Sunday, March 10, 2013

La Cañada

Performers: Paco de Lucia, Pepe de Lucia 

Culture: Flamenco is an example of a genre that was created through a culmination of cultures 
from different regions such as the andalusian region of spain, settlements of the Romani the 
middle east and northwest Africa. The scale passages, harmonic texture and instrumentation 
are evidence of the wide influence that Flamenco has garnered. 

Instruments: 2 Flamenco Guitar, Voice, Flute, Electric Bass,  2 Cajon drums

In Wade's fourth chapter, "Thinking about Pitch," Scales are described as a way to clearly articulate 
a set of pitches in ascending or descending order. The scales present in the Flamenco example above 
are "oriental" scales, regarding to near eastern cultures such as Arab or Indian. This performance 
contains passages of augmented seconds and chromaticism from the Paco's guitar and Pepe's voice. 
At times, Pepe's solo displays scale passages that can be found in Islamic chants. Music systems vary 
around the globe, so it is important to not only be familiar with western diatonic scales, but other modes 
as well. The growing musicians should understand how pitch can be defined differently. 

2 comments:

  1. Great applications of the text, Aaron!

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  2. This was so fun to listen to! I love the sound of the "oriental" scale-it has a lot of interest and just seems like it has more depth than our Western scales. Since I am studying Turkish music for my unit plan, I have been noticing how widely non-Western scales are used. It's starting to shift my view of music away from Western-centric ideas!

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