Music and Us

This has been the most fun I've had so far writing a blog post. I have had no shortage of things to talk about and this is a subject I love to talk about. I decided to do a couple songs from the eastern parts of Asia since we haven't focused a whole lot on those places in class and then took a closer look at some different parts of North and South America that weren't covered in class. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it and enjoy at least one selection.

I actually wrote about this piece for another music history class I took my freshman year at Limestone and I just thought it would be fun to revisit it, especially since we haven't covered much east Asian music. The class I took at Limestone spent a little bit of time on music from other cultures, one of them being Japan. This is a classical Japanese piece called Seoto, meaning Sound of the Rapids. It is played by a 13-string koto and a 17-string koto, which is a traditional Japanese instrument. Imagine the African Kora, but lying horizontally on the ground; that's what a koto looks like. It was composed by Michio Miyagi, a very accomplished koto player who lived in the late 19th and 20th century. He went blind by the age of eight, which is when he started to study music. His story is not unique among traditional Japanese musicians; there were many blind musicians in Japan as music was one of the few ways they could make a living without their sight. I apologize for the info dump. That's probably more than you care to know. Please just enjoy this piece as I did when I first heard it.

The next piece I picked is from the Inuit people of Canada. I picked this one specifically because it had a video showcasing a unique style of drumming that I found interesting. The recording is from a yearly festival that showcases Inuit arts. From what I've read on their website, it's a lot like a pow-wow. The piece is called Labradorimiut and it is performed by the Gregoire Boys and the Nain Drum Dancers. The Gregoire Boys are an Innu disco-rock band and the Nain Drum Dancers are a traditional Innu music group specializing in, you guessed it, drum dancing. The piece itself has elements of traditional Inuit music as well as modern western music. I would put this piece more on the modern side though, as it was written by the Gregoire Boys who, while certainly including Innu elements in their music, are a disco-rock group. I hope this is distinct enough from Native-American music to be considered its own thing. I know it's on the same continent, but it sounds so different in my opinion, and it's at least in a different country. I have rambled enough; please enjoy this music.

This next piece is from the Philippines. I thought the song was beautiful and in a different from what my western ears are used to. It is called Dosayan and is a religious piece; it is meant for Kabuniyan, who is a creator/skygod. If you turn on subtitles you will notice the sacred nature of the lyrics. I am not sure what language it is in, just that it is an ancient one that predates the Philippines colonization by the Spanish. Despite being southeast Asian, Filipino culture shares many similarities with Spanish culture because of their occupation of the islands. This recording is by Grace Nono, an ethnomusicologist and traditional Filipino singer. She works to preserve the culture of the Philippines.

The last piece I have picked is from Argentina. It's called Naistumichiu by Chano. It's the most modern song I've chosen with a lot of pop elements. Chano is a big name in the Argentinian pop music scene with this specific music video having 11 million views. His post popular song, Carnavilintro, has gone double platinum with 41 million streams. He used to be the front-man for a popular Argentinian boy band called Tan Bionica until he left in 2016. This piece stood out to me because of it's catchy tune and professional production quality. It sounds a lot like something you'd here from the U.S. with a few foreign touches. I have put the lyrics through a translator and am unable to figure out what they mean, so if you would like to try feel free. Anyway, here's Naistumichiu by Chano.

I hope you liked what I picked out. I had a lot of fun discovering all this new music. I tried to pick things that we haven't covered in class and were all unique. I did a couple Asian countries, but they're both very different so I hope it wasn't too redundant. For the Inuit and Argentina selections: I'm aware we've covered music of the same continent, but I tried to select parts that were different from what was discussed in class. Thanks for reading. That's all folks!