Anastenaria Festival
Anastenaria is a religious festival celebrated annually in certain Christian communities in Greece. It's a festival in which people run across hot coals carrying an ancient icon or tablet, to secure blessing's from a saint named Constantine. It's a ritual with Pagan origins, which explains it's relation to fire, both signified by the hot coals and the bonfire and the dancing in circles that create a typically pagan ceremony. This ceremony is controversial with certain orthodox Christians in Greece, but for those who partake in it they believe they're honoring Saint's they worship in doing so, and it will heal them of ailments and purify them giving them protection. The icon they run across the coals with was saved from a fire in a church, and those who saved it got out of the fire without injury, so the ceremony is a sort of symbolic re-enactment of this event too.
The festival is accompanied by it's own ancient folk music, which is played at the beginning of the festival and during the ritual when people cross the hot coals. It consists primarily of repetitive melody played on ancient string instruments closely replicating a Greek Lyre, and a constant pounding singular rhythm which rarely breaks into any poly-rhythmic grooves or change in pace, and this is played on large boomy drums like a primitive tympani drum, which will be so it's easy to hear the beat or rhythm and keep dancing to it, and the volume also makes it more of overwhelming sounding to highten the spiritual atmosphere. In Anastenaria the melody of the lyre stays virtually the same for the duration of the piece, or uses the same notes in repetition throughout like an indian raga would. The music and rhythm are constant so it can be danced to for long periods of time. It contrasts with Bali though, as although this is music of Indian origin, its focus is far more on providing rhythm for the dancers, and the only melodic instrument involved is bamboo flute, as the compositions centre around the rhythms.I believe from footage of Anastenaria I've seen that the key instrument is a Chelys which is a relative of a Lyre, but is bowed and gives a sort of fiddle sound. It isn't possible to draw a certain conclusion as instruments maybe bespoke, but share similarities with this instrument structurally and sound wise. Along with this and the percussion from large drums, there is singing and chanting, which would consist of spiritual or religious lyrics, possibly even paraphrasing biblical quotes given the purpose of the ceremony.
Below is a link to a field recording of an Anastenaria field recording from 1979. In the recording you can hear other noises apart from the music like Goats and engines sounds presumably from nearby motor vehicles, but the main sounds in the recording are the fiddle sound from the Lyre type instrument and bassy drum which is similar to a timpani drum in classical music. The melody of the Chelys is repetitive and rarely changes through the nine minute recording, but this is because the function of the music is to support the fire walking and create the carnival atmosphere to encourage the fire walkers, not to be the focal point of the ceremony.
Anastenaria Field Recording
The music of Anastenaria differs vastly from Bali as it's relies far less on a complex composition, and instead it's key components are repeated continuously and this maybe to create induce a sort of bliss experience and hightened emotional experience from the drone and repetition and chanting evoking this affect. Bali has many musicians in an ensemble which isn't much smaller than a western orchestra, where as the performers of Anastenaria are smaller ensembles, who provide the music to assist the chanting and fire walking proceedings rather than being the focal point. Bali is all about entertainment and has no religious connotations like Anastenaria, so this explains the differences plainly. It also differs from the Brazilian samba or carnival music is this too has no religious relation, it's just a communal celebration. The music of carnival and anastenaria shares similarities in it's heavy percussion leading the rhythm of the proceedings, but this is the only similarity between the two events, everything else is contrasting.
Bali Recital
Bali is music originating from the island of Bali, which shares similarities with music from neighboring countries and cultures as it is a province of Indonesia, and therefore shares similarities with Indonesian culture. The music of Bali known as Gamelan is a music which is native to many close countries like Indonesia and Sudan, but Balian gamelan suits its own purpose, specifically for its own cultural events. Gamelan is music performed in large orchestra's on tuned percussive instruments like xylophones, metalaphones, flutes, drums and gamelan gongs. Mostly, the instruments are metalic like the gong and metalaphone, and these are played with wooden or metal hammers depending on their octave, which is wooden hammers for low octaves and metal ones for high octaves. A wooden hammer will produce a duller hit with less attack as it isn't as dense as metal, and rounded edges will lessen this impact on a hit, but this will balance out with the sharper louder high notes as the bassier notes will have more energy, travel further and only act to reinforce the melodies so don't need to be the loudest part of the gamelan orchestra. The instruments in a Gamelan orchestra together cover 7 musical octaves, and though they're tuned they aren't tuned precisely to a musical key or to each other which creates an interesting phase sound when melodies are played simultaneously across them, and as a result are more distinctive as seperate voices than they would be if exactly tuned and the compositions sound bigger as a result, and have interesting musical imperfections from these different notes, despite the mechanical precision with which they're played by the orchestra. The compositions are structured in an apparently random arrangement of rhythms with varying rests and syncopation of notes. Some short phrases will be played the same by all sections of the orchestra, then there maybe a rest which emphasises the impact of the sound when it returns, and when there is a longer phrase it then contains more complex variations, poly-rhythms and melody changes creating incidental harmoniesd between the sections of the orchesta. Also phrases can contain the full orchestra, and then the next phrase may on have one musician playing, which provides contrast and is a call and responses technique between members of the orchestra. The gongs and drums emphasize the stabs of sound, and add weight and power to them. In Bali, there are interesting variations across the island in how instruments are made and played, indicating that in different villages they separate themselves and form their own communities doing things their own ways. Different materials create different textures, meaning the music isn't exactly the same sound from place to place, which sets it apart from carnival music and Anstenaria as these broadly adhere to the same sound.
