Author Archives: sabeeha manji

On March 18, I attended the UBC Composers’ Concert from the UBC School of Music. This particular concert was a composition of songs composed by the UBC music students as well as the professor.  This was the first concert that I had attended for our music journals and I was so impressed with the performances- it also made me regret not attending any UBC performances before, but after seeing this I will without a doubt be attending more.

Each piece that was performed had a different story to it, some had been composed solely by students, others by students and teachers and a few were pieces that were variations of popular compositions.  It was really interesting to see how these all beautifully came together as the students performed the pieces. In this particular concert/performance- there were 5 pieces that were performed. 29^th Avenue, Second Beach, Night Piece, Chance Encounter and lastly Avidutt which was my favorite performance out of them all.

The first 2 pieces had been performed by saxophones and flutes and as we moved along into performances I noticed that there were more and more instruments being incorporated and eventually in the last piece we had a full accompaniment of instruments as well as a soprano.  I was really impressed by the pieces that were performed, especially because the students that were performing seemed quite young but still they had such fantastic skills to be able to perform and conduct such an extraordinary ensemble. The first two pieces had a steady beat to it and a fixed meter, the rigidness of the piece was further enhanced because there was no other accompaniment with this piece and no words sung either. The second piece was a lot more melodic and less rigid, it reminded me a bit of jazz music. Night piece was performed by a guitarist, this piece seemed a bit obscure to me yet musically alluring, perhaps it is the obscurity that made it beautiful.  The next piece that was performed was actually originally a Chinese poem but had been turned into a musical composition in a beautiful, accessible and stimulating way. The last piece, Avidutt, was certainly my favorite. I really didn’t know what to expect from this because all the pieces were so different from one another, and this one certainly did not differ. For this piece, everyone that had performed was out on the stage as well as a soprano singer. This was the largest ensemble of the concert! The singers produced sounds so interesting, even imitating the sound of laughter and incorporated whistling sounds. This sounded a bit like imitative polyphonic texture to me. The string players that accompanied the singers echoed the singer’s voices in an abstract way.

All in all, if you are someone who is into abstract music then I would certainly recommend this to you! It was amazing to see people so young producing music that is so unique and inspiring.

On Monday 25^th March 2019 I attended the UBC Contemporary Players Performance at 12:00 Noon in the Barnett Hall. The was the second performance that I had seen from this particular group of students. It had been performed on commission through Belkin Gallery, Workstream for international continuum for multiple schools around the world.  A lot of the pieces that had been performed had actually been composed by students which were really impressive to see.

The first piece featured by Dorothy Chan was a trio and was inspired by an old work from the 1990s called Dark Sea Sun for Solo Guitar. The intention of this piece was to try and make us as the audience feel like we were at sea. This performance featured- a flute, piano and a cello and was a beautiful introduction which set the pace for the rest of the pieces to be performed later on. The piece began beautifully and suddenly got very fore boarding and eventually came to a stop with plucking from the cello. I found it interesting to see how this song took a drastic turn and how it made me feel as though there was some kind of impending doom.

The second piece, Tenebrae began with string players that played beautifully together joined by a soprano. I noticed that as the soprano singer sang, one specific instrument would echo her and this was the clarinet. This piece started off as quite intense but got a lot more serene and calm towards the end. The third piece to me was almost like a climax in a play, the performers set the mood by dimming the lights to further grab our attention. The music started off swiftly, almost as though somebody was walking (it sounded like footsteps to me because of the steady beats from the percussion instruments). Eventually, I noticed the student on the drums was picking up the pace of how he was playing making me feel as though someone was fastening their walk. It was really interesting how this piece ended almost abruptly making us as the audience curious to know what was going to happen next.

The piece Pado which Korean means wave, and for that particular scene basically just means the wave of the ocean was the next peace that was performed. This was actually one of the most fascinating parts of the performance for me because the instruments actually made wave sounds by blowing into the trumpet but not fully blowing to produce any sound which made it seem like the crushing of the wind.  All together these instruments created again some kind of foreboding effect, but towards the end formed some kind of harmony. This was a beautiful introduction to the last piece of the play titled Transformations was beautiful and made me feel so calm. This could have been to symbolize finally reaching “peace at sea” or even to show us how transformations are beautiful at the end despite being rough at the beginning. All in all, this was a beautiful performance done by very talented students! I was truly astonished to see and hear how they made wind gushing sounds through their instruments- I didn’t even think this was possible!

On the 4th of April 2019, I attended a music and dance ensemble organized by professor Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo. The performance took place at the Plaza outside the Barnett Recital Hall at 12:00 noon, not only was this venue inspiring, the environment within the room was filled with people of different ages and ethnicities which made the entire experience so much more exciting for me.  The backdrop of the music set was full of African drums of different sizes and bright lights that lit up the plaza so that the movements of each dancer and drummer could be seen clearly. The performers which consisted of students both male and female as well as the professor were stood on the stage wearing elaborate West-African traditional clothing. The professor began by giving us a brief introduction about the background, there were 5 main dance performances that were introduced, these were the Atsiagbekor, Kuhunga, Boboobo, Gahu and Chinyanda. There were deeper meanings to everything within the pieces, even when it came to the ratio of females and males in the performances.  I found it interesting to learn about the Chinyanada dance, often known as the harvest dance and includes singing, dancing and praising beauty with both males and females performing. Whereas with the Kuhunga dance which was about puberty consisted of only females and was the only performance where all males drummed.

