As we have seen, music in Western culture is part of a rich tradition beginning with the Greeks, developing through the music of the church, and eventually resulting in the music we hear today. But have you ever considered what music is like in non-Western cultures? As with Western music, the various cultures across the globe have their own traditions, musical styles, practices, and rules that are often vastly different from the music many Americans are used to.
The following is a sample of many different music styles from all over the world. This review will be a very cursory introduction to only a handful of the thousands of musical styles that exist across the globe with which you may not be familiar. Bear in mind that many of these musical traditions date back hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of years and deserve further exploration outside of the context of this textbook. Beyond these examples, much more music is available to you through YouTube. In this review, we will primarily focus on the musical elements of melody, rhythm, instrumentation, and harmony, and describe the processes that different societies use to combine these elements.
A.2 Important Terms
Bodhran
Cajun
Celts
Djembe
Koto
Mbira
Pentatonic scale
Raga
Shakuhachi
Sitar
Tabla
Tala
Tamtam
A.3 North America
A.3.1 Native American Music
Throughout history, certain cultures have had more opportunity to develop music than others. Often, the effort required to hunt, gather, or raise food has been all encompassing and has left little time for leisure or artistic pursuits. Therefore, music was only performed when the people thought it was necessary or important. Like many other cultures, traditional Native American music was normally performed as a part of important rituals meant to ask specific deities for various benefits, such as increased health, successful hunting, success in war, or rain; or to contact the spirit world for other reasons.
Most traditional Native American music was vocal music. It was used to tell a story, express a wish, or to describe an emotional state, and it was almost always accompanied with percussion. The percussion instruments they used were normally drums made of stretched animal skins, rattles, and, later, metallic bells. Vertical flutes and panpipes were sometimes used to accompany love songs. These songs had a small range with a few different pitches and were quite often based on the pentatonic scale, a five-note scale used in many different cultures. Most Native American music was not harmonized and did not have any form of harmonic accompaniment.
Figure a.1 | Chasi, Bonito's Son, an Apache musician playing the "Apache fiddle" Author | A. Frank Randall Source | Wikimedia Commons License | Public Domain
Listen to the Native American music linked below. Listen for the drums and
the limited range of the voices and their use of the pentatonic scale.
Tejano or TexMex music is a blend of Central American and European influences. TexMex specifically refers to the music that grew out of both Mexico and Texas. It is dance oriented and uses European scales and chords. Instruments often include upright bass, drums, guitar, accordion, and solo vocal.
Texmex Music – Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio – (Flaco Jiménez)
The following example is based on the Western European dance called the waltz. It is in three-quarter time, with the emphasis on beat one. Listen for the ukulele, trumpet, drums, guitar, vocal harmony, and the trombone.
Cajun Zydeco is another form of
American folk music that grew from Eu-ropean roots. This style was developed by Cajuns, the descendants of Acadian im-migrants (French speakers from Acadia), who settled in the swamps of Southwest Louisiana, later to be called Acadiana. Almost all Zydeco music is vocal and is almost always designed for dancing. Instruments were traditionally acoustic since electricity is not easy to come by in Acadiana! Instruments include upright Figure a.2 | Clifton Chenier on accordion,
bass (later the electric bass), drums, ac- brother Cleveland on washboard and John cordion, fiddle, guitar, and solo vocal. The Hart on tenor saxophonewords are almost always in French, the Author | User "Bozotexino"
Source | Wikimedia Commons
language of the Cajun settlers.
License | CC BY 3.0
zydeco music — Tu le Ton Son Ton — Clifton Chenierhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiexKQt8FyQ
A.4 European Folk Music
A.4.1 France
Much of European folk music is largely built around song forms that are tied
together by the lyrics of the songs. In the following example of folk music from France you may notice that the scales and instruments sound a little like those of our modern American folk music (except for the language). The development and use of major and minor scales is what gives our Western European music its distinctive sound.
french folk song — m'en suis allé aux noces 1980shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrBm7RYRd0E
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A.4.2 Celtic (Ancient Scotland, Ireland, and a Small Portion of france)
The Celts refers to a diverse group of people who lived during the Iron Ages in
what is now Great Britain and Western Europe. In addition to speaking Celtic lan-guages, these people shared a common musical heritage, one that is still used by their descendants. Celtic music is often recognized by its instrumentation, which combines bagpipes, various stringed instruments, and drums. Celtic music also has a distinctive melodic style, with wide leaps that outline the harmonies of the song, creating a feeling of jubi-lance. This Celtic example is a modern version of a traditional dance song. However, once you get past 0:50 on the counter, it becomes much Figure a.3 | Rapaljemore traditional with flute and bodhransAuthor | Sander van der Wel
Source | Wikimedia Commons
(stretched skin drums.)
