ARTSEDGE: The Kitchen Sink

Along the Texas-Mexican border in the 19th century, Mexicans, Native Americans, and Anglo-Americans living in the region intermingled with European immigrants looking for new opportunities. The clash and fusion of multiple languages and traditions resulted in a distinct "Tejano" culture."

Tejano music is influenced by Mexican storytelling ballads called corridos, accordion-based polkas of norteño music, Anglo-American fiddle music, mariachi bands, Colombian cumbia, and the lively brass section of small, local bands called orquestas—not to mention salsa, rock, jazz, blues, funk, and country.

Border music also owes its sound to German immigrants who filled dance halls with waltzes, polkas, and the distinctive tones of the accordion. Narciso Martínez was one of the first and most influential accordion players in the border region due to his virtuosic, fast-paced playing. When he brought together the accordion with the bajo sexto (12-string bass guitar) in the 1930s, conjunto music was born.

National Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Emil de Cou leads an expedition to the Kennedy Center’s grand Concert Hall. From the plaza outside and through the Hall of Nations, you’ll get a "private" tour to see where the musicians of the NSO go to work (and learn about what makes the Concert Hall a special place to hear music.)

Despite China’s long musical history, Chinese orchestras are relatively new. The push for developing a distinctly Chinese performing arts repertoire came with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In the years after, Chinese orchestras mirroring the operational style of Western orchestras, such as having a baton-waving conductor and divisions of instrument families, began to form.

Chinese orchestras initially focused on indigenous folk music, but in the last twenty years, they have developed and performed new works, and their four sections-- bowed-strings, plucked-strings, wind and percussion—have been augmented with new instruments with lower pitch ranges to balance the high pitches of the more traditional instruments. Join scholar Joanna Lee as she guides classroom audiences through the sounds and structures of the traditional Chinese orchestra.

Living in a remote, mountainous region of China’s “Land of Clouds” has buffered the Yunnan people from the outside influences of non-native cultures for centuries. With a wide range of voice techniques and instruments as unusual and diverse as the tree leaf, the moon guitar and the spirit drum, the musicians of the minority ethnic groups of the Yunnan province now perform their traditional songs and dances before world audiences, sharing their native arts and way of life.

In this first of a series on Chinese music designed for use in the K-12 classroom, Professor Lan Lan Wang discusses the art and culture of the Yunnan people and the pressures of globalization that threaten their ancient cultural expressions.