Non-Western Classical Music Traditions

gamelan

the traditional music ensemble of Indonesia’s Javanese, Sudanese, and Balinese peoples. A traditional ensemble mainly consists of percussion instruments, including gongs (horizontal, like bonang and kenong, or hanging, like kempul), xylophones (like saron and gambang), and double-headed drums (kendhang). These ensembles often play karawitan music to accompany ceremonies, dances, and wayang shadow puppetry performances. These pieces (known as gendhing) feature cyclic rhythmic patterns, a melodic framework known as a balungan, and are separated into gatras (the equivalent of measures or bars in western music). This music usually features the pentatonic slendro or heptatonic pélog scales. This style piece “Puspawarna” was included on the Voyager Golden Record. Hearing this music at the 1889 Paris Exposition inspired the later work of composer Claude Debussy.

piphat ensemble

of Thailand, comprised of xylophones called renat, a set of gongs called khong wong yai, quadruple-reed woodwinds known as pi (similar to an oboe), drums called taphon, and cymbals called ching. Written music is not used for a performance; instead, the player of the khong wong yai plays a fundamental form of a melody, and the other instruments elaborate on that melody. Genres of works for this ensemble include the phleng thao, which consists of three sections of increasing tempo. These pieces are often inspired by nature, Buddhism, love, or other ethnic groups; the well-known pieces “Khaek Borathet” and “Khamen Sai Yok” are about Muslim travelers and a famous waterfall, respectively. This is closely related to the Lao pinphat and Khmer pinpeat.

classical music of India

generally subdivided into northern Hindustani music and southern Carnatic, which diverged around the 12th century due to Persian influence. This music is based on melodies known as ragas and rhythmic patterns known as talas. Pieces are anchored by a drone on the tonic (sa) and fifth (pa) of the ragas; today, many modern performers may employ an electronic drone box instead of having a live performer play the drone on a tanpura. Improvisational Hindustani genres include the austere dhrupad and the more elaborate khyal. Carnatic music concerts, known as kachheri, feature more structured pieces, such as varnams and kritis. In addition to a vocalist and a drummer on a tabla (Hindustani) or mridangam (Carnatic), performances may include stringed sitars and vinas, as well as reed flutes. Ravi Shankar was an influential performer of the 20th century and inspired the Beatles to include Indian elements in many songs.

music of China

less defined by genres and more defined by the instruments used in its performance. The guqin (known historically as just the qin) is a long, unfretted, seven-stringed plucked zither with a history stretching back thousands of years. Notable works for the guqin include “Gao Shan Liu Shui” (“High Mountain Flowing Water”), composed by Bo Ya during the Zhou dynasty; a recording of the work, as played by Guan Pinghu, was included on the Voyager Golden Record. Many guqin works have been adapted for other similar plucked string instruments, such as the guzheng. Other instruments include the dizi, a side-blown bamboo flute; the pipa, a four-stringed lute; and the erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument. Many modern composers, including notable film score and concert composer Tan Dun, have paired traditional instruments with the classical Western orchestra in their works.

music of Japan

mostly features a pentatonic scale, known as yo, and emphasizes ma, the space between sounds. Gagaku is music of the historical court that was heavily influenced by Chinese practices; its instruments include a lute called the biwa, a double-reed woodwind called the hichiriki, the zither-like koto, and a 17-pipe mouth organ called the sho. The shamisen is a three-stringed, guitar-like instrument often used to accompany traditional kabuki theater in a style of music known as nagauta. The shakuhachi is an end-blown bamboo flute often associated with the meditative practices of Zen Buddhist monks. Their percussive music includes the taiko drumming (known as wadaiko) using large, end-struck, double-headed, barrel-like drums; mythologically, taiko drumming is rooted in a story in which the sun goddess Amaterasu was lured out of hiding by loud dancing on an empty barrel.

