This blog will be dedicated to things discovered during the course of a miniature research-learning project for Marsha Baxter's Global Music Education class. The task at hand is to learn a piece of traditional music from a country of our choice completely by ear. Along with musical learning, we are encouraged to find out how cultural insiders develop their musical skills. We were directed to www.smithsonianglobalsound.org to inform our decisions. It is a great resource—you can use the advanced search to use not only by country/region of origin, but also by cultural group and instrument types (aerophones, chordophones, etc).
Already strongly interested in Balkan music, I decided to find something that would suit my talents (playing clarinet) but still be traditionally rich. Much of Balkan music is in brass bands, so I was worried about finding something. Luckily, a Serbian song in the Kolo dance genre features just a clarinet and drum. The recording was made in the late 1950s. The performer is unknown. You can hear a sample here.
I anticipate several challenges during the course of this project. I predict that my desire to notate the music as I learn it will be overwhelming. I have never been comfortable playing music by ear or from memory. This is probably largely due to the musical tradition in which I was raised. Another challenge that I foresee is reproducing the characteristic tone that the musician is creating. It is very different from a "western" clarinet sound.
I look forward to doing some more research that will inform my learning of the song.
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