I. Introduction to Music Theory and the Music of India

Question 1

The highness or lowness of a sound.

Answer 1

Pitch

Question 2

Two ethnomuscicologists who grouped instruments into four categories.

Answer 2

Curt Sachs and Erich von Hornbostel

Question 3

Violins, harps, and guitars. Have one or more strings, which are plucked, bowed, or struck.

Answer 3

Chordophones

Question 4

Wind instruments, such as the many varieties of horns and flutes produce sound by directly vibrating a column of air.

Answer 4

Aerophones

Question 5

Have a skin or other membrane stretched across some kind of frame. The membrane vibrates when struck.

Answer 5

Membranophones

Question 6

The body of the instrument itself vibrates when struck. Examples are bells, woodblocks, and xylophones.

Answer 6

Idiophones

Question 7

Instruments are usually bowed or plucked.

Answer 7

Strings

Question 8

Instruments, aerophones made of metal, are sounded by the performer’s buzzing lips, which make the column of air vibrate.

Answer 8

Brass

Question 9

Instruments are also aerophones in which the column of air is moved by breath alone, as in the case of flutes or by one or two vibrating reeds usually made form wood.

Answer 9

Woodwind

Question 10

Instruments include membranophones as well as idiophones, plus some chordophones that are struck rather than bowed or plucked.

Answer 10

Percussion

Question 11

Some cases, these instruments constitute a 5th category.

Answer 11

Keyboard

Question 12

These instruments may have a neck attached to a resonating body and may or may not have frets, metal bars or strings arrayed across the instrument’s neck at pitch intervals.

Answer 12

String instruments

Question 13

The distance between any two adjacent keys on the keyboard. Semitone.

Answer 13

Half step

Question 14

The distance between every other key (regardless of color, black or white).

Answer 14

Whole step

Question 15

A sequence of pitches in ascending or descending order.

Answer 15

Scale

Question 16

White keys on a keyboard are called?

Answer 16

Natural keys

Question 17

Pitch intervals smaller than half-steps. Not available on most Western keyboard instruments.

Answer 17

Microtones (Shruti)

Question 18

“Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti”

Answer 18

Solfege

Question 19

A series of successive pitches perceived by the ear to form a coherent whole. One pitch at a time.

Answer 19

Melody

Question 20

Two pitches occur together, then you have a ____________. Occurs when chords are used systematically in a musical piece.

Answer 20

Harmony

Question 21

The scale in which you sing Do-Re-Mi.

Answer 21

Natural Scale

Question 22

The way music is organized in time.

Answer 22

Rhythm

Question 23

The steady pulse that underlies most music.

Answer 23

Beat

Question 24

The _______ of a piece might remain steady for the duration of the piece, or it may slow down or increase a the piece progresses.

Answer 24

Tempo

Question 25

When the notes of a musical piece express the base underlying tempo of its beats, this may be called ________________.

Answer 25

Single speed

Question 26

When two sounds occur in the space of one beat, this may be called ____________.

Answer 26

Double speed

Question 27

The first beat of a grouping is often the strongest, so it is customarily called the ___________ or strong beat.

Answer 27

Downbeat

Question 28

Rhythm is _____________ when accented or emphasized notes fall on weak beats, or in between beats.

Answer 28

Syncopated

Question 29

A tone sounding continually as a background to a performance.

Answer 29

Drone

Question 30

India's traditional music, and that of many other world cultures is considered ________ rather than a harmonic system.

Answer 30

Melodic

Question 31

Has a specific musical meaning. It describes the number of things that are going on at once in a piece of music.

Answer 31

Texture

Question 32

A song my consist of a single, unaccompanied melodic line. In Western theory this is called ______________. When multiple instruments or voices may be playing a single melodic line and if they are all performing the same pitch at the same time. They are also playing the line in unison.

Answer 32

Monophony

Question 33

If two or more performers are producing slightly different version of the same melody at the same time, but are not playing in precise unison, the texture is called ______________.

Answer 33

Heterophony

Question 34

The quality, character, or "color" of a musical sound. The ________ of a pitch is affected by the individual's voice or technique, and by the instrument's material, shape, and density.

Answer 34

Timbre

Question 35

Refers to the instrument or combination of instruments used, and it is among the most noticeable and distinctive features of a given piece of music. Describing the ________________ is fundamental to writing about a musical performance.

Answer 35

Instrumentation

Question 36

The loudness and softness of a sound are useful to performers for expressive purposes.

Answer 36

Dynamics

Question 37

A gradual increasing of volume and speed, and a matching use of higher and higher pitches, is a very common technique, which can be called _________________. This draws the listener in and raises the excitement level of a piece of music.

Answer 37

Intensification

Question 38

Refers to localized embellishments on a melody. In Indian music, it is often difficult to separate this from the main melody. Still, this is considered to be at the heart of a melody's expressiveness.