Arabic traditional music

often subdivided into the music of the Middle East and the Andalusi music of North Africa and Muslim Spain. Music of the Middle East focuses on melodic modes called maqans and rhythmic patterns called iqa’at, which are split into measures called awzan. Much Middle Eastern music is performed by small takht ensembles, using instruments such as the oud (lute), qanun (zither), kamanja (a bowed string similar to a violin), and the darbuka (drum). Concerts feature sets of works called waslas, which may include pieces in the muwashshah genre, based on excerpts of classical poetry. Andalusi music includes works known as nubas, which include vocal and instrumental preludes and a main section known as a mizan. Andalusi instruments include the rebab, a bowed string instrument from the first millennium that may have influenced European viols and violins. Andalusi music also influenced the music of many Jewish communities of Spain and North Africa.

Turkish classical music

centers on the makam, derived from the Arabic maqam—modes or melodic systems defined by cesni (“flavor”) and seyir (“journeys”) of melodic development. A maqam is fitted to a rhythmic pattern called an usul, which incorporates tempo, meter, and style. Performances comprise secular vocal fasils, which include instrumental taksim and vocal gazel parts. This shares many instruments with the Arabic musical tradition, including the oud, qanun, rebab, and darbuka; it also features the bendir and def frame drums. Their notation and music theory was influenced by Europeans such as the Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir and Giuseppe Donizetti, the brother of famed opera composer Gaetano Donizetti. Their mehterhâne ensembles inspired Western janissary bands and were referenced in certain works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. This place also has a folk tradition of bards called asiks, who sing epics called dastans accompanied by the baglama lute.

Persian classical music

from Iran to Tajikistan, also derived from Arabic music. In Iran, the radif repertoire comprises seven primary modes called dastgahs (akin to maqams) and uses fixed melodies called goshas. The goshas of a dastgah are connected to build a five-part suite with a pesh dar-amad prelude; rhythmic, virtuosic chaharmizrab; improvisational avaz; ballad-like tasnif; and rapid rang. Tasnif lyrics may draw from classical poetry or current events, such as the song “Morqe Sahar (“Bird of Morning”), which has been used to protest against both the early-20th-century shahs and Iran’s modern theocracy. Common instruments include the tar and setar lutes and santur dulcimer, all played by the blind musicologist Nur-Ali Borumand; the bowed kamancha, played by Grammy winner Kayhan Kalhor; the nay reed flute; and the tunbak drum. Iranian music developed into the Tajik and Uzbek shashmaqam (“six-mode”) tradition, with instruments like the tanbur lute, two-stringed dutar, and sata (an Uzbek setar). A shashmaqam piece is divided into the instrumental mushkilat and vocal nasr sections.

jeliya music

of the Mandé peoples of West Africa, traditionally played by jèli or griots, the musicians-historians-storytellers who formed an aristocratic caste that accompanied the kings of the Mali Empire. The Kuyate dynasty of griots descends from Bala Faseke, the griot of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. Instruments include the bala, a gourd-resonated xylophone; the ngoni, similar to a banjo; and the kora, a 21-stringed “harp-lute” made famous in the West by virtuosos like the Malian Toumani Diabaté and Gambian Sona Jobarteh. Tonality and modality are more casual and relative in jèliya, and tuning is important but flexible; meter often consists of a repeating set of two phrases of beats, most commonly 4 + 4, and hemiola is common. The structure of jèlliya comprises vocal parts—the basic donkilo and recitative sataro melodies—and instrumental parts—the rapid, flighty birimitingo and the underlying kunbengo ostinato. Pieces are often improvisational and may employ call-and-response.

mbira

a “thumb piano” central to the musical tradition of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. One consists of over twenty metal tines fitted to a hardwood soundboard called a gwariva; the metal tines are plucked with the thumbs and forefingers to produce sound. A calabash, or fiberglass resonator known as a deze, may be used to amplify the instrument’s sound. Traditional duets consist of a leading kushaura part and a following kutsinhira part, played as a call and response. Often, the kutsinhira is similar to the kushaura but a beat behind; the beat is kept with the rattling of the maraca-like hosho. The most common tuning is Nyamaropa, which corresponds to the western Mixolydian mode. This music has been popularized in the west by players like Dumisani Maraire and the chimurenga pop music of Thomas Mapfumo. Musicologist Hugh Tracey created a Westernized version of this called the kalimba.