On Monday the 10th of October, we were lucky enough to watch the Romanian group Vardos perform traditional Romanian music. They performed multiple folk songs and engaged us (the audience) in traditional dancing and singing. In the group, there was a violinist (in their style of folk music, the violinist is the lead), a bass and an accordion player. The violinist was very dramatic which strongly engaged us. She explained that the style of music often tells a boring story but they play the music in a fun and engaging way. Listening to a real Romanian group perform made the topic of a Musical Passport come to life. I found the stories and musical elements used very interesting because they are very different to the type of music I would usually listen to. I was fascinated by the way each member of the group played multiple instruments to a high degree of skill level, and were so engaging using body language and facial expression. I found that the music moved very fast and was very lively. The melody moved rapidly with a range of notes. In one song the bass player only used one string to play the entire song and used a thick, authentic bow. I had never seen this technique used and I was very interested in why it was used and how it was used. In another song the violinist used a ring to play percussion on a metal can and the accordion player played guitar while the bass player played violin. I found this song more familiar and sort of 'gypsy' like. Throughout each piece of music, the violinist played the melody, the bass player played the rhythm and the accordion would play the melody when using the piano keys, and the rhythm when using the buttons. It was great to see an authentic Romanian group perform.
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November 2016
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