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From: Nightingale <sing@music.ca>
Newsgroups: alt.music
Subject: Re: What are the *Most General* Categories of Music??? what are the main 'traditions'??
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 22:00:52 -0400
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Adam Golding wrote:
>
> what you say sounds mostly reasonable, but i should clarify that i'm
> mainly interested in identifying the main 'traditions' of music, not
> the genres--i.e. i know that bach and stravinsky are very different,
> but that they are both part of the art music 'tradition' and that i
> will encounter them, simply by finding out who is important in *that
> tradition*--but that method will only expose me to the music that is
> important in traditions i already know about--which is why i want to
> figure out what all the various traditions could be said to be..
>
Here are the categories I was taught, dividing world music into 8
musical regions. Perhaps this is broader than you were looking for.
1. Europe, including classical, folk & popular
-ensembles of instruments and/or singers
-multi-voice textures
-most rhythm clearly metrical
-large variety of instruments
-notation from about 800 & elaborate music theory
-composition more important than improvisation
2. Native America
-singing solo, or groups singing monophonically
-almost the only instruments are drums and rattles
-scale with 5 or fewer tones
-much repetition of single pitch or phrase, descending lines
-pulsating rhythm in both voice and percussion
-long sections of melody with no meaningful text
3. Pacific
-multi-voice texture, both traditional harmonies & western church influenced
-limited instruments - mostly drums, rattles, flutes & strings
-choral or instrumental ensembles
-much melodic repetition, but forms can be long & irregular
-tempo changes are used to structure piece
4. South-east Asia
-Gamelan
-variety of instruments, metal predominates
-stratified texture - faster rhythms at higher pitches
-melodies repeated, ostinato patterns with variations
-pentatonic scale, based on either division of octave into 5 or 7 rather
than 12 semitones.
-music often linked to theatre - puppets, live action, dance
5. East Asia
-both folk & classical traditions with long written history & theory
-pentatonic scales, although which 5 varies from country to country
-some melodic repetition, but plays small role in total structure
-monophonic texture, sometimes with drum accompaniment
-relatively slow rhythms - rhythm not emphasised, timbre more important
-huge variety of instruments
-also gongs, but unlike South-east Asia, they are not with a definite pitch
6. India, South-west Asia, Middle East, North Africa
-also both folk & classical trad. with long written history & theory
-up to 24 pitches to the octave
-long sections with little or no melodic repetition
-highly ornamented melodies
-basic textures: melody, melody + drone, melody + drum
-includes both metrical and non-metrical sections, pieces divided into
contrasting sections
-in theory could have measures of up to 100 beats (I think I would lose
track long before the end of a measure in that case!)
-improvisation more important than composition
7. Sub-Saharan Africa
-variety of cultural types & music
-buzzing timbre in instruments & voices
-emphasis on percussive quality of sound - striking, shaking, plucking
-short melodic patterns repeated, with improvised variations
-multivoice textures, sometimes implied
-complex rhythms
-call & response
-emphasis on community participation rather than separation of
performers and audience
8. New World America
-European musical instruments and harmony
-also instruments from African influence
-variety of polyphonic textures
-complex metric/rhythmic layering, syncopated rhythms
-relatively short forms with melodic repetition
-sections based on repeated chord progression with improvisation
-call & response
-examples included Louis Armstrong & Bryan Adams
--
Ye choirs of new Jerusalem,
your sweetest notes employ,
the Paschal victory to hymn
in strains of holy joy.
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