License | CC BY-SA 2.0
Celtic folk music — Cry of the Celtshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlHmGy4Aq_g
Many modern performance groups focus on music from the Celtic tradition, as
can be heard in the example below.
modern Celtic ensemble (Celtic Woman) — Téir abhaile riúhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjyljC5fSeU
A.4.3 Norway
Norway has a centuries-long history of vocal and instrumental music. Indeed, many of their folk ballads and songs date back to the Middle Ages; often, they describe the dramatic tales of historical fig-ures from that period. The Norwegian folk music linked below is one such Norwegian ballad of the Middle Ages era. It uses European sounding scales as well as several wind instruments.
Norwegian Folk Music — Kalenda Maya — Heming Og Gygri
Figure a.3 | A Hardanger fiddle made by Knut Gunnarsson Helland Author | Frode Inge Helland Source | Wikimedia Commons License | CC BY-SA 3.0
A.4.4 Russia
Russian folk music uses what we would call the modern
minor scale. Listen to how distinctive this Russian folk music sounds as its slow introduction gradually gives way to faster and faster verses, until it reaches a very fast and exciting dance-like conclusion.
russian folk music — hej sokoly — Krzysztofhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCXcfDli3y0Figure a.5 | Russian Boy with BalalaikaAuthor | Wilhelm
A.4.5 Balkan Peninsula (Southeastern Europe)
Amandus Beer
Source | Wikimedia
The region of Southeastern Europe that includes Hunga- Commons
ry, Romania, Macedonia, Turkey, and several other countries, License | Public Domainis called the Balkans. This region has a rich musical heritage with many fast, exciting, dance-like songs using accordion and clarinet. Balkan music is unique in that it incorporates complex rhythms that we do not often hear in Western music.
balkan Traditional music — mirjan hasi, Clarinethttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eczarul7300
A.5 Asian Music
A.5.1 India
Figure a.6 | Gadulka
Indian classical music is almost always performed in small Bulkarian knee-violin
groups. Indian musicians do not use scales and harmony like with bow
Author | User "Arent"
we do in our Western music. Their music includes improvisa- Source | Wikimedia tion and is based on rhythmic melodic patterns. The example Commonshere is a traditional improvised Indian piece that employs the License | CC BY-SA 3.0stringed sitar and the tabla drum.
indian music — ravi shankar — Raga Ramkalihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCJkjhNmsoI
Sidebar:
The melodic patterns Indian music uses are called raga, which are more of a shape than a scale. The rhythmic patterns are called tala, which are established patterns that repeat over and over. Often the raga and tala don't line up exactly, so there never seem to be any repeated sections. Indian musicians use a large stringed instrument called a sitar, and stretched skin drums called tabla.
Figure a.7 | A Lady Playing the Tanpura Author | User "Arent" Source | Wikimedia Commons License | Public Domain
Page | 293
A.5.2 Japan
Like Indian music, Japanese music is also performed in small groups and uses pentatonic scales, but that is where the similarities end. Japanese folk music is not improvised. Rather, it is composed and is almost always built around lyrics that are either borrowed from poetry or composed for the specific song. The music is made up of regular rhythms, but there is no intention-al harmony as in Western music. Japanese musicians pride themselves on memorizing each composition and then performing it exactly the same way every time. They use a large thirteen string instrument called a koto, and an end blown flute called a shakuhachi.
Figure a.8 | Japanese folkwoman playing shamishen Author | Christopher Wagner Source | Wikimedia Commons License | Public Domain
Listen for the koto and the shakuhachi in the traditional Japanese selection below.
Japanese Music – Tsuki No Shizuku (played on Koto and Shakuhachi)
At first glance, Chinese Opera is not
that different than Italian Opera in that it is a musical drama incorporating costumes, song, and dance. However, a closer examination reveals that the music of Chinese Opera differs greatly from Western opera. Chinese Opera singing style often involves singing melodies derived from the pentatonic scale. Also, Chinese singers can be heard sliding between notes of the melody, giving the mu- Figure a.9 | Sichuan Opera in Chengdu
sic a "slippery" quality that is unique to East- Author | User "Zoharby"ern Music. Give this piece a listen, and you Source | Wikimedia Commonswill hear this quality!
