Music Lit

Chapters 1-4

ethnomusicologist

A scholar who studies music in its cultural context, examining how music reflects and shapes social identities.

musicultural

music traditions of diverse world cultures

gamelan

A traditional ensemble music from Indonesia, primarily using percussion instruments, particularly metallophones, bronze instruments and gongs.

ensembles

groups of musicians playing together in close coordination; though the symphony orchestra and the gamelan are large, however, the orchestra is considerably larger in terms of the total number of musicians.

Composed

created and worked out in advance of its performance rather than in the moment of performance

percussion instruments

drums, cymbals, and melodic instruments like the orchestra’s xylophone and the gamelan’s gangsa

string instruments

violin and cello and wind instruments like the flute, clarinet, and trumpet. 

polyphony

  means “multiple sounds” (from the Latin poly = many, phony = sounds)