Indian Music

This week, I will introduce Indian musical instruments. Most of Indian instruments are consists of the stringed instrument and it is related to their ethnic. 

Typical famous instruments are Pungi, is called “Snake Charmer”. It was mainly used as an Indian street performance. Also, Bansuri, which is called “Flute of God”, is based on European flute and Japanese recorder. 

Above these musical instruments, today I want to introduce Shahnai in detail. It is known as one of the most famous Indian wooden flute instruments. 

When India did war, Shahnai was used as one way of language. There were more than 100 types of instruction and each sounds have different meaning. Even if someone was in far from their base, when they hear its sound, they were able to understand the instruction easily. 

 Here is a video of Shahnai wizard Ustad Bismillah Khan Plays rag Multani.

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Caribbean Music

Caribbean music consists of a lot of musical styles such as reggae, rock, and calypso. Nowadays, musical instruments like Steel drums and Steelpan are getting famous more and more around the world. 

There are many musical styles in Caribbean music, today, I would like to introduce focus on one point about Calypso. Calypso, which is one of the famous musical styles in Caribbean music that originated in the Caribbean islands especially in Trinidad and Tobago during the early 20th century. 

The lyric of calypso was mostly related to the island such as politics, people and situation, therefore many people were attracted by this style. In the late 1930s, Calypso became very famous musical styles and many Calypso musicians, Attila the Hun, Roaring Lion and Lord Invader were known all over the world. 

Here is a video of Roaring Lion - Ugly Woman (1934)

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Latin American Music

The Latin American music has various types of the sound since its consists of a lot of musical styles such as African and European styles. In America, especially in New York, there are many Hispanic immigrants, so people generally says “New York is the birthplace of Latin American music”. 

Typical famous group is Ricky Martin, who is from Puerto Rico is very popular Latin musician. In 1999, he released the album “Ricky Martin Here I Am” and it sold more than 17 million pieces.

Above these musicians, today, I would like to introduce “Samba de Janeiro”,  is one of the most famous Latin American songs. This song was used as official sports competition songs like FIFA world cup in 2014 (soccer), it is also used in disco. 

Here is a video of Samba de Janeiro.

By the way, the title of this song “~de Janeiro” means January in Prorogue, so it means Samba of January in English. 

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African Music

Recently, most of popular music genres including rock, hip hop, jazz and especially reggae have roots in African music.  "Mbaqanga", one of the most famous traditional music styles in Africa, is discovered in the beginning of 19th century.

Before 1960, the Mbaqanga musicians were actually infamous since black people were discriminated by whites and others. White musicians performed at the TV or radio, but they couldn’t perform like white musicians. Mbaqanga musicians could only live on the street. Therefore, they couldn’t earn money a lot, and most of musicians such as Mahalathini who was one of the most famous Mbaqanga musicians in this era was died with being poor. 

After 1960, Mbaqanga had gradually developed in South Africa by started using Western European musical instruments. Then Mbaqanga style changed to African jazz. Many people were attracted by its sound and rhythm, also many Mbaqanga musicians such as Miriam Makeba, Dolly Rathebe and Letta Mbulu became popular. Eventually, they were able to perform on the TV show.

Even now, some Mbaqanga musicians such as Matehola Queens and Soul Brothers are still working. For example, in 2003, REAL WANDS, which is Norwegian musical group released the album “This is Camping”, was basically used Mbaqanga sound and instruments.

Here is a Youtube link of “THE SOUL BROTHERS”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCLrlRy2-fo

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North American Music

This week I will introduce North American music.

At first, I noticed that in Europe, music is treated as a culture. On the other hand, in the North America, it is treated as one of the most traditional ethnic activities. 

According to my research, the most famous ethical musical instruments in this area is flute. It is commonly believed that the vast majority of flutes are metallic. However, flutes, which were discovered in this area, such as Indian Flute (former inhabitant, America) and the Anasazi Flute (Arizona, America), these are both made by wood and lumber.

Anasazi Flute

Above these kind of flutes, I would like to explain about the current situation of Indian Flute in Japan. Now, in Japan, Indian flute is rarely used by the people. Many people tend to forget about the traditional things since technology has been improving, and better sounding flutes are being developed. Therefore, many Japanese people don’t know what the Indian flute is about. Even though, the quality of the sound is inferior to recent instruments, we have a duty to inherit our traditional musical instruments to the next generations as language is inherited from generation to generation.

In order to not to forget and inherit the Indian flute, “Japan Indian Flute Circle Association (JIFCA)” has been starting since May 2012. It was started by Odell Borg, who is from America and this project was reported many times on the news. We need to develop more such activity to inherit instruments, otherwise our traditional musical instruments are going to  disappear.

Here is a link of JIFCA’s official homepage.

(Sorry...I couldn’t find English ver.)

http://jifca.com/