License | CC BY-SA 3.0
Chinese operahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPYKQhsx_HQ
A.5.4 Indonesia
When we think of a gong, we often envision a large brass thing that looks like a
giant cymbal. True, gongs come in many different sizes and can actually be used to
Page | 294
play melodies but this often envisioned image is one variant of a gong named tamtam. In Indo-nesia, gongs have been used in traditional music for centuries. The following video shows musicians using many different sized gongs while performing Indonesian music.
Folk music in many parts of South America is similar to folk music of Native Americans as well as folk music from parts of Africa. Stretched skin drums, wooden flutes, rattles, pentatonic sounding scales, and vocal music are all popular in this region. The first example is a modern performance of traditional Aztec music and the second is a modern adaptation a traditional Inca song Compare and contrast the similarities and differences of the pieces.
Numerous cultures currently thrive in the Caribbean. One of the more popular styles of music in the Caribbean is called Reggae and is from the island of Jamaica. The following example by Bob Marley com-bines American electronic instruments with the distinctive reggae beat, which involves the guitar playing staccato chords of the off beats of each measure.
The mbira is an integral part of the folk music of
Zimbabwe. It is a common small keyboard type nsument that is played by the performers' thumbs. Its metal reeds are tuned to different pitches, and it is usually used to accompany vocalists.
zimbabwe — mbira music at Copacabanaharare zimbabweFigure a.12 | Mbira Dzavadzimu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2cIOdnG-FwAuthor | Alex Weeks
Source | Wikimedia Commons
A.8.2 Senegal
License | CC BY-SA 3.0
Senegal is a country located on the far coast of West Africa. In Senegal, the traditional stretched skin drum is called the djembe. By way of contrast, modern Senegalese music shows an American influence; synthesizer sounds, drum set, and electric bass and guitar are often used.
senegal — Traditional djembe drummershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfXnuG6X7cwsenegal music — modern – (bakane featuringviviane yayu diere)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJCh9eMnlX-Figure a.13 | DjembeM&list=PLf0K9L3f5inQOQPFEW_S8ZXd7Mf89YK-Author | Djembe Art
Source | Wikimedia Commons
CL&index=2License | CC BY-SA 3.0
A.9 Glossary
A cappella
vocal music without instrumental accompaniment
Accidentals
notes that are not normally found in a given key
Acoustical Engineer
a person who works in the area of acoustic technology
Acoustician
a person who studies the theory and science of acoustics
Acoustics
the study of how sound behaves in physical spaces
Amplitude
refers to how high the wave form appears to vibrate above zero when seen on an oscilloscope; louder sounds create higher oscilloscope amplitude readings
Anthem
a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short sacred choral work and still more particularly to a specific form of Anglican
Antiphonal
A genre of sacred music featuring multiple choirs, or a choir that has been divided into different groups that can perform call and responses.
Aria
Homophonic compositions featuring a solo singer over orchestral accompaniment. homophonic compositions featuring a solo singer over accompaniment. Arias are very melodic primarily utilized in operas, cantatas, and oratorios.
Art song
a composition setting a poem to music, generally for one solo voice and piano accompaniment; in German, a Lied
Atonal
Music that seeks to avoid both the traditional rules of harmony and the use of chords or scales that provide a tonal center
Ballads
a song form used often in folk music, which is used to tell a story that usually contains a moral or lesson.
Bar
see measure
Basso continuo
continuous realization of harmony throughout a musical piece, usually by a harpsichord and/or cello. The Basso continuo provides a framework/template for harmonic accompaniments.
Beat
the basic unit of time in music
Bebop
a style of small group jazz developed in the late 1940s, which featured fast moving harmonies, angular melodies, and highly complex rhythms
Big Band
large jazz ensembles (15-20 members) popular in the 1930s and 1940s. The term "Big Band" also refers to the era in which these bands were popular.
Bluegrass
a variation of country music featuring fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass guitar, and the five-string banjo that developed largely in the Appalachian region
Blues
a style of music that, at the turn of the twentieth century, began to form out of African American work songs, field hollers, and spirituals. Today, the word "blues" is used loosely and can refer to feeling sad or down, to any song played in a bluesy style, or more specifically, to a song that follows a blues form, which is a twelve-bar strophic song form.
