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An Anthropological Perspective on Eastern and Western Folk Music

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An Anthropological Perspective on Eastern and Western Folk Music An Anthropological Perspective on Eastern and Western Folk Music Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Gurczak, Adam Stanley Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 21:02:58 Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/625002 AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON EASTERN AND WESTERN FOLK MUSIC By ADAM STANLEY GURCZAK ____________________ A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelors Degree With Honors in Music Performance THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA MAY 2017 Approved by: _________________________ Dr. Philip Alejo Department of Music EASTERN AND WESTERN FOLK MUSIC 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 ARTIST’S STATEMENT 2 INTRODUCTION 3 ARGENTINE TANGO 4 PRE-TANGO HISTORY: RISE OF THE GAUCHOS 5 A BORDELLO UPBRINGING 5 THE ROOTS AND RHYTHMS OF TANGO 8 A WORLDWIDE SENSATION 9 THE FOREFATHERS OF TANGO 11 CHINESE TRADITIONAL MUSIC 13 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC 14 INSTRUMENTS OF THE EARTH 16 THE SOUND OF SCHOLARS 18 KOREAN GUGAK 21 GUGAK: A NATIONAL IDENTITY 22 SHAMANS, SINAWI, AND SANJO 24 NOBLE COURTS AND FARMYARDS 28 AMERICAN BLUEGRASS 30 GRASSROOTS, BLUEGRASS, AND BLUES 30 THE POLYNATION OF BLUEGRASS 33 CONCLUSION 36 BIBLIOGRAPHY 37 EASTERN AND WESTERN FOLK MUSIC 2 ABSTRACT The birth of folk music has always depended on the social, political, and cultural conditions of a particular country and its people. This paper will explore those qualities and how they impacted the traditional and folk music found in four regions across the globe: Argentina, China, Korea, and the United States. Through research and first-hand performance experience, I will be sharing my own observations of each genre—its style and its people—while also exploring the origins of each music. Spanning over the history of each genre, together with its stylistic and musical characteristics, this essay will associate the growth and rise of each genre with the development of its people. ARTIST’S STATEMENT As a performing artist, I felt that the study of world music was incomplete without an active understanding of the music through first-hand performance. As such, this paper was accompanied by a recital in which I, as a double-bassist, performed works from around the globe. In parallel to this thesis, the pieces originated from Argentina, Korea, and China—as well as others—while also including an original composition that incorporated influences of modern American bluegrass with contemporary classical music. The study of and preparation of these works consisted of research and practice of regional stylistic characteristics and their application to double bass performance. EASTERN AND WESTERN FOLK MUSIC 3 INTRODUCTION Folk music is a wide and varied term that doesn’t directly specify any genre of music. At its core, folk music is the music of the people. It is born out of communal traditions, where the music is passed down through the generations. Encyclopædia Britannica describes it as a traditional and typically rural form of music that generally lives on in oral tradition (Nettl, “Folk Music”). This, however, poses a problem, as the definition is riddled with non-definitive statements. While much of folk music is rural and/or learned by ear, some of it is not. Due to this uncertainty, the idea of folk is, in a way, unexplainable. However, for the purpose of this paper, I will be defining folk music as music that is representative of a people and their culture. While classical and popular music do have their roots in specific areas, the music has become so wide- spread and diverse that it is difficult to pinpoint the exact people/place of origin. Other styles, like tango or bluegrass, are inherently attached to a culture and country, allowing us to better understand the “folk” in folk music. Understanding music as an entity goes beyond the conception of notes and rhythms. It is about evoking the style of the music, while interpreting and conveying the intent of the composer. Though folk music, in many cases, doesn’t specify a composer, it does elicit a very specific response from the musicians. Each genre pulls from the people and culture it was born from, interweaving the history and aesthetic values of the time. To fully grasp the purpose of the music, one must look at its growth and how time and societal change has developed that style into the modern day. Through a brief examination of history, this paper will share the events that led to the development of each style, along with the musical characteristics that are associated with each genre. Knowing the