World Music Blog

While I don't know the title of the songs the children are singing, both songs are about dancing, and  " dance your mama dance, dance your papa dance" is heard about halfway through. The performers are children in Nigeria, and the instrumentation is their voices. The children in the above video appear to be having a great deal of fun, but there is also learning taking place. According to Campbell & Lew (2005), play is a "vehicle for cultural learning" (p. 58). Through play, children learn about there own cultural norms, everything from social skills to hierarchy. Originally, there are six children holding hands in the circle, taking turns moving to the center. Another child comes to join, and the others direct the child to a spot for a future turn. They seem very welcoming to all children of a similar age group. Later, younger children are standing nearby, and one is accepted moving into the middle of the circle. The woman standing and watching them pla...

This song is titled "Kaa Fo". The performer is Yolette Stewart, and this is a folk song from Ghana. This arrangement has female voices backed with keyboards and drums.  This is an arrangement of a song presented in its authentic form on a Smithsonian Folkways album  African Songs & Rhythms for Children. Campbell (2004) suggests that one way of incorporating creative experiences with world music is to "extend what is already there" (p. 194). The above arrangement has been lengthened with repetition and variation, and the creation of a sections by having percussion solos. Harmony was added with the keyboard and a second voice. The lyrics roughly translate to,  "Don't cry and let anyone see in your mouth as you have gold in your mouth..." This could lead to composing of additional sections to extend individual interpretations of the meaning. For example, students could compose an additional section of melody to represent the cry...

The title of this song is "Alaipayuthe" and is performed by Shobana Vignesh. The music of the Carnatic style originates from southern India. This is performed with female vocals, mridangam (drum), ghatam (clay pot), violin, and tambura. As music educators, we try to share musics of the world to broaden our students' awareness and understanding of other cultures and their music. Authenticity is an important component for developing a  contextual understanding of music within a given culture. Koops (2010) presents various models for addressing authenticity in the classroom, geared toward helping students most fully embody the original intent and expression of a piece. She cautions that with Palmer's continuum approach to authenticity --working toward offering students the most authentic exposure-- may result in some music being inaccessible in a classroom setting, and this may be true of the historical/personal and reproduction models as well. With this song's ...

This is a performance of "Arirang," a traditional Korean folk song. It is performed by members of the Seo-Do Traditional Songs Institute, with the Korean National Classical Orchestra. The song is recognized for its cultural importance by both South Korea and North Korea. The female voices are most prominent, and the orchestra features both typical orchestral strings like violins, violas and cellos, as well as traditional Korean instruments, such as the Gayageum (a Korean zither), a Haegeum (a vertical bowed fiddle), a Piri (a cylindrical bamboo oboe), and many different sized bamboo flutes. This is a concert performance for a large audience, and as the singing begins, the video shows many in the audience singing along with the performers on stage.  As "Arirang" is considered by many to be an unofficial national anthem, it can evoke strong emotion, and this is seen in the faces of those singing. In the context of this performance, both audience-performer interac...