Bodhran
a traditional Celtic open-ended frame drum with a low, resonant sound
Bodhran
a traditional Celtic open-ended frame drum with a low, resonant sound
Brass
instruments traditionally made of brass or another metal (and thus often producing a "bright" or "brassy" tone) whose sound is generated by blowing into a mouthpiece that is attached to a coiled tube
Broadway Musical
a style of Musical Theatre, which integrated a cohesive plot with songs and dances that advanced that plot. Broadway specifically refers to the street of the same name in New York City that became known for this style.
Cadence
the ending of a musical phrase providing a sense of closure, often through the use of one chord that resolves to another
Cadenza
section of a concerto in which the soloist plays alone without the orchestra in an improvisatory style
Cajun Zydeco
American folk music developed by Cajuns, the descendants of Acadian immigrants (French speakers from Acadia), who settled in the swamps of Southwest Louisiana.
Cajun Zydeco
American folk music developed by Cajuns, the descendants of Acadian immigrants (French speakers from Acadia), who settled in the swamps of Southwest Louisiana.
Cantata
A composite major church choir form from the Baroque period that involves soloist, choir, and orchestra. Cantatas have several movements and last for fifteen to thirty minutes. Cantatas are performed without staging but they utilize narration, arias, recitatives, choruses and smaller vocal ensembles.
Celts
a term referring to a diverse group of people who lived during the Iron Ages in what is now Great Britain and Western Europe.
Celts
a term referring to a diverse group of people who lived during the Iron Ages in what is now Great Britain and Western Europe.
Chamber music
music—such as art songs, piano character pieces, and string quartets—primarily performed in small performing spaces, often for personal entertainment
Chanson
is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specializing in chansons is known as a "chanteur" (male) or "chanteuse" (female); a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.
Chant
text set to a melody written in monophonic texture with un-notated rhythms typically used in religious worship
Chapel Master
Director of music, secular and sacred, for the courts' official functions and entertainment.
Children's Song
a type of folk song designed to teach a simple lesson. They are often simple to sing and easy to remember.
Chorale
Originally the result from the German protestant church's reformation, the chorale is the hymn (tune) is a four part homophonic work that is sung by the church congregation. Chorales became the foundation for several cantatas and chorale preludes for organ.
Chord
the simultaneous sounding of three or more pitches; like intervals, chords can be consonant or dissonant
Chord Progression
a series of chords
Chromatic
musical pitches which move up or down by successive half-steps
Chromaticism
a style of composition which uses notes that are not a part of the predominant scale of a composition or one of its sections.
Church Music
Sacred music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. Church Music Director is a position responsible the musical aspects of the church's activities.
Coda
optional final section of a movement that reasserts the home key of the movement and provides a sense of conclusion
Composition
the process whereby a musician notates musical ideas using a system of symbols or using some other form of recording
Concerto
a composition for a soloist or a group of soloists and an orchestra, generally in three movements with fast, slow, and fast tempos, respectively
Concerto Grosso
a musical composition for a small group of soloists and orchestra.
Conductor
individual who leads an orchestra
Conjunct
a melody that moves mostly by step, in a smooth manner
Consonant
(adjective) term used to describe intervals and chords that tend to sound sweet and pleasing to our ears; consonance (noun), as opposed to dissonance, is stable and needs no resolution.
Consort
A renaissance consort is a group of renaissance instrumentalists playing together. A whole consort is an ensemble performing with instruments from the same family. A broken consort is an ensemble comprised of instruments from more than one family.
Contemporary Country
a mixture of rock rhythm sections and a singer singing with a country accent about many of the same topics that traditional country singers have used over the decades.
Contemporary R&B
generally refers to music with jazz, gospel, and funk roots that uses electronic instruments, drums, horns, and vocals.
Cori spezzati
A divided choir that is utilized to perform in a polychoral style—able to perform "call and response". Large churches were designed with multiple choir seating sections to perform such works.
Counter-Reformation
The preservation movement or "Counter-Reformation" against the protestant reform led to the development of the Jesuit order (1540) and the later assembling of the Council of Trent (1545–1563) which considered issues of the church's authority and organizational structure.
Country Music
a term describing a broad variety of musical styles including Bluegrass, Hillbilly Music, and Contemporary Country. Generally speaking, most types of music that fall under this category originated in the American South (although it also encompasses Western Swing and cowboy songs) and features a singing style with a distinctly rural southern accent, as well as an instrumentation that favors string instruments such as the banjo, guitar, or fiddle.
