As we mentioned in class, Eastern European music is highly influenced by outside forces. Because the Roma people constantly moved around Eastern Europe, many of the instrumentation found within the movie appear very similar to the many instruments we are most familiar with in the West.
One instrument which was very prevalent throughout the movie was the violin. It was very interesting to see variety of ways in which it was played. Most noteable was the segment where the man produced the long, screechy notes with a single hair of the bow by dragging a single hair of the bow across the strings. I played violin for 6 years and those sounds reminded me of those notes that you accidentally played if your bow didn't have enough rosin on them. There was an aerophone which resembled a smaller type of shakuhachi. The instrument was played by blowing through the top of the flute (like the shakuhachi). If it had to be compared to another Middle Eastern instrument, I suppose it would be closest to the Duduk which was mentioned in Vahe's presentation. The Duduk, however, is still very different from the flute in the movie. It is a double reed flute, which produces very rich, robust sounds. When I heard the music clips of it, I instantly thought of it a Middle Eastern Kenny G. The other instrument from the movie I'd like to point out is the Santur (sp?). The size of the movie one was much larger than the one we were showed in the video example from class. It was played much the same way as in the Middle East. Other things I would like to mention are the rhythmic clapping and the use of household objects. One man was shown slapping his thighs, the bottom of his shoes, and clapping his hands to produce his own rhythm for the song. We saw much of this rhythmic clapping when we were studying Oceania. The small clip with the dogs barking also reminded me of the call and response techniques from Oceania.
I love the fact that there is no presence of dialogue in most of these scenes. It reminds me of Ch. 1 of our World Music text. At the beginning of the chapter, the author dives into David Henry Thoreau's experiences listening to the soundscape at Walden Pond. I feel that this movie is a respresentation of just that--a soundscape. The lack of dialogue forces the listener to hone in on the sounds and voices that are generated in a multitude of ways whether it be from neighbors arguing with each other, dogs barking, or slapping the top of a milk jar. The collage of sounds and voices that come from this movie makes me realize that music is everpresent in my daily life. It doesn't have to come from the traditional forms in which we listen to music to be classified as "music" (e.g., radio, cds, concerts). Music is truly everywhere.
