Introduction
Hello again, blog-readers. This week, instead of analyzing another Western art piece, we will be entering the world of… World music.
I have chosen a type of music that is true to its culture: Uruguayan tango. To contrast with it, I will compare it with a Japanese folk music.
To illustrate the similarities and differences between the two musical cultures, I have selected and analyzed one piece of work from each genre:
La Cumparsita
by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez
a Uruguayan Tango
&
Asaku – Tomo
by Anonymous
a Japanese Traditional Music
The similarities between La Cumparsita and Asaku-Tomo are they make use of sparse rhythm, conjunct melody with occasional leaps, moderate tempo and similar meter, while on the other hand, their structure and phrase lengths are different.
1. Similarity: Sparse rhythm
In La Cumparsita, it is written with the purpose of scattered rhythm patterns to compensate with the dance patterns of tango (Walker, 270).
Below I have found a few examples in the tango piece to demonstrate this rhythm pattern.
In Figure 2, we can already see different rhythmic patterns.
The first box demonstrates a grouping of two semiquavers and a quaver, but is disrupted by the semiquaver rest, which intervenes the rhythmic pattern. The second box shows three semiquavers, which then are augmented into three quavers. The note length of three quavers can fit six semiquavers, so the lack of busyness in rhythm may create a sense of sparsity. Not only is this rhythmic pattern in the third section separated by an abrupt rest in the first beat of the bar, the semiquavers are augmented into crotchets. The emptiness between the two crotchets is a contrast between the running notes of the seven semiquavers.
With the scattered rhythm throughout phrases, the sparsity reflects the abruptness and changing rhythms in the tango dance movements. Therefore, the sparse rhythm the composer chose to use corresponds well with the flow of the tango La Cumparsita.
Surprisingly, sparse rhythm can also be seen in music from the Japanese culture (Japanese Traditional Music).
I have put in red lines to illustrate how scattered the rhythm is. Not only are the lengths of each rhythm pattern different, the note values vary from dotted crotchets to semiquavers. This creates a sense of sparsity because of the gaps between notes and patterns.
Figure 3 starts with a minim, and diminishes into a dotted crotchet and three quavers. However, the second phrase only has two quavers. When looked at with the first phrase, this causes an abrupt interruption to the rhythm. The composer continues using quavers for the third phrase, but the dotted quaver and semiquaver are introduced, which disrupts the flow of quaver notes from the previous phrase. This scatters the pattern of quaver downbeats, creating sparsity of the overall rhythm. Not only are the dotted quaver and semiquaver reintroduced in the fourth phrase, the phrase ends with crotchet notes instead, which is an augmentation from the quavers, and a contrast to diminishing the notes in the first phrase.
The change in note values and increase in rapidness of the notes create sparsity. With scattered rhythm, it creates a sense of continuous flow, which is a characteristic of Japanese traditional music, as it reflects fluidity in the music.
As we can see from above, both pieces have sparse rhythm. However, the composers use the technique for different purposes. While La Cumparsita’s rhythm portrays the dance movements of a tango, the sparse rhythm in Asaku-Tomo creates fluidity of oriental traditional music.
2. Similarity: Conjunct melody with occasional leaps
Despite the importance of rhythm, the melody is important because this is what the audience usually focuses on. Surprisingly, although the two pieces use different scales, the composers use similar melodic motion, which is to have a relatively conjunct melody with occasional leaps.
In La Cumparsita, most of the melody is conjunct.
As seen in Figure 6, most of the melody has conjunct motion, with steps no more than intervals of third. This is suitable for a tango piece, because the step-wise notes in the melody reflect the legato side of the dance, and create a natural flow of motion for tango dance steps.
However, the red boxes in Figure 6 indicate the occasional leaps. For example in bar 1, there are a seventh between D4 and C5, and an octave between the D’s in bar 3. These leaps cause disruption to the flow of the melody, which can reflect to the dynamic nature of La Cumparsita. The sudden disjunct motion contemplates the excitement, passion and unpredictability of the nature of a tango.
Furthermore, conjunct motion can also be seen in the Japanese piece Asaku-Tomo.
From bar 6-8 in Figure 5, the melody is relatively conjunct, with intervals no more than fifths apart. The natural melodic motion reflects on the peacefulness of Japanese traditional music.
Afterwards, disjunct motion is introduced in bar 9-10. For example, the first leap from C5 to B3 in bar 9, and last leap from G4 and A5 in bar 10, are a ninth apart, which is already greater than the octave leaps in La Cumparsita. Moreover, in bar 10, larger intervals are inserted between notes, such as D4 and F5, which are a tenth apart.
Because Japanese music is not restricted by the typical chord progression from western music, the intervals and flow between notes can be decided freely by the composer, resulting in large leaps such as between G4 and A5 in Asaku-Tomo.
We can see that the two pieces share a link of having conjunct melodic motion with occasional disjunction. La Cumparsita uses conjunct motion to portray the flow of a tango, while the leaps reflect on the extremity of passion in a tango’s nature. On the other hand, the stepwise motion in Asaku-Tomo portrays peacefulness and natural flow, and the disjunct motion may be used to show virtuosic playing of the performer.
