Basic Framework Flashcards
India
2 Principle Styles
1. Hindustani (North) - originally court music
sitar, sarod, tabla, tanpura
2. Carnatic (South) - often devotional
veena, mridangam, tempura, shruti box
Basic Texture
* Melody
sitar, sarod, veena (plucked lutes)
* Percussion
tabla, mridangam
* Drone
tanpura & tempura (plucked chordophones), shruti box
Vocab
* rāga - musical architecture used as the basis for improvisation in India
* swara (note) - ambiguity between transition of notes
* gamaka (ornamentation) - gliding between a variation of pitches of a note
* tāla (time cycle, or meters) - determines rhythms in performance
Indonesia
5 Styles
1. Javanese Gamelan
2 Tunings - Sléndro (equidistant 5-toned scales) & Pélog (7 available pitches that create 5-toned gapped scales)
2. Balinese Gamelan
kotekan - fast, interlocking rhythms
kebyar (dazzle) - pairs tuned slightly apart to produce shimmering sound
3. Wayang (play)
wayang kulit - shadow puppet plays derived from Hindu epics in India
kulit - leather sock puppet
4. Kecak (Balinese monkey chant)
5. Dangdut (Indonesian pop style)
China
- Jiangnan Sizhu (Chinese Silk & Bamboo Ensemble) - smaller ensemble; heterophonic texture; tempo tends to increase throughout piece
- Jingu - Beijing (Peking) Opera - elaborate costumes, but simple stage and scenery; characters organized by subtype
- “New” Traditional - western pop with traditional instruments; commercialized; highly proficient all women groups
Japan
Gagaku - associated with old Imperial court; heterogenous ensembles
Taiko Drumming Ensemble - 20th century develpment; casual seting; neighbords gather and play drums
2 styles of Japanese Theatre
Nō - 14th century - for the elite samurai
Kabuki - 18th century - more popular audience
4 Style Traits
1. pentatonic scales (include half steps)
2. flowing ongoingness (slow pulse; nonmetric)
3. ma (sense of space or emptiness)
4. classic solo repertoires (pieces handed down across generations)
Turkey
maqām - tonal mode in Turkish & Arab music; not just a scale, but also a set of emphasized pitches and melodic figures; uses microtones
usul - Turkish rhythmic modes; additive; asymmetric (düm tek)
2 Styles
1. Fasil (suite) - series of short pieces which belong together in a greater whole; listened to at parties and nightclubs
3. Arabesk - urban popular style; Egyptian influence
Arab World
maqām - tonal mode in Turkish & Arab music; not just a scale, but also a set of emphasized pitches and melodic figures; uses microtones
taksim - improvised solo musical performance; introduces the maqām before entry of the Takht Ensemble
tarab - state of ecstasy or enchantment with music
3 Styles
1. Azān - Muslim call to prayer; not considered music, but musical; repetitions; melisma (one syllable stretched over many notes)
2. Zaffa - wedding march; mizmar - double-reed aerophone in processions
3. Takht Ensemble - small instrument ensemble
Spain
fado - Portugese; dramatic, almost sobbing way of singing about melancholic events and feelings
3 Regions
1. Andalucía (home of flamenco)
flamenco - arose from Roma in Spain
cante jondo - deep song
duende - authentic soul
ayeo - improvised vocals
hemiola - ambiguous rhyhtm that encopass either 2 or 3 beats
tempo rubato - fluctuating speed
2. Aragón - associated with Jota Antigua (dance in a fast triple meter)
3. Galicia - associated with gaita galega (Galician bagpipe)
Ireland
- Sean-nós (in the old way) - unaccompanied Irish-language singing; melasmatic
- Ballad - narrative song that tells a story; English-langugae singing
- Jigs, Reels, & Hornpipes - instrumental dance tunes
- Lilting - singing an instrumental melody using only vocables
Bulgaria
- Bulgarian Vocal Ensembles - all women; close harmonies; no vibrato
- Obrabotki (reworked and improved) - songs developed for new “national” Bulgarian music that is not tied to any one reason
- Balkan Beat Box - created in NYC; close harmonies, but meter is easier to dance to
West Africa
3 African Musics
1. Mande Griots - musical storytellers; primary culture bearers; hereditary; kora - harp-lute with gourd resonator
2. Ghanian Drumming - popular in large metro areas; bells set tempo for membranophones
3. Nigerian Jùjú - urban popular Nigerian style; guitar-based
4 Style Traits
1. polyrhythmic
2. call-and-response
3. ostinato (repeating patterns)
4. timbre (background shimmer)
South Africa & Other African Religions
mbria - Zimbabwe; plucked idiophone
* Marabi - zuzu township dance genre associated with shebeen (speakeasy - illegal drinking establishments); repetitive; piano and percussion
* Mbaqanga - township jive; hybrid of styles; electrification of instruments; simple chord structure for dancing
* Isicathamiya - secular zulu choral music; acapella groups with elegant choreography; played in halls, ballrooms, and hostels in big cities
* BAaka (forest people) - heterophonic and polyphonic singing
Brazil
4 Types of Music
1. Capoeira - dance, music, and sport used by slaves for discrete physical training for uprising; berimbau - bowed chordophone
2. Samba - dance and dance music that originated from poor hillside neighborhoods in Rio
3. Bossa Nova (new trend) - reconfiguration of sambra rhythms; influenced by North American cool jazz sound; performed in nightclubs
4. Forró - party music in NE Brazil; sanfona (accordion), triangle, and zabumba (bass drum)
The Andes
- Son - sound or style in Cuban music
Conjunto - changes in son - Urban Son Structure
Tema - European elements - harmony, homophonic texture, guitars
Montuno - African elements - cycles, call-and-response, rhythmic layers - Instruments, Genres, & Dances
New York Salsa - transnational blending of styles from the Carribean
Merengue (Dominican) - Carribean musical style and dance; fusion of European and African styles; accordion
Bomba (Puerto Rican) - Carribean musical style and dance; characterized by hand drumming
Mexico & The Texas Borderlands
Native North America
3 Style Traits
1. monophonic singing to percussion accompaniment
2. vocables
3. repetition of short phrases
Other Vocab
* powwow - intertribal event where American Indians celebrate culture through song and dance
* push-ups - iterations of song
* honor beats - more prominent drum beats
