Native Sound
Native Sounds and the Effect of the Environment
The Sound of Silence
What would happen if the world suddenly fell silent? What would we lose? Surely a lot of crap music from the lately, but also a lot of unique sounds specific to each place. Each place where native people still use music to commune with the dead, to praise the gods, to pray for rain. Each place where individuality can be expressed by the unique combination of clacks and jingles heard by each movement of a dancer. How would the world change? In this essay, Rachel and I are going to look at instruments and sounds from across the world to show you the great diversity of beautiful and strange music that would be lost if people lost their precious native sounds.
Africa
Many African languages are tonal languages, where the pitch level determines the meaning, so traditional African music includes a lot of singing (call and response form, octaves, each person has a different rhythm and beat - signifying the importance that every person has a voice in their society). Most regions of Africa have their own traditional musical instruments, due to the resources of that area, and trade influences from nearby countries (mostly Arabic countries).
For example, African wind instruments include flutes made of bamboo, millet, reed, or the tips of animal horns (like an elephant tusk). Trumpets are made of wood, gourds, or metal tubes. Drums are among the more popular African instruments (like the djembe drum), but other important percussion instruments include clap-sticks, bells, rattles (like the shekere), and xylophones. African stringed instruments include the musical bow, lute, lyre, harp, and zither.
Australia
If you know anything about Australia's agorigines, you know their concept of songlines. They sing traditional songs of clan and family history, social relationships, etc, and these songlines help to remember their ancestry and heritage. They identify landmarks, and other techniques for navigation, and they often describe how the land was created and named during Dreamtime.
The didgeridu is said to be oldest instrument of man's history. Wall art dates the instrument back 15,000 years! and it is the most well known instrument of Australia. Didgeridus are long cylinders (over 1 yard long), made out of branches that have been naturally hollowed out by termites. They are decorated and painted with tribal designs and animals.
Another instrument, the Eucalyptus gumleaf, is very primitive. It's basically just a leaf from the Eucalyptus tree that is held against the lips with both hands, and can create a wide range of notes.
Like other cultures, percussion plays a huge role in ceremonies and rituals, and just general musical fun. Clapsticks are used as the main percussion instrument, often it is two boomarangs struck together to make a beat, or sticks are fashioned out of wood and painted and become clapsticks.
China
China has had a very intricate musical system consisting of eight different categories (depending on the material used). This includes silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd, and hide. Silk instruments are mostly stringed, including the guzheng, erhu, and the pipa. Bamboo is used to create woodwind instruments. Wood is basically used for percussion instruments, but it is the traditional material for making instruments. Stone creates different chimes, and metal is fashioned into bells, cymbols, and gongs. Clay is also used in percussion or to make ocarinas. Gourds are used as a frame to make several instruments and hide of course is used to stretch over drums.
Traditionally, there was no score or conductor. The players would memorize their parts, so if a large ensemble was playing, it would require complete accuracy and teamwork from all included.
The Caribbean
This region of the world is host to a varied group of musical genres, an infusion of different influences as the region itself is a great mixing of peoples and cultures from across the world. The influences include African (heritage from the slave trade), European (heritage from the slave traders and other colonizers), and numerous Indian cultures (the natives). Each island or grouping of islands also shares a unique set of musical genres. A few of the more worldly popular genres are reggae, zouk, salsa, calypso, and punta. Several of these styles are attributed to multiple locations, the most notable of which would be salsa and reggae. Salsa and reggae are both claimed by the Caribbean islands as well as South and some of Central America.
Calypso music can be traced back to its origins with African slaves working the sugar plantations on Trinidad. These slaves weren't allowed to speak to each other (I guess for fear of an uprising) so they sang songs instead. The word comes from the West African "kaiso" and was used to mock slave masters.
Reggae music comes mostly from Jamaica and the Afro-Caribbean traditions of islands throughout the Caribbean. It has risen from humble beginnings as music created in the poor quarters of island Jamaica to the international phonomoneon speaking its political mind through lyric. Bob Marley may be the most famous (or infamous) singer of this genre. His own history mirrors that of his music, perhaps making it that much more genuine.
South America:
South American music is also influenced by many different cultures including native Indian cultures, European cultures (especially Spanish), as well as influence coming down from the Caribbean nations.
The Andes region of South America (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile) has a great compilation of music in terms of indigenous music. They have a specific style called huayno, famous for the use of panflutes. Lyrics of huayno songs are either in Spanish or the indigenous language Quechua, and speak to the earth, seasons, harvest, love, family, children and the stars. There is also a guitar called the charango that is popular in this type of music.
