Final Exam Flashcards
Bei Bei He
Zheng player
Pipa
Pear shaped, short necked, four string lite played with fingers
Reminiscent of oud, likely of Persian or Turkish origi
Virtuosic performance tradition, active playing style, microtonal manipulation of pitch through bending strings
Zheng
Board zither chordophone
Strings originally made from silk, body from bamboo
Accompanied singing, performed at imperial banquets, played at rural weddings, accompanied by religious rituals
Played seated
Plucked with thumb, index finder and middle finger of right hand
Left hand used primarily for coloristic techniques
Modern two handed plucking techniques, influence of piano music
Eight model works
Gang of Four banned all traditional Beijing opera, except for the “Eight Model Works”, 6 operas and 2 ballets
Gang of Four
A political faction composed of four Chinese communist party officials
Cultural revolution
1966-76
Overseen by Mao’s wife and the Gang of Four
Aimed to rid Chinese culture of anything “alien to the spirit of socialism”
People who resisted were sent to work camps, tortured, or executed
All books, works of visual art, music, movies, and plays were outlawed, except for a few that had been approved by the Gang of Four
Maoism
Mao Tse-Tung Chinese communist revolutionary and the found of the single party-stare peoples republic of China (1949-76)
Great Leap Forward in 1957 to transform chinas economy from an agrarian to an industrial one. Led to widespread famine in which 18-45 million people died
Cultural Revolution in 1966 which aimed to preserve “true” communist ideology by purging capitalist and traditionalist elements from Chinese society
Pervasive cult of personality around the “Great Leader”
Peasants are the primary revolutionary class
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun
Taoism
Dao/Tao translates to “Way”
Foundational work if daoism attributed to Lao-Tzu, dao depicts what is deemed the right or proper way in an ethical or political context
Toward the end of the Han period, daoism as an organized religion arrived in China
To follow Tao is to recognize the inner harmony and balance in all living things. This belief is often represented in the yin (female) yang (male) symbol. Finding harmony and simplicity in all things
Maqamat
A technique of improvisation that defines the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece in Arabic classical music
Buddhism
Religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, who was from what is now Nepal and Norther India
Came to be called the Buddha, which means awakened one, after he experienced a profound realization of the nature of life, death and existence
Non-theistic - the Buddha taught that believing in gods was not useful for those seeking to realize enlightenment
Focus is on practice rather than belief; meditation, mindful action, ritual, attending to the present moment
Association of music with earl the desires led early Buddhists to forbid musical practice, and even observation of musical performances for monks and nuns
Modern Buddhism, paradises are represented as profoundly musical places in which Buddhist law takes the form of gorgeous melodies
Repressed in china (especially Tibet) to further the aims of the communist party
Confucius
5th century BCE Chinese thinker whose influence upon East Asian intellectual and social history is immeasurable
Sought to apply ancient traditions to the problems of his day
His teachings focus on maintaining harmony and order in human society, art plays a significant role in his thinking
Key teachings
•Tao - a moral order that pervades the universe
•Jen - benevolence; doing ones best to treat others as one would wish to be treated
•Li - “sacred ritual” or “propriety - acting appropriately for ones role in society
•Te - the power of example; leaders should lead primarily by example not force
•Wen - the cultural arts (music, poetry, drama) help to maintain unity in society
Beijing/Peking opera
Dramatic stories performed by costumes performers who combines heightened speech, song, dance, mime, acting, and acrobats
Upper class, urban music
Stories celebrated Confucian ideals like devotion to family, female chastity, subservience to authority
Costumes denote character types and subtypes
Minimal onstage props to keep the audience focused on the actors
Performed by itinerant troupes who require easily portable equipment
Performance venues were often small: hostels, tea houses, outdoor stages. No space or infrastructure for elaborate staging
Tan Dun
“New Wave” movement: interesting Chinese, western, and other musical elements
Studied western classical music in New York
Composed soundtrack for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Whirling Dervish
Sacred dance ceremony in which the dervish rotates into trance state
Music consists of long, complex compositions called ayin, both preceded and followed by songs using lyrics from the founder and poet Jelaleddin Rumi
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Most famous qawwal
