Noh

Noh is a traditional form of Japanese theater. It should not be confused with Kabuki that is similar but not the same. In the piece I viewed two characters appeared to be in some form of conflict. One appeared to be the spirit of island fire while the other appeared to be the spirit of Mountain snow. I'm guessing they are brothers or something because they look very much alike other than their hair which appears to be a different color for each of them. The music was not very melodic. It seemed to me to be mostly drums, the taiko if I am correct, with some instrument I am unfamiliar with being used for the drone. It seemed fairly interesting and I look forward to viewing some in the class and posjavascript:void(0)sibly knowing what is going on plotwise.

Indian Music

I viewed a video of a performance by Ustad Shahid Parvez. He was playing one of India's iconic instruments, the sitar, a chordophone that the user sits to play. I am unsure whether the name sitar originated in Hindi or if it is a portmanteau of sit and guitar. Either way Hindustani Classical music is very different than western music. The sitar has a distinct sound that really doesn't have an equivalent in western culture. The performance I watched was monophonic, mainly because it was a single performer doing the show. It had a couple of shifts in speed that I found intriguing.

Googoosh

Googoosh's music was quite different than what I am used to listening to. Her song Man O To seemed to have a certain Latin flavor to it. Googoosh used vibrato a lot. Lalaei was more of a downbeat song that haid a high pitched wailing going on in the background. It was either sad or romantic or maybe even neither, I am not familiar enough with the culture to gnome the difference. I can see why some people would enjoy her music, it just really isn't my thing. However one thing I do like about her music is that it reminds me of the type of music that would be playing whenever the characters from "The Shield" would go to an ethnic district of the city. It kind of makes me nostalgic since that show is over.

40th Anniversay Thing

I attended An Evening of Latin Music knowing it could be either one of two things, either Latin Chants possibly from Medieval times or Latin American music. It turned out that this particular presentation fell into the latter category. I enjoyed the piece Le Voyageur Sans Bagage. The particular piece used the violin, clarinet and piano. The piece was polyphonic and I enjoyed how there were many separate melodies going on at once. The melodies were distinct yet they coalesced in an interesting way. The performers were all very talented. They obviously all put a lot of effort into the performance and it showed. The audience seemed to be made up of students who had to go and people who came to support the arts. I would say it seemed to be about an even balance of each. As far as time goes it seemed to go by very quickly.