1. The option that I chose was option number three. A few years ago, I remember going to Towson University to attend an event they had one evening. The event they had was called cultural night. The specific culture that they were exploring that night was the Latin American dance culture. These dances are t include but not limited to salsa, bachata, mambo, and merengue. During the event, you had the opportunity to learn an Latin American dance. It was a nice size room that allowed the people to move around without bumping into one another while learning these dances. The specific Latin American dance style that I liked the most was merengue. Merengue is a duple and triple time Caribbean style dance. “The origin of this dance, according to the Dominicans themselves, [is] from a program shown on TV ‘SANTO DOMINGO INVITA’ “. (Vasquez) The instruments used in merengue are but not limited to, tambora, accordin, guira, and a marimba. I named these instruments because these are not your average instruments you would here or us in other style of music. In other styles of music, you would here instruments like, a saxophone, a bass guitar, a keyboard, and a drum set. Therefore, these instruments allow the Latin American music and dance culture to be unique and different from other cultural music. In Chris Doan’s 3.1 post “Melody is another basic element of music where a string of notes come together one after another to make an interesting and ear catering song.” (Chris Doan) At the event they allowed us to listen and watch the different styles of the Latin American dance culture. Then, we all were given the opportunity to learn a dance style to our liking. In my 3.1 post I quoted Evelyn Glennie, “We’re just human beings but we all have our little own sound colors.” (“How to Listen”, 10:04), and she’s correct. Everyone at the event had one thing in common, to learn something new in a different culture. However, we all learned something different within that same culture.
References:
Vasquez, Carmen. “Origins of Merengue” http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/merengue.htm
2. Colorado Springs Philharmonic is the closest symphony to me.
Website: https://csphilharmonic.org/
According to their events list, the next few performances are by 18th and 19th century European composers but they also have a concert celebrating John Williams accomplishments as a composer. He composed the music for Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and even Star Wars. There is also an event for elementary students to explore orchestral instruments from the past and ones used to today. Later on this month there is a concert playing music from some of America’s most beloved musical movies and plays that is put together by two men that are well known in the musical world, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.
I searched through the ticket sales portion of the website and found that they only offer an adult pricing for their shows. This means no senior, student, or military discounts. However, they do children ages 7-17 for free.
I was actually able to attend one of their concerts in February of last year for my birthday, it was an amazing experience. I wish I would have taken this class before I attended the concert though, I could have used my newly obtained knowledge on how to appreciate and examine music differently.
I would have loved to know about meter. As Chris Doan says in his 3.1 discussion, “Meter is one of the most basic parts of any piece of music, and help regulate how fast or slow a song will be.” It is clear to me that all music has this regulation but to actually know what it is and to have a deeper knowledge of it’s importance would have been helpful.
Also, I would have appreciated knowing about ethnomusicologist’s global approach to music. A global approach to music is “They go all in by studying, learning, and understanding culture, genre, styles, methods, concepts, etc.” (Gwendolyn Fisher, para 2). I would have seen the music in a different light and would have taken into consideration all of the things about the composer’s life that could have effected his music and made it sound the way it did.
