Thursday May 17 Blog

The end of the video was a bit more intriguing in my opinion then the beginning of the film. I believe this is partially due to the fact that I found the music a bit more familiar. The first scene we were shown consisted of an ensemble of five violinists, an accordion or aerophone like instrument and and a large cello or chordophone instrument. It seemed a very joyous occasion with food being made and people gathered together. This event seemed to show the popularity of music and its large presence in the society considering the musicians were placed in the middle of the gathering of people and all eyes were shown to be on the musicians in certain camera shots.
Although there were no instruments in the next scene which consisted of a mother and daughter on a train singing a song, I must say that I noticed a large difference in the tone (and possibly even timbre) or quality between the mothers and daughters voice. Although it may be explained with age it seemed the mother sang in more of an alto voice with a more somber quality while the daughters was more nasally and much less solid (more shaky). Her voice reminded me very much so of the man who sang the first day we watched the video while the man sang under the moon outside and made the women laugh and smile.
In the third scene a little boy sat with his visibly saddened mother waiting on a bench for a train. Across the tracks were Roma people and the boy got them to play to cheer up his mother while he danced. Along with being an adorable and touching scene (I thought the little boy was such a cute sweetheart for offering all his coins to cheer his mom) the Roma people played using two spoons which would I believe be an ideophone, a violin, a aerophone pot-like instrument and body slapping and clapping while singing and dancing to the music.
The last scene that showed instruments was a very westernized appearing scene took place in a church-like scenario that involved around four guitars, a cello (or similar chordophone instrument) and very western clothing, no traditional dress. I have to admit I think I missed the point of the last scene although musically I enjoyed it.
Overall I found the film in its entirety to be interesting and quite explanatory. It really showed just how strong music influences not only our lives but how we celebrate how it plays such a large role in everyday life and its rituals and times. It also showed amazingly just how different aspects of tradition can be copied or carried on either in time or to other people and mixed into a completely different culture. It seems that what the Roma people learned from who was around them, they made their own by including it in what music they already had, therefore inventing their new own type and putting an interesting twist on what already was. The most interesting thing in all of this is that it is just a small sample of just how much we have integrated different types of music into others and music has evolved through time. This film shows us in the most personal of ways how this happens and it does so quite well.