Tomorrow I will present my research and perform my song. After really sitting with the song for a long time, I was able to map it out. It is roughly in the form of AABBCAABB. The "C" is a slightly improvisatory section which was extremely hard to transcribe, and I will therefore probably improvise during that time. I mostly transcribed out the main lines although I still am not sure what the meter is (I am starting to think that it's some sort of 2+2+2+3). The piece that I learned seems to be more syncopated than others that I have heard. According to my research, Kolo dances are traditionally two-beat music and can last for 5-13 minutes. The key of this Kolo is definitely C# harmonic minor, which happens to be a very fun key to play in on clarinet.
Serbian (all Balkan) music is largely influenced by the former Ottoman empire and the traveling Roma gypsies, and I think that that character comes out strongly in the music. In terms of clarinet playing, some of what I have heard has been very Western sounding and "classical" while other styles are strongly ethnic and players hold the clarinet further away from their body. I am trying to play with the latter more authentic tone.
I didn't even realize until tonight, after finding a great resource from National Geographic about world music that two great Balkan Brass Bands I admire are actually Serbian (and not Bulgarian as I had previously thought). Those two bands are the Boban Markovic Orkestar and the Kocani Orkestar. Both are phenomenal groups with stellar soloists. Here is a video of the Kocani Orkestar with indie sweetheart Zach Condon (the one man band behind Beirut--an ethnically rich musical project that makes accessible the music of the Balkans, France and Mexico to a younger audience). Condon even plays trumpet with the group. About halfway through they kick into one of my favorite Kocani songs, "Siki Siki Baba." It's amazing what you can find on the internet!
No comments:
Post a Comment