 Trinidad: Calypso

Daily Music Terms Review  The relative highness or lowness that we hear in a sound is the ________.  A sequence of notes that make up the theme of the song is the __________.  A ________________ is also known as a musical sentence.  The scholarly study of any music within its cultural context is called ____________________.

Announcements  The first test will be this coming Tuesday, August 27.  We will have a review day on Friday, as well as a portion of Tuesday’s class.

The play’s the thing: Characters of Carnival  Pierrots are clowns who engage in verbal combat  Pierot Grenaades are clowns who are boastful pretentious scholars.  Wild Indians are from the Warrahoun tribe of the Orinoco delta.  The Road March King is the calypsonian whose calypso is most frequently played during the road march.  Midnight robbers are gunslingers dressed in Elizabethan costumes decorated with symbols of death.  Fancy Indians are characters derived from American Western movies.  Soucouyants are vampire witches.  The Bookman is the devil.

Character Pictures

Check for understanding: Design it.  Choose one of the characters that make up carnival.  Pretend you have saved all your money from the year to invest in your carnival costume.  Create a costume of your own design for the character you chose.  Select colors for the costume—specify materials you will use for the various parts of the costume.

I’m dying to know: what is a calypso?  A calypso is:  A song that makes caustic statements about the conditions of society.  It was written primarily for carnival, but has evolved over time into a national music of Trinidad.  Comic musical elements are written into the song.

Active Listening: J’ Ouvert Barrio  The ______s provide a rhythmic introduction to this piece.  What language are the back-up singers singing in?  Does the drum in the background have a low or high pitch?

Important Facts: J’ Ouvert Barrio  The five instrumental groups this work is comprised of are: percussion, winds/strings, back-up vocalists, lead singer and rhythm guitar.  The form of this piece is call and response.  In the bridge section, the instruments also mimic the call and response form. .The trumpet, saxophone, violin and guitar replace the lead vocalist to solo during the bridge sections.  J’ Ouvert Barrio literally means: The official start of carnival at dawn of the Monday preceding lent. Barrio means the city.  In this form, the responsorial singers repeat the same phrase each time.

Active listening: Situation in Trinidad  List all the complaints Mighty Sparrow makes about the situation in Trinidad:

Listening facts: Situation in Trinidad  This piece embodies the spirit of carnival because it is making social commentary in a musically comical manner.  Mighty Sparrow uses these musical devises to make this a comic parody song: Big glissandos in the winds, lightly syncopated rhythmic motives and punctuated brass calls.  Three problems with the “Situation in Trinidad” that Mighty Sparrow highlights are the cost of milk is too high, people are being arrested for no reason and there are broken political promises.

Check for Understanding: Gallery Walk  On a post-it note write down one fact about calypso—this can be either a general fact or a specific fact relating to one of the listening examples.  Choose a category from those listed on the wall and place your fact where you think it fits:  Musical Form, Instrumentation, Lyrics  Do a gallery walk and copy down two other responses from the same category you contributed to.

Active listening: Crab and Callaloo  This song is very nostalgic.  Draw a miniature scene of Trinidadian life that the singer might be yearning for.

Callaloo Ingredients and picture

Just de facts: Crab and Callaloo  Callaloo is a food. Its varied mixture of ingredients suggests the blending of different races in this island and the world.  In keeping with the macabre atmosphere of carnival, this piece is in a minor key.  The flourishes of the clarinet solo indicate that Klezmer music was an influence in the performance of this piece.  Even the instrumentation—clarinet, guitar, piano, trumpet (except for maracas) indicate a Klezmer influence.  Many calypsos are heavily influenced by other contemporary musical genres.

Bulgar of Odessa  As you listen to Bulgar of Odessa, and then again to Crab and Callaloo, compare and contrast musical elements of each and write them in the venn diagram in your scholar guide.  Think about instrumentation, rhythm, use of percussion, phrasing, etc.

Begin Reading Outline #2  Read the following article (Reading #2) and complete Reading Outline #2.  You may move about the room and work with a partner.  This is the third IP assignment in world music.  This is due tomorrow.

Homework  Complete Reading Outline #2.  Reading outline #2 is due tomorrow—Friday.  Listen to Trinidad listening examples 1-6 on Haiku.  Study for the test on Tuesday!

Exit ticket  The form of the piece J’ Ouvert Barrio is ____________ and _______________________.  A calypso is a song that makes ______________ statements about the ____________ of society.  What is the name of the singer who sings the song: “Situation in Trinidad?”  Why is callaloo a good metaphor for the diversity of Trinidad’s population?