IB Musical Links Investigation

Friday, April 17, 2015

Music has diverged and converged as it has traveled the world. As music is spread from continent to continent, it could be understood that the original or initial patterns and rhythms will change as time elapses. In this piece I will be comparing two completely different genres and cultural types of music which includes one from America and another from Ancient China. The main links that I will be making throughout this investigation are how both pieces portray a story and incorporate improvisation.

These two songs, Mambo, from West Side Story, and Goa Shan Liu Shui, are very different when looked at on the surface. Mambo was created about 2,000 years later than Goa Shan Liu Shui and they both were created for different purposes. However there are some similarities between the two. The first is that both of the songs include stringed instruments. Even though they are not used in a similar fashion, they both have strings and are classified as stringed instruments. Another similarity between the two is that the two songs share similar dynamics. One of the dynamics used by both pieces is crescendo and accelerando. Crescendo is used in alternating parts between different voices in the Mambo and is used by the single Guqin player in the song Goa Shan Liu Shui. Accelerando in the Mambo is much more apparent than in Goa Shan Liu Shui, but they both do include it. One of the most obvious similarities the pieces share is that both songs begin in crescendo. When the song begins, both of the pieces begin with a slow and low opening and increase speed as well as volume as the piece progresses. In the end, however, both composers of the Mambo and Goa Shan Liu Shui end the songs in a ritardando and decrescendo contrasting with the musical technique used to introduce the song.

Another similarity between the two songs is that they were created to portray a story. Both of the stories seem to revolve around finding oneself as well as expressing internal thoughts. For example, Bo Ya's piece is about the High Mountains and Flowing Waters he sees. As he is playing the piece he is analyzing his feeling for the mountains and the flowing river. In the piece he also struggles to search for someone who finally understands his music and eventually finds Zhong. Likewise Bernstein uses his Romeo and Juliet inspired, Mambo, to convey the understanding of personal emotions toward a specific group of people. In the play the song is used to express the on going feud between two individuals who were told by there parents that they can not be together because of their parents' past experiences with each other.

An additional link between the two pieces is the use of improvisation. Upon listening to various music videos of Goa Shan Shui Liu, I have noted that they are not exactly the same, but the notes played are generally similar. Each piece plays the song with different speeds, volumes, and uses different dynamics at different measures. Due to this observation, a conclusion that I have drawn is that the composition acts as a template allowing the players to decide which dynamics and musical techniques would be appropriate for each measure. In Bernstein's song ,Mambo, improvisation occurs in the song with the solo brass player playing the piece to whatever tune or tempo the musician deemed appropriate.

The songs are also both very secular. They both seem to emphasis worldly circumstances and the surrounding environment. This is quite interesting considering that both composers lived in a time were religion was highly valued and widely practiced. In addition to the fact that they were wrote music that was more secular than sacred, they managed to gain large support and admiration for their music after the pieces were composed. When combining the song and it's story, it seems that the song that Bo Ya wrote was not intended for a specific audience, but rather someone who heard and interpreted music the way he did. For the song Mambo, a West Side Story, it seems that the target audience was the younger generation because it has Jazz elements and lyrics that are closely associated with teenagers and rebellious young adults.

Leonard Bernstein's Mambo

On August 25, 1918, Leonard Bernstein was born to two Russian-Jewish immigrants in America. In his childhood he was exposed to a wide variety of music because of his dad's musical experience and eventually began teaching a piano class. He began his musical career by conducting pieces and composing some as well. In the year 1957, Leonard Bernstein composed Mambo, West Side Story. “West Side Story tells the tale of a love affair between Tony, who is Polish American, and Maria, a Puerto Rican, set against an urban background of interracial warfare.” The piece was inspired by "Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The story is about two young people who fall in love but are prevented from being together because their families are feuding." [1]

One of the cultures included in Leonard Bernstein’s song was Afro-Cuban. Afro-Cuban is described as a blend of Cuban, Latin American, and African musical elements. He creates this rhythm in the beginning of the piece by opening it with bongos and cowbells. The reason these instruments create the Afro-Cuban rhythm is because the bongos where initially introduced in Africa, but further developed in Cuba. Due to this the bongos are associated with Afro-Cuban culture and music. The cowbells create a polyphonic sound which further creates an Afro-Cuban sound which typically is polyphonic. The Genre of the piece is Musical Theater because it was composed and later used in a play call West Side Story. The Rhythm of this piece is Afro-Cuban rhythms. The meter of the song is fast paced and syncopated. The piece is syncopated because the weak beats are given more stress than the stronger beats. The texture of the piece Mambo, West side story is dense and polyphonic. Bernstein creates this texture by use very contrasting instruments such as brass instruments and percussion instruments. There are also times throughout the song where Bernstein uses different volumes to create the texture. For example as one voice is in crescendo the other voice is in decrescendo. This helps to establish a dense texture. The medium of the piece is Orchestra with Latin Rhythm section which includes bongo drums and cowbells as mentioned above. The song also includes trumpet riffs and complex counterpoints. The brass instruments play accented chords, which add to the texture of the song, and the wood wind instruments alternate rhythmic patterns with the brass instruments. A solo brass instrument adds to the texture as it plays the melody while the song because more polyphonic. Within the piece there are many voices which include: brass instruments, woodwind instruments, string instruments, and percussion instruments. The song is very sprightly and festive. Due to this it is understood that the target audience is probably a young crowd or individuals looking for a time to relax and have fun. The song ends by fading or crescendo leaving the audience in suspense due to the beginning of the loud and syncopated song. This makes the ending more dramatic because throughout the piece there where rarely any pauses or piano sounding dynamics. Mambo also has various occurrences of fortissimo which is when the song is played loudly. The interesting thing about how the fortissimo is played is that the composer, Bernstein, creates a fortissimo by alternating melodies among instruments and with crescendos.

[1] "Bernstein’s West Side Story Opens." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bernsteins-west-side-story-opens>.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both of the pieces share some musical elements and techniques although they originated or were composed in two distinctly different cultures. The two songs served as dynamic pieces for their day and age because both musicians composed pieces that were unique and added diversity to the musical culture of their country. Their pieces also evolved music in that region and time period. Although the songs are understood to be different and foils of one another, there are some links, which include the portrayal of a story or message and improvisation, between the two pieces which includes musical techniques used.