The 21st of June is designated as International Music Day or World Music Day to honor musicians and singers. The day also encourages young and inexperienced musicians to perform live in front of an audience.
World Music Day, commonly known as ‘Fête de la Musique’ is a music festival that began in France. Several free music events are organised across the world on World Music Day to support musicians.
In 1982, Maurice Fleuret, director of the French Ministry of Culture’s Department of Music and Dance, and Jack Lang, the then-French Minister of Culture, organised this extraordinary day.
On the day of the summer solstice, a celebration was held. For the special day, Lang and Fleuret devised a plan with architect-scenographer Christian Dupavillon to gather musicians on the streets of Paris.
Many traditional genres that were once on the verge of extinction have been resurrected thanks to World Music Day. It has also aided in the promotion of new musical trends and performers. The festival has a healing effect among communities, in addition to encouraging children to nurture their musical skills.
Several countries, including India, Italy, Australia, Malaysia, the United States, China, and Japan, commemorate World Music Day in big style. On this day, amateur musicians as well as well-known singers and composers perform in a variety of musical concerts. In France, free concerts and musical performances are held on Fête de la Musique.
Music in Africa; 10 Things to Know
- Music and Dance: The music and dance of the African diaspora, formed to varying degrees on African musical traditions, include American music and many Caribbean genres, such assoca, calypso and zouk.
2. Genres: Latin American music genres such as the samba, rumba, salsa and other clave (rhythm)-based genres, were also founded to varying degrees on the music of enslaved Africans, and have in turn influenced African popular music.
3. North African Music: Like the musical genres of the Nile Valley and the Horn of Africa, North African music has close ties with Middle Eastern music and utilizes similar melodic modes.
4. Musical Instruments: A wide range of musical instruments are utilized in addition to vocalisation, which employs methods such as complicated hard melisma and yodel. African musical instruments include a variety of drums, slit gongs, rattles, and double bells, as well as melodic instruments such as string instruments, several types of harps, and harp-like instruments like the Kora, and fiddles.
5. Drums: Drums used in African traditional music include talking drums, bougarabou and djembe in West Africa, water drums in Central and West Africa, and the different types of ngoma drums (engoma) Central and Southern Africa.
6. Polyrhytms: The playing of polyrhythms is one of the most universal characteristics of Sub-Saharan music, in contrast to polyphony in Western music. Several uniquely designed instruments have evolved there over time to facilitate the playing of simultaneous contrasting rhythms.
7. Relationship to Language: Many language spoken in Africa are tonal languages, leading to a close connection between music and language in some local cultures. These particular communities use vocal sounds and movements with their music as well.
8. Popular Music: African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. Many genres of popular music, including blues, jazz and rumba, derive to varying degrees from musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by enslaved Africans.
9. Afro-Euro Hybrid Style: The Afro-Euro hybrid style, the Cuban son, has had an influence on certain popular music in Africa. Some of the first guitar bands on the continent played covers of Cuban somgs.
10. Congolese Bands: The early guitar-based bands from the Congo called their music rumba (although it was son rather than rumba-based). The Congolese style eventually evolved into what became known as soukous