Argentina is famous for the Tango. It began in the mid 1900's in the culture of European immigrants to Argentina.
Other regional styles include salsa, bomba, plena, cumbia, samba, mariachi, bachata, and many, many more.
Icelandic Music:
Music in Iceland is much different from anything else I'd heard before, even if you take Bjork out of consideration. It is related to Nordic music forms. Traditional folk music can be traced to origins back in the 14th century. The lyrics tend to be about love, elves, trolls, masculinity and sailors. Pipe organs, harmoniums, langspil and fiola are used in making much folk music. One of the oldest epic songs is called Ólafur Liljurós.
Classical Music
There's a point at which we have to discuss classical music, as it originated in Europe and affected many different styles and genres. We are all familiar with the orchestral instruments used to create the complex, technical pieces enjoyed by a certain part of society (back in those days). The term "classical" is a vague description of a broad category of music encompassing and hinting at significance in terms of complexity, instrumentation, form, technical exertion, and a classier type of society. Many of the composers commonly thought of in terms of "classical" are from Eastern Europe, mostly Germany (which will lead us right into our discussion of German music). The most notable (and familiar) of these composers are Johann Sebastian Bach, Geoff Fredrich Handel, Richard Wagner and one last very famous composer who will be discussed in the next section.
German Folk Music
German music extends to more than simply polka and classic music, though those genres are both generally associated with German culture. German Opera is also very famous, which is why the most notable composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, retains the fame that he has today. Germans played a leading role in the development of classical music, but they also had a folk music tradition quite independent of the opera and classical styles of melody. Volkslieder (folk songs) were taught to children and portrayed happy, optimistic songs that were democracy-oriented. Another German style associated with beer halls and brass bands is (you guessed it) Oom-pah. Perhaps that plays into the steriotype of German culture as well, but there is a greater steriotype that perhaps overrides it. Yodeling and schuhplattler (dancing that is associated with the yodeling tradiiton) are steriotypical images of Germany (alog with leiderhosen) but which are only Bavarian traditions. Current German music has strayed to pop, metal, and all other popular "western" music, integrating with the global scene, even to the point of being mostly sung in English. (According to my High School German teacher, it was "uncool" to sing in German because of the association of German with Hitler, even in its own country. A "healing" and "self-accepting" movement began in the 90's to move German popular lyrics back to being sung in German. A national pride sort of deal that still continues on today.)
Spanish Music
Spanish music is vibrant, reflecting the long and significant history of Spain. The music is often steriotyped as flamenco music and dancing andn the fast plucky notes of Spanish guitar. But there is actually a great variance of musical differences between the regions of Spain. Different sounds echo in the different provinces, distinct as if from different countries. Flamenco is an Andalusian musical genre derived from the mourning dance of gypsies that once roamed that region (and all of Spain, but were mostly associated with Andalucia). Basque music has more commonalities with Celtic, Irish, and French music than anything of latin influence. The Basques have beer hall songs that echo as a German song would, simply in the native language of Basque. They also have polka songs and other traditional dances that seem to place this part of the country with Eastern and Northern Europe (which you might attribute to its climate and extreme similarities to the northeastern countries and its great differences from Spain). Dances are also of huge influence in Spain and include (but are definetly not limited to) salsa, bachata, and tengo.
Gaelic Music
Gaelic music is traditional from the Hebrides, on the periphery of Western Europe. English has adopted many of the melodies and songs from the Gaelic culture. This musical style is known for its long lyrical fluctuations in voice, harp, bagpipes, and a flowing melody from various flutes and wind instruments. The lyrics are much like poetry and the style is very similar to Celtic music.
Concluding Thoughts...
As you can see, all world music influences the rest of the world. Ideas flow between countries like the notes in a melody softly working their way into the listeners ears. Globalization is not only the transmission of ideas and products, but also a cultural sharing of music and culture. A sound wave flowing over the globe, expressing our hopes, happiness, sadness, anger; every human emotion has a rhythm and a song. Without music the world would express itself in silence and the colorful beat of our cultures would disappear. Don't let our native sounds be drowned out by the rushing silence of quiet voices and empty air flowing across deaf eardrums.
The Public Affairs Mission of Missouri State teaches it's students to be culturally competent, and what better way to be sensitive and understanding of other cultures than to learn what is important to them? We can see that music is important to ALL cultures, whether it is used as a form of communication, for rituals or ceremonies, or to connect to the ancestors of their past. Music is so ingrained into the world that it is just one way to connect to other people globally, and it's beautiful to hear the sounds that are native to each location of the Earth.
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