3. Similarity: Moderate tempo
In La Cumparsita, despite the fact that there is no tempo marking, the audio recording shows a tempo that is approximately at moderato (Rodríguez). The composer probably chose this because the most frequently used notes in the piece: quavers and semiquavers, match up with the dance steps of the tango at this tempo.
But Asaku-Tomo has a clear tempo marking on its music score, as seen in Figure 6.
Because Asaku-Tomo is a peaceful and lyrical piece, this tempo would suitably portray the serenity of the atmosphere, and successfully convey the elegance of Japanese music.
In comparison, although both pieces have moderate tempo, La Cumparsita chose this particular tempo to match with the speed of a tango dance, while in the other hand, this moderate speed allows the melody to sound fluid and peaceful.
4. Similarity: Meter
Although they are both in groups of two, La Cumparsita is written in simple duple, while Asaku-Tomo is transcribed into simple quadruple, although it could be written in simple duple.
A tango piece has always had a large emphasis on downbeats, as the dance is strong and passionate.
As seen in Figure 10, this piece is written in simple duple, which stresses a lot of on the downbeats. This meter is also used often in marches, where the downbeats are accented for the soldiers to march along. The strength and precision required in marching is reflected in La Cumparsita, as the dance requires these elements as well. Therefore, the chosen meter of simple duple is suitable for it.
On the other hand, Asaku-Tomo is a composition written in simple quadruple, as seen in Figure 11.
After researching, I have found out that Japanese traditional music is often based on even-numbered beats, which is equivalent to simple duple or quadruple meter in western music (Homerick). Because the traditional Japanese music scores are not written in specific western time signatures, therefore the meter of this may be considered either in the same category as La Cumparsita’s by having ‘even-numbered beats’, or transcribed into simple duple.
5. Difference: Structure and Phrase Lengths
Of course, there are musical elements that are different in the two pieces.
Similar to a concertino, La Cumparsita does have a distinctive structure to it.
A
- a
- a1
- b
B
- c
- c1
Av (+ countermelody)
- a
- a1
- b
C
- d
- d1
- e
Av x 4
1. bandoneónes
2. violins
3. piano
4. solo violin
Because this is dance music, it has to have a certain hook to the melody as a base to guide the dancers. Each section has texture and rhythmic variations to it, creating contrast and development (Frary).
This formal structure used in La Cumparsita is common in the popular folk music of Uruguay. In fact, we can say it is very similar to the rondo form in the Western art world. As seen from the chart above, the “A” section is repeated and alternated with two other sections, “B” and “C”. Because the “A” section is varied in the repeats, one cannot identify it as a direct imitation of the Western art world. Perhaps the Uruguayan folk musicians possess the idea of repeatedly presenting the main theme of the piece in the piece as well.
On the other hand, we cannot see much of a set structure in the Japanese piece Asaku-Tomo. This is because unlike La Cumparsita, it does not have a recurring theme to structure the music.
However, the common international listener (such as myself) may derive some sort of structure by identifying recurring patterns. For example, I have spotted a recurring rhythmic pattern, which can determine the phrase lengths.
As seen from the marked score provided above, phrases usually end with three crotchets and a rest. The phrases do not necessarily end traditionally with cadences such as with the tonic, subdominant, or dominant (Adriaansz, 197). For example, in the third and fifth phrases in bar 7-8 and bar 11-14, they end on the supertonic and mediant respectively, which is different to the general ‘music theory’ amongst Western art musicians.
To make it visually easier for our blog-readers, the phrase lengths will be marked in Figure 10:
Each arrow represents a phrase, which varies. The shortest phrase sustains for one and a half bar (third phrase), and the longest phrase lasts for eight bars (last phrase). Unlike the tango piece with regular phrase lengths of four or eight bars, Japanese music’s irregular phrase lengths does not give it a very defined structure, which can be called ‘through composed’.
Conclusion
Well, that was certainly quite an achievement for me, to find a similarity between such different cultures. This proves (at least to me) that music is definitely a universal language, and similarities can be found even between the most different cultures.
Although the two pieces have similar manipulations, they have different purposes of doing so. Both compositions use sparse rhythmic patterns, conjunct motion with occasional leaps, moderate tempo, and similar meter, but La Cumparsita uses these musical elements to reflect on the physical and atmospheric nature of the tango, while Asaku-Tomo uses them to portray the nature of the contrasting moods in Japanese traditional music.
Now that we’ve gone through an analysis of world music, where shall we move on to? Leave a message for your next request, and I’ll be back for more analysis for my dear blog-readers.
Word Count: 1949
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Discography
Nagai, Y., and K. Obata. "Asaku-Tomo." DaisyField.com Archive of Japanese Traditional Music. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2011. <http://daisyfield.com/music/jpm/mid/JPM069-Asaku-Tomo.mid>.
Rodríguez, Gerardo Matos. "Cumparsita." La Cumparsita. Phantom, 2007. CD.
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