Category Archives: Musical

Nigerian Masquerades

Nationality: Nigerian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: He's from Minnesota but he's going to school here in LA. His parents are from Nigeria but he was born here.
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English

Description: “In Nigeria a masquerade is basically, so here we have masquerades but they’re lie people in suits to represent what the masquerade looks like. And So like there’s these spirits that embody this certain emotion or spiritual energy or whatever. When you look at the mask it’ll be a mask and a bunch of colored rafia and like pieces of wooden jewelry. Depending on the different mask they may carry a fan or a machete or something. But like in Nigeria all of your parents would tell us stories about masquerades but that were like legitimate spirits not like a dude in a suit but people who would be around the masquerade when it was coming through villages dancing were people who believe in the masquerade’s power like and culturally you could not get close to a masquerade you’re not allowed to but nobody really wants to unless you’re like following the masquerade. Cause that’s some scary shit. My mom told me about this one that she saw when she was a little girl. First of all, you’re only supposed to watch from a distance like you can’t get close or anything like that unless you’re like a man who’s authorized to be next to the masquerade or something like that. I wouldn’t say it’s like a priest. It’s just like men dancing and chanting. It’s just a patron of that spiritual culture. Somebody who’s like apart of it. But you have to be a man and you have to be old enough. You can’t just be like a teen boy or a woman. And so what she was telling me about this one and all these men were dancing around the masquerade you know like shouting and dancing or whatever. And the masquerade was like, it looked like it was a person under a white sheet. Just walking and dancing along, Doing these weird like movements. And then instantaneously it would fall flat like a sheet. And then continue moving. And then reform. And then fall flat. And this is the thing like this is rural Nigeria like it’s like a rural town in America so just like low tech. They don’t have the technology of special effects to make this construct like inflate and deflate. Exactly they just can’t do that. So, like the fact of the matter is – well I can’t even say fact because I haven’t seen it but it’s something that our parents do not mess around with. It’s like a serious thing. So when she saw this thing it like blew her mind because like oh my god this is real. You know? And like that’s Masquerades.  They’re not all like they’ll be one form and then they’ll lose form the next . Some are just like beast or whatever. But always there’s like a chant or a dance that’s like associated with each masquerade.”

2. This piece was very personal to my friend. He’s spoken several times about how his mom doesn’t joke around with this stuff. He said that his family talks about festivals like these all the time. That’s how he found out about it.

3. I went into his dorm room and asked him to tell me some Nigerian folklore. He got really excited and then told me this one. His eyes got really big and he started talking fast.

4. There’s so much content to digest with this one. First of all, he has the first hand account of his mother that’s really fascinating. Not only does he have a cultural idea that he can take with him everywhere he goes, but he has a first hand account from one of the  most trusted people in his life to believe in. This post give great insight into the Nigerian value and fear of spirits as well. They consider it a great honor to be able

Oom, Plucky, Plucky

Nationality: Irish-American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Performance Date: 3/3/16
Primary Language: English
Language: French

MS used to go to summer camp every year. Her camps had many interesting traditions and funny pieces of folklore that she often brings back and performs for me. Her favorite pieces are the songs, of which there are many. Here is one:

She sat on a hillside and strummed her guitar
strummed her guitar, strummed her guitar
She sat on a hillside and strummed her guitar
strummed her gui-ta-a-a-ar

Oom, plucky, plucky, oom, plucky, plucky, oom, pluck, pluck, pluck, ZING!
Oom, plucky, plucky, oom, plucky, plucky, oom, pluck, pluck, pluck, ZING!

He sat down beside her and smoked his cigar
He said that he loved her but, oh! How he lied
They were to be married but somehow she died
He went to her funeral but just for the ride

He went to her grave site and laughed ’til he cried
The grave stone fell over and squish-squash he died
She went up to heaven and flittered and flied
He went down below and sizzled and fried
The moral of this song is: never tell lies

M explains the song as being a “harsh lesson about love.” She elaborates, “But really it was just some fun thing we all sang around the campfire.” I commented on the graphicness of piece. M response was, “That’s what I love about it. We didn’t screw around at my camp. Everyone thinks girls’ summer camp is like pretty princesses and stuff, but no, we were intense and gross. We sang about death.” She laughs.

Every time she performs this song for me she has a lot of enthusiasm. There are very specific hand gestures that accompany the song as well. M explains how nothing is written down for the song. Each year the older girls pass all the traditions, songs, and stories down to the younger kids by singing the songs together.

The song tells an entertaining story. The contents of the story, as well as the melody, aid in memorizing the lyrics. In this sense, a folk song is really just a folk tale. There are similar elements and tools that aid in performance. For example, each line is repeated many times (it doesn’t show this in all of the lyrics above for brevity’s sake).

