Music from Senegal: Teranga

Last wednesday, the 20th of January, we went to the Filarmonica theatre to see «Teranga», a traditional music group from Senegal. There were six people, five men and one woman. The woman danced and sang and the five men played instruments and accompanied her singing. They played a lot of strange instruments such as the «tama» (drum) or the kora (string instrument). They taught us many interesting things about their culture and traditions. For example, how to ask for rain. We also remember when the girl said: «If you want to marry me, you have to have cows». For us it was very funny, but she described a real situation which wasn´t so funny. We had a good time because it was something different and we learned a lot  about traditions and music from Senegal.

Thalía Devesa Fernández, Mateo Fernández Alonso (2º ESO B) and Nicolás González Fernández (2º ESO C).

Second year students in the Filarmónica Theatre.

Live music: Teranga, el legado de los griots de Senegal

Last Wednesday, January 20, second year students  went to the Filarmonica theatre to see «Teranga, el legado de los griots de Senegal». The show started with a presentation of the group and then the lights turned off and two people entered to the stage from side doors. On the stage the other three musicians were singing and dancing.

They taught us typical dances and songs from Senegal, for example, a ritual song that they sing when it doesn't rain. Sometimes there was an alternation of singers. This style is called «call and response» and it is a very important characteristic of African music. About instruments, they used a lot of percussion instruments and some unusual instruments, for example the «tama» that means «talking drum». We also saw the «balafón», a percusssion instrument that can play melodys (pitched instrument). The only string instrument we listened was the «kora». In this show the rhythm, the percussion and the dance were very important.

We think that Senegalese music is very different from  Spanish music because they use different instruments and they use their voices differently, for example they use call and response. We didn´t ’t like the music from Senegal so much because it's so strange.

Diego Álvarez García and Cristina Barril Fernández, 2º ESO A

Second year students walking to the Filarmónica theatre.

Harmony and texture test

Do you remember everything about harmony and texture? Check by doing this test.

Types of texture

Monophonic music has only one melodic line.


Polyphonic music has several melodic lines. Types of polyphony:

Drone: The melody is played along with a note fixed in pitch.

Heterophonic texture. Two or more voices simultaneously performing variations of the same melody.

Contrapuntal texture. Two or more independent melodies played at the same time. The parts move with rhythmic independence.

Homophonic texture. Two or more parts move at the same time, together in harmony. A homophonic texture is also homorhythmic.

Melody-dominated texture. It has one clearly melodic line (it's the line that naturally draws your attention) and all other parts provide accompaniment for the lead voice

Texture

Musical texture is the way musical lines interact in a piece of music. You know that there are different types of musical texture. Below you can find links to helpful videos related to texture and types of texture.  

Texture and voice in music

What is musical texture?

Music texture

Texture in 2,5 minutes

Musical textures

Texturas musicales

What´s a cadence?

A cadence is a progression of chords used to finish off a musical phrase. It creates a sense of finality or repose.

Types of cadences

Harmony

Harmony is the use of different notes (pitches) simultaneously. Melodic music consists of notes played one after another while harmonic music consists of two or more notes played simultaneously.

Most harmony is based on chords. A chord is a group of notes played simultaneously (at the same time). The basic chord is named a triad. It consists of three notes: the root (any note you like) together with the third and the fifth above the root. When the notes of a musical chord are played separately, one after the other instead of together, we use the term arpeggio.

Chords can be majors and minors. The third above the root is major (two tones) in major chords, the third above the root is minor (one tone, one semitone) in minor chords. This is the reason why major chords sound bright and happy and minor chords sound sad and mournful.

Concord, or consonance, is a nice and pleasant sound that you get when some notes are played together, such as harmonic intervals of 3th, 6th, and 5th , 8th ones.

Discord, or dissonance, is an awful and unpleasant sound that you get when some notes are played together, such as harmonic intervals of 2nd and 7th  ones.

Tonic triads

Chords

Arpeggios

How to identify major and minor chords

Diference between consonance and disonance