Training- taught from an early age to use complex rhythmic structures. Music incorporated into the elementary schools.

Rituals- most sites agreed that many of the rituals in the Santeria religion is incorporated into Puerto Rican music (specifically Salsa)

Apparel- depending on the band there can be specific apparel. Also, flowing dresses is important for many of the Puerto Rican dances.

Ideas-

-Beautiful- MAYBE- Beauty varies from culture to culture, but nothing in the article can lead me to believe this music is beautiful or not.

- Spirituality-YES- not all the songs are spiritual songs, but many incorporate their belief systems

-Context- YES- They had many different contexts depending on the song

-Function- YES- Some served as entertainment songs, while others spoke of political problems-combined many different styles.

Social

-Training? unknown

-Who is listening? YES. Puerto Rico and around the globe

-Who made it? YES. People of puerto rico made it. There are many different styles of music for this culture.

Activities

-Dance- YES Dance is incorporated into many of their songs.

-Movements- YES some have particular movements. It depends on the song

-Etiquette- Audience is encouraged to participate

-Rituals- unkown

Material-

-Instruments- YES  many different timbres including Cuban based instrumentation.

-Apparel- UnKnown

While reading the Cuban article, I found a lot of information about the Cuban musical culture. The only thing I did not find was about the Training, etiquette and apparel. Here is some information about these three cultural points that I found from reliable sources:

1. Training- I found in many of the articles that Cuban children receive training as young as 3rd grade, and emphasis is put on ear training.

2. Etiquette- I could only find a few articles in reference to the audience etiquette. I gather that the audience members do not participate as much as other diaspora cultures.

3. Apparel- I found that many different bands have specific uniforms that they wear. I find this very interesting.

Ideas-

-Beautiful- MAYBE- Beauty varies from culture to culture, but nothing in the article can lead me to believe this music is beautiful or not.

- Spirituality-YES- Songs that were created by the African slaves were made to retain their African spirituality.

-Context- YES- They had many different contexts depending on the song

-Function- YES- Some served as entertainment songs, while others spoke of political repression.

Social

-Training? Unknown

-Who is listening? YES. The island of Cuba and music can effect how people view certain situations.

-Who made it? YES. People of Cuba created the music.

Activities

-Dance- YES dance is very important in the Cuban culture. Many of the songs have dance movements that go hand in hand with the timbres.

-Movements- YES The original slave music had certain movements tied along into the song, due to the work that needed to be done. That has carried into the future generations as dance movements

-Etiquette- UnKnown

-Rituals- YES The Santeria religion has sessions called “bembe” to honor the various Orishas.

Material-

-Instruments- YES  Because Cuban music has a deep foundation from African musical culture, many of the instrumentation used is also African based.

-Apparel- UnKnown

The contour of this song is very hilly due to the brass timbre of the trumpet. The only time where the line kinda went flat was when the vocals came in from 1:20-1:37. The phrasing was very complex and hard to detect, here is what I have determined: there was five sections with multiple phrasing incorporated into each one.The first section was from :00-:22, which had one phrase that was repeated two times. The second section was from :23-1:20, which had three phrases that were repeated in random order. The third section was from 1:20-1:37 and had vocals and had two phrases that were repeated. The fourth section was from 1:38-2:30 and had two or three phrases that were repeated. At 2:30 till the end of the song, the third section (with the vocals) was played (meaning repetitive phrasing). In regards to African traits, this song used repetitive phrasing which is abundant in African style music. The melodic character of this song is disjunct due to the use of large intervals. The range is high because of how high the brass instrument goes up in pitch.

There are five layers in this song: trumpet (aerophone), classical guitar (chordophone), gurro (membraphone), some sort of cow-bell or block of wood (ideophone) and vocals (aerophone). Just like in African style music, this song has multiple faucets in it, and no instrument is the ‘main’ instrument. The classical guitar, gurro, and cow-bell function as the rhythmic/bass accompaniment to the song. The vocals add lyrical style and a contrast against the other instruments. The trumpet is almost like the melodic instrument of the song. It is how the song is defined due to its contrast to the other instruments in regards to pitch. The speed of the layering was even throughout the whole song, although the vocals (1:20) sounded a little faster than the trumpet. There was no call and response in this piece.

