CONCLUSION
Studying all the music of a given locality can present a formidable challenge, although the discovery process can provide a wonderful introduction to the place in which you live. Once you are familiar with a place, you will want to focus more deeply on a particular soundscape. In this way, you can come to appreciate more fully the significance music carries in human life, our subject in Chapter 3.
IMPORTANT TERMS
general
musical pathways
glissando
ternary form
tonic
affinity community
folk music
early music
performance practice
Accra, Ghana
highlife
agbadza
atumpan
talking drums
Mumbai, India
bhajan
Aarati
sitar
swaramandal
shankh
tanpura
filmi git
playback song/singer
ghazal
Boston, Massachusetts
buskers
panpipes (sikus)
ballad
uilleann pipes
bodhrán
pennywhistle
fado
fadista
arpeggio
rubato
coladeira
cavaquinho
gamelan
colotomic functions
gamelan gong kebyar
circular breathing
beating tones
rhythmic cycle
interlocking parts (kotekan)
polos
angsel
folk music revival
tremolo
blue note
broadsides
viols
FURTHER EXPLORATIONS
Reading
Michael Tenzer’s 2011 book Balinese Gamelan Music, accompanied by its own CD, introduces different types of Balinese gamelan ensembles and their musical styles. The American Gamelan Institute supports and documents Indonesian gamelan music across the world, maintaining a website that features international gamelan directories, a scholarly journal, podcast series, and a broad array of online educational materials.
Viewing
Mumbai’s Bollywood film music is readily accessible online, along with many video clips of ghazal movie songs. A search on the web for videos associated with recent Ghanaian Ga Homowo celebrations in international locales will yield examples ranging from Miami to Philadelphia to London. For a lively chronicle of several types of jazz in the Ghanaian capital, view Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra, Ghana, a film trilogy by Steven Feld. For a broad overview of American traditional and roots music, check out the four-part PBS series American Roots Music that explores everything from country to zydeco to Native American styles.
Listening
The Boston Camerata, discussed in “Individual Portraits,” has a website that provides information about the ensemble’s many recordings of early music spanning the widest array of international traditions, from Europe to the Middle East to American Shaker traditions. Recordings of many popular folk songs can be located, including important historical recordings of the English ballad Barbara Allen on the U.S. Library of Congress website.
musical pathways Ruth Finnegan’s term for everyday musical activities pursued by amateur musicians.
glissando A musical gesture that entails sliding from one pitch to another.
ternary form Three-part form.
tonic Central pitch and, in Western music, the chord based on it.
affinity community People who come together by choice to participate in particular activities or forms of musicmaking.
folk music A category conventionally applied to styles of music transmitted by oral tradition, maintained in collective memory by a group of people, associated with nonprofessionals, and regarded as the cultural property of a group of people bounded by national, social, or ethnic identity, often called traditional music or vernacular music.
early music Music of the European past or its twentieth-century revival.
performance practice The manner in which music is interpreted and performed.
highlife West African popular music combining indigenous melodies and instruments with the influence of Western rock and jazz.
agbadza An Ewe dance performed at social gatherings and funerals.
atumpan Large drums, the central instruments in ensembles used in Asante ceremonies and state occasions.
talking drums Membranophones or idiophones that produce pitched tones and can replicate patterns of a tonal language.
bhajan Hindu devotional songs.
Aarati Traditional Hindu hymn of praise.
sitar North Indian plucked lute with both played and sympathetic strings.
swaramandal North Indian zither.
shankh Indian conch shell.
tanpura Plucked lute that sounds a constant drone in South Indian music.
filmi git Indian film songs.
playback song/singer A singer who is prerecorded for use in Indian films.
ghazal A strophic song sung in Urdu, traditionally performed for elite audiences in Northern India, that has exerted a strong influence on contemporary Indian film music.
busker Public street performer who collects donations from passersby.
panpipes Aerophone constructed of three or more small pipes fastened together.
ballad A song genre commemorating important events and individuals, usually in strophic form.
uilleann pipes Irish smallpipes with three drones, a keyed chanter, and a bellows to fill the bag.
bodhrán Irish frame drum.
pennywhistle Small Irish aerophone with six finger holes.
fado Literally, “fate”; a song genre closely associated with Lisbon and popular within Portuguese expatriate communities.
fadista Singer of the fado.
arpeggio Technique in Western music when a chord is played one pitch at a time, usually from bottom to top.
rubato Expressive change through subtle change of tempo.
coladeira Cape Verdean traditional vocal form with verses and refrain.
cavaquinho A high-pitched strummed and plucked chordophone.
gamelan A large Indonesian ensemble consisting mainly of metallophones.
colotomic function Time-keeping function of gongs in the Indonesian gamelan.
gamelan gong kebyar See gong kebyar.
circular breathing Technique for maintaining an unbroken tone on a wind instrument by breathing in through the nose and constantly forcing air out through the mouth.
beating tones Acoustical phenomenon perceived as a shimmering quality when two slightly different pitches are played at the same time.
rhythmic cycle A repeating rhythmic sequence that may be subdivided in complex and constantly changing ways.
interlocking parts Instrumental or vocal parts in which silences on one part occur simultaneously with sound in another, creating the sense of a single musical line.
polos First part in Balinese interlocking parts (koketan).
angsel Sudden break following a unison sound in gamelan kebyar music.
folk music revival Interest in traditional music and dance associated with American counterculture in the 1950s.
tremolo A regular fluctuation or “trembling” of a sound, produced by varying the intensity of the sound.
blue note Lowered third (and sometimes seventh) scale degree in blues and jazz.
broadside English or American narrative poem of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, printed on one side of a page, generally addressing contemporary events and personalities.
viol Bowed chordophone used in fifteenth- to eighteenth-century Europe.