Music Across the World

Question 1

What is the NHS Ethnography?

Answer 1

• The National History of Song (Mehr et al. 2019)

- An index of ethnographic writings of global vocal traditions

Question 2

What are the 3 behavioural dimensions identified by the NHS Ethnography?

Answer 2

• Formality
• Arousal
• Religiosity

Question 3

What are the four main types of song recorded by the NHS Ethnography?

Answer 3

Dance songs, healing songs, love songs and lullabies

Question 4

Give some examples of song features that are consistent cross-culturally

Answer 4

• Dance songs have a faster tempo
• Dance and healing song had more differentiated accents than a lullaby
• Healing songs are mostly stepwise
• Love songs vary in interval sizes

Question 5

Define CULTURAL RELATEDNESS

Answer 5

When two cultures share features due to parent-child cultural relationships like colonial/imperial rule or geographical proximity

Question 6

Give some examples of features of dance songs

Answer 6

• Isochronous beat
• Few durational values
• Use of percussion instruments
• Motivic patterns and phrase repetitions
• Syllabic text setting

Question 7

Define a STATISTICAL UNIVERSAL

Answer 7

A feature that recurs across a data set at least 50% of the time

Question 8

How might vocal constraints effect features of musical structure?

Answer 8

• Small and stepwise intervals that are easier to manoeuvre
• Late phrase compression and pitch decline as lungs run out of breath
• Lower register expels less energy and effort

Question 9

How might memory constraints effect features of musical structures?

Answer 9

• Patterns are multiple time scales (motives > phrases > stanzas)
• Repetition
• Phrase contour
• Non-equidistant scales (easier to remember as each note has a distinct relationship to its adjacent)

Question 10

How does prosody relate to musical structure?

Answer 10

• Syllabic word setting can mirror the rhythms of local dialect
• Pitch inflects mirror melodic contour of a phrase

Question 11

How might a bounded tessitura effect features of musical structure?

Answer 11

Must reverse direction once upper limit reached and return to a comfortable range

Question 12

Explain the TRANSMISSION CHAIN method

Answer 12

• A lab experiment method involved exploring evolutionary possibilities of a musical excerpt
• Simulates oral transmission of musical styles
• Participant pass on a melody like Chinese whispers to see the degree of variation in the final product

Question 13

What are the 6 statistical musical universals discovered by Savage et al. (2015)?

Answer 13

• Pitch: Discrete pitches, non-equidistant scales, arched/descending contour
• Rhythm: isochronous beat, 2 (and 3) beat groupings, hierarchical organisation
• Form: Short phrases
• Instrumentation: Vocals using non-vocal accompaniment
• Performance Style: Words > nonsense syllables
• Social context: performed in groups and mostly by men