Celeste Hutchins<\/p>\n
Proseminar<\/p>\n
World Music Paper<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For
\nmy World Music listening, I chose La Koro Sutro<\/i> by Lou Harrison. I picked this piece because I thought
\nit was obviously an example of "composed world music" and because I’m
\nquite fond of it. Now that I’m
\nexamining it more critically, however, I’m not as certain that it is an example
\nof world music. <\/p>\n
La
\nKoro Sutro<\/i> is
\ncomposed for 100 voice chorus, harp, organ and the "American
\nGamelan." The American
\nGamelan is not actually a gamelan, but rather a metalphone percussion
\ninstrument built out of old oxygen tanks and other scrap metal by Bill
\nColvig. It has its name only
\nbecause it sounds like a gamelan, but otherwise has little connection to the
\nreal thing. This may be
\nproblematic if this piece is to be classified as world music, since the
\ninstrumentation is domestic.<\/p>\n
The
\nlanguage of the piece and the text is very definitely international. It is an Esperanto (La Internacia
\nLingvo<\/i>)
\ntranslation of the Buddhist text, the Heart Sutra<\/i>. The CD helpfully comes with the
\nwords in Esperanto and a side-by-side English translation. It was also premiered to an international
\naudience. The notes with the CD
\nexplain, "La Koro Sutro<\/i> was first performed for an international gathering of
\nEsperantists in San Francisco on August 11, 1972." The Harrison biography notes that this
\nperformance took place shortly after a Universala Kongreso<\/i> in Portland, Oregon. While certainly not every piece of Esperanta
\n<\/i>music ever
\nwritten is automatically world music, this one, because of the nature of the
\ntranslation, should be counted as a world music text.<\/p>\n
The
\nsound of the piece also sounds like world music. The tuning is very obviously not 12-toned equally
\ntempered. This is especially
\nevident in the American Gamelan sections.
\nThe other percussion also has a "world music" feel to it. The singing also sounds somewhat non-western. It is reminiscent of some chant music,
\nespecially when it has longish melismas on a single vowel. This may be because Harrison studied
\nand found inspiration from early music.
\nIt may also be an imitation of a singing style found along the Pacific
\nRim. Based on the sounds alone, I
\nwould certainly consider this piece to be world music.<\/p>\n
The
\npackaging of the CD, however, does not convey world music. The cover graphic pictures some grass
\nand a large anthropomorphized flower with a goatee. It is smiling at an insect that also has a goatee and three
\nhearts float between them. Eight
\nnotes in various orientations dot the background. It says, in large text La Koro Sutro<\/i> on the right hand side. Around the edges are names of people
\ninvolved in the project. Also on
\nthe same disk are Varied Trio<\/i>, performed by the Abel, Steinberg, Winant Trio and Suite
\nfor Violin and American Gamelan<\/i>, featuring David Abel on violin. The disk is published by New Albion
\nRecords. <\/p>\n
All
\nof the performers, packaging, Pacific Rim aesthetics and even the record label
\nare so very California San Francisco Bay Area, that they make me homesick. Of course, while I lived in California,
\nI did not think of this as purely California music, I thought of it as world
\nmusic. Lou Harrison was known not
\nonly as a California composer, but more so as a world music composer. I did not think of his music and especially
\nthis piece, as indigenous, but looking at it now, it very obviously was.<\/p>\n
In
\nconclusion, while this CD is very obviously a California phenomenon, I still
\nwould count it as an example of composed world music. The international Esperanto community is eager to embrace it
\n– the best Esperanto vocal work ever written – as coming from Esperantio<\/i>, and the music synthesizes so
\nmany ideas and cultures that I would count it as a world phenomenon.<\/p>\n
(Esperantio<\/i> is the name of a fictional
\nEsperanto homeland. It is
\nessentially international in nature.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World Music Assignment Listen to “composed world music CD” and report back Celeste Hutchins Proseminar World Music Paper For my World Music listening, I chose La Koro Sutro by Lou Harrison. I picked this piece because I thought it was obviously an example of "composed world music" and because I’m quite fond of … Continue reading <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[203,76,269,11],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-academic","tag-celesteh","tag-esperanto","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3924,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions\/3924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}