paraphrase the essay

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Professor

2/11/2016

Article A (Report 1)

I must admit that I knew nothing about indigenous music before I read this article. Now that I have finished the article, but I remember most strongly is that indigenous music is complex, exciting, and stimulating. For children, the lullaby proves joyful even if it was hard for me to grasp the deeper meaning behind the lyrics. This music must have been played with the instruments that are mentioned in the article: the giant rasping stick with four different series of notches; the multi-toned wooden slit drums called teponaztli and tecomopiloa; double, triple, and quadruple flutes; whistles which produce two-, three-, and four chords; flutes; and ocarinas (which I learned was an ancient wind instrument with between four and twelve holes). Many of these instruments have fallen out of use, or were never in use anywhere but the indigenous world. Precortesian music is original to itself unlike much of the music that people listen to today. There was magic, hunting or totemic, ritual, therapeutic, war, ceremonial for religious and civic festivals, profane or secular, imitative music, folk music, and religious chants. There was music for war, music for love, music for death, and music for erotic occasions. The religious chants were “the most highly developed” (3) according to Carlos Chavez and possessed characteristics that could be grouped with the other types. Some characteristics are that the music had introductions and interludes, melodic variety, thematic unity, combined meters and accents, brides that were accentuated with the rasping stick, pedal-point, and melodies that fit the “character and mood of the rite, dance, or song being performed” (4). I’m not sure if this music is still around, but hopefully younger generations have carried it forward so that it can still be enjoyed.