The music of Bali can serve several purposes, as accompaniment or as the main component of a performance itself. A performance of just Bali's music will be a complex rhythmical composition, with short complex rhythmical phrases and varying rests between them creating an interesting and varied sound. Techniques like call and response between parts of the orchestra, and solos of instruments are used in recitals, adding variation and interest to the pieces. Each section of the orchestra has to be accurate with their timing, and remembering of the composition for the effect of the music to completely work, as the staccato hits need to be simultaneous from all performers to emphasize the sound of the orchestra. I've not seen any sheet music during a recital, so I therefore assume it is learned and passed on by demonstration and word of mouth, which is similar to how traditional Indian music is kept alive. Anastenaria too will use this to pass the music down. Culturally this type of performance serves only as entertainment, and has no further spiritual connotations. All the performers are dressed in a uniform and are male, which suggests there a established roles for each sex in the performance, and the uniform suggests pride in there position in the orchestra, and that they all dress the same for the visual element of the performance.
Then there are Bali performances which see the orchestra providing a typically slower musical accompniment for dancers, who become the focal point of a performance. They dress in flamboyant clothing, and portray characters in a story, in the case of the performance from the David Attenborough documentary linked below the man and woman in the dance are enacting a "man meets woman" story, but acting it as bees, so their expressive movements are supposed to give the impression of them being bees, and attributing human characteristics to the way bees act, like a form of anthropomorphism.
Finally another Bali recital that takes from both of these is a piece completely vocal ensemble piece called a Ketcha chorus, which is intended to bring on a spiritual experience with it's intense and constant chanting and frantic dancing. Many older religions sight chanting and/or mantra's as a way to evoke spiritual experiences, like Buddhism or the international society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna). This chorus is an incredibly loud and intense performance, but isn't really for spectators but for people involved, and the volume and intensity is probably what creates what a person describes as a spiritual experience.
Bali differs from Brazilian carnival music and Anstenarian music as it has many branches of sounds off it rather than just one type of music, so is more varied in sound and purpose. It's also the only one of these with a totally vocal performance, as each of the others use instrumentation, and Brazilian Carnival rarely uses vocals altogether. Below is a link to a documentary showing all the Bali recitals I referenced in this writing.
Bali Music Documentary & Recital
Brazilian Carnival
In Brazil, carnivals are one of the largest celebratory events that take place annually across the country. It's time in the year is before Ash Wednesday, which is a religious day in the Roman Catholic belief, but now a days the festivities have little relation to this. Carnivals are events where people parade through the streets, either walking or dancing, but always in colourful dress. The largest carnivals take place in the Brazilian capital of Rio De Janeiro, and are now a globally known event, that people travel there especially to witness.
Samba music is the music of the traditional carnival, and has a distinctive South American groove provided by rhythmic drumming on large drums called surds, use of metallic percussion like cowbells and agogos, and additional percussion from shakers called Ganzas and whistles also providing the carnival atmosphere. Not all regions of Brazil have the exact same procedure for their carnivals, for example in Rio the main carnival is supposed to be watched, and then smaller sections of the parade allow for public participation, where as in Northern regions everybody walks with the carnival. In the North of Brazil there are ties with Africa, as African's have migrated there over time, so Samba music has roots in African music as well as Brazil, which explains the origins of the heavy rhythm and large drums that are a staple of African drumming music. Samba has ties with flamenco guitar though also, so is a very broad genre of music, with lots of samba being composed and played in a 2/4 time signature which is half the time of 4/4, which gives it urgency and quicker melodic changes. For the amount of drums and percussion in the parade there is a conductor who leads the samba schools, giving indication to when solo and polyrhythms are, and basically ensuring the drumming doesn't turn into a big disorganised noise, and retains the rhythm. This music accompanies the parade, providing the rhythm for dancers to dance to, and sets the tempo for which the precession travels through the streets. The fusion of rhythm from African drumming, specifically Batuque which is in Cape Verde (an island of the Western coast of Africa) and existing Brazilian music using classical guitars, some smaller percussion and shakers, gives it a multicultural appeal and mixed heritage, making it an event for everyone including Brazilians.
Like Anastenaria, Carnival has it's roots in old pagan religious ceremony, and also shares similarities in the heavy rhythm for the participants of the event to move to, but apart from that there are very few similarities, as the slight religious tie in Carnival is now virtually removed from the event. Similarities can be found between Carnival and Bali in the appearance of the participants. As both events are a form of entertainment, the performers in both wear very colourful clothes to show the importance of the event, and make for a more interesting show. Another similarity would be that whole communities watch or take part in both events, making them a communal relationship builder.
A side from this there aren't many more similarities, and the largest difference is the scale of Carnival compare to the other two events, because of the size of Brazil and it's vast population. Bali is a small island, and although it's music is practiced across it, it's nothing like the scale of Brazil's carnival, and also Anatenaria is frowned upon by some sections of Christianity in Greece making that quite a small event as well, so Carnival is by far the biggest event. Also, carnival is the only one of the three to have spread from its native home and be adopted by events around the world. This is probable due to it's celebratory vibe, and removal from any exclusive religious background needed to take part, making it a format that many people can enjoy and feel a part of.
