Musical Styles

[Tra'nau]

I was just reading through a bunch of music-related posts, looking for some info, and a thought crossed my mind. We obviously have several legends and even canon musical works in Mando'a (Vode An, Dha Werda Verda, etc., as well as the recent Aliit Ori'shya Tal'din), very oriented around grand, often choral arrangement as well as rhythm and percussion. Something that ended up coming together in my head, though, was that the orchestral style coincides cleanly with the preexisting Star Wars general arrangement style. The question I ended up with was, what would happen if the big orchestra was filtered out? The rhythm and choral orientation seem to me like things that would come naturally to Mandalorians as nomads, seeing that they could be created easily, possibly with the additional help of beating on armor (a concept that's likely floating around in my head because of the Dha Werda), but something about the orchestra thing just doesn't sit right with the rest of it to me.

Personally, assuming that the orchestra style is something that wouldn't normally happen in Mandalorian music, I would think that the orientation would be around smaller groups and individuals (something that comes to mind is Wad'e Tay'haai's bes'bev from the Republic Commando books). Then I would start to wonder whether it would be more acoustically or electrically oriented, especially by the republic era? I see people coming up with words for string instruments in order to communicate real-world information, but would strings be a part of the general style? What other types of instruments could there be aside from the bes'bev?

Just something I was thinking about- no intention to discredit the orchestral arrangements!

[Vlet Hansen]

I feel like, to a certain extent, it's going to follow how often you move. A bes'bev is great for a soldier, it's small and low profile/weight. Maybe for a slightly more in depth home, you'd likely find easily moveable but more bulky instruments like guitars/balalaikas, and the least familiar instruments would be large setpieces like drum kits and pianos.

On electric versus acoustic, while I doubt there would be a proscription against electric, acoustic would be appreciated for its convenience and availability. You might expect all songs to work acoustically and only afterwards be applied to electronic music.

Stylistically, the community focus leads me to suspect group singing would be nigh-universal.

Of course, I'm also making this all up off the top of my head, so...

[Augest Kayd]

The composition for themes for the Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett was largely "western" inspired than really trying to find a specific type for Mandalorians, which I think means that most of the musical motifs are largely just to set the tone of the setting rather than the tone of the culture of the Mandalorians. As for the war chants, they're built specifically for war chants, meaning the drums and the chanting, so they shouldn't serve as a basis for all Mandalorian music. The feeling I get is that the Mandalorians would steer clear of any electronic instruments and instead focus on brass and percussion. Their lyrics would be a lot more, well, lyrical than just straight chanting like their war songs. I hear them switching pitches constantly. Their rhythm would be very percussive and simple but their melodies in the brass would be complicated. They wouldn't use these light-sounding pitched percussion instruments, like something similar to a xylophone, but would stick with heavier drumlike things. From here, they would branch into either a solemn and serious genre of music (similar but not as heavy and bass as the war songs) to a more excitatory and triumphant genre of music. There would be a main group of musicians but everyone joins in if they want, clanging on their armor or playing their brass instruments. They would be small and easy to carry.

This is just my imagination though.

[Augest Kayd]

Huh. Maybe some very soft folky acoustic songs.

[Tra'nau]

With regards to the electric/acoustic thing- I do agree that acoustic music would likely be more common. The thought behind the electric part was that it might be more practical for storage on a ship or something to that effect. Given the constant supply of energy, the usage of electric instruments in that context would be practical given the smaller profile. I guess I should also specify that when I say 'stringed instruments,' I mean it very generally- what I would be referencing would be something like a guitar or ukulele, not something like a violin in the actual strings family. I lean so heavily towards them because, out-of-universe, they tend to be the most compact source of rich harmony. (I also find myself neglecting percussion instruments. I think the reason for this is, because of the mental availability of the Dha Werda, I assume that the use of armor would be commonplace given its constant availability.

I find it interesting that you imagine brass instruments to be more prevalent. I would think woodwind would be more common given the apparent relative significance of the bes'bev as a commonly carried instrument. What is your thinking there?

