World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 19 - Zahar and Moroccan Roll

This group performance a fusion of traditional Moroccan music with American rock'n'roll. The bass guitar has been replaced by a Moroccan santir. Very funky.

Check out some of Zahar's music below:

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

World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 18 - Moroccan Berber Music

Last week, we took a break from our world music exploration for Group Class Week. My students explored various pop grooves and licks as they jammed.This month, we are exploring Morocco, starting with traditional Berber music. The Berber people have been around for over 4,000 years and have lived in northern Africa before the Arab people arrived.

Traditional Berber music can be played on bagpipes and oboe; and incorporates the pentatonic scale as well as African rhythms.Traditional Berber music is still performed today by travelling musicians who go from village to village.

Check out more Berber music by clicking the image below:

World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 17 - Dima Bilan

With my studio winter recital on the weekend, I nearly forgot about this week's artist of the week. We wrap up our exploration of Russian music with Dima Bilan. Bilan is a Russian pop star who burst onto the international scene in 2006 when he represented his country at The Eurovision Song Contest. He snagged second place with his hit single Never Let You Go. In 2008, he won first place at The Eurovision Contest with Believe:

Bilan has released three platinum albums: Ia Nochnoy Hooligan (The Night Hooligan, 2003), Na Beregu Neba (Between the Sky and Heaven, 2004) and Vremya-Reva (Time Is a River, 2006), which sold over 2,000,000 copies in Russia and CIS.

He has collaborated with songwriter Diane Warren, who wrote Céline Dion's My Heart Will Go Onand Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing. In 2006, Dima Bilan was one of the four artists who participated in the biggest musical event in Russia of 2006 - The Red Summer show in Red Square in Moscow, where he performed on stage with Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas and t.A.T.u..

Check out Dima's CD's by clicking on the icon:

World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 16 - The Mighty Five

The Russian national school of music flourished in the 19th century with the nationalist movement. The Mighty Five, a group of young Russian composers set out to "free the Russian soul" in their music. They closed themselves to the influences of European music.The Mighty Five were comprised of Russian composers MilyBalakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui,Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Modest Mussorgsky.

My students and I are watching a music video of Cesar Cui'sOrientale at their music lessons this week. Cui was the least known of the Mighty Five. Cui lived from 1835 - 1893. His father was an officer in Napoleon's army that invaded Russia.

Cui followed his father's footsteps and joined the army. He did study engineering. However, upon meeting the rest of the Mighty Five, his interests turned towards composing and furthering the development of Russian music.

My aural learners have been listening to excerpts of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky and Scheherezade by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Although Mussorgsky grew up in the upper class, most of his life was spent in poverty. His alcoholism negatively impacted his productivity as a composer.

Like some of the other members of the Mighty Five, Rimsky-Korsakov did his time in the Russian army. He was well recognized for his skills in orchestration and it is his orchestra arrangement of Pictures that my students listened to. It is interesting to note that although The Mighty Five explored ideas from other cultures (a concept known as exoticism), there is still a Russian feel to these works.

Sources:Suite 101: Russia's Mighty Handful ComposersStanford Opera PageThe New College Encyclopedia of Music, J.A. Westrup and F.L. Harrison

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

World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 15 - Traditional Russian Music

After a well deserved Christmas break, combined with some computer challenges, we continue our musical exploration this month with Russia. Kalinka is considered one of Russia's best known Russian folk songs. It was composed in 1860 by Ivan Larionov. Some translations say that "kalinka" means "little snowberry". Others translate it to "juniper berry".

I first heard Kalinka when I was a child, playing Tetris on my Gameboy.

Here is a video with people dancing and performing with traditional costumes and instruments:

I also stumbled upon this neat techno remix of this traditional folk song by Dj Tiesto

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