Part of 6 centuries old family tradition
Collaborations with western musicians brought Qawwali music to a western audience
Controversial for bringing sacred music to a secular audience, and mixing sacred sounds with secular sounds
Recorded over 125 albums
Classical music (Indian)
Called Karnatak music in south India
Rigorous education/training system
Largely devotional
Most repertoire addresses to Hindi deities
Also songs about love and social issues
Filmi
Indian popular music as written and performed for Indian cinema
Bollywood
Name for Mumbai based film industry
Hindi cinema
1000 films a year
Mostly musicals; success of film depends on how good the music is
Qawwali
Style of Islamic sacred singing developed by Sufis in India 14th century
Today popular in north India and Pakistan
Performed by musical groups of about 9 men called a “party”
Based on Indian ragas
Use of improvisation of melodies with text or tarana
Bellydance
Westerners misinterpret movements as erotic/sexualized spectacle rather than skilled folk-art
Main point of movement is hips
Social dance - done by ordinary people in regular clothes at celebrations and social gatherings
Performance art - highly trained dancers, special costumes and use of space
Compositions with improvisational elements for drummers and dancer
Sufism
Islamic mystical sect
Believe in connecting to Allah through heightened ecstatic stares, which include music and dance
Kriti
A multi-section form of musical composition typical to Karnatak music
Iq’a and wazn
Rhythmic cycles
Long, cyclical patterns used to structure time
Alapana
An opening improvisation in free rhythm
Quartertone
Also called microtone
Note “between” the notes of the traditional western scale
Ravi Shankar
Virtuosic sitarist and composer
Most famous Indian musician outside of India
Introduced Indian music to western audience
Studied for 7 years with legendary guru Allaudin Khan
Classical musician open to experimentation - fusion artist
Maintained that his music was a spiritual practice; disliked that hippies saw it as part of the drug experience
Taught George Harrison from the Beatles how to play the sitar
Maqam
Melody
Arabic system of pitches and tunings
Tabla
Drum pair: low and high pitched drums, played with the hands
Accompanying dole to sitar and vocal music
Elaborate theory of rhythm
Virtuosity improvisations in dialogue with melodic instruments
Jhala
Fast improv of tala
Jor
Improv in slow steady pulse
Alap
Exploration of raga in free rhythm
Sitar
Primary melodic instrument in norther Indian music
Fretted neck, strings can be bent by pushing down on them
18-21 strings: 7 played strings, the rest are sympathetic strings (give distinct drone sound)
Played with a pick on the right hand
Elaborate theory of melodic development
Virtuosic improv
John Cage
American composer and inventor
Inspired by McPhee to go to Indonesia to hear Balinese music
Invented the prepared piano, intended to emulate the sounds of the gamelan
Colin McPhee
Canadian ethnomusicologist and composer
First western composer to travel to Bali to study and document the music - lives there for 4 years
Transcribed gamelan music as best he could into western notation
Composed Balinese inspired music on western instruments
Tala/talam
Rhythm in Indian music
Tala = North Talam = South
Claude Debussy
International French composer, heard Javanese gamelan first hand at the Paris world fair
Gamelan had profound impact on his musical thinking, developed a unique and immediately recognizable style
Raga/Ragam
Melody in Indian music
Raga = North Ragam = South
Kecak
“Monkey Chant”
A “voice orchestra”
Dance-drama invented in 1920s to entertain tourists
Based on an episode from Ramayana and derived from Balinese trance rituals called Sanghyang
Tanpura
Long-necked plucked drone lure
Plays drone in the key of the raga
Used in both and South Indian music
Traditionally has 4 strings that crest the interval of a fifth
Played seated, in the back of an ensemble
Often replaced by shruti box, and electronic drone generator
Balinese gamelan
Known as Gamelan Gong Kebyar
Developed in 1920s
Primarily tuned metallophones, orchestras have about 25 players
Identifying features - sharp constraints and fast changes in: Dynamics Tempo Orchestration Rhythm
Virtuosic playing, lots of rehearsals, memorizations of complex, pre-composed pieces
Sometimes accompanied solo dance
Hinduism
Oldest major world religion
3rd largest religion
Diverse array of belief systems, practices, and scriptures
Belief in reincarnation and karma
Belief in many gods, but see them as expressions of one god (Brahman)
Music is essential to worship, arouses the senses and creates spiritual vibrations that enhance devotion
Repetition and chanting help connect devotees to humankind and to their spirituality
Wayang kulit
“Shadow puppet” theatre
Indonesia’s highest art - brings together music and drama
Dhakang = puppeteer
Gamelan accompaniment playing in slendro mode
Loud style of playing
Topics: Hindu epics and love stories
