriptures teach that there are two types of sound. one is a vibration of ether, the upper or purer air near the celestral realm. This sound is called Anahata Nad or unstruck sound. Sought after by great enlightened yogis, it can be only heard by them The sound of the universe is the vibration though by some to be like the music of the spheres that the Greek Pythagoras described in the 6th centruyB.C. The other sound Ahata Nad or struck sound, is the vibration of air in thel ower atmosphere closer to the earty. It is any sound that we hear in nature or man-made sounds, musical and non-musical.

The tradition of Indian classical music is an oral one. It is taught directly by the guru to the disciple, rather than by the notation method used in the West. The very heart of Indian music is theragaL the melodic form upon which the musician improvises. This framework is established by tradiditon and inspired by the creative spirits of master musicians.

Ragas are extremely difficult to explain in a few words. Through indian music is modal in character, ragas should not be mistaken as modes that one hears in the music of the Middle and Far eastern countries, nor be understood to be a scae, melody per se, a composition, or a key. A raga is a scientifitc, precise, subtle and aesthetic melodic foorm with its own peculiar ascending and descending movement consisting of eather a full seven note octave, or a series of six or five notes(or a combination of any of these) in a ising or  faling structure called the Arohana and Avarohana. it is the subtle difference in the order of notes, an omission of a dissonant note, an emphasis on a particular note, the slide from one note to another, and the use of microtones together with onther subtleties, that dematcate one raga from the other.

Samba Batucada

Instruments used in African performance:

Timpani               Congo’s

Snare Drums        Cajon

Cow bells             Bongos

Guiro                    Bongos

Shakers                 Piccolo snare drum

Ago-go Bell

Composure & Performance:

Our class formed a percussion ensemble and performed an arrangement of the Samba Batucada at Musicale. We started practice numerous weeks before the actual performance and found that it changed each lesson we practiced it adding dynamics and different instruments to alter the overall tonal quality of the piece. The instruments used were all indefinite pitch creating no more than one sound although it could be altered through dynamics and how you hit the instrument as we soon found out after a bit of practice.

Social & Historical Context

Music of Argentina

Mostly known for its tangos, the tango arose in the brothels, bars and port areas of Buenos Aires, where waves of Europeans poured into the country mixing various forms of music. The result, tango, came about as a fusion of disparate influences including:

• Old Milonga - songs of the rural gauchos.
• Habanera - Cuban music.
• Polka and Mazurka - Slavic music.
• Contradanse - Spanish music.
• Flamenco - from Andalucia.
• Italian folk music.

 Buenos Aires (A):

An Orquesta Típica generally plays the tango and comprises a string section (with violins, viola, and cello), a bandoneón section (with 3 or more bandoneons) and a rhythmic section (with piano, and double bass).

The music usually accompanies the Argentine tango which is a social dance, written in 4/4 measure and with binary musical form. Its lyrics and music are marked by nostalgia, expressed through melodic instruments like the bandoneón.