To expand further “Atisagbekor”, is a dance of the traditional Ewe (refers to the people originating from Ghana, Benin, and Togo) that is performed after a battle and on many social occasions. It is a very lively performance and the drums definitely reflect the kind of movement with the dancers, this is because the dancer’s actions correspond to that of the drummer. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this piece, I think from all the performances this one had the most upbeat beats and movements, ranging from dancers jumping to movements on the floor. The master drummer was certainly key in this piece as they kept the rhythm of the song, the cow-bell, and singing was also incorporated into this song. At the end of the performance, the professor gave us a brief background to this piece. It is usually performed after a war in order to celebrate the victory and bravery of the warriors. Throughout the piece the dancers were smiling and happy, this could have been used to portray the feeling of pride and victory during this happy occasion.  The costumes incorporated into this performance could have also been used to symbolize unity that comes during this occasion, as everybody had been wearing the same costumes, even the female dancers. I thoroughly enjoyed this piece and found myself tapping my hands and feet to the rhythm of the music!

To expand further on the “Boboobo” dance which was performed, it is done by the Nzema and Ahanta Ghanaians and has evolved in a way which is used to illustrate peoples cultural, social, political and economic ideologies.  This was an incredible piece that was upbeat and really captured the attention of the audience. There were multiple drummers for this piece but one main drummer playing the largest drum that kept the beat and rhythm of the entire song, other instruments such as the cow-bell and singing were also incorporated, and the performers danced with vigor and excitement with huge smiles to the beat of the drum. The last part of this performance involved dancers making strong torso movements, the master drum motives were usually based on verbal phrases, thus the drums were used as speech surrogates. The dancers also incorporated handkerchiefs to symbolize victory and freedom.

The “Kuhunga” is a music piece that was done in order to celebrate the process of coming into puberty, an important stage of life for both females and men in the society but particularly more important for men after circumcision. The piece is led by respected female members in order to celebrate the girls becoming women.  For this particular performance, I noticed that there were no male dancers as they all played the drums and the stage was occupied by only female dancers this could have been because the women were celebrating the process for the men whereas the men ideally would take on more manly roles like playing the drums.  I noticed a lot of shaking of the waists for this particular song from the women.

The “Gahu” was the next piece that was performed. This piece emanated from marriage and wedding rites. It was interesting to see both female and male dancers wearing skirts while singing and chanting words for praise.  There was a lot of movement from the dancers which consisted of wiggling of the pelvis and vigorous of the hand movements as they moved around in a circle clockwise direction.  This circular motion with the dancer’s interactions could be used to signify celebration and unity between the men and the women, whereas the previous performances which were line-motion symbolized war.  The drummers were also part of this circle as they held their drums and dances and chanted as well.  At first, I was resistant to sing along to the words being chanted, but as soon as I got into the rhythm I began singing and harmonizing with the performers. This performer-audience interaction made the whole experience so much more inspiring and interactive because the Professor kept urging people to join along to his singing! This was by far one of my most favorite pieces to watch because we as the audience got to join in.

The last piece was called the “Chinayna” this refers to a recreational music piece that is usually performed in Zambia; the rhythm was so upbeat, and the dancers got to showcase their moves as they stood in a circle and two by two walked into the circle and showcased out their best dance moves. This really reminded me of having grown up in Kenya and playing with my friends, we would stand in a circle and individually go inside the circle and show our best moves as everybody clapped and sang. There was also a lot of singing and cheering done in this performance, as Ewe phrases and words were chanted out by the singers who made all sorts of cheerful facial expressions which gave me an idea of the thrill and excitement people felt when performing this piece both on stage and in Ghana.  and the crowd was encouraged by the professor to come up on stage and join. It was so touching to see people really appreciating this performance, as a lot of people including myself went up on stage and joined the dancers. In American culture, it is not so common to have people from the audience join into performances and it is sometimes considered rude when you cheer too loudly in an audience or even whistle, but for this performance and certainly in Ghana, cheering, whistling and participating with the crowd was encouraged.

Out of all the performances/concerts that I had attended, this was by far my favorite one. I loved how the professor encouraged us to participate! It was truly a remarkable performance!!

On April 3, 2019, I attended the UBC Balinese Gamelan concert.  The pieces were performed at the Barnett Music Hall.  The backdrop was absolutely stunning- it was set up to represent Bali in Indonesia as that is where Gamelan music originates from. I noticed everyone that all the performers were dressed in all white and had red headbands and they were also barefoot.  We were given a brief introduction by the Professor who explained to us that  Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of Java and Bali in Indonesia. It made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones played by mallets and a set of hand-played drums called kendhang which registers the beat.

