Noh Perfomance

I really think that one of the many elements of Noh theatre is that of the openness of the stage and how it should not allow any separation of the actors and the audience unlike western stages which take advantage of the use of a curtain. The Noh play should last long as well as frees the surrounding emotions of the actors with the mask while freeing the sense of time of the audience through its nonpulsatile music. It should also consist of a group of musicians at all times playing along as the actors use their art of walking to guide the storyline. The instruments definetly should include the taiko, the o-tsuzumi drum, the ko-tsuzumi drum and the nohkan transverse bamboo flute. I think these instruments truly define the Noh performance. The mask is a crucial element in Noh theatre as well because skilled actors can use one expression that is imprinted on the mask to create a copious amount of more expressions and emotions to communicate with the audience and tell the storyline. The Noh chanting during these plays is also one of the most pivotal elements. One is called kotoba which is free speech and fushi which is song like. I think this Noh performance has both and the vocals are rather heavy, loud, and quite passionate.

Youtube video on North Indian Classical Music

I found this video on youtube on classical Hindustani music from this musician named Deepti Omchery Bhalla. Her music has eight beats to this specific classical song. She is playing veena while making ornamentations in her song. Her voice is never false seto always using original voice. I believe she is singing in Sanskrit. I really think besides the veena which is a chordophone, she is also using the atuvangum to make that ringing sound. Apparently, she is singing about her belief in her god. When she is singing she really emphasizes on the downbeats but I really think that her music is homophonic. The Performer’s name is Deepti Omchery Bhalla and she is singing Bhajan Tulsi das India. This particular performer is wearing traditional Indian clothes which I think is referred to as a sari. It is a green sari with a yellow band. She is sitting comfortably in what seems like a temple with marble floors and red pillars. Her environment is this open area that is very serene with flowers. In the exact video, the audience will be whoever is watching the video and listening to her because I really don’t see anyone else in this video except Deepti Omchery Bhalla. It seems that Deepti is singing in broad day light which indicates early morning. The distinctive timbre in her voice to me really suggests that this kind of song is north Indian classical besides the title being Hindustani.

Post 4

Googoosh’s Go bi goldoon is to a me a very upbeat song. In the song it displays musical instruments such a guitar and piano which are all chordophones. She sings with such passion in her facial expressions. She is wearing a green dress and Farsi spoken from her mouth is quite intense although I don’t understand Farsi myself it sounds intense. When I first saw her I did not anticipate on seeing such a light skinned Iranian. Her skin was definitely a huge surprise. The audience seems to love her performance and the stage in her performance is pink. The song seems to be heterophony and she does variations in her music. She is dancing to the music when an interlude comes up as all popular culture artists would perform. This song seems to portray both a melody and a harmony which the melody is more distinguishable but the harmony took a while to pick out. She sounds like Barbara Streisand of Iran. The Concert seems to take place at night and the atmosphere is like a regular concert hall. What I didn’t realize was the Googoosh took a twenty one year hiatus because of the Islamic Revolution which then sang allowed to sing again in 2000. She sounds amazing after a twenty one years off.

Chinese Performance

The Chinese Performance in the beginning was packed with people more Chinese than any other ethnic background. Because the audience was so huge there were people standing on the stairs and the program head had to turn down one hundred people. It was very hard to find a good seat because so many seats were reserved and the funny thing was that most of the reservations were fake and the audience had put them up to save seats for their relatives. That was quite disturbing. The time was at seven p.m. which was a great time to start a performance. Being held in the conference center, the stage was perfect for the different acts that were displayed. The performers of this art troupe definitely had a unique wardrobe. One man wore a full fledged body suit in red, and another guy looked like a futuristic warrior playing with the Diablo which I might add was really cool and the music was quite upbeat. The peacock dancers were quite amazing with their style of dance it was right on key with the music that was being played. The contortionists were so awesome even though they made some mistakes. One girl was literally on the other girl’s belly touching her feet to her head. I had no idea the human body could even reach such a level of complex flexibility. The main girl singer, wow her voice had such power to it. She sang this traditional folk song called Jasmine Flower and it was beautiful.

Extra Credit In- class discussion

During the in class discussion with the students of the University of International Business and Economy music was the discussion topic. Although we were suppose to focus on the Pop music and the differences between American Pop Music and Chinese Pop Music, the students of the University of International Business and Economy discussed with us a whole range of different genres of music. They introduced us to many of their culture’s music with folk music or the Pekking opera. This art troupe was truly amazing in that they had so many musical talents yet their major field of study is that of music and economy. They were very brave in performing live so spontaneously and when Professor Young had asked if any of us want to share our talents. It was only natural to feel such intimidation from such a great performance. They used these cool instruments made of wood to make a click clack sound. In addition they used the guitar playing once again another performance. The MC guy that spoke to us the most was the one who told us that they were from all different distinct areas of China and that he knew five different languages. The music that they sang to us was as I remember one was slow, one was upbeat, and the another was when one guy was trying to demonstrate to us how people sing in pekking opera with a sort of nasal sound. All in all it was a great experience to talk and interact with students from different universities.

Faculty Concert

Walking into the Conference Center, the place was packed and so many people attended the event. It seemed to be a full house. The seats were extremely comfortable and luckily there were enough seats for my friend and I to fit right in the center to see the show perfectly. Being at eight o'clock, it seemed to be reasonable time but it got hard as the concerted furthered to stay awake during the first half. I guess my dinner was kicking in, but it was as if the music was so serene that it brought me to dream calm down. With the lighting the way it was and the music so calming and soothing even the guy next to me passed out and wow, did he snore. It was Friday night, and being thirty-two degrees with winds turning tears to icicles, it was hard to even get to the Conference Center. The Audience in the front row were mostly adults and as the row progressed backwards I saw more and more students. The first song was played with the violin, piano, and I think clarinet. From what I had observed, there were three beats in the songs like a triple meter. There were three performers all male and at the end it progressed to only two females being involved. At the end of the performance of Latin Music, it was great to end the week with the sweet sound of the accordion. In addition the brochures were very helpful in letting the listener know what the music was about.