VA on Music Theory Print

Vallenato

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

This form of music originated from farmers who, keeping a tradition of Spanish minstrels (juglares in Spanish), used to travel through the region with their cattle in search of pastures or to sell them in cattle fairs. Because they traveled from town to town and the region lacked rapid communications, these farmers served as bearers of news for families living in other towns or villages. Their only form of entertainment during these trips was singing and playing guitars or indigenous gaita flutes, known as kuisis in the Kogi language, and their form of transmitting their news was by singing their messages. The first form of vallenato was played with gaita flutes, guacharaca, and caja, and later adopted other instruments like guitars. These troubadors were later influenced by Europe’s instruments: piano and accordion. Impressed by the sound of the accordion, troubadors probably later obtained accordions from Aruba and Curaçao. Vallenato was considered music of the lower class and farmers, but gradually started penetrating through every social group during the mid-20th century. Don Clemente Quintero – a prominent member from the region’s elite – was a lover of this music, usually accompanied by liquor, was a form of entertainment for this almost isolated region. He then decided to start a parranda (party) inside the very strict Valledupar Social Club with friends. This triggered an acceptance for the music and it became a regular feature at parties, carnivals and reunions, not for dancing, but for listening to these juglares stories . Alfonso López Michelsen, a prominent Colombian politician, showed interest in the region as his ancestors and wife were born there. While a Senator, he pushed for the creation of the Department of Cesar and became, in 1966, its first governor. Once in office and together with writer and reporter Consuelo Araújo Noguera and vallenato composer Rafael Escalona, they created the Vallenato Legend Festival.

Vaporwave

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Vaporwave is a hyper-specific subgenre, or “microgenre”, that is both a form of electronic music and an art style; however, it is sometimes suggested to be primarily a visual medium. The genre is defined largely by its surrounding subculture, with its music inextricable from its visual accoutrements. Academic Laura Glitsos writes, “In this way, vaporwave defies traditional music conventions that typically privilege the music over the visual form.” Musically, vaporwave reconfigures dance music from the 1980s and early 1990s The name derives from “vaporware”, a term for commercial software that is announced but never released. It builds upon the satirical tendencies of chillwave and hypnagogic pop, while also being associated with an ambiguous or ironic take on consumer capitalism and technoculture. incorporates 1990s Web design and imagery, glitch art, and cyberpunk tropes, and 3D-rendered objects. VHS degradation is another common effect seen in vaporwave art. Generally, artists limit the chronology of their source material between Japan’s economic flourishing in the 1980s and the September 11 attacks or dot-com bubble burst of 2001 (some albums, including Floral Shoppe, depict the intact Twin Towers on their covers).

Variation (music)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Variation techniques#

Mozart’s Twelve Variations on “Ah vous dirai-je, Maman” (1785), a French folk song known in the English-speaking world as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, exemplifies a number of common variation techniques. Here are the first eight bars of the theme:

Melodic variation#

Mozart’s first variation decorates and elaborates the plain melodic line:

Rhythmic variation#

The fifth variation breaks up the steady pulse and creates syncopated off-beats:

Harmonic variation#

The seventh variation introduces powerful new chords, which replace the simple harmonies originally implied by the theme with a prolongational series of descending fifths:

Vaudeville in the Philippines

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

At the beginning of the American occupation of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century, stage entertainment in the Philippines was dominated by the Spanish-influenced comedia (“komedya” in the Filipino vernacular) and the newly emergent zarzuela (“sarswela” in the Filipino vernacular). In order to entertain American troops stationed in the Philippines, vaudeville acts from outside the Philippines were brought in to provide entertainment. As early as 1901, a leading Manila theater, the Teatro Zorilla, would promote some of these visiting vaudeville troupes as “Novelties in Manila”.