The first piece that was performed was Lengker- these compositions belong to the repertoire of the gamelan semar formerly of the Balinese royal courts. It was served to lull the royal family to sleep when it played in the late evenings in the inner sanctum of the palace. It is also considered to be a refined sweet style of music.  The music was quite fast past in this and had a lot of sudden changes in tempo and dynamics. There was a heavy incorporation of metallophones and gongs, I also recognized an instrument that resembled a tabla- an instrument commonly played drum set in Asia. The ensemble included other various small percussion instruments similar to sleigh bells and finger cymbals, and a row of small kettle gongs that played the melody.

The next piece that was performed was the Sunaren; these were melodies featuring the gong-row. The repertoire came from Bali’s northern district Bulelend. This music would be played during temples at rituals in order to entertain deities who descended into shrines. I noticed that this particular type of music was quite repetitive, it may have been to symbolize some sort of prayer that was consistent and because of this, there was a consistent beat throughout the performance of this piece.  This piece created several overlapping harmonies that were beautiful to listen to.

The next piece that was performed was the Sekar Gendot this repertoire of music of the gamelan was an ensemble that accompanied shadow plays, cremation processes, tooth filing ceremonies, and other traditional events. It was so interesting to see how different types of music were played for different ceremonies. For this particular piece, there was a swirl of elaborated patterns followed by expanded melodies of irregular size, shape, and intricacy.  The performers used metallophones with the addition of gong strokes during this piece.

The last piece that was performed was the Tabuh Pisan Bebaronga- this music in the bebarongan repertoire is associated with barong, a mythical dragon-like creature distantly related to the Chinese lion. Barong masks and costumes were extremely sacred and kept in temples in most inner courtyards.   This particular piece was quite complex but still very vibrant and rich in melody and texture. There were a number of metallophones, gongs, and xylophones all being played, this particular piece was also much louder and swifter than the other pieces performed.  There was a melodic percussive beat resembling rises from the drums and xylophones. All in all, this was such a unique and beautiful performance, I truly enjoyed learning about traditional Bali music.

On the 1st of April, I attended an Oral Composition Play at 12:00 noon at the Plaza. At the start of the concert, the Instructor had given us a brief overview as to what this performance would be about. The class that was performing had spent the first few months studying and practicing rhythm techniques from world traditions which included the basics of Solkattu and Mora. The instructor mentioned that Solkattu and Mora music is a traditional way of learning and practicing rhythms through vocalizations of nonsense syllables stemming from South Indian Carnatic music. In performance, Solkattu is traditionally called Konnakol. Most percussionists, vocalists, instrumentalists, and dancers all learn these syllables first and then add the sounds of the drum, the pitches, or the dance movements to the vocalizations later on. This particular music was also interlocked with a totally different type of music, this was African music and to be more specific music originating from West Africa. I was quite excited to hear this beautiful composition and the interweaving of two very different types of music from two very different places. Each piece was 3-5 minutes and utilized both ideas from West African and South Indian culture.

When the instructor was explaining what went into creating these pieces I was truly impressed. The students had practiced for 2 hours 4 days a week, their dedication and hard work could definitely be seen through the quality of music that they produced. They had all played percussion instruments from UBC’s world music collection and formed a beautiful ensemble. Each composer taught their own music orally to the group and it was then learned, memorized and practice without notation. This reminds me of what we spoke about in class- during the 19th century, thematic transformations had become a major force where musical performers like Clara Schumann introduced memorizing of music. She concertized throughout Europe and then became a celebrated piano teacher. She taught her students to play all their solo piece from memory so they would perform with greater finesse and confidence and eventually the tradition of memorizing solo music came to be expected. Today, we as musicians spend a lot of time working to memorize music. In my own preparation, I feel I spend half of my practice time striving to learn notes and the other half trying to memorize music and so did the performers on that day because all the music was memorized.

Most of the music that was played was composed to be played in the same way each time which is why a lot of the pieces that were performed sound similar to one another. Some pieces used comfortable grooves and rhythms calculation processes which I believe helped to aid memorization of those pieces. There was also some improv involved and I was able to notice this through the group’s awareness of the composers intent body language and how the rhythms all interlaced.

A few of the pieces that were played were “Pass the Farm Fresh Butter” “The Fishmongers Wife” “Three Gardens” and “Glimpse to Equinox” all of which represent olden times and perhaps could be used as a way to show us the kind of life that people in West Africa and Southern India live. All the performers were also barefoot which again could have been used to represent the authenticity and the attempt to make it as real and as close to African and Indian culture. There was percussion used in all of the instruments and although most of the pieces sounded very similar because of the banging and percussion instruments some of the pieces stood out because of the soprano singing that was employed. It was really interesting to hear them playing this music in the Plaza outdoors in the warmth and it made me wonder how it would have sounded in the Barnett Hall indoors.