MUSIC102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Slendro, Maya Rudolph, Pelog
27 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Sept. 11/17 (Kate’s Notes)
Unpacking the Voyager Golden Record
Or, “Is Music a Universal Language”
- Carl Sagan, American astrophysicist
- NY world’s fair 1939
- Show what the city could do in its technology, etc.
- Made him interested in technology & science
- Saw time capsule, gave him idea to make sonic Golden Record
- Voyager Probe, 1977
- Golden Record tried to compile a sonic “capsule” of what it meant to be human
- Mostly about communication, even though it was also about “art”
Is Music a Universal Language?
-Universal speech
- You have to understand local language to understand it
- Geographical disperse
- Golden Record
- Meant to be universal but some people left out because of the limitations
- English only
- Unmetered = slow & gradual changes
- “Harmonics”
- Improvised
- Behaviour: one person playing, audience wouldn’t matter, playing for themselves (soft
strings don’t travel far soundwise)
- Ideas: music as meditation
- Zheng -- 16 string zither, much more recent
- Played by middle class young women
- Most likely learned on conservatory
- Same inspiration, but music has changed
- Formal sections to the piece
- Behaviour: specific piece, everyone plays the same music
- Played in front of an audience/teacher
- Ideas: music as a piece for formal study & performance (modern)
- Conservatory ideas about music
- Colonial administrator
- Missionary
- Can make of recordings what music sounds like
- Curiosity
- Musicologist
- Gets ideas about different kinds of music
- Why music & how music works(ed)
- There were lots of misunderstandings
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- 1950s in Western [world] you could finally take ensembles of different countries
- Playing the music to know what the music is about
- Music
- What do I hear?
- Behaviour
- What’s happening in the situation?
- How is it being played?
- Recorded?
- Meaning of playing it?
- Qin - Scholar’s instrument
- “Flowing Water” written over 3000 yrs ago
- Strings made by silk
- Only played by male scholars
- Kong Fuji (551-479 BCE)
- Child (??), monarch-subject
- Not about vulgar emotionally driven music
- Wanted reflection mediation & elite scholars
- What do you hear?
- Different techniques, meant to imitate nature
- Unmetered - slow & gradual changes
- “Harmonics”, improvised
- Behaviour:
- One person playing, audiences wouldn’t matter, playing for himself
- Soft strings don’t travel far soundwise
- Ideas:
- Music as meditation
- Golden Record
- Meant to be universal, people still left out because it is predominantly English
- Lots of classical music, mostly western music (Beethoven, Bach, etc.)
- Short History of the Discipline
- Paris Exposition 1889
- Attended by Debussy, got inspiration for his own composition
- Armchair Anthropologist
- Based in colonial system
- Got info on the colonial administrator who were sometimes scholars all
over the place
- Wrote reports & sent to armchair anthropologist to publish
- Colonial Administrator
Sept. 13/17
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Show what the city could do in its technology, etc. Made him interested in technology & science. Saw time capsule, gave him idea to make sonic golden record. Golden record tried to compile a sonic capsule of what it meant to be human. Mostly about communication, even though it was also about art . You have to understand local language to understand it. Meant to be universal but some people left out because of the limitations. Behaviour: one person playing, audience wouldn"t matter, playing for themselves (soft strings don"t travel far soundwise) Zheng -- 16 string zither, much more recent. Behaviour: specific piece, everyone plays the same music. Ideas: music as a piece for formal study & performance (modern) Can make of recordings what music sounds like. Gets ideas about different kinds of music. 1950s in western [world] you could finally take ensembles of different countries. Playing the music to know what the music is about.
