Around the World in 30 Days with Sabrina Roche

Music's been a really important part of my life because of my parent's love for it. My mom especially has been a musician her whole life so I decided to interview her for this blog.  So before I begin I should give a little bit of background on my mom. Most of you know her as Mrs. Roche and she's the main accompanist here at Converse College. She received her undergraduate in piano performance and her masters in accompanying and has been playing the piano since she was pretty much able to walk. Me:  What is your favorite memory or experience of music? Mom: Ohhhh that's hard.... my favorite experience? Gee there's so many to choose from but what I remember with great fondness is playing for operas and musicals at Brevard. Being in orchestra and you know making these shows come alive. Helping the kids learn it and then see the finish product when it was done. I never got to see any of it while I was coaching them I could only hear it and then to go to the final perfor...

  Here's some cool stuff I found interesting about Arabic and Indian Music! As I was looking further into the music of India, I found that Indian classical music is actually split into two main "schools": Hindustani Music and Karnatak.  Hindustani Music is the music of northern India that has Turko- Persian elements and is referred to as "the true music of India". There are two types of Hindustani Music: Classical and Light Classical. Classical music is often improvised and following the adherence to the raga formula more strictly. There is not much instrumental accompaniment only the tabla for rhythm and the tanpura for the drone part. The main artist's performance is not to be upstaged by the other instruments being played. Light Classical music are like classical performances but are less complex and the performance is much shorter. Below is an example of classical music and light classical music.  In Arabic music you mostly here the oud as the main chord...

  Let's take a look into my favorite genre of music! What Makes Country Music Country?: Country music is defined as "a style and genre of largely string-accompanied American popular music having roots in the folk music of the Southeast and cowboy music of the West, usually vocalized, generally simple in form and harmony, and typified by romantic or melancholy ballads accompanied by acoustic or electric guitar, banjo, violin, and harmonica.” The word country  itself is used to denote rural areas and things in distinction to urban ones and there's evidence that the phrase country music was used in the late 1500s even though the name for the modern music genre wasn't recorded until the 1940s.  Where Did It Originate From?: Country music originated in the early twentieth century and was popular among the working- class Americans of the south. While a number of musical genres influenced country music, scholars trace the origins of country music to eastern Tennessee. Ultimat...

Here are some "cool" things I learned about music in Sub- Saharan Africa: As we were exploring African culture and music, I became really interested in the instruments used. A lot of them are very specific to Africa and are rarely seen in other types of music around the world. One of the instruments  I found to be very interesting is the musical bow. The musical bow is a chordophone that consists of a flexible stick that can measure 1.5 to 10 feet long. Strung from end to end is a stretched, tight chord that the player can pluck, bow, and strike to create a primary note. There are multiple ways a player can create overtones of the primary note: they can use their finger and thumb to stop the string, they can bend the stick to make the chord tighter or looser, or. they can lightly touch the string to create faint overtones.  There are a few different types of musical bows. The gourd bow, the mouth bow, and the earth bow. The gourd bow has a gourd attached to it that helps the ...

Hey everyone! Today I will be talking about how music and religion intersect in my own life. But before I get more into this, I should give a little bit of background. I come from a strong Catholic household and go to a church that still is mostly traditional in the sense of music that is played. My mom is the organist/ pianist and my dad is the choir director and they've both been the music directors at this church since I was little. Here's a piece that I heard my dad sing during Mass through my entire childhood:  The Catholic Church believes strongly in the use of music to promote full participation from the congregation in the mass. In the "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council it is stated that "to promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs." Because of COVID-19 there's been a lot of changes made and unfortunately the bishop of C...

Here are some "cool" things I learned as I delved more into Music of the Americas: 1) One of the many aspects of the Native American culture that I really enjoyed learning about was the different types of dancing. While I was exploring more, I ran across a type dance called the hoop dance. The hoop dance is a storytelling dance done with 1- 40 hoops to create shapes that represents the various movements of animals and other elements. It is preformed by a solo dancer who begins with a single hoop, evoking the circle of life and as the dance goes on additional hoops are added representing other life elements such as humans, water, seasons, etc. Throughout the dance, the soloist makes very rapid movements in which the hoops are interlocked and extended from the body to portray appendages such as wings and tails. Below is a video of Native American Hoop Dance champion, Brian Hammill: 2) Another aspect of the music of the Native Americans that I found really interesting was the dr...