Chapter 18, Ethnic and Regional Influences In Western Art Music

The Romany people are who have been known for some time as “Gypsies,” I do not like writing that word because it has become derogatory and even more, it is inaccurate. “Gypsy” comes from the word “Egyptian” which is quite a misnomer. The Romany people originally come from Northern India, their language shares much in common with contemporary Hindi, Punjabi, Guajarati and Nepalese. They began their trek out of India around 1,000 years ago and lived at various times in Persia, the greater Middle East, Africa, Turkey, The Slovak countries and Western Europe. During their travels they picked up regional music making practices as well as maintaining a great deal of their original Hindustani musical heritage. Please see an example of traditional Hindustani music below. A documentary that I highly recommend is the video series The Romany Trail put out by Shanachie Video.



Original URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg7rXleK-WA

It is also important to note that there are many Thaats (scales) that are virtually identical to both Greek modes and western music scales. This is important because when a Rom musician played music that belonged to that style, it was not deemed particularly exotic. Only the Thaats and Dastgah that contained augmented intervals were considered to be “foreign.”

Please enjoy this very traditional Romany song which was featured in the film Gypsies are Found Near Heaven. This is a song about red apples and having no lover to keep you warm, it is called Loli Pkabay:


Original video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLnT2-z9ujE


Now, let us listen to the "Rondo Alla Zingarezze" by Brahms, notice that the announcer refers to it as "Hungarian" music, but typically a bar scene would probably include some gypsy or gypsy-inspired music. Listen for the same augmented intervals and minor key swing rhythms that we heard in the upper two examples.



Original URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r5SYbjp0VY



Now we turn our attention to the music of African American slaves and former slaves. One thing that must be understood when having a discussion like this is that there is a tendency for us to assume that there is a disconnect between the music of the plantation and that of tribal Africa, this is not the case at all, in fact, any Jazz history course will go to great details about the origins of African American vernacular music in the polly-rhythms and pentatonic scales of traditional music of the African people. (Martin/Waters pp 18-20)

However, the majority of what we are talking about is the music of African American (not tribal Africa) influence in art music so let us get a handle on the kinds of sounds that Dvorak was hearing when he was in the United States:


Original URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdRn6F5xSw


Original URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ch5IWTavUc


You can hear that the melody is very rhythmically driven (especially in the 2nd example). It is important to understand that by and large, the polyrhythmic music of the tribes who would later become American slaves was a staple in their musical language. That being said, it wasn’t just heritage that made the music so metered, what we just listened to was work music, it needed to have a steady pace so that workers would not become exhausted. (Martin/Waters pp 28-29)

Keep in mind that I was only able to scratch the surface of something that is absolutely vital to understanding art music as we know it. Ethnic influences in compositions have existed as far back as the Silk Road and unless we know a little about the people who were influencing the music being written we will always have an incomplete knowledge on the subject of music history.

Works Cited:

Marre, Jeremy. The Romany Trail. Shamanchie Video 2002

Martin, Henry. Essential Jazz - The First 100 Years. Thompson - Schirmer, Belmount, CA 2005