Courtly Love
love for a beloved, without any concern for whether or not the love will be returned, called "courtly" because it was praised by those participating in medieval courts
Cycles per Second (cps)
a definition of frequency of vibration; replaced by Hertz in 1960
Da capo
instruction—commonly found at the end of the B section or Trio of a Minuet and Trio, to return to the "head" or first section, generally resulting in an A–B–A form
Dance Music
music written for dancing. The instrumentation of various types of folk dance music varies with the style.
Dance Music [WM1]
is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing
Development
the middle section of a sonata-form movement in which the themes and key areas introduced in the exposition are developed;
Disjunct
a melody with wide leaps and rapid changes in direction
Dissonant
(adjective) intervals and chords that tend to sound harsh to our ears; dissonance (noun) is often used to create tension and instability, and the interplay between dissonance and consonance provides a sense of harmonic and melodic motion in music
Dixieland
an early form of jazz developed in New Orleans during the turn of the twentieth century featuring syncopated rhythms, improvised solos and harmonies, as well as a common instrumentation that included trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, tuba, banjo, piano, guitar, and drums.
Djembe
a hand drum used in the music of West Africa
Djembe
a hand drum used in the music of West Africa
Double-exposition form
form of the first movement of a Classical period concerto that combines the exposition, development, and recapitulation of sonata form with the ritornello form used for the first movements of Baroque concertos; also called first-movement concerto form
Drone
a sustained pitch or pitches often found in music of the middle ages or earlier and in folk music
Dynamic
the variation in the volume of musical sound (the amplitude of the sound waves)
Elektronische Musik
(German term meaning "electronic music") Music composed by manipulating only electronically-produced sounds (not recorded sounds.)
Equalization (EQ)
the process of raising or lowering different frequencies of sound, either in a recording, or within a tone (overtones)
Exposition
first section of a sonata form movement, in which the themes and key areas of the movement are introduced; the section normally modulates from the home key to a different key
Expressionism
Style of composition where composers intentionally use atonality. Arnold Schoenberg devised a system of composing using twelve tones. His students Alban Berg and Anton Webern composed extensively in this twelve-tone style.
Folk Music
a term used to describe a wide variety of musical forms that developed within different cultures, often for different reasons. Folk music is often passed down not through written music, but orally from one generation to another.
Form
the structure of the phrases and sections within a musical composition (Does it repeat?)
Frequency
how quickly or slowly a medium (solid, liquid, gas) vibrates and produces a sound
Frets
is a raised strip on the neck of a stringed instrument. Frets usually extend across the full width of the neck and divide the string into half steps for most western musical instruments. Most guitars have frets.
Fugue
perfected by J.S. Bach during the baroque period, fugues are a form written in an imitative contrapuntal style in multiple parts. Fugues are based upon their original tune that is called the subject. The subject is then imitated and overlapped by the other parts by the called the answer, countersubject, stretto, and episode
Fundamental Pitch
the lowest pitch in the harmonic series
Galliard
was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century.
Guido of Arezzo
a medieval music theorist who developed a system of lines and spaces that enabled musicians to notate the specific notes in a melody
Harmony
any simultaneous combination of tones and the rules governing those combinations (the way a melody is accompanied is also another way to define harmony)
Hemiola
the momentary shifting from a duple to a triple feel or vice versa
Hertz (Hz)
the unit of frequency defined as one cycle per second and named after Heinrich Hertz (1957–1894) in 1960
Hillbilly Music
an early form of country music, Hillbilly Music was an alternative to the jazz and dance music of the 1920s and was portrayed as wholesome music of the "good old days."
Homophonic
musical texture comprised of one melodic line accompanied by chords
Homophony
Music where the melody is supported by a chordal accompaniment the move in the same rhythm. Homophony is generally the opposite of polyphony where the voices imitative and weave with each other.
Honky Tonk Music
a country combo style that became quite popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Originally performed in saloons known as "honky tonks,' many of the songs dealt with subjects associated with honky tonks such as infidelity and drinking.
Hymn
religious song most generally having multiple strophes of the same number and length of lines and using strophic form
Idée fixe
a famous melody that appears in all five movements of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique to represent the beloved from the program
Impressionism
music composed based on the composer's impression of an object, concept, or event. This style included the use of chromaticism, whole-tone scales and chords, exotic scales, new chord progressions, and more complex rhythms
Improvisation
the process whereby musicians create music spontaneously using the elements of music as building blocks
Instrumentation
the instruments comprising a musical group (including the human voice)
Interval
the distance in pitch between any two notes
Jig
is the accompanying dance tune for an energetic fold dance usually in a compound meter.
