Articles
Tips on how to understand Ethnic Music'
Hello friends!
This article will explain some different ways for a better understanding about the meaning of Ethnic Music.
All over the world there is a kind of 'Renaissance' of the Ancient Art forms, coming from all different cultures around the world, and often this interest arrives when the people ask themselves something like: 'Where do I come from?' 'Which are my own roots as a person, community, country, culture, religion ?
And that's how the Ethnic side of each one comes to life, including of course, the Music and Arts in general.
The term Ethnic , as we saw in the past issue of this Newsletter, means:
a) Having to do with the various races of people and the characteristics and customs of each; of, having to do with, or peculiar to a race.
b) Heathen, pagan; not christian, not jewish.
c) Latin: Ethnicus, Greek: Ethnikos, Ethnos = Nation.
It's a fact, for example, that almost all of us have a necessity of knowing at least something about our past, the history of our parents and ancestors, where they came from, etc.
In the case of Ethnic music, there is a huge wide spectrum of cultures and traditions where we can research; in fact every single population, state, country or continent might have their own Ethnic Music culture and tradition.
In America for example, there is a crescent interest in what is called 'Indian American Culture',with a strong musical tradition. Or we can also see it in other more recent American music styles like Country, Blues, Jazz, etc.
All of these examples are part of the American History and Ethnic culture.
The same thing is also happening all around the world. The fact is that actually the Ethnic music is getting known more than ever before, just because of technology and global comunications allow us to get in touch with almost any kind of information we want.
Let's now describe some of the cultures that we use in our Ethnic Fusion Sound music style. Some ethnological studies refer that from early days of human existence, the principal way to express some ideas about music came from 2 main sources: Rhythm and Melody
We can be sure that in every ancient culture, music has been made with primitive percussion instrumentation, like hand clapping, or 2 wooden sticks that could be played with the hands to make the rhythm, and the singing voice (or noise) to do the melody.
It's interesting to note that these forms of music expression came from the observation of Nature: the sound of the birds, rivers, trees, animals, etc. were a kind of musical source for them, as for us too.
Of course at that time there was no knowledge available about any theory or music discipline, but the Rhythm was and actually is present in every moment of our lives, from the Heartbeat to the Rhythms of Nature and the Universe.
In Indian music for example, the music system has been developing for thousands of years, it started with the Vedas Chants, one of the most Ancient forms of prayer and devotional singing, and also the foundations of the present Ragas and Talas system: the Melody and Rhythm structure of the Indian Classic and Popular music.
As we can see, Rhythm and Melody embraces all our music everywhere. In African music, there is also an example of how the people were able to comunicate with each other through rhythms and chants. They used to play intrincate rhythms as a kind of 'Telegraph' between Tribes, and their rhythmic patterns and melodies still influences our time, through some music styles as Blues, Jazz music, Latin, Cuban, Brazilian, etc.
We hope you have a better understanding about the meaning of Ethnic Music .
We also encourage you to stay curious about this music and cultures, as a useful tool of learning something more about our human past, and also to incorporate this information in our everyday life.
As we learn from our past, we are able to pass this knowledge along with our own, to the generations to come.
And it's a direct link to our continuity as 'Humanity'
Hope that you have enjoyed reading this article.
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More about Ethnic Music:
Let's talk a little more about the meaning of the name ETHNIC FUSION SOUND.
We'll start with the word Ethnic: The dictionary says ' (adj),
a) Having to do with the various races of people and the characteristics and customs of each; of, having to do with, or peculiar to a race.
b) Heathen, pagan; not christian, not jewish.
c) Latin: Ethnicus, Greek: Ethnikos, Ethnos = Nation.
Now, lets take a look at the word Fusion:(n.)
a) A melting, melting together, fusing.
b) A blending, union; a fused mass.
c) In Nuclear Physics, the combining of 2 nuclei to create a nucleus of greater mass. The Fusion of atomic nuclei releases tremendous amounts of energy which can be used in such things as the Hidrogen or fusion bomb.
d) Latin: Fusio-onis, fundere pour, ment.
And finally the word Sound:
a) What can be heard; auditory sensation; vibrations causing the sensation. Sound travels in waves.
b) Sound, noise, note, tone, etc. Whose quality indicats its source of nature: The sound of Music.
Whaoo! Heavy stuff, but maybe it's interesting to see how the different combination of words can work for a completely different matter.
Thank you for your interest in our Ethnic Fusion Sound music world !
Until the next one
Rik Hambra
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Welcome to the Ethnic Fusion music world!!
Alchemy of Modern and Ancient music styles, visit our web site for info about CDs reviews, Free downloads, Demo samples, Free Ethnic rhythms to learn and practice, Newsletters, Interviews, and much more!
Ethnic Fusion Sound 2010
