World Music Exploration - Traditional Peruvian Music

For October, my students and I are heading to South America to explore the music of Peru. Peruvians have several traditional instruments, including:

• Panpipes: also referred to as "siku", "antara" and "zampoña". Traditionally., these were played in pairs.

• Simple notched-end flutes: known as "quenas". These were made of fragile bamboo.

• Tarkas: vertical flutes

• Bombos or wankaras: deep-sounding, double-headed drums.

Here's a lively clip that features quite a few of these traditional instruments:

(c) 2011 by Musespeak(TM), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

World Music Exploration - Traditional Brazilian Dance

This month, my students and I are exploring the music of Brazil. Traditional Brazilian music music reflects the cultures that existed in the formation of this South American country: Africa, Europe and the indigenous people of the region.

So far, my students have said that this music resembles the music of our First Nations peoples. Others have commented that it sounds rather African:

World Music Exploration - Traditional Music of Kenya

This month, my students and I are exploring the music of Kenya. There are 13 tribes in Kenya, each with a distinct style of Kenyan traditional music:

1. Akamba: highly percussive music

2. Bajuni: mainly male singers

3. Borana: feature the chamonge guitar (cooking pot strung like a guitar)

4. Chuka: polyrhythmic percussion music

5. Gusii: features an obokano (lute-like instrument) and a ground bow

6. Kikuyu: features female singers and dancers, featuring music for initiations, courting, weddings, hunting, and working

7. Luhya: features drums

8. Luo: feature drums, clappers, metal rings, ongeng'o or gara, shakers, strings instruments such as the nyatiti, wind instruments such as tung' a horn,Asili, a flute, Abu-! and singing

9. Maasai: call and response vocal music

10. Mijikenda: percussion music

11. Samburu: vocals, pipes, guitar

12. Taraab: singing with accompaniment with Arabic and Indian influences

13. Turkana: call and response music mostly, some horn

This week's clip is an example of call and response music:

(c) 2011 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 5 - Traditional Argentine Music

This month, my students and I will be exploring the music of Argentina. This week, we're listening to traditional music. As with the traditional music of Australia (last month's adventure), traditional music in Argentina is tied to folk dances. Most people think "tango" when they think of Argentine music (me too). For that very reason, I searched for non-tango music examples. There are several types of traditional music in Argentina, including:

• the Chámame: a lively dance with elements from European polkas and waltzes from Eastern Argentina,

• the Cuarteto: an upbeat dance that resembles the mergenue but has strong Spanish and Italian folk music elements. The music is played by accordions, pianos and violins and,

• the Chacarera: a lively dance that emerged from NW Argentina's rural areas. It's a lively square dance with music played by the Spanish guitar and drums.

This week's clip features the Chacarera:

(c) 2010 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.