Writing Assignment (Music)

Elvis Presley is known as the King of Rock n' Roll. His black predecessors are generally given credit, but not to the same extent. Is that Elvis' fault? Is it anyone's fault? What should be or should have been done about the situation?

• It is true that Elvis is known as the face of rock music, starting the trend to make that style of music popular in the 1950s and 60s. At the time, this perception of Elvis as the "King of Rock" developed because Elvis was the superior headliner option for the new genre, despite not actually inventing it. Most of Elvis' music was released before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which set people of all races equal in America, and thus, segregation and  inequality prevented the black Americans who founded rock music from being credited. I do not think that this was Elvis' fault or any individual's, but rather the entire society's fault for failing to credit black musicians just because they were black. This was a consequence of the social atmosphere at the time.
• Ideally, black Americans would have been credited for rock and roll initially, or at the very least as soon as the Civil Rights Movement started. This did not occur until later when the decades were "dated" and studied and the mindset of the country had changed. Today, we can continue to study the true origins of rock music and credit Black America for developing such a critical modern genre.

Is there a justifiable comparison between "The King" and the "Rap God"?

• Both Elvis and Eminem produced music in genres that were initially created by black Americans. However, unlike Elvis, Eminem acknowledges that he and other white rappers take advantage of the genre and often do not credit black Americans. One can compare these two artists, but they live and create in entirely different social worlds, which allow for different levels of accreditation.  

Musical Cultures Analysis Project Step 6

To what extent did your piece match the musical and cultural trends you read about when researching your musical culture?

• The piece, Aloha 'Oe, matches the musical and cultural trends that I researched to a large extent, as the melodic content and the instrumentation are typical for traditional Hawaiian music. Although the most primitive form of Hawaiian music was either Mele Hula or Mele Oli, which involved religious chanting and drumming, melody became a significant part of Hawaiian music after the colonization of the Hawaiian islands. The last monarch of Hawaii, Queen Liliuokalani, composed Aloha 'Oe in 1878, after the Europeans visited and brought with them new concepts of melody and instruments.
• The melodies present in this piece are good examples of the type of European music that was brought to Hawaii and made a staple part of Hawaiian musical culture.
• The piece also demonstrates the popularity of the ukulele and the slack key guitar in Hawaiian music by giving both instruments crucial roles in the piece. Throughout, the ukulele provides harmonic chords that center harmony and provide a consistent rhythm for the melody to fit to. The chorus is held by the slack key guitar, which establishes the relaxed, peaceful ambience common in most Hawaiian songs.

What seems most distinct about this piece, or this genre of music to you? What should someone listen for it they really want to identify it?

• This genre of music is unique largely because of its use of very slow melodies and traditional Hawaiian instruments, including the ukulele and the slack key guitar. 
• If one wanted to identify a piece as Hawaiian, they should listen for a slow, over-arching melody, the use of a twangy, sliding guitar (slack key) and an instrument that sounds like a strummed, higher-pitched acoustic guitar (ukulele), simplistic harmonies and rhythms, and generally a very relaxed feel. 

How different is this from other music you listen to, or that we've studied in class? It must be somewhat different, because it is classified as a differently culture/genre. Yet it must in some way be similar, since we consider them to all be music.

• This music is very different from most Western classical art music because it utilizes instruments not typically used in western music, such as the ukulele, the slack key guitar, and the slide guitar. 
• The music also tends to be at much slower tempos with long drawn out melodies to produce a peaceful, almost vacation-like feeling. Usually the music fosters a mood of relaxation and reflection.
• The use of simplistic harmonies and rhythms also separates this music from the more complex pieces of Western art music. 
• Hawaiian music is also different from western classical art music because songs such as Aloha 'Oe often have lyrics in Hawaiian instead of English.

Sectional Rehearsal Reflection

Today, we worked diligently as a section to perfect our music. To convey this, we have a group reflection to show how we’ve grown as a group, then another individual reflection to show how we’ve grown as individual players.

St. Paul’s Suite: We spent a lot of time on this today mastering the basic tune and rhythms. We also employed stylistic techniques Tess, Eliana, Maggie, James, Sophia, and Zeinab remember from when they did The Jig from St. Paul’s Suite. This includes practicing the bowing and the dargason folk style, as well as dynamic emphasis.

España: We focused on A-B especially, because that is the section that we need to focus on. It sounds bad when we play it in groups because there is partial dissonance and consonance, so we focused on pitch to tune it to be as accurate as possible. Additionally, we are highlighted here, so it makes sense to make this as good as possible. We also took a “break” to work on scales here, as they are heavily highlighted throughout the piece.

