Selection: Mare de la Meua Mare
Recorded: Valencia, Spain, August 1952
Performers: Salvador Armengol Echrihuela and Antonio Escriihuela
Activity #1: Rhythm in Triple Meter
1. Listen to the first minute of the recording and find the strong and weak.
Have the students step on each strong beat to determine that the piece is in 3 meter.
2. Discuss the instruments that can be heard.
Q: What instrument is playing the underlying rhythm?
A: Castanets
Q: What other instruments are playing?
A: Guitar. Note that there is also another lute instrument called a banurria that plays the opening of the track.
3. Ask the students to describe the vocal line of the song (high tenor voice; melismatic.
4. Have students compose various rhythmic patterns in triple meter such as:
(3 sets of two eighth-notes) (3 quarter notes) (1-eighth/2-sixteenths, 2 sets of two eighth-notes) (1 quarter, 2 sets of two eighth-notes)
5. Distribute un-pitched percussion instruments to four students. Have the rest of the students stand in a circle. Play the recording again. Have the students in the circle step to the left on the downbeat (strong beat) of each group of threes while the percussionists perform the rhythm patterns they composed.
Cultural Link:
Spain: Aragon and Valencia
Designed by Rita Klinger and Anton Coleman