Answer 38

Ornamentation

Question 39

Melody in which a number of pitches are sounded over a single syllable or instrumental.

Answer 39

Melisma (melismatic)

Question 40

A category of music, usually named and recognized by a specific set of conventions.

Answer 40

Genre

Question 41

A term that is used quite broadly in music and may overlap with genre. It usually refers to the particular set of techniques or conventions used by an individual or a group.

Answer 41

Style

Question 42

This shapes a melody.

Answer 42

Tension and release

Question 43

A cohesive musical thought. In "Happy Birthday," the music for the first four words ("Happy birthday to you") can be thought as a short ________.

Answer 43

Phrase

Question 44

A set of phrases that make a complete melody, which plays a prominent role in a longer piece of music.

Answer 44

Theme

Question 45

The idea of _____________ in Indian music is somewhat different form that in Western music. Indian _____________ are not written out in scores, rather they are learned aurally from a teacher and memorized.

Answer 45

Composition

Question 46

May be pre-composed, memorized ahead of time.

Answer 46

Variations

Question 47

Created anew at each performance.

Answer 47

Improvised

Question 48

This is often used in Indian classical music and for singing the verses of songs in many regional, devotional, and popular genres.

Answer 48

Two-section scheme

Question 49

A piece of music that is composed from beginning to end may be called ______________.

Answer 49

Through-composed

Question 50

A form in which verses are sung alternating with a repetitive chorus or refrain.

Answer 50

Verse-chorus

Question 51

The dominant language family of South India; includes Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.

Answer 51

Dravidian

Question 52

The largest language family in India.

Answer 52

Indo-Aryan

Question 53

Is spoken by a larger percentage of Indians than any other single language, and the government has designated it (and English) for official government use.

Answer 53

Hindi

Question 54

Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Marathi, Punjabi, Nepali, Oriya, and Urdu.

Answer 54

Other languages of the Indo-Aryan family spoken across North India.

Question 55

An Indo-Aryan language of scholarship, literature, and liturgy.

Answer 55

Sanskrit

Question 56

Is an umbrella term for many streams of practice. it is the worship of deities who appear in many forms, as describe in local histories, or in widely shared epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Answer 56

Hinduism

Question 57

Some people trace the origins of formal music in India to the chants of priests performing rituals prescribed in ______, the earliest texts of Hinduism.

Answer 57

Vedas

Question 58

Hindu devotion, expressed in poetry, song, and ritual as love, longing, and suffering in separation form the divine.

Answer 58

Bhakti (Personal love and longing for the divine)

Question 59

A religion founded in Punjab in the 15th century.

Answer 59

Sikhism

Question 60

The classical music system of North India.

Answer 60

Hindustani

Question 61

The classical music system of South India.

Answer 61

Carnatic

Question 62

Akashvani "Voice from the sky," centered in New Delhi.

Answer 62

All India Radio

Question 63

Doordarshan or "View from afar," has broadcast since the 1970s.

Answer 63

National television service

Question 64

The first Indian sound film.

Answer 64

Alam Ara

Question 65

The Hindi-language film industry, largely based in Mumbai.

Answer 65

Bollywood

Question 66

The Tamil-language film industry, named after a neighborhood in Chennai.

Answer 66

Kollywood

Question 67

Sound organized in time.

Answer 67

Music

Question 68

Indian instrument that has a long neck with metal frets. It has a resonator made of a gourd and covered with wood. Its metal strings are plucked with a metal plectrum. It also has metal strings, called sympathetic strings.

Answer 68

Sitar

Question 69

12 different pitches in ascending order are called the ___________ scale?

Answer 69

Chromatic

Question 70

The "home" or "fundamental" pitch on which a scale is based is called the __________.

Answer 70

Tonic

Question 71

Is made up of three or more pitches, which are intentionally sounded simultaneously.

Answer 71

Chord

Question 72

Describes how music is organized on a larger time scale, how units, such as sections, subsections, and lines, are combined to make larger structures. This is the architecture of music.

Answer 72

Form

Question 73

Uses the principle of variation. Individual performers create spontaneous variations, extensions, or free explorations, of a melody.

Answer 73

Improvisation

Question 74

Came to India with Arab traders by sea, and overland through the Khyber Pass from Iran, Turkey, and Central Asia.

Answer 74

Islam

Question 75

Used to help attain a state of spiritual ecstasy.

Answer 75

Sama

Question 76

Islamic mysticism, thrives across the Muslim world and is practiced in many branches, called "silsila."

Answer 76

Sufism

Question 77

Formal music, or art music, is based on a system of melodies called _______, and a system of rhythmic cycles called ________.

Answer 77

Raga and Tala

Question 78

Created by doubling the vibrations of a pitch.

Answer 78

Octave

Question 79

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni

Answer 79

India's solfege