Hungarian Gypsy Music and Django Reinhardt By: Kiersten Kolstad

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Hungarian Gypsy Music and Django Reinhardt By
Kiersten Kolstad
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Hungarian Demographics
35,919 square miles

• Location Eastern Europe
• Population 10,031,000 (2009)
• Ethnicities 94 Hungarian, 2 Roma/Gypsy, 2
  German, 4 other.
• Religion 54 Catholic, 15 Protestant, 1
  Jewish, and about 30 are atheist.

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Roma and Gypsy People

• The term "Gypsy" means anyone leading a nomadic
  life, but it usually refers to the Roma who are a
  traditionally nomadic people found throughout the
  world.
• The Roma share a common heritage that sets them
  apart as an ethnic group.
• Originally left from India as early as the 11th
  century.
• The Roma were persecuted throughout Europe in
  15th century, especially in Hungary where they
  were forced into slavery.
• The various Romani tribes are divided into clans.
• Many Roma work as musicians and entertainers, and
  have had a strong influence in music. Musical
  tradition are still flourishing in Eastern Europe.

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Gypsy Music

• Primary instrument is the violin (which they put
  the most emphasis on), also fiddles, a bass, a
  cimbalom, accordions, and can contain vocals.
• string instruments incorporate prominent
  glissandos between notes and chromatic notes.
• Most commonly heard in small groups of 4-6 people
  playing in restaurants and on the streets.
• The scale that is used is the Hungarian Gypsy
  scale. It has an exotic sound and can be made by
  raising the 4th degree of a harmonic minor scale
  to introduce a gap or augmented second.

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Gypsy Music cont.

• One instrument is primary focus at a time.
• Hungarian melodies are usually played in a strict
  succession first the slow movements, the medium
  tempo palotas and then the fast czardas or
  the faster friss czardas
• Preference for diminished chords.

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Primary Instruments
- Cimbalom and bass create the harmony -
Cimbalom-player beats the rhythm with small
hammers that shape the harmonies
- In Gypsy music a traditional violin is used
but Gypsy musicians usually chose violins with a
dark tonal-quality from which they can create a
unique sound
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• Djula Tony - Friss Chardas Hungarian Gypsy Music

http//www.youtube.com/watch?vyPga4KzrVfg
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Django Reinhardt

• Was born as Jean Reinhardt on January 23, 1910 in
  Belgium.
• Reinhardt's nickname "Django" is Romani for "I
  awake.
• As a child he spent most of his youth in Romani
  encampments close to Paris.
• Played Banjo, Guitar, and Violin from an early
  age.
• At the age of 18, Reinhardt was injured in a fire
  and had badly injured his third and fourth finger
  of his left hand. Therefore he could only play
  with his pointer and index finger, and only used
  his other two fingers for chords.
• In 1934, Reinhardt and violinist Stephan
  Grappelli formed the Quintette du Hot Club de
  France
• Reinhardt went to America and played and recorded
  with many American jazz musicians including Louis
  Armstrong.
• Still continued to compose music and wrote one of
  his most prominent pieces Djangology until his
  death on May 16, 1953 at age 43.

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Quintette du Hot Club de France

• Quintette du Hot Club de France was a Jazz group
  founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django
  Reinhardt and violinist Stephan Grapelli.
• The group evolved from a series of backstage jams
  led by Django Reinhardt, with Stephane Grappelli,
  then bassist Louis Vola, and rhythm guitarists
  Roger Chaput and Joseph Reinhardt.
• the quintet created and popularized popularized
  the Gypsy Jazz style.
• When WWII broke out the band was on tour in the
  UK, Django returned to France while Grapelli
  stayed in the UK.
• Django continued using the Quintette name with a
  different group.
• This version of the Quintette did not issue many
  recordings, although they did issue the
  composition Nuages, later to become a jazz
  standard.

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Minor Swing
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Instruments

• One lead guitar
• Two rhythm guitars
• Bass fiddle
• Violin

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Djangos Guitar style and Gypsy Jazz

• Arpeggios Django used a lot of arpeggios in his
  solos
• Chromatism Chromatic notes are an important
  aspect of the gypsy sound and are used in many of
  his songs including Nuages, Honeysuckle Rose,
  Jattendrai and Minor Swing.
• Glissando a slide that results in a rapid series
  of ascending or descending notes.
• String Bends
• The diminished sound
• Hungarian Gypsy Scale
• And in Gypsy Jazz
• The lead guitar (and violin) are played in a
  chromatic style with a heavy swing feel
• The drum is replaced by 2 rhythm guitars that are
  played using a specific technique called La
  Pompe". Its a kind of strumming is done by
  playing a fast up-down strum followed by a down
  strum.

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Nuages
Excerpt from one of his songs called Nuages
played in the Hungarian gypsy scale
1  2  b3  4  5  b6  7
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Comparison
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Works Cited

• http//worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/view/page
  .basic/genre/content.genre/roma__gypsy__music_778/
  en_US
• http//nigeldickinson.com/albums/gypsymusicdancebe
  ars/gypsy_music_dance01.jpg
• http//g.sheetmusicplus.com/Look-Inside/large/3150
  401_01.jpg
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_HungaryFolk
  _music
• http//www.budapesthotels.com/touristguide/Music.a
  sp
• http//www.answers.com/topic/django-reinhardt
• http//img1.photographersdirect.com/img/16876/wm/p
  d1796113.jpg
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v-iJ7bs4mTUYfeature
  related
• http//images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/t
  argets/images/pho/t166/T166655A.jpg
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_music
• http//www.earth-photography.com/Countries/Hungary
  /Hungary_Budapest_Aerial0.html
• http//www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/oldworld/euro
  pe/gypsy.html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Hunga
  ry
•  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_style
• http//www.jazzguitar.be/django_reinhardt.html
• http//www.dicts.info/img/ud/double_bass.jpg