Keyboard
instruments that are characterized by keyboards, such as the piano, organ, vibraphone, and accordion
Key
the set of pitches on which a composition is based
Koto
a traditional Japanese string instrument with thirteen strings over movable bridges
Koto
a traditional Japanese string instrument with thirteen strings over movable bridges
Laptop orchestra
an ensemble formed by linking laptop computers and speakers together to generate live and/or recorded performances using both synthesized and pre-recorded sounds
Leitmotif
"guiding motive" associated with a specific character, theme, or locale in a music drama, and first associated with the music of Richard Wagner
Libretto
The text or actual words of an opera, musical, cantata or oratorio, written or compiled by a librettist
Madrigal
a musical piece for several solo voices set to a short poem. They originated in Italy around 1520. Most madrigals were about love.
Mass
Catholic celebration of the Eucharist consisting of liturgical texts set to music by composers starting in the middle ages
mazurka
a Polish dance in triple time, with emphasis on beat 2
Mbira
and African thumb piano
Mbira
and African thumb piano
Measure
a unit of time that contains a specific number of beats defined by the meter/time signature
Melisma
More than one note sung during one syllable of the text. The melismatic style was used extensively in gregorian chant.
Melody
a succession of single tones in musical compositions
Meter
the way in which the beats are grouped together in a piece
Minstrel Show
an American form of theatre developed in the nineteenth century and featuring white performers in blackface performing in a variety show, which depicted black characters as happy participants in romanticized versions of the American slave south.
Minuet and trio form
form based on the minuet dance that consists of a Minuet (A), then a contrasting Trio (B), followed by a return to the Minuet (A)
Monophonic
musical texture comprised of one melodic line; a melodic line may be sung by one person or 100 people
Motet
is a highly varied sacred choral musical composition. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music.
Motive
the smallest musical unit of a melody, generally a single rhythm of two or three pitches
Motor rhythm
The constant repeated subdivision of the beat. The motor rhythm provide unity and stability within the musical piece.
Movement
a subsection or independent section/piece of a larger work. (Ex. A symphony is divided into movements.)
Musical Theatre
a type of dramatic performance that tells a story through dialogue, with singing and dancing added to support and move the plot along.
Music
sound and silence organized in time
Musique Concrète
a type of electro-acoustic music that uses both electronically produced sounds (like synthesizers) and recorded natural sounds (like instruments, voices, and sounds from nature)
Nationalism
pride in one's nation or cultural identity, often expressed in art, literature, and music
Neoclassicism
A musical movement that arose in the twentieth century as a reaction against romanticism and which sought to recapture classical ideals like symmetry, order, and restraint. Stravinsky's music for the ballet Pulcinella (1920) is a major early neoclassical composition.
New Orleans Jazz
(see Dixieland)
Noise
a disorganized sound with no observable pitch
Octave
the distance between two musical pitches where the higher pitch vibrates exactly twice as many times per second as the lower
Opera Buffa
comic style of opera made famous by Mozart
Opera
A staged musical drama for voices and orchestra. Operas are fully blocked and performed in costume with sets. Operas utilize arias and recitatives without no narration.
Opera Seria
serious style of eighteenth-century opera made famous by Handel generally features mythology or high-born characters and plots
Operetta
a "light opera" developed in the nineteenth century that required classically trained singers, but featured less complex music than a typical opera.
Oratorio
a major work with religious or contemplative character for solo voices, chorus and orchestra. Oratorios do not utilize blocking, costumes, or scenery.
Oscilloscope
an electronic device that displays a visual representation of the different types of sound waves
Overtones (also known as harmonics)
a musical tone heard above a fundamental pitch
Partials
the sounds of different frequency that naturally occur above a fundamental (primary) tone
Pavanne
is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century Renaissance.
Pentatonic scale
a five-note scale used in traditional music throughout the world
Pentatonic scale
a five-note scale used in traditional music throughout the world
Percussion
instruments that are typically hit or struck by the hand, with sticks, or with hammers or that are shaken or rubbed by hand
Performing Forces
see instrumentation
Phrase
smaller sub-sections of a melody
Pitch
a tone that is composed of an organized sound wave
Pizzicato
the plucking of a bowed string instrument such as the violin, producing a percussive effect
Plagal cadence
ending of a composition that consists of a IV chord moving to a I chord and most often associated with church music
Polychoral (style)
a compositional style where the chorus/choir is divided into two or more groups that can perform with or independently for each other (see antiphonal).