Performances can be 8+ hours
Recognized by UNECSO as a “masterpiece of oral and intangible history”
Karnatak/Carnatic
South Indian music, local and regional
Loud playing style (gamelan)
Soran
Associated with outdoor festivals
Instrumental, lots of drums
No vocals, suling, rebab or celempung
Hindustani
North Indian music
Soft playing style (gamelan)
Indoor ceremonies
Fewer drums
Vocals, suling, rebab, or celempung
Can sing a variety of lyrics to a given melody; a variety of melodies for a given set of lyrics
Musical layers (gamelan)
Punctuation: slow moving part, played by large gongs
Nuclear melody: played by high pitched tuned metallophones
Melodic elaboration: mid range metallophones and chordophones
Counter melody: played by human voice, string instruments or flutes
Rhythm: played by drums
Lancaran
Cycle of 16 bears following a specific order
Pathet
Mode
Based upon three interlocking factors
- Melodic pattern, formula, or contour
- The pitch level of that pattern
- The position of the pattern within the formal structure of a piece
Colotomic
Specific instruments playing certain time intervals and rhythmic patterns
Gongan
A musical phrase/beat cycle, subdivided into smaller rhythm is units (8. 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 beat cycles)
Microtones
More than 8 notes in an octave, notes “between” the notes (in comparison to western ideas of 8 notes in an octave)
Common in Javanese music
Latin pop
Musicians from Cuba, Puerto rico, and panama dude rumba and mambo with black American popular music
Create a style called bugalu or Latin/Salsa music; music for dancing
Music driven by percussion and repeating patterns in piano and bass called “vamps”
Combined Mexican mariachi music with Spanish music conventions and American pop harmonies
Gamelan
Often translated as orchestra and applies to the style as well
Can refer to a wide variety of ensembles, typically featuring metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs
Found in almost every community, with significant pride taken in skill of local musicians
Instruments of a gamelan have been carefully built and tuned to be played together, and their tuning may differ from that of other gamelan by quite a bit
Because Islam officially disapproves of music, Javanese gamelan practices are less likely to be associated with religion
Bossa Nova
Translates to “new flair”
Musical style out of Rio in late 1950s
Softer more subtle, slowed down samba rhythms
Harmonically sophisticates with complex song forms
Less percussive, focus on guitar, piano and voice
Jazz instrumentation - piano, guitar, drumset, bass
Tropicalia
Began in 1960s
Form of Música Popular Brasileira (Brazilian pop music)
Cultural and physical resistance movement
Influence of American rock music, the beatlesX avant garde art, mixed with local music styles
“Studio” music - elaborate recordings
Carnaval
Long history in rio (1642 CE)
Preparation begins in September for 4 days before Ash Wednesday
Hedonistic attitude; emphasis on pleasure
Not just for entertainment: inequalities disappear between socio-economic classes and every part of the country is included
Post-emancipation labour migration from Bahia to Rio in late 19th century, brought samba with them
Forro
Type of dance/music from Sertão region of Brazil
Includes three main styles
Baião - the original forró
Xote - slower paced rhythm
Arrasta-pé - fast paced dance rhythm
Instrumentation
Accordion
Triangle
Zabumba (bass drum)
Danced in pairs, usually very close together, with the mans left hand holding the woman’s right hand as in the waltz, his right arm around her back and her left arm around his neck
Other styles may require partners to stay partially away or in a considerable distance, only holding their hands up the shoulders
Choro
Instrumental style from 1920a Rio de Janeiro
Influence of early jazz and samba
Upbeat, rhythmic dance music
Instrumentation Acoustic guitar Acoustic 7-string guitar (with low B) Cavaquinhon(4 string guitar) Bandolim (mandolin) Pandeiro (sophisticated tambourine) Sometimes flute, clarinet, sax, trombone, bass
Samba
Most popular dance/music category in Brazil, developed in the mid 20th century
Roots in the percussion music of west Africa
Syncopated poly-rhythms that accompany hip-gyrating dances
Primarily a “drum choir” with bells, whistles, and chanted vocals
Strong duple meter
Crucial part of Carnaval celebrations
The most recognizable “nation” music of Brazil
Fulfills similar rolls as the Steel Bands in Trinidad
Syncretism
The purposeful blending of elements of two cultures to create something new
Buena Vista Social Club
Originally help dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s
Inspired American guitarist Ry Cooder to record an album with veteran Cuban son musicians
BVSC name because an umbrella term and brand label that encapsulates Cuba’s “musical golden age” between 1930s and 1950s
Ry Cooper
Recorded and album inspired by BVSC with veteran Cuban son musician
