articles

Standardization and Innovation in Mariachi Music Performance in Los Angeles
by Steven Ray Pearlman

“Mariachi Music is one of the most popular musics in Los Angeles. There is a substantial Mexican population and an almost continual influx of Mexican immigrants, including musicians, into the Los Angeles area. A natural laboratory is thus established in which tendencies both toward standardization in the performance of traditional and popular materials and toward innovation are observable.”

The Vocal Music Composer in a Nigerian Traditional Society and his Compositional Techniques
by Daniel C. C. Agu

“Among the Igbo, songs are regarded as meditated thoughts on specific topics, issues, situations, events,and activities; designed for specific uses in the society. It is believed that they are developed in the mindunder the influence of creative forces. Songs are tailored by the sociocultural and religious demands of the society, sung out when words alone are found unsuitable for effective expression. This paper looks into the creative techniques of the Igbo vocal-music composer and how he arrives at an acceptable art form.”

The Borrowing and Adapting of Songs Among the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest United States
by Paul W. Humphries

“Every year thousands of visitors come to the Pueblos of the Northern Rio Grande Basin and of the high deserts of New Mexico and Arizona to witness (and in some measure to participate in) the ceremonies of this ancient people. . .Suprisingly, ritual function does not rule out innovation; to the contrary, it often requires it. Thus, each year in most of the nineteen Pueblos, singers and songmakers invest considerable effort in the devising and learning of new songs. One aspect of this activity that has helped to sustain the vitality of Pueblo ceremonialism, and further, to include visitors within that ceremonialism, is the borrowing and adapting of songs.”

Chilean Nueva Cancion: A Political Popular Music Genre
by Karen Linn

“Nueva Cancion (new song) is a Chilean political, popular music genre that began in the middle 1950’s. Drawing upon folk music elements, the Nueva Cancion musicians created a new kind of music that serves as a symbol for their ideology. In this paper I shall show that, in Nueva Cancion, the music itself can be implicitly political.”

Regional Peasant Music and Changes in Nineteenth-Century VillagePerformance Practice in Poland
by William H. Noll

“The Music cultures in countries of East Central Europe are complex matrices based on regionalism, class or state distinction, and ethnicity. The rise of “national folk musics” within this area is a nineteenth- and twentieth-century phenomenon with urban origins. By examining the music of a few contiguous locales, the regionalism, the older peasant styles, and later changes in vilage music practice can be illustrated.”

Garba: A Social Dance of Gujarati Women
by Medha Yodh

“Garba is the communal-social dance performed by women and men (usually seperately but on occasion together) from all levels of society and all the castes and sub-castes of Hindus and Jains in Gujarat. This dance is performed in homes, courtyards, village squares, within temple grounds, and, in recent years, on the concert stage. . .Garba is the primary dance of Gujarati women and is the cultural expression of Gujaratis wherever they reside.”

An Eighteenth-Century Notation of Indian Music
by Susan D. Clark and Bennett Gilbert

“Every so often an overlooked work will surface and need placement within the ranks of other historic publications on similar topics. Such a case can be made for Viaggio alle Indie Orientali of Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeus (1748-1806) in terms of its section on Indian music. . . . Included in a chapter about music, poetics, and architecture is a transcription in Western music notation of a devotional song fromthe Malabar Coast area, together with a transliteration of the Malayam text into Roman characters along with its Italian translation.”

reviews

Learning Tabla with Alla Rakha: A Manual of Drumming and Recitation
by Jeffrey M. Feldman
Ravi Shankar Music Circle, Los Angeles. 1983. 92pp. Photos, figures, charts, transcriptions, and cassette.
reviewed by Gordon R. Thompson