Polyphony
musical texture that simultaneously features two or more relatively independent and important melodic lines
Polyrhythm
two or more different rhythms played at the same time
Polytonality
a compositional technique where two or more instruments or voices in different keys (tonal centers) perform together at the same time
Primitivism
A musical movement that arose as a reaction against musical impressionism and which focused on the use of strong rhythmic pulse, distinct musical ideas, and a tonality based on one central tone as a unifying factor instead of a central key or chord progression.
Program music
instrumental music intended to represent a something extra musical such as a poem, narrative, drama, or picture, or the ideas, images, or sounds therein.
Program symphony
program music in the form of a multi-movement composition for orchestra
Protest Song
a type of folk song written to directly, or by suggestion, voice complaints about some injustice.
Raga
a pattern of notes that used as the basis for improvisation in Indian classical music
Raga
a pattern of notes that used as the basis for improvisation in Indian classical music
Ragtime
a musical genre developed near the turn of the twentieth century that featured syncopated rhythms. The style became nationally popular after being widely published as sheet music.
Range
the number of pitches, expressed as an intervallic distance
Rap
a form of spoken word delivered over a beat. It can be improvised or written out in advance.
Recapitulation
third and final second of a sonata-form movement, in which the themes of the exposition return, now in the home key of the movement
Recitative
An operatic number using speech-like melodies and rhythms, performing using a flexible tempo, to sparse accompaniment, most often provided by the basso continuo. Recitatives are often performed between arias and have texts that tend to be descriptive and narrating.
Reformation
was a succession and division from the practices of the Roman Catholic Church initiated by Martin Luther. Led to the development of Protestant churches.
Refrain
a repeating musical section, generally also with repeated text; sometimes called a "chorus"
Register
the low, medium, and high sections of an instrument or vocal range
Rhythm According to the Text
rhythm that follows the rhythm of the text and is not notated
Rhythm and Blues (R&B)
a term originally referring to music recorded by black musicians and intended for use by the African American community. The term has evolved throughout the years and encompasses several different musical styles, including soul, funk and now contemporary R&B.
Rhythm
the way the music is organized in respect to time
Ritornello Form
repeated unifying sections founds in between the solo sections of a concerto grosso
Rock and Roll
a style of music that grew out of Rhythm and Blues and came into prominence during the 1950s. The style features a strong backbeat and often features electric guitar, bass and drums. The style is now known as "rock" has spawned many subgenres.
Rondo
instrumental form consisting of the alternation of a refrain "A" with contrasting sections ("B," "C," "D," etc.). Rondos are often the final movements of string quartets, classical symphonies, concerti, and sonata (instrumental solos).
Rubato
the momentary speeding up or slowing down of the tempo within a melody line, literally "robbing" time from one note to give to another
Sampling
a technique in which a clip of a preexisting song is isolated and looped, often as a background for a rapper
Scale
a series of pitches, ordered by the interval between its notes
Scena ad aria
nineteenth-century operatic combination of a recitative ("scena") plus aria; here the aria generally has two parts, a slower cantabile and a faster cabaletta
Scherzo
form that prominently replaced the minuet in symphonies and strings quartets of the nineteenth century; like the minuet, scherzos are ternary forms and have a triple feel, although they tend to be somewhat faster in tempo than the minuet.
Scratching
the technique of improvising a rhythmic solo on one turntable over a beat
Sectional form
A piece where distinct sections can be identified due to changes in texture and other musical compositional techniques.
Sequence
a repetition of a motive or phrase at a different pitch level
Serialism
composing music using a series of values assigned to musical elements such as pitch, duration, dynamics, and instrumentation. Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone technique is one of the most important examples of serialism.
Seventh Chord
a chord that has four pitches stacked in intervals of thirds
Shakuhachi
a bamboo flute used in traditional Japanese music
Shakuhachi
a bamboo flute used in traditional Japanese music
Sine Wave
the simplest sound wave that occurs in nature. A pure sine wave contains no partials and is perfectly smooth and rounded in appearance on an oscilloscope.
Sitar
a plucked string instrument used in Indian classical music.
Sitar
a plucked string instrument used in Indian classical music.
Solo
A musical piece that features on musician either with or without accompaniment. In larger scored piece, the solo is the main part that should be brought out while performing.