Huge hit record and documentary film around the world in 1999
Sparked a revival in interest around Cuban music and Latin music in general, and generated a boom in Cuba’s tourist industry
Celia Cruz
The queen of salsa
Born in Cuba, escaped to US after the communist revolution, settled in New York
One of the lost successful Cuban musicians of the 20th century
Very popular and successful duo with johnny Pacheco
Salsa
Umbrella term for various fusion styles of Cuban and Puerto Rican dance music (son-montuno, cha-cha-chá, mambo) created in New York beginning in the 1960s
Influenced by jazz, particularly in instrumentation (horns) and extensive improvised solo
Uses clave and montuno forms from Latin music, with the loud big band sound from jazz
Fusion music that came to symbolize American Latin culture and identity as distinct from the home cultures on the islands
A Tribe Called Red
Blends a wide variety of musical styles ranging from hip hop, dance hall, electronic, and their own mashup of club and pow wow music
Came out of Electric Pow Wow, a monthly club eight dedicated to showcasing aboriginal DJ talent and Native urban culture, aimed at creating a space for aboriginal people
Outspoken about politics, have achieved international fame
Septeto Nacional
Led by Ignacio Piñeiro
Instrumentation: Tres Guitar Bass Bongos Claves Maracas Trumpet
Form: Son - Montuno
Sexteto Habenero
One of the most important Cuban groups of all time
Founded in 1920
Sexteto ensemble (bass replaces marimbula)
Yambú
Slow - “old people’s rumba”
A couples dance supposed to mimic the graceful movements of older people
Monophony
Unison rhythms and melodies
Common in indigenous music
Vocables
Sounds that are not words
Common in indigenous music
Pow Wow
First Nation song and dance celebration, often with competitions that feature ceremonial clothing
Tanya Tagaq
Cambridge Bay, Nunavut
Inuit throat singer., has sung with Bjork, Kronos Quarter, and many other contemporary artists
Blends traditional throat singing with electronica and rock music
Won the Polaris Prize in 2014
Rumba
Originally meant feast, but came to signify the musical genre/rhythmic pattern
Traditionally just voice and percussion
Opens with solo singer accompanied by the ensemble (“diana”), followed by sections alternating between soloist and choir
Clave
A rhythmic pattern used to organize time in Afro-Cuban music
Derived from bell patterns in African music
Spanish word, means “code” or “key”, as in the key to a mystery or puzzle
Also the name of an instrument that often plays the pattern, which is two wooden sticks struck together
Guaguanco
Medium-fast
Most popular genre
Dance - “vacunao”
Form: canto/montuno
A performative flirtation where a man tries to tough a woman with a handkerchief (or his body), while she tries to flirtatiously fend him off
Columbia
Fast
6/8
Traditionally solo male dance genre
Cuban Son
The most influential of Afro-Cuban popular music styles; began in mid-1800s (maybe 1750)
Syncretic: combination of African (percussion, marimbula), Taino (maracas), and Spanish (tres, guitars) instruments
Verse/retrain form with montuno section
Sexteto (later Septeto)
Decolonization
The undoing of colonialism, either through reclaiming land, or removing marginalizing symbols from language and laws
Indigenous modernity
The concept that First Nations people are not “frozen in time”, and that First Nations knowledge and cosmology is not “ancient” and “primitive”, but it evolving and meaningful
Way to talk about how contemporary First Nation people interact with the dominant settler culture
Music and art that mixes traditional sounds/images with contemporary forms/technology
Representation
The way a certain group is depicted in the media and within cultural expression generally
Critique of who gets to reproduce these depictions and who is “allowed” to speak
Marginalization
Social disadvantage and exclusion from the mainstream of society
Santeria
Afro-American religion of Caribbean origin that developed in the Spanish empire among west African descendants
Influenced by and syncretized with Roman Catholicism
Self-determination
Having the right and opportunity to freely choose sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or interference
Sargam
Indian system of syllables for singing a raga
Sa - Re - Ga - Ma - Pa - Dha - Ni - Sa
Tintal
Most famous talas of Hindustani music
Most common tal in North India
Azan
Call to prayer
Azan given 5 times daily by muezzin
Musically based on classical melodic system (maqam)
Gradual elongation of phrases
Nasal timber called ghunna
Sustain of vowelless consonants
Loud
War Party
Award winning cree hip hop group from Hobbema, Alberta
Fred McDowell
Blues singer
“Goin Down To The River”
Luis gonzaga
Forró musician
Tito Puente
Established salsa music
AR Rahman
Bollywood composer
Lata Mangeshkar
One of the most famous playback singers
Over 30,000 recordings
Asha Bhosle
Other most famous playback singer
Over 20,000 recordings
Gamelan beleganjur
Most popular styles of gamelan music in Bali
