W E E K LY MUS IC A L

CU LT URE S VO L I I

The Beauty and the Beast

Overtone Singing?
Overtone singing (also known as diphonic or biphonic) is the most popular form of music throughout the Mongolian cultural area. However the Mongolian culture is not necessarily restricted to Mongolia itself. Many Mongols live in the Peoples Republic of China, and culturally-related groups can be found all the way from Siberia to Kazakhstan! There are two basic types of traditional Mongolian songs: demonstrates the celebrated Mongolian technique of singing two pitches simultaneously, known as overtone singing. Can I do it? Overtone singing is performed by first producing a low drone note sound, while simultaneously changing the position of your tongue in the vocal cavity, as well as the tension in the vocal chords, to produce one or more harmonic overtones of the first drone note. The Mongolian culture is one of the few in the world that still practice this technique since it is very difficult to get the hang of. Even though Mongolian diphonic singing often includes musical instruments as accompaniment, this particular piece does not. Mongolian musician performing a typical song involving the overtone singing technique

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I N S I D E T HI S IS S UE :
Overtone Singing? Paper Moon Short Song 1 2 2 3 4 5 6

M A N O S H A T Z I D AK IS ?
Born October 23, 1925 Died June 15th 1994 Greek composer and theorist . was his very first work He as produced several other piano pieces, and then later started writing in Rebetiko form He focused on expression, the deep traditional roots, and the emotion of pure Rebetiko music

Similarities Inside Story Inside Story Inside Story

W H A T I S R H Y TH M ?
It is defined as the pattern or placement of sounds in time and beats in music. It can be made up of sounds and silences Rhythm is shaped by meter; it has certain elements in it such as beat and tempo

Long Song Melismatic and freerhythmed

Short song. Syllabic and strictly rhythmic This particular piece falls under the category of Short song. The song

Manos Hatzidakis.

W H A T I S MU S I C A L KEY ?
Also known as tonality Key is what helps composers to put their emotions into their pieces (e.g. Minor or Mayor) It refers to the central note, scale, and chord of a piece

What is Greek Rebetiko?

Rebetiko is a form of Greek folk music which started in the 1960s and developed further in the years to follow. The word Rebetiko was derived from the Greek word rebetis, which can be translated as something to the words of a person who represents aspects of character, dress, behavior, morals and ethics associated with a particular subculture. In simple terms, Rebetiko picks up musical aspects from all Greek areas, from the mainland to the islands.

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The literal translation of the name of the piece is: Paper Moon. Manos uses this as a metaphor as he really wanted to create a subtle and gentle piece. Something which would resemble the fragile moon made out of paper. There have been many different variations to the piece, as it has been performed by choirs, entire orchestras, but the overall most popular version seems to be a piano and a soprano vocalist together. When we take a look at the music score of the song is a lot more slow paced and relaxing as I have mentioned before. We can see this was his intention as he ties almost all the notes with a legato bow, which means it should be played gently. Also the particular music score that was used for this analysis did not include any dynamics. I dont think that the composer left this out purposely, as adding a p would make the piece even more gentle and this would also force the performers to put more emotion into each note. The song was composed in F major, and has 1 flat, and does not modulate. However it appears as if it does with the addition of sharps on mostly the F and the C towards the ending of the first page and most of the second page. The melody of the piece moves in eighth notes and quarter notes mostly. However the use of little ornaments (which can be seen in the first bar and the third bar of the fragment below) make the melody more exciting. Manos manages to create a very interesting sound of the paper moon with the use of diminished broken chords such as the one in the second bar of the fragment shown below (C#, E, G). It is written with a 3/4 time signature which is a standard time signature, each crotchet counts as a beat. This would be standard for most Rebetiko type pieces, this comes to show that his goal was not to compose something exciting

Fragment of the score of

Short song
The Mongolian short song conthe sounds sists of eight phrases, with a in the most The soul base of Mongolian short breath between each for accurately throat singing is the rhythm the singer. It was originally way possisung in B major, but after the ble. The third phrase, the key changes to piece is F major. The Mongolian diquite fastphonic singing piece however has no paced , and consists almost of only sixtime signature, they way the author of teenth notes. After the third phrase howthe book where this score was taken ever, is where the overtone singing from wrote it down, was every time the begins, while the singer maintains a low singer took a breath he marked it as the D. After this drone comes in, the melend of a phrase. Since the purpose of ody of the short song becomes somethe book was to note down pieces from foreign countries that would not otherwise be noted, the author had to use his hearing and his own musical knowledge to write down what simpler. The key of the short song is C minor, however the key signature was adapted to suit the transcription. These kind of Mongolian short songs, were passed on from generation to generation and the key signature was most likely not fixed, so the author chose the one that best represented what he heard. What this kind of music is based on, is the rhythm. In this case, who thought of the song, could have gotten inspiration from some natural phenomenon, such as the sound of rain. However in this case, and as can be seen on the fragment below, because of the eighth note, followed by two sixteenth notes, it would sound more similar to the galloping of a horse.