The meter in this song is a duple meter. The tempo was medium due to the slow/bluesy nature of the trumpet. It was very relaxing to listen to. The rhythm in each layer is pretty complex, but I am going to try my best to analyze it. The gurro was steady during the whole song as it did “one (hold for one) three, four”. The trumpet also repeated three rhythmic patterns which were “one-e-and-a-two-e-and-a three-e-and-a-four (hold for one)”, “one-and-a-two-(hold for one) four”, AND “one-e-and-a- two- THREE- and-a-four-and”. The trumpet was very complex in this tune. The guitar was hard to hear, but played many walking notes and filled up much of the rhythmic linear space. In the beginning, the cowbell was very steady and played a repetitive “one-two-three-four”, but at 1:20 when the vocals joined in it became louder and played “ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR”. The difference is in the dynamics, which will be discussed in the following paragraph.  In African musical styles dynamics are often played with to create wonderful sounds. There was syncopation between the cowbell, guitar, and trumpet, meaning the accents would hit at different points in the linear structure of the song.

There was a slight harmony between the trumpet and the classical guitar. The harmonic character was consonant for the most part.  As I mentioned before the dynamics of the cowbell, and the trumpet accented the sensual feeling of this song. By using dynamics correctly, this song bled with so much emotion. There was hardly any vocals, so articulation does not apply to this song.

below is a version of Caballo viejo:

The contour of this song is still with some hills when he sings “no WOMAN, no cry”. His voice goes up higher at that point, therefore the contour line also goes up to follow the melodic line. The phrasing is quite simple in this song. The first section has only instrumentation and is from :00-:11, and has only one phrase. The second section has four repetitive phrases, and is from :12-:31. I would consider this section the chorus as he sings “no woman, no cry” over and over. The third section is more of a verse and consists of four phrases that repeat, starting at :32 to 1:10. From 1:11 to 1:20 the chorus of “no woman, no cry” is sung again, this is considered the fourth section. 1:20-1:30 is still in the the fourth section, but has some embellishments added to the ‘no woman, no cry’ phrase. The fifth section has two phrases in it, one that is repeated from 1:31 to 2:11 and another one that is from 2:12 to 2:30. At 2:31 the chorus of No woman, No cry starts again, with slight variations until 3:07. On 3:08 till the end, there is a guitar solo and a slight mixture of him improvisation on vocals. The range of this song is medium, as neither the vocals nor the guitar go up very high on the scale. The melodic character was a steady conjunct throughout this tune.

There were five timbres in this song: Organ (aerophone), Voice (aerophone), Bass guitar (chordophone), six string guitar (chordophone), and tambourine (membraphone OR ideophone). Most of the instruments went at a medium pace in this tune, but I did feel as though the organ was going at a slower speed then the rest of the timbres. The function of the bass guitar, six string guitar, and tambourine was to add embellishment and most importantly rhythm to the song. The voice was the melodic instrument in this piece and the organ played the role of of harmony and rhythmic background. I could not detect any call and response in this song.

This song was at a duple meter the whole song. Through-out the song, the organ followed the vocal “no woman, no cry”, so the rhythm was like “one-two-and-three four”. During the chorus, the organ would pick up on a faster pace “one-and-e-and-a-two-and-e-and-three-and-a-four”. In the verse the vocals, would follow “one-two-and-three-and-four” and during the chorus would do the exact rhythm as the organ. The bass was hard to hear but during the end, one could pick up on the “One-e-and-a-two-and-three-and-four”. The bass used a lot of walking notes. The guitar played a steady rhythm throughout this piece as it did “one-(rest for three) four-one-and a-two-three-and-a-four. The steady nature of the guitar playing made it easy to follow along. Tempo of No woman, No cry was medium and very calm. There was not much syncopation in the piece, if any.

