Critical Reading Review 6

Murphy, John P. “Chapter 3: Expressing Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Identity.” In Music in Brazil: Experience Music, Expressing Culture. Pp. 55-70. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

 Summary:
The first half of the chapter is dedicated to describing capoeira, a mixture of "dance, music, and sport." There are always two dancing participants, and typically only the head, feet, and hands can touch the ground. The pair direct kicks at each other, and they dodge these attacks through movements like cartwheels (one variant of capoeira is mainly a martial arts form). The most prominent instrument in these displays is the berimbau, a bowed instrument whose tone is controlled by the musician pressing a coin into the string. The latter part of the chapter talked about the Kayapó, an indigenous group of people in Brazil, and some descriptions of their rituals, like the nhiok, a rite where girls are given their names. The Kayapó are now adapting to the changing environment and are taking up activism to advocate for their rights (not allowing miners to mine on their land and release dangerous gases for example).

Discussion Question:
It is a commonly held idea that capoeira has a strong historical connection to rebellion in Brazilian slaves. Are there any traditions or practices in your country that the people there similarly associate with their history?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Analysis of Cab Calloway's "St. James Infirmary Blues" in Snow-White

Image
 To those of you stumbling onto this blog for the first time, you can find more information about it in my post "Soundscapes on the Wesleyan Campus." For this particular assignment, I am analyzing a short audiovisual sample, in this case a small excerpt from the 1933 Betty Boop animated short Snow-White .  The short is a retelling of the classic fairytale story Snow White by Fleischer Studios using some of the studio's trademark characters, Betty Boop, Bimbo, and Koko the Clown. Betty Boop plays the titular Snow White while Bimbo and Koko play guards who disobey the Evil Queen's order to execute Betty who sees Betty Boop as a threat to her title as "fairest in the land." The segment I chose to analyze starts about 4 minutes into the short, when Koko sings the song "St. James Infirmary Blues" to lament the supposed death of Betty.     Snow-White  was animated by Roland Crandall and directed by Dave Fleischer, one of the two brothers that owned F
Read more

Critical Reading Review 10

Schafer, R. Murray. “Music for Wilderness Lake.” In   On Canadian Music . Bancroft: Arcana Editions, 1984. Summary: Schafer opens up talking about how performance spaces are often what shape musical styles, and suggests that every major revolution in music was accompanied by a change in performance space. For example, during the time of concert halls, music was catered towards the "upper class" and made complex, but with the rise of the radio, music had to evolve into something geared towards aII people, and it therefore became a more "abbreviated" form of entertainment. After this introduction, Schafer discusses an experimental piece of music he was involved with called "Music for Wilderness Lake." The experimental aspect is not in the sound itself, but in the performance space (a wilderness lake). It was specifically composed to be played by a lake, preferably in the summer. I noticed that in his description of the piece Schafer once again expressed h
Read more

Critical Reading Review 4

Katz, Mark. “Th e Case for Hip-Hop Diplomacy.”  American Music Review . XLVI, no. 2 (Spring 2017): 1-5. Summary: Mark Katz, the author, is the director of a government funded organization called Next Level. The program sets up workshops in other countries that are headed by US hip hop artists to teach hip hop to children in poorer areas. The State Department funds the program to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries, by emphasizing shared social and cultural values." It's difficult to measure exactly how effective Next Level is in accomplishing that goal, so there's a constant worry that the program will no longer be funded. However, Mark Katz argues that the program has a wealth of potential to help connect with other countries and that such a budget cut would be a bad move. Discussion Question: Is it worth the money and effort to implement cultural diplomacy programs like Next Level? Why or why not?
Read more