Hungarian March: We did not spend as much time on this piece due to our work on the other 2.  However, we made up for it in quality. We focused on intonation here, especially in the opening passages, and worked on getting the fast chromatic accuracy we need.

Personal Notes - Jane: This sectional rehearsal went well. We were able to work as a section to get through some spots that I think we needed to practice, such as the fast chromatic runs in España. This will benefit us because the violas are more prominent in this concert with harder parts than in previous concerts, and our part needs to be clean and confident to get good ratings at Festival. Personally, I collaborated with other violas and we discussed style, phrasing, and melodic emphasis for the St. Paul’s Suite Finale; this was beneficial because I have previously played the Finale and know about the technique appropriate for this piece. Combined with other’s knowledge of the St. Paul’s Suite, we were able to synthesize our knowledge and gain a good understanding of the piece. The violas have a very important role involved in this piece, we often hold the basic melody while other sections play count melodies and secondary harmonies above us. Overall, this sectional rehearsal was very beneficial to us as a section because we all grew more familiar with the pieces and feel better prepared for Festival.

Musical Cultures Analysis Step 5

To aid in my analysis of Aloha 'Oe, I decided to notate the first phrase of the chorus melody and diagram the entire structure of the piece.

Phrase One - Chorus

Structural Diagram

Musical Cultures Analysis Project Step 4

Aural Analysis of Aloha 'Oe by the All-Star Hawaiian Band

Musical Elements:

• Instrumentation
• Ukulele (used as accompaniment to melody, largely rhythmic harmony)
• Slack key guitar (melody)
• Maybe even slide guitar?
• Some sort of chimes or bells used in the beginning (melody until slack key takes over)
• Meter/Tempo/Rhythm
• Duple simple, 4/4
• Tempo from 0:00 - 0:47 is 97 bpm, andante
• Ritardando from 0:45 - 0:51
• New tempo is 76 bpm, could be considered fast adagio or slow andante
• Overall, simple rhythms are used, lots of dotted rhythms but nothing complex or extremely syncopated
• Rhythms seem almost swung
• Texture
• Homophonic, one melody with accompanying harmony
• Key/Tonality
• Major tonality throughout
• Hardly any minor chords were used
• Harmony
• Constant ukulele chords
• Seems to be triadic
• Chords are repeated throughout a phrase, changing only two or threes times throughout a phrase
• Harmony constantly supports the melody in consonance
• Not chromatic
• Slack key guitar seems to frame the melody when it is held by the chimes, adding transitions at the ends of phrases
• Melody/Ornamentation
• Melody is largely held by the chimes and the slack key guitar
• Highly ornamented with grace notes, passing and neighbor tones, trills, and slides
• Conjunct, not very many leaps, follows logical progression

Structure:

• 0:00 - 0:10 = introduction, slack key/slide guitar holds one-phrase melody (4 bars with pick-up note)
• 0:10 - 0:20 = phrase one of verse with pick-up (chime melody); 4 bars
• 0:20 - 0:31 = phrase two of verse with pick-up (chime melody); 4 bars
• 0:31 - 0:41 = phrase three of verse with pick-up (chime melody); 4 bars
• 0:41 - 0:51 = (final) phrase four of verse with pick-up (chime melody; 4 bars; transitions into new tempo at 0:51 with a ritardando
• 0:51 - 1:17 = phrase one of new melody (chorus); played by slack key or slide guitar; 8 bars
• 1:17 - 1:44 = phrase two of chorus (guitar); 8 bars
• 1:44 - 2:07 = phrase three of chorus and ending; after 1:58 meter becomes unclear although pulse is still present, ending seems almost improvised
• Overall cadences seem to be dictated by ukulele chords, not the melodies. Phrases are marked by the ending of the melody and the continuation of the ukulele chords for two beats until another melodic pick-up. Phrases are 4 or 8 bars (normal for a song). 
• The simplicity of the structure makes sense with the overall simplistic nature of Hawaiian music.

Context:

• Generally Hawaiian music uses very simple harmonies, rhythms, tonalities, and structures to create a relaxed, calm, and peaceful feeling. This piece fits with this description, using relatively simple techniques and musical elements.
• The use of traditional instruments such as the ukulele and the slack key and slide guitars gives the piece a more traditional Hawaiian feel.
• Although the melody is highly ornamented, it does not detract from the relaxed tone of the piece; the slide guitars make melodic leaps seem close, and the slow tempo makes the melody seem gliding and peaceful

Musical Cultures Analysis Project Step 3

The piece that I have chosen to analyze for this project is Aloha 'Oe, performed and recorded by the All-Star Hawaiian Band in 1994. This piece can be considered to fit a number of genres, including country, world music, and of course, traditional Hawaiian.

