Musical Meaning
I’m now happily contributing to Korean Quarterly, an excellent non-profit quarterly newspaper based out of the Twin Cities. For the upcoming issue, I will be looking at two very different music groups, both part of the Korean diaspora in America.
The first group I’ll be discussing and reviewing is Snowing Map. Based out of New Jersey, Snowing Map has taken on the unique task of setting the texts of Yun Dong-ju to music.
Please take a listen to 서시, Foreward. Below is a translation of the text, taken from the book Sky, Wind, and Stars, a collection of Yun Dong-ju’s poetry, translated by Kyung-nyun Kim Richards and Steffen F. Richards. (I also happen to have a tattoo of this text, as I find it utterly lovely.)
Wishing not to have
so much as a speck of shame
toward heaven until the day I die,
I suffered, even when the wind stirred the leaves.
With my heart singing to the stars,
I shall love all things that are dying.
And I must walk the road
that has been given to me.
Tonight, again, the stars are
brushed by the wind.
This video features Nejad playing Persian classical dastgah music, accompanied by Dr. Lloyd Miller on the santur and Shirzad Sharif on the zarb.
Nejad is Persian-born and plays a number of instruments in Western and Persian genres. He is a master musician, performing on ney, kamanche, oud, and a variety of other instruments, including the accordion and Western keyboards.
Dr. Lloyd Miller is a musician and ethnomusicologist. His doctorate is from the University of Utah, and his thesis was titled ‘Music and Song in Persia.’ Dr. Miller spent seven years in Tehran, where he studied Iranian and Persian music.
Shirzad Sharif was raised in Tehran in a very musical family. He is fueled musically by his spirituality and often performs as an accompaniment to zikr (chanting).
Mbira
The mbira is an African instrument comprised of staggered metal keys attached to a wooden board. There are many different types of mbiras throughout South and East Africa. The above picture shows an mbira dzavadzimu, which is frequently placed in a deze (calabash resonator) for performances, as the deze amplifies the sound.The mbira dzavadzimu is the national instrument of Zimbabwe and is prevalent in Shona music. It is often played at both religious ceremonies and social gatherings.
The mbira dzavadzimu generally has between 22 and 28 keys in three different registers. It is played by placing the pinky of the right hand through a hole in the bottom right corner of the soundboard and stroking the keys with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. The left hand is used to stabilize the left side of the instrument, with the registers on the left side of the instrument played with the left thumb, and sometimes forefinger.
Bottle caps, shells, or other objects are often affixed to the soundboard of the instrument to create a buzzing sound during play. This sound is considered significant in a traditional setting because it is believed to attract ancestral spirits.
For more information on mbiras, you can visit the following links:
Tinotenda An introduction and guide to the mbira, mbira music, and Shona culture
The Game of Mbira thesis paper by Adrian Wagner Thesis paper on improvisation on the mbira dzavadzimu
Birikiti is an immensely talented artist who I am lucky to call a friend. And I consider myself unbiased when I say that you will probably hear more from and about her in the future. The Humming of the Earth Here was my first exposure into Birikiti’s musical world. It is a soothing, relaxing, and ultimately uplifting track. Enjoy!
Shadia Mansour is a London-born Palestinian hip-hop artist. She has been described as the ‘First Lady of Arab Hip-Hop’ and ‘a groundbreaker.’ Ms. Mansour’s performances tend to be explosive, and she has admitted that anger tends to drive a lot of her lyrics. Many of her songs are highly political, attacking the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Despite the aggression of her songs, she has been celebrated for her musical independence and creativity.
Artist of the Day: Rabindranath Tagore.
This documentary by Satyajit Ray explores the life and art of Tagore, a Bengali artist, writer, poet, musician, and humanist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1913) for his poetry collection Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912).
A song to get you dancing! Let’s all celebrate Friday with Mladeshki Dance, performed by the Ivo Papazov Wedding Band! Papazov is a Bulgarian clarinetist and one of the premier creators of the Bulgarian wedding band genre. The book May It Fill Your Soul, written by Timothy Rice, explores Papazov’s life and music within the context of ethnomusicology.
My good friend Louise (also a SOAS postgrad grad!) has just finished up an internship at Songlines magazine and is launching her own online music magazine, called Musika. The writing team will include music enthusiasts, musicians, scholars, and producers writing about music they love, and sharing news, reviews, events and features for the public. Basically, it’s a terrific idea and I’m certain it will be a phenomenal site. And because yours truly has been invited to be a contributor, you will hear about it here as soon as the site is officially launched!
