Trifecta

Hello, World !

When we listen to music, either while we are walking to class or jamming to it in the car, we normally hear the sounds of a drum, a guitar, or a combination of them. These sounds and the instruments that produce them are what characterizes the modern era, the time we live in. But have you ever thought about the endless variety of instruments that have graced the ears of many before us in many parts of the world? Most likely not. This topic may seem to be all about history, but what I will do differently is to approach it similar to a travel blog. Each particular country or region has a unique traditional instrument that is worthy of introduction and I plan to touch upon as many as I can for this semester. Hopefully, at the end of these fifteen weeks all of you will be so curious about these areas of the world that you’ll take a trip to see for yourselves!

For me, this curiosity stemmed from just a casual vacation back to Asia with my family. I honestly just expected to eat, sleep, and shop just like my previous trips back, but I ended up discovering something completely out of left field. Believe it or not, it was the Chinese Bamboo Flute with its distinct look, composition, and sound. It got me thinking, maybe there are many more of these knick-knacks hidden all over the world.

To my amusement, there are hundreds maybe thousands of these traditional instruments lying around in museums or still in use today! This led me to what I call an instrument hunter, basically a treasure hunter that looks for instruments. Though it doesn’t have all of the action and drama associated with Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage, National Treasure), it’s still very rewarding finding out about something new. The fact that people could turn bamboo, dried fruit, etc. into musical instruments was a truly astonishing experience.

Aside from the curiosity I had when I first observed the Chinese Bamboo Flute, I myself have also had a more personal attachment. I have been learning various Chinese instruments for about 13 years now. Every time I learn a new technique on the Bamboo Flute, Xiao, or the Pan Flute I become amazed of the wide-reaching abilities each of them have. That has also inspired me to look beyond my knowledge of Chinese instruments and dive into musical instruments around the world.

I hope to show all of you the endless possibilities the world before us came up with to satisfy all of their musical needs!! Though the instruments I will be introducing over the course of the semester are considered to be ‘ancient’, I will also talk about how each of these instruments have influenced the musical scene of today. It’ll be pretty interesting to know that maybe even the movies you are watching or the music you’re listening to have been include some of the instruments I will mention!

First stop will be here at home in North America, then to the mysteriousness of East Asia, the outback in Australia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Western Europe, Africa, and lastly South America before returning back to Los Angeles; all in about 100 days!
That is all for now, come join me on my musical adventures!

Ionarts Profile

Hello again! While scavenging for much more info of music to share with you guys I came across a blog (http://ionarts.blogspot.com) that may be interesting for all of you interested in Classical Music. Written by Jens Laurson and Michael Lodico the blog puts out news regarding the Classical Music industry as well as reviews of the big concerts in town. So if you’re in the DC area, definitely check these guys out for ideas of the best classical music concerts in town.

A little taste of what you guys can expect from the many reviews that it offers:

The performance on Thursday, March 7th, answered such speculation in the negative. The production—fresh and engaging—can still be as powerful as it was fifteen, thirteen years ago. Another aspect has come full circle: Waltraud Meier struggled at the beginning of her shift into Isolde-territory with the heights, and she does so again. On CD, hers would have been a weak performance, in and out of audibility when Kent Nagano allowed the Bavarian State Orchestra to cover her with an orchestral performance that was level-headed but less transparent than Nagano’s Wagner can be. But on stage, it was (still) marvelous. It is a role she created and she invests all her very considerable dramatic ability into it. Rarely are the subtlety, the wit, the sarcasm, the irony, the insinuations of the text so evident as in the first act of this production—ocean liner and all. In it, Meier gets to bristle, coo, appeal, and revile. She proved to be particularly biting, fierce, vulnerable and sweet this night, ever depending on what the situation demanded.

 -Review of Tristan and Isolde

 

 

 

 

In addition to offering reviews of the concerts currently in town, the blog posts a “regular Sunday selection of links to online audio, online video, and other good things in Blogville and Beyond.” For me, I found this particularly engaging in giving me all of the best in Classical Music. It has clearly become my one stop shop for everything musical.