Sonata
composition for a solo instrument or an instrument with piano accompaniment, generally in three movements with fast, slow, and fast tempos, respectively
Sonata form
a form often found in the first and last movements of sonatas, symphonies, and string quartets, consisting of three parts – exposition, development, and recapitulation
Song cycle
a collection of art songs, unified by poet, narrative, musical style, or composer
Song
a composition sung by voice(s)
Sound
the mechanical movement of an audible pressure wave through a solid, liquid, or gas
Sound Waves
longitudinal waves (compression and rarefaction waves) that travel through a solid, liquid, or gas
Step
the distance between adjacent notes in a musical scale
String quartet
performing ensemble consisting of two violinists, one violinist, and one cellist that plays compositions called string quartets, compositions generally in four movements
Strings
instruments whose sound is produced by setting strings in motion
Strophe
section of a poem or lyric text generally of a set number of lines and line length; a text may have multiple strophes
Strophic
a composition that uses the repetition of the same music ("strophes") for successive texts
Stylized dance
piece of music that sounds like a dance but that was not designed for dancing. In other words, a stylized dance uses the distinct characteristics of a dance and would be recognized as sounding like that dance but might be too long or too complicated to be danced to.
Subject
The main melody or tune of a fugue.
Suite
A multi-movement instrumental musical composition of baroque music—usually in dance form.
Swing
a term used to describe the rhythmic bounce that characterizes the jazz style. The term can also refer to the big band music of the 1930s and 1940s.
Syllabic
music in which each syllable of a text is set to one musical note
Symphonic poem
program music in the form of a single-movement composition for orchestra; sometimes called a tone poem
Symphony
multi-movement composition for orchestra, often in four movements
Syncopation
the act of disrupting the normal pattern of accents in a piece of music by emphasizing what would normally be weak beats.
Synthesizers
instruments that electronically generate a wide variety of sounds. They can also modify electronic or naturally produced recorded sounds
Tabla
— a pair of hand drums used in Indian classical music
Tabla
a pair of hand drums used in Indian classical music
Tala
a repeating rhythmic pattern that that forms the rhythmic foundation for Indian classical music
Tala
a repeating rhythmic pattern that that forms the rhythmic foundation for Indian classical music
Tamtam
a large metal gong
Tamtam
a large metal gong
Tempo
the speed at which the beat is played
Ternary form
describes a musical composition in three parts, most often featurings two similar sections, separated by a contrasting section and represented by the letters A – B – A.
Terraced dynamics
Used during the Baroque period, this is where the different sections have a piece of music have a set volume unique for that particular section. The next section may be written to be performed at another volume.
Texture
the ways in which musical lines of a musical piece interact
Theme and Variation form
the presentation of a theme and then variations upon it. The theme may be illustrated as A, with any number of variations following it – A', A'', A''', A'''', etc.
Through-composed
a movement or composition consisting of new music throughout, without repetition of internal sections
Timbre
the tone color or tone quality of a sound
Time signature
the numeric notation at the beginning of a line of music where the top number indicates how many beats are in each measure and the bottom number indicates which type of note will represent that beat
Tonic
the most important pitch of a key; the note from which the other pitches are derived
Triad
a chord that has three pitches stacked in intervals of thirds
Tutti
Where the entire musical ensemble performs together as a whole as opposed to a soloist.
Twelve-Bar Blues
a twelve-bar musical form commonly found in American music
Twelve-tone Technique
Compositional technique developed by Arnold Schoenberg that derives musical elements such as pitch, duration, dynamics, and instrumentation from a randomly produced series of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale (the 12-tone row)
Verse and Refrain Form
a musical form (sometimes referred to as verse and chorus) in which one section of music is sung to all the verses and a different section of music is sung to the repeating refrain or chorus
Vocal
having to do with the human voice
Western Swing
a style of country music that developed in western cities and borrowed instruments from the dance band such as saxophones, trombones, trumpets, piano, bass, and drums.
Woodwinds
instruments traditionally made of wood whose sound is generated by forcing air through a tube, thus creating a vibrating air column
Word painting
was utilized by Renaissance composers to represent poetic images musically. For example, an ascending melodic line would portray the text "ascension to heaven." Or a series of rapid notes would represent running.
Work Songs
a type of folk song devised to help groups of people perform physical work. The music usually uses the tempo of the work itself and was sung by lumberjacks, railroad workers, and prison chain gangs, among others.
play melodies but this often envisioned image is one variant of a gong named tamtam. In Indo-nesia, gongs have been used in traditional music for centuries. The following video shows musicians using many different sized gongs while performing Indonesian music.
