May 17th

I actually enjoyed the scenes we watched from Latcho Drom this week more than the previous week. This week we were exposed (at least in the first scene we watched) to more Westernized instruments in the people's performances. From what I recall, the small musical ensemble constructed in the tiny village was composed of about four or five individuals playing the violin. There was also another man playing an instrument that resemble the accordion, however I'm not fully sure it was. Furthermore, an instrument that looked a lot like the hammer dulcimer was being used by another individual. The people in this scene seem very happy and extremely joyful ; the music played reflects their emotions. The melody of the musical performance seems to be led by the violin and by the flute being played by another man in the back of the group. I'm not too sure what the texture of the piece was but if I were to make an educated guess I would believe it to be homophony or polyphony.

The second scene we witnessed was composed of a young boy and his depressed mother sitting at a railroad station. The Roma people are compacted as a group across the railroad tracks, playing music. Here, we see similarities between this group and the group we saw in the small village. As in the village, we are presented to the violin. However, in this scene, only one individual is playing the instrument. He is followed by other persons playing small, percussion instruments. I believe another person was playing a set of spoon-like instruments (two spoons attached to resemble an idiophone). We also see a concept explained by Brigita today in lecture: the young boy gives the musical group three coins for their performance and merely for cheering up his mom. Brigita explained how performers from this area would play their instruments and sing for viewers at restaurants and other public places (and would get tipped).

Later in the movie, we watched a depressing, mournful scene displaying an older woman sitting by an icy lake. She was apparently a victim of the Holocaust and was showing her emotions by singing in a low, extremely sad voice. This was my favorite scene in the movie because it displayed, by using music, the depression many people of this region went through during the early to mid 1940's. This is, in my opinion, the most powerful scene (emotionally) in the film.