The harmony between the two vocals was dissonant as the notes were far away from each other. You can hear this dissonance/harmonic sound when the words, No woman, no cry is sung. Which is in the chorus. The dynamics are used in the timbres: vocals and organ. The organ was very loud at the beginning, but after the vocals came in they died down a lot. The vocals used dynamics right after the second section, going into the first ‘verse’. You can hear the way he softens his vocals to make certain words melt right off your ears.

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MUSICAL CULTURE-

1. Ideas- The dissonant harmony allows for us to relate to the CONTEXT of the song, which is about relationship troubles.

2. Social- The use of vocal harmony ONLY in the chorus, makes it sound like someone is trying to console Marley about his woman troubles. “NO WOMAN NO CRY” is emphasized, thus hilighting how social interactions may occur in Jamaica.

3. Activities- Because the tempo is very slow, it allows for improvisation, which had occurred in many of Marley’s concerts. Improvisation is a type of etiquette, which the audience may or may not be allowed to follow along to.

4. Materials- The use of the organ, also allows us to think about the context. Since an organ is usually related to church, one can assume that perhaps Marley is crying to God for help.

Ok, so in order to complete my definition of the musical components of Jamacia I need to know two things:1. training 2.. etiquette. Here is what I found by researching VIA internet:

1. Musical Training in Jamaica- According to most sites on the internet, it seems as though Jamaica does offer basic training with some instruments. Not all places/schools offer ‘free lessons’, but there is enough knowledge that it can be passed down throughout the generations.

2. Etiquette- according to my research, there are many events (such as patomime) where the audience is expected to sing, dance, and clap along with the music.  I will assume that most of the musical events encourage this, but I cannot be too sure.

Ideas-

-beautiful? MAYBE- Because of the subjective nature of the term ‘beauty’, I cannot find any substantial evidence that the musical culture is or is not involved with beauty in music. Although, one could assume that beauty was naturally tied into the music, as no musical culture makes music that is purposely repulsive to the peoples ears.

- Spirituality? YES- In this article, there is proof that the music is extremely religious and tied to ceremonies. Even Bob Marley himself was a Rastafarian and sang about his savior “Jah”.

- Context? YES- In the article it claimed that there is a folk tradition that is carried along generations. The context of these songs depends on the social and political situation in the era written.

Function? YES- Again, many of these songs were used as work songs, or just folk songs to help the slaves feel more at home.

SOCIAL

Who made it?- wide variety of people, although men dominated, which is usually the case. There has been many influences from cultures and religious symbols, such as the church.

Who is listening?- All of Jamaica, and the whole entire world, many of times. For example, many of the artists have influenced others great artists across the globe.

training- unknown

ACTIVITES

Dance- YES Although not very big in Jamacia, Dance is lightly incorporated into their music

Movements- SOMETIMES in many of the church ceremonies, movements are used (such as kneeling ect)

Etiquette- unknown

Material culture-

-Instrumentation- YES- Many instrumentation was used from across the globe

- Apparel- YES- many had to dress/wear their hair a certain way. For example, Bob Marley had the famous ‘dreds’ that not only reflected his religious beliefs but also effected our view on him today.

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I would say based on this information that we have an almost complete description of the musical components of Jamaica. There are a few unknowns regarding equipment, training, and specific etiquette.

There are many similarities between the two types of songs, but there are also differences:

1. Use of symbolic lyricism- In the traditional music (like in Iron duke and Jean and Dinah), the music used symbolism to attack the government. This may have been because they were not allowed to record any public bashing of the government. This may also be because of the importance of lyrics in the time. Later on (in songs such as Burning, and Cyar take that) the lyrics were more straight froward and required no analysis to understand the meaning.

2. Importance of complex instrumentation- In songs such as Calinda and Tassa drumming, the instrumentation and structure of the songs seems much more complex than what is used in the popular music. There seemed to be more focus on the talent of the instrument rather than the vocals/lyrical use.