different patterns of harmony, melody, and embellishment can also provide insight into where/when a certain music was born. For instance, scalar patterns can EASTERN AND WESTERN FOLK MUSIC 4 be directly linked to a variety of genres, such as East Asian music with the pentatonic scale. Thus, I will be expanding on not only the history of the music, but also key features that make the music what it is, and, in turn, what makes the music so emblematic of a specific culture. Though the variety of folk music in the world is immeasurable, this paper will explore only four different genres of music along with their respective countries: Argentine tango, Chinese traditional music, Korean traditional gugak, and American bluegrass. ARGENTINE TANGO Born at the heart of Buenos Aires, the tango is a genre that has swept the world in a craze of music, dance, and fashion. Though its presence in Argentina—and across the world—seems so deeply founded, it is still a relatively young genre, having first gained momentum in the early 20th century. It is difficult to imagine Argentina without its most iconic genre of music and dance, which is precisely what makes the tango such a clear form of folk music. It draws forth the rural roots of South America, together with the language and culture, to form an art that has been popularized all over the globe while still remaining a clear emblem of Buenos Aires. The typical tango features bandoneon, guitar, piano, violin, and double bass. The ensembles remain relatively flexible, as the music was historically often performed by whatever instrument was at hand. The bandoneon, however, is an instrument that has remained integral to the sound and feel of tango. The accordion style instrument first became popularized during the first decade of the 20th century and remained a staple to tango music ever since (Nettl 348). Its origins come from German churches that lacked the funds to build an organ and would use bandoneons instead. Eduardo Arolas, one of the first pioneers of the instrument, is credited with popularizing and cementing the bandoneon into tango culture (Argentina Tango). Its sound EASTERN AND WESTERN FOLK MUSIC 5 seems to draw a distinct connection not only to tango, but to Buenos Aires itself, where tango flourished and thrived into a global sensation. PRE-TANGO HISTORY: RISE OF THE GAUCHOS As a recently independent country, Argentina spent much of the 1800s seeking unification and strength from its people. And, as a developing country, much of its identity rested on those that worked in the rural countryside. Due to this, Argentina quickly began forming around the idea of the gaucho, which characterized the life led by those that worked in the farms and fields. The gaucho is, to an extent, like a variant on the American cowboy, in which the gaucho is a worker that embodies machismo, independence, and courage (Nettl 347). As more and more people began identifying with the gaucho lifestyle, it also began to merge with the culture of labor migration that was developing across Buenos Aires. This, in turn, formed the social figure of the compadrito, an urbanized descendant of the gaucho that worked within and outside of the law to provide for himself—all done with flair and embellishment (Nettl 347). This bred an appreciation for skillful knife play, powerful song and dance, and exciting romance, all of which influenced the form and flourish of the soon-to-be-created tango. Compadritos, while engaging in petty crime and flashy dress, also gave way to a unique dialect known as lunfardo. Lunfardo became a representative form of speech for the lower class and those that associated with the compadrito lifestyle. This dialect became later picked up by early tango lyricists and was spread across social classes and communities. The lyrics of early tango would also mirror rural Argentine life, talking about poverty, pain, love, and violence (Nettl 347-348). Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer, also heavily influenced the lyrics to tango music as his short-story penmanship was revered and mimicked in the early writing of EASTERN AND WESTERN FOLK MUSIC 6 tango (Del Pilar). Tango would become an art form that was more than just music or dance, it told the story of the compadrito and his struggles, through the words and language that most honestly represented their lives. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Argentina received an influx of immigrants looking for work at the ports of Buenos Aires. This development completely altered the culture of the country, as European and African influences began to meld together with the South American traditions. This also, however, impacted the physical city, as the increase in population pushed people to live in crowded housing complexes known as conventillos.
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