Beginning of the first phrase of the Mongolian piece

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Are they even alike?

Just like the beauty and the beast, even though these pieces are both visually and auditory very different, some similarities can be found between them. One of the more curious things they have in common, is their use of tremolos. These are decorations that sound like a wavering effect. Both the composer of the Greek piece, and the composer of the diphonic short song had the same idea that they could decorate a certain pitch by making their vocal strings vibrate, and slightly alter the pitch to make it higher and lower. Considering the fact that these pieces are from two completely different cultures, we can see how effective musical notation is. The fact that we can write down practically anything we hear into notes. The short song is written in minor, which is very hard to hear, as the singing could almost sound pentatonic. For the Greek piece, the key that is being used in a way that doesn't necessarily fix the rest of the piece to that key, Manos still uses minor and diminished chords throughout it. The short song alters from C minor to F major after the third phrase, giving the diphonic singing a different feel. Both cultures have the same idea that a key needs to be changed in order to make the piece more interesting. The short song is quite fast paced compared to the Greek piece, as the Greek song is meant to have a lot more emotion and is therefore calmer, while the Mongolian piece could have been sung at a form of celebration and is therefore faster paced. Furthermore, we can see that the Greek piece modulates quite a number of times, and then ends up going back to the main key. Both pieces make use of terms for tempo changes, as for example: ritardando in the Greek piece, and (with slight acceleration) for the Mongolian piece. Whereas the Mongolian piece could be for some kind of Third bar of Paper Moon showing the use of a ritardando sign. celebration as mentioned before, the Greek piece actually slows down right before the theme comes in to put an emphasis on it. Polyphony is something which both pieces contain. Polyphonic is when a texture consists of two or more independent melodies, as can both be seen in the extract from the Greek piece below, but also starting at the fourth phrase for the Mongolian piece.

Differences
The Greek piece is are more decorated (with generally much ornaments or simply more nicer to listen to, in notes) . Since variation form Theme and variations comparison to the has a strophic structure diphonic singing. (represented as originated in the 16th century This is due to the A,A1,A2,A3, etc.), the fact that were not structure for the Mongolian used to the sound piece can therefore be writthey create, however perhaps they would ten as: A,B,C,D,D1,D2,D3,D4. feel the same way if they were to listen to The form of the Greek piece however is Paper Moon. neither binary nor ternary. Different sections As established before, rhythm is the most important factor for the diphonic piece. As there's virtually no melody, harmony, or musical expression audible or visible. The Mongolian piece has no other structure, apart from the fact that it is divided into 8 phrases. However something unexpected occurs starting the fourth phrase, which is a variation on a theme. Phrase four is the theme, and the following phrases (5,6,7 and 8) are the variations. This can be seen as the following phrases follow the same basic pattern as in the fourth strophe, however they So... There is no reason we should think a song is better or more civilized just because of the way it sounds. The Mongolian song used the Theme and Variation technique, while the Greek song had no recognizable form of structure, does that change the way we perceive the piece?

After analyzing the rhythm and the musical keys in both pieces, it is clear are played one after the other, we never hear that there are a lot of similarities as well anything being repeated throughout the en- as differences, which proves that two tire piece. completely different pieces coming One of the most important differences in from two completely different cultural terms of rhythm however, is the motivation backgrounds can still have a lot in comand the goal of the composer. Since Hatzida- mon. kis wanted to compose something fragile, relaxing, and calming, the vastness of crochets and quarter notes in the piece itself are necessary as this helps the song progress at a relaxing pace, with no sudden surprises. However Hatzidakis manages to add in some excitement with diminished chords as well as sudden modulations to different keys (including F and D)

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Bibliography
To Feggaraki Hatzidakis, Manos; Copyright 1959 for all Countries by Phil. Nakas, Athens Diphonic Singing: Short Song- ? "Huun Huur Tu Throat Singers." Alaska Communications Systems. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http:// www.xyz.net/~seldarts/ sub_HuunHuurTu.htm>. "Rebetiko." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Rebetika>. "Manos Hatzidakis." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Manos_Hatzidakis>.