O-level revision

[Globaltruth]

Yesterday was helping my grand daughter with some early O level music revision.... a section called Rhythms of the World.
They are learning about 8 different types of WM
Bhangra, Raga, Palestinian, Israeli, Calypso, Samba, African and Greek.

Turns out I know v little about Palestinian music. (Also seems crazy to lump Africa in as a whole)

Some great tips on identification - e.g. people only say ‘hoi’ in Bhangra, the sitar never comes in straight away in a raga.

Would be handy to have some great examples from each country here if any spring to mind.

[Dave2002]

This could develop into an interesting thread. I'm not sure that the thread title is going to attract many to come here though, but if others do come it could develop.

What have you learnt or discovered so far?

[oddoneout]

Sounds like a good way to expand your own knowledge while helping out. Is it actually O level though or GCSE?

[johncorrigan]

I want to do that course, Global...well that module anyway. Can I make a punt for the Black Stalin's message to the region, with a bit history thrown in - 'Carribean Unity'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FsRNw2E3sk

Of course, probably not lots of women doing calypso. Tough job on the Africa front, but calypso's origin can definitely be traced to the griots of West Africa, though these days English has replaced the French Creole from which, I believe, the word Calyso comes.

[johncorrigan]

I want to do that course, Global...well that module anyway. Can I make a punt for the Black Stalin's message to the region, with a bit history thrown in - 'Carribean Unity'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FsRNw2E3sk

Of course, probably not lots of women doing calypso. Tough job on the Africa front, but calypso's origin can definitely be traced to the griots of West Africa, though these days English has replaced the French Creole from which, I believe, the word Calyso comes.

...and, of course, G, the GTGD can bring it a bit closer to home courtesy of Lord Kitchener - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGt21q1AjuI

[Serial_Apologist]

I suppose it would be a bit much to expect ethnogeographical drift details at O Level, but I remember at least one marbellous broadcase tracing the evolutions and mutations of various rhythmic traditions in different par4ts of Africa and then crossing the Atlantic (with slavery in part, I guess) to the Caribbean and Latin America to spawn the well-known genres of today - Samba, Reggae, Funk, Salsa etc. Treating the different rhythmic areas as if mutually exclusionary seems a fragmentary way of doing it.

[Bryn]

I suppose it would be a bit much to expect ethnogeographical drift details at O Level, but I remember at least one marbellous broadcase tracing the evolutions and mutations of various rhythmic traditions in different par4ts of Africa and then crossing the Atlantic (with slavery in part, I guess) to the Caribbean and Latin America to spawn the well-known genres of today - Samba, Reggae, Funk, Salsa etc. Treating the different rhythmic areas as if mutually exclusionary seems a fragmentary way of doing it.

Was he marbled broadcast possibly from Linton Kwesi Johnson's "From Mento to Lovers'Rock", by any chance?

[Serial_Apologist]

Was he marbled broadcast possibly from Linton Kwesi Johnson's "From Mento to Lovers'Rock", by any chance?

I don't remember I'm afraid, so all I can say to that is "Roll 'em Pete".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cNW2dZMyWE

[Globaltruth]

Treating the different rhythmic areas as if mutually exclusionary seems a fragmentary way of doing it.

Thanks for articulating that - i agree.

what have I learnt? Well, how little I know (for example, there are several instruments mentioned that I had never heard of) and how easy it is to develop a bias simply through personal preference.

And that my grand daughter thinks Calypso is cool.

I think this thread would explode if I mentioned how the classical part worked... so I won't.
Suffice it to say that the weighting is heavily toward classical music but with, even to my untrained ear, some ridiculous categorisations.
Rhythms of the World, Pop and Film music seem to be afterthoughts. Mention of the blues is zero

[Globaltruth]

Was he marbled broadcast possibly from Linton Kwesi Johnson's "From Mento to Lovers'Rock", by any chance?

shame it's no longer available...

[Globaltruth]

I want to do that course, Global...well that module anyway. Can I make a punt for the Black Stalin's message to the region, with a bit history thrown in - 'Carribean Unity'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FsRNw2E3sk

Of course, probably not lots of women doing calypso. Tough job on the Africa front, but calypso's origin can definitely be traced to the griots of West Africa, though these days English has replaced the French Creole from which, I believe, the word Calyso comes.

Well, as you can imagine, the griots have loomed large in our conversations....Wouldn't it have been great if such topics existed in exams in the past?

[Bryn]

shame it's no longer available...

It gets repeated on 6 Music from time to time. I grabbed all episodes from Sounds, 2 years ago, to replace my old cassette recordings of the original broadcasts.

[johncorrigan]

GT, there's an article in the recent issue of Songlines about the flurry of interest in the Cretan lute, the Lyra. I was interested in the comment - 'People tend to think Crete is part of Europe. It might be geographically, but culturally it most definitely is not.'

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sounds like a good way to expand your own knowledge while helping out. Is it actually O level though or GCSE?

O-level GCE replaced the School Certificate in 1951, and were themselves replaced by GCSE in 1988. However, O-levels still exist for overseas students in many commonwealth countries.

[johncorrigan]

(Also seems crazy to lump Africa in as a whole)

I've been giving this a wee bit of thought, Global, you will be pleased to hear. I was thinking that the way you might cover African music might be through the drum - the symbolic role, the sacred role, the communication role. I was interested in this fairly straightforward article which is an artistic description of the development of the drum.

https://www.contemporary-african-art.com/african-drums.html

Of course, these are the folk who sent me there in the first place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JNJrir_Hf0 *

* Do not attempt this at home without completing an appropriate H&S assessment form which you can get in the foyer!