The original song Aloha 'Oe was written by Lili'uokalani, a composer of Hawaiian music, author, and the last reigning monarch of Hawaii, in 1878 on a journey back to Honolulu. In its original form, Lili'uokalani included a score of the song, the lyrics, and an English translation. The recording of the piece that I chose to analyze does justice to the original song by using traditional Hawaiian instruments like the slack key guitar and maintaining the traditional melody.

The recording that I am using is included below:

Musical Cultures Analysis Project Step 2

Background Information on Hawaiian culture:

• Location: 
• Chain of islands in the North Pacific Ocean
• Off the coast of the US 
• Ethnicities/Identities:
• Over time, the ethnicities of Hawaiian people have changed greatly, from being based majorly upon Polynesian immigrants to a diverse community of Native Hawaiians, Hispanics, Asians, African Americans, and Caucasians.

• Languages: 
• Officially, English and Hawaiian are spoken
• The Hawaiian language is very similar to a number of Polynesian dialects, including Tahitian, Maori, Marquesan, Rarotongan, Samoan, and Tongan.
• The Hawaiian alphabet only contains 12 characters: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w. Additionally, Hawaiian speakers utilize a glottal stop (similar to the American English uh-huh and uh-uh) to bring additional meaning to words.
• 
  
• Religions:
• Hawaiian religious beliefs are largely based upon those of their Polynesian ancestors, who settled on the Hawaiian islands.
• Polytheistic; believe that "supernatural forces filled sea, sky, and earth, the Hawaiians personified them in countless named and individualized deities, who controlled nature and humankind through their mana, or supernatural power" (Luomala and Chun).
• Traditional mele is often associated with Hawaiian religious activities, including praising gods, telling mythological stories, or deliniating geneaology. Mele is a large part of Hawaiian culture because of its involvement in religion.
• The socio-economic and political factors more relevant to the culture
• Before Hawaii was discovered by Europeans in the 1800s, all music was strictly for religious purposes. However, each new group that traveled to Hawaii brought new instruments and music styles with it that influenced Hawaiian music
• Today jazz, hip hop, and Jawaiian are popular
• The time-period the folk music you are studying comes from
• Polynesians voyaged to Hawaii approximately 1500 years ago, so the most traditional forms of mele were produced as early as this. After travelers from around the world visited Hawaii in the 1800s, the newly acquired instruments and musical styles combined with the traditional religious chants and hymns.

Hawaiian Musical Culture:

• Most significant genre(s) within that culture
• Mele: originally referred to any type of poetic work, but now directly translates to "song"
• The two main types of mele include mele oli, which refers to a capalla songs, and mele hula, which refers to song accompanied by dance. 
• Instruments used
• A variety of drums and flutes were used in traditional ceremonies, but more were used once Hawaii was discovered by the West
• Modern Hawaiian music is usually sung with ukulele or steel guitar
• Hawaii is mostly associated with the ukulele, but other instruments used in Hawaiian music include:
• Membranophones: pahu, pahu pa`i, pûni 
• Chordophones: nî `au kani, `ûkêkê, steel guitar, slack key guitar
• Aerophones: kâ`eke `eke, `ohe hano ihu, pû
• Scales and types of melody often used
• C Hawaiian scale: C, D, Eb, F, G, A, B (C melodic minor)
• Melodies often contain intervallic leaps, which are fitting to commonly used falsetto singing.
• Types of chords or harmony often used
• Microtones are commonly used
• Hawaiian music generally utilizes I, IV, and V chords, and phrases include a "vamp" at the end with the chords II7, V7, and I
• Types of rhythms and meters often used
• Duple meter is common
• Most rhythms are simple and easy to follow, as the music is often accompanied by singers
• Basic musical structures often used
• Largely strophic (or modified strophic) to fit the lyrical verses

Sources:

Luomala, Katharine, and Malcolm Nāea Chun. "Hawaiian Religion." Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Lindsay Jones, 2nd ed., vol. 6, Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 3796-3800. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Accessed 9 Jan. 2017.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/15

http://www.polynesia.com/polynesian_culture/hawaii/languages.html#.WHOmWPArLb0

http://www.polynesia.com/polynesian_culture/hawaii/history-and-discovery.html#.WHOyPfArLb1

http://hawaii-guide.info/arts.and.entertainment/musical.traditions.and.styles/

http://www.surfingforlife.com/music.html

Musical Cultures Analysis Project Step 1

Step 1:

• The musical culture that I chose to study in this investigation is Hawaiian Folk Music, or mele. I chose to study this specific musical culture because I have always loved the music of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, particularly the piece Over the Rainbow. My love for Hawaiian music was also rekindled during the past week because I saw the new Disney movie, Moana, which utilized traditional Hawaiian music throughout.