3. Lyrics that apply to the modern day- Of course, the popular musical lyrics tackles problems that the people are facing today, such as arranged marriages and political problems.

4. Fusion- there has been a wonderful mixture of the Asian/Trinidad musical cultures.For example, In Cyar Take That, you can hear the multiple layering that was inherited from Africa, and the drumming style that is heard in the tassa drumming piece. The mixture of these cultures have created a wonderful musical perspective.

Below is a tassa video i REALLY enjoyed:

In regards to contour, this song was very straight with few hills. The only timbre that showed huge jumps was the brass instruments at the times :05 and :10. The phrasing was split into a couple of different sections. The first section involved the brass, bells, guitar, and drums and lasted ten seconds. From :00 to :05 was the first phrase that had short staccato notes, and the second phrase (from :05 to :10), which had longer sustaining notes. The second section involves guitar, vocals, and some sort of drum kit. In the section section there is one phrase that is repeated two times. The phrase starts at :11 and ends at :19, and vocally it goes from “I work my finger to the bone….(to)…..Mashing up me family”. This phrase is then repeated from :19 to :29, and vocally it goes from “so much a years that we sweat and toil….(to)….Children can’t see the way.hey.”  The third section is what I consider to be the chorus, where there is one phrase that is repeated four times. The section starts around :30 and goes to :46, and in essence the vocals truly define the phrasing. In regard to the phrasing, the first phrase is from “I wake up in the morning…(to)…I cyar take that”.  Again this is repeated four times with different text, in the third section. The fourth section also has only one phrase that is repeated multiple times, which lasts from :47 to 1:07. Textually, this is where they sing “ain’t taking that so. People ain’t taking that”. The fifth and final section involves the same phrasing as the beginning, with only the instrumental timbres. This lasts from 1:08 to the end of the song. The melodic character of the song is split throughout the tune. For example in Section one, it was mostly a disjunct melodic character, but in section two, it was mostly conjunct. I would have to say that conjunct was more prominent in the tune than any other character. The range of this song was medium high, because of the note that the brass instruments hit and the beginning and end.

There were five layers in this song: Brass (aerophone), bells (ideophone), Guitar (chordophone), vocals (aerophone) and Drum-kit (membraphone).  In regards to function they all played a major part in the song. The Brass was only present in sections one, four and five of this tune. Only introducing this instrument occasionally added a nice contrast spice to the rest of the song. The drum-kit and bells supported the rhythmic structure of this song. The guitar added rhythm, but also added a slight harmony to be heard.  The vocals were the concrete melodic line throughout the tune. There was a slight call and response in sections three and four. For example, when the vocals said “I wake up in the morning and is unemployment” the background vocals responded “i cyar take that”.

The meter of this song was most definitely a duple meter the whole way through. Each layer did hold a different rhythm depending on its sound. The bells were very slight and had an ocassional “one-three-and four” at sections one and five. The Brass was abundant on sections one, four and five, and held a steady rhythmic pattern of “one (hold for three), one-e-and a-two and three and four”.  At section one and five the guitar did “one-two and four” but during sections two through four it was more improvisation and most of the time did “one-e-and-two-three-four”.  The drums used a mixture of the actual drums, to the cymbals and had a rythmic structure of “one and two and three four” or “one-e-and-and-two-three-and-four”. The vocals changed the rhythmic structure between each layer, so it was hard to keep track of. The tempo of this song was medium-slow as it was very calm and relaxing.

There was only a slight harmonic character between the voice and guitar and that was consonant. This consonant harmonic character can only be heard in sections two and three. The dynamics of this piece was only displayed in sections one, four and five, with the brass instruments. When they go up to their highest notes, the listening can hear the dynamics of the instrumentation. In regards to articulation, I could not personally understand exactly what they were saying. Of course, if I had grown up around this accent, I suppose the articulation would be correct.