Anyway, about the creators of this blog. Jens Laurson, born in Munich, quickly fell in love with music. Some of his family members thought he would be a prodigy of some sort but managed to only be proficient at best at the recorder and piano. Though he didn’t achieve the greatness his family hoped for him to attain he still became involved with all aspects of music, most notably as a reviewer of concerts and classical CDs.

Michael Lodico, on the other hand, took a completely different approach to music than Laurson did. He studied the piano and organ throughout his life ultimately becoming Directors of Music at several music schools. Clearly, both individuals have gotten to where they are completely different from each other but they both shared the same passion we have for music.

Next time you become frustrated searching the web for new concerts or recommendations for all things Classical Music definitely check out IONARTS with its clever motto “something other than politics in Washington, D.C. As for me, the next time I’m in D.C. I’ll make sure I make it to one of the concerts Jens and Michael have so strongly recommended.

Voice in Words

One thing that I’ve been trying to convey throughout my blog has been to present a subject most people would consider to be dry, into a more engaging and adventurous topic. To accomplish this I have looked to outside sources to find the right voice and way to approach my musical instrument travel blog. I have modeled most of my posts after the show “Bizarre Foods” combining the voice of Andrew Zimmern with my own. In the blog world, I found it difficult at first to find a blogger that presented the topic of musical instruments in an interesting manner but eventually found one that contained a unique voice.

At first when you glance over the blog’s title ("Great Musical Instruments"), you would not think the blog offers anything than pure information. But like most things in life we cannot judge a book by its cover. The blogger, Connie, adds a slight twist to the way she presents the information in the blog. For instance, as seen below, she uses plenty of imagery to convey her point. Most importantly, Connie allows the reader to imagine and get a sense of what she is talking about, such as through her suggestion of “imaging watching a movie like Star Wars without a sound track.” Readers at this point would understand her point that without music, life as we know it would be completely different. Here is an excerpt I believe shows Connie’s voice in her posts:

Music is woven into the tapestry of life, and has been for so long, we sometimes take it for granted. Imagine watching a movie like Star Wars without a sound track.  Music adds another dimension to the mood of a film, places the story in a time frame, and increases our responses to the action on the screen.  We are transported into the past and the future by well-crafted musical scores. The role of brass instruments in movie themes is apparent to anyone who has seen epic movies like Spartacus, Exodus, and Raiders of the Lost Ark ;  just a few in a long list of adventure stories whose action and suspense have made a powerful impact upon motion picture audiences.  A half century ago, everyone recognized the brassy themes of Woody Woodpecker and Bugs Bunny cartoons, played by big bands from the 1950′s

Another blog that I stumbled upon is by Alexander Zakharov and is titled “Unusual Instruments.” What makes this blog different from Connie’s blog is its voice. Alex’s voice in his posts tend to be rather informative and direct while Connie is able to connect more with the reader. What Alex does to grab readers’ attention is through the use of visual aids. The first thing a reader is able to see is the vast range of colors that are emitted from a performance utilizing the laser harp. Looking at the ornate structure of the laser harp, a reader becomes curious and wants to know more about the instrument. The “visual” voice Alex incorporates is strong because it grabs readers to the posted information. The following is an excerpt from Alex’s blog:

A laser harp is an electronic musical instrument consisting of several laser beams to be blocked, in analogy with the plucking of the strings of a harp, in order to produce sounds. It is famously used by Jean Michel Jarre in his concerts.
The term "laser harp" and the first working laser harp were invented and made by Geoffrey Rose in 1976.The first model was constructed with a matrix of 5 X 5 laser beams in an octagonal frame. It has subsequently been used in a number of different designs, including a MIDI version invented by Philippe Guerre, and a recent one created by Yan Terrien. They have also been used in public art installations such as those created by Jen Lewin on display at Lincoln Center in 2000 and Burning Man 2005. A laser harp is generally built using a single laser, splitting its beam into an array of beams in parallel or fan arrangement. When a beam is blocked, this is detected by a photodiode or photoresistor, which is connected to electronics activating the relevant note. Playing the actual sound is usually handled by connecting the laser harp to a synthesizer, sampler or computer.”

After analyzing these two bloggers, I believe that my voice is much more aligned with Connie’s. It is difficult to make such a dry subject like musical instruments into something that is appealing to readers. Through the use of personifications, imageries, similes, and metaphors we as bloggers are able to connect with others.