Title: Gidda Beaivvas (Spring Sun)
Performer: Angelin Tytรถt
Culture or Origin: Sami Yoik
Orchestration: It seems to be a drum loop with synthesizer strings, lead vocalist, and one female and one male background vocal.
My reaction to this piece was that it was very pleasant and sweet to listen to, as I expected yoik to be from what I've heard of it. I do not think I have ever heard a completely authentic yoik recorded by an ethnomusicologist before, so this was the best I could find. I found that the music was extremely repetitive. From my understanding of the music, it is written to celebrate the life of a person, and is essentially his or her "life song," which is a special celebration of him/her. In the Reimer article, it was discussed that we cannot understand other cultures because their social and music customs are different from ours. With yoik, I tend to agree. I cannot understand the meaning of this music, which is apparently very meaningful to Sami people. I found it to be beautiful at first, but as it went on, I thought it was repetitive to the point that I wanted to turn it off. However, I can certainly appreciate music that is written to be a reflection and celebration of life, even if the simplistic style and constant repeating are frustrating to me. It seems as though this particular piece is not particularly indigenous, but has been influenced by Western instruments by including the electric background instruments. It is my understanding that the music does not normally have any accompaniment when performed completely authentically, but that could be correct misinformation since I could not find actual proof. I wish I could find who the performer is to see if the music is improvised.
- a one paragraph reaction to the piece that makes connections to course readings/discussion (see a specific weekly focus for this paragraph in the Assignments section)
