Week 7

Finishing up the movie Latcho Drom was extremely interesting because new scenes gave us new perspectives on the Roma people. Their heavy use of instrumentation continued and it was exciting to see how they used the instruments to evince their emotions and attitudes. The first scene was in a village and the violin was an integral instrument. A few men playing in unison used the violin to create a strong melody. Other instruments such as an accordion and a flute-like aerophone accompanied the main rhythm creating a homophony. There seemed to be a bit of improvisation with the melodies. After all, the festive nature of the people enjoying music calls for a lighthearted tempo and upbeat rhythms. The audience which in their case, were the people in the streets, were in important contribution to the effect of the music. The musicians were playing for the audience who seemed to be enjoying the moment.

The second scene took place at a train station in which the boy and his mother are awaiting near the train tracks. This time, however, the violin took a back seat to the vocals. Spoons were also used as idiophones when they were tapped together to make noise. It was really quite touching that the little boy offered his coins so that the gypsies could play music to cheer up his mother. In addition, the entire movie provided insight for different ways to play instruments. I have always seen a violin being strung by the bow. However, in the movie, I saw a violin being strung by only one string, creating a very screechy sound. It was just interesting to see how a movie can rely so little on dialogue yet produce a movie so rich in culture.