Furthermore, one can see how this song in particular would be popular for a girls’ camp. The story is about a man getting his come-uppance for lying to the girl about being in love. She goes to Heaven, but he goes down to Hell. The song is empowering to women. It doesn’t condemn the girl for whimsically falling in love. In fact she still goes to Heaven. The man, however, burns for lying about love. That is the sin. The last line even reinforces this with “The moral of this song is: never tell lies.”

 

A published version of this song, along with many other classic camp songs, can be found in Jack Horntip’s Camp Meriwether Camp Song Book.

Barges

Nationality: Irish-American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Performance Date: 3/3/16
Primary Language: English
Language: French

MS used to go to summer camp every year. Her camps had many interesting traditions and funny pieces of folklore that she often brings back and performs for me. Her favorite pieces are the songs, of which there are many. Here is one:

Barges, I would like to go with you
I would like to sail the ocean blue
Barges, have you treasures in your hold
Do you fight with pirates brave and bold?

Out of my window, looking in the night
I can see the barges flickering light
Starboard’s glowing green and port is glowing red
I can see the barges from my bed

Barges, I would like to go with you
I would like to sail the ocean blue
Barges, have you treasures in your hold
Do you fight with pirates brave and bold?

How my heart longs to sail away with you
As you sail across the ocean blue
But I must sit beside my window clear
As the barges sail away from here

Barges, I would like to go with you
I would like to sail the ocean blue
Barges, have you treasures in your hold
Do you fight with pirates brave and bold?

Out of my window looking in the night
I can see the barges flickering light
Taking their cargo out into the sea
How I wish that someday they’d take me

 

M describes this song as one of longing. “It’s actually much more depressing than most of the other songs we sing,” she elaborates. Most of the camp songs are silly and lighthearted, but this one touches on serious themes of growing up and flying free. She says that the girls would be very moved whenever they sang this song. It seems to me that it is a song that allowed the girls to reflect. M describes camp as wild, hectic, and sometimes overwhelming. But, as she says, “The whole camp was at peace when we sang this.”

M explains how nothing is written down for the song. Each year the older girls pass all the traditions, songs, and stories down to the younger kids by singing the songs together. Music is an excellent way to pass on folklore because the contents of the story, as well as the melody, aid in memorizing the lyrics. In this sense, a folk song is really just a folk tale. There are similar elements and tools that aid in performance. For example, there are phrases that are repeated throughout.

 

A published version of this song, along with many other classic camp songs, can be found in Jack Horntip’s Camp Meriwether Camp Song Book.

Nigerian Udara Song

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Georgia/Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/23/16
Primary Language: English

This is a recording of my informant’s mom singing a Nigerian folk song about the Udara, a fruit common in Nigeria. Her mom would sing it to her often when she was younger. The story behind it contains the classic evil stepmother and a magical element. The translation is as follows:

My udara, produce fruits

produce fruits, produce fruits, produce fruits

produce fruits for the motherless

produce fruits for the fatherless

My father’s wife bought Udara from the market

Ate all with her children

Gave none to the motherless

gave none to the fatherless

This life is vain

one is born

one is gone

It is from a story about a boy whose mother dies and is left with a stepmother that buys fruits for her children but not for him. He finds an udara tree and begins singing to it, and it produces fruit for him. The stepmother sees this, so when he is gone one day they come and try to sing to the tree and get its fruit. He catches them, and sings to the tree that it carries the one of the children up far away. The stepmother and other children apologize and agree to treat him well in the future, so he sings again and the  tree brings the other kid back down. They never treated him bad again.

 

For the published version of this story and a longer version of the song, see:

Ebegbulem, Celestine. African Stories by Moonlight. S.l.: Authorhouse, 2014. Print.

Chaldean Ululation

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego CA
Performance Date: March 22 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

Title: Chaldean Ululation

Ethnicity: Chaldean

Age: 21

Situation (Location, ambience, gathering of people?): The interviewee and I are sitting in a coffee shop in San Diego, taking a break from our daily activities to have some coffee midday and talk about some of his and his families traditions.

Piece of Folklore:

Interviewee- “So within my family, and really most Chaldean families, we have this practice of, I think it’s called ululation in English, not sure about that. And so what we do is we make this high pitched noise, and then we use our tongues to make it stutter, and it sounds really cool.”

Interviewer- “When do you make that sound?”

Interviewee- “Special occasions mostly. We don’t go around doing it at Wal-Marts and stuff! I think that would seriously throw most people off and probably even scare some other people. It can get really loud. So once example is we always do them at weddings. Always. And it is usually the women that do it, and they love doing it, especially if they have been drinking a bit. They go, and they get the wife, and they go off and do the thing, and everyone cheers them on. Really it’s more of letting emotion and happiness out, it’s something that we use to show that we are really emotional about something.”

Analyzation:

This practice is unique to Middle Eastern countries and peoples, and it is something that has carried on into the United States when those families immigrated here. This cultural practice has not ceased, and if anything, has grown even more predominant in these families because it reminds them who they are, where they are from, and how they should live their lives, according to their culture.

Tags: Chaldean, Ululation, Ceremony