[Augest Kayd]

Honestly, yeah, woodwind seems more likely than brass. I don't know why I focused on brass. They wouldn't have, like, triangles or xylophones. I was talking just different kinds of drums to add pitches along with their clanging armor, whether that be durasteel or Beskar. Mandalorians also seem very traditional. I feel like the usage of electric instruments (which, by the way, we've never seen once I don't think. Bands always use manual instruments.) would be seen as weird and dumb.

[Tra'nau]

I really do want to emphasize my point about situationality. One circumstance where electric instruments might be especially helpful is when volume is needed- even amplification of acoustic instruments falls under this category for me. Also, it does seem like people could just have ab individual interest. I mean, machine + music does seem like a very mandalorian hobby. Also, take Sabine Wren. She practices various art forms, including her own combination of art and demolitions. Much like Sabine’s diverse interests, electronic-incorporated music could manifest as a form of art that might be interesting or unique and whose practice is justified without the context of tradition.

[Augest Kayd]

Sabine is... special. But individual interest does not speak for cultural norms. I don't see electric music being 'the' Mandalorian style or their go-to fall back at all.

[Augest Kayd]

What kind of instruments would these songs use?

https://forum.mandoa.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=260
https://forum.mandoa.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=259

[Vlet Hansen]

The first one feels like a job for a quiet solo acoustic guitar, the second one reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIsv1YOFNys

[Tra'nau]

Sabine is... special. But individual interest does not speak for cultural norms. I don't see electric music being 'the' Mandalorian style or their go-to fall back at all.

Much of what I was trying get across was that it might be a factor in the evolution of music. Obviously, traditional forms wouldn’t include electric instruments- it doesn’t seem like something the Taung would have done/maybe even been able to do 10,000 years ago. Since the time of the Taung, though, we’ve seen Mandalorian culture come a long way, and it would make sense if that culture shift brought about changes (or, at least, offshoots) of music with it. Take Christian music- in less than the amount of time that Mandalorians have existed canonically, it went from chants and parallel fifths to Christian rock and a whole other range of styles. This is not to say that Mandalorian music would have evolved even more drastically over the longer period- we’ve seen the value of tradition with the preservation of war chants over time- but I would think that it would at least cancel out to some extent.

[Augest Kayd]

Well, Star Wars as a whole is very slow in evolution. The Taung went to Mandalore because they were forced out of Coruscant in the first place. Technology was already at a great height then, given the ability for large-scale large distance space travel. Star Wars is a place where our past and future collide in a mix of cultural norms were people still wield staves as weapons, etc. Christianity went through a lot of changes, but Mandalorian culture has only recently become pacifist and centered around Mandalore. They were warlike for 99% of their history.

[Augest Kayd]

The first one feels like a job for a quiet solo acoustic guitar, the second one reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIsv1YOFNys

Well. One's a parody and one's a Mandalorian-themed translation.

[Tra'nau]

Christianity went through a lot of changes, but Mandalorian culture has only recently become pacifist and centered around Mandalore. They were warlike for 99% of their history.

I don’t see how this discredits the idea of some form of electronic music occurring at some point, especially with the diversity of clans and other subsets throughout the galaxy

[Augest Kayd]

Most instruments seen on screen are woodwind or similar is my point.

[Augest Kayd]

John Williams really set the tone for most Star Wars music.

[Augest Kayd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQjCROr0LVY

Mando music.

[Tra'nau]

Wow, that perfectly captures my image of Mandalorian traditional music! I remember seeing something similar done with a harmonica and finding it reminiscent as well (not quite to the extent of this, though!).

[Augest Kayd]

Wow, that perfectly captures my image of Mandalorian traditional music! I remember seeing something similar done with a harmonica and finding it reminiscent as well (not quite to the extent of this, though!).

Really? I mean, I guess it might be a subgenre of Mandalorian music, but I never envisioned this to be the traditional Mandalorian music. I'll admit that I posted that as sort of a joke but I guess it could really work. It might be too... hip hop or pop or whatever though. Now we just need woodwind players beatboxing. Anyone here play?

Anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vCOIT1 ... usic-Topic