Western world exam

Jingju (Beijing Opera)

A Chinese theatrical tradition originating in Beijing, characterized by four main role types (Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou), stylized speech, piercing nasal vocal delivery, and an ensemble dominated by gongs, clappers, and the jinghu.

Uyghurs

A predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic minority community native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China.

Muqam

A large-scale Uyghur classical musical suite integrating sung poetry, instrumental music, dance tunes, and complex modal frameworks.

Tambur (Uyghur)

A long-necked, plucked lute with five steel strings and moveable frets, serving as a principal melodic instrument in Uyghur traditional art music.

Uyghur dance

A traditional expressive dance form distinguished by rapid wrist rotations, expressive head and neck shifts, shoulder bounces, and lively footwork.

Gagaku

The classical court music of Japan, preserved by the Imperial Household Agency for court rituals and Shinto banquets, featuring slow tempos, paused phrasing, and heterophonic textures.

Kabuki theater

A classical Japanese dance-drama originating in the 17th century, known for elaborate face makeup (kumadori), stylized dramatic poses (mie), revolving stagecraft, and historically all-male acting troupes.

Koto

A traditional Japanese plucked zither containing 13 strings supported by moveable bridges, played using picks worn on the thumb and first two fingers.

Morin Khuur

A traditional bowed string instrument of Mongolia, known as the horsehead fiddle, featuring two horsehair strings and a carved horse head atop the pegbox.

Khoomei

A Mongolian overtone throat-singing technique in which a performer produces a deep fundamental drone while simultaneously tuning vocal tract resonances to sound clear, whistling harmonic melodies.

Corrido

A Mexican narrative folk ballad tradition sung in Spanish, historically used to recount tales of social struggle, heroes, outlaws, and regional events in strophic verses.

Folkloric dance

A staged, choreographically preserved traditional dance style reflecting regional cultural identity; a primary example is Mexico's Baile Folklórico (such as the Jarabe Tapatío).

Son Jarocho

A regional folk music style from Veracruz, Mexico, blending indigenous, Spanish, and Afro-Caribbean elements, driven by instruments like the jarana and requinto, and performed at community fandangos.

Clave

Both a pair of resonant wooden percussion sticks and the foundational asymmetrical syncopated rhythmic ostinato (typically structured in a 3-2 or 2-3 pattern) central to Afro-Cuban music.

Son Cubano

An influential Cuban musical genre originating in eastern rural regions that blended Spanish vocal and lyrical forms with African percussion and syncopation, establishing the roots of modern salsa.

Mambo

A high-energy Afro-Cuban ballroom dance genre developed in the 1940s that combined the syncopated pulse of son music with American big band jazz horn arrangements and layered brass riffs.

Peruvian sikuri ensemble

A communal music group from the Andean highlands of Peru playing paired bamboo panpipes (sikus) through interlocking hocket patterns accompanied by bombos, open traditionally to community male participation.

Maqam

The modal system of melodic composition and improvisation in Arab classical music, defined by specific scales, melodic motives, microtonal inflections, and emotional associations.

Dastgah

The modal melodic system of Persian (Iranian) classical art music, comprising twelve primary modal frameworks each encompassing smaller melodic formulas known as gushehs.

Ud

A pear-shaped, short-necked, fretless chordophone with five or six paired courses of strings, played with a long plectrum and central to Arab and Middle Eastern classical traditions.

Qanun

A trapezoidal plucked board zither strung with multiple courses of strings and equipped with small metal levers (mandals) that allow the player to modulate microtonal intervals in Arab art music.

Santur

A trapezoidal hammered dulcimer of Persian origin, played by striking seventy-two metal strings with two lightweight wooden hammers called mezrabs.

Buzuq

A long-necked, fretted lute strung with metal strings and played with a plectrum, widely found in Levant folk traditions and modern urban music.

Dabke

A traditional Levantine Arab line-and-circle folk dance performed at weddings and festivals, driven by coordinated stomping, jumping, and shoulder movements, representing community solidarity and national identity.

Mijwiz

A traditional Levantine single-reed folk instrument constructed from two parallel bamboo or reed pipes, producing a piercing double sound through continuous circular breathing.

Sufi Dhikr Ceremony

A devotional ritual within Sufism designed for the repetitive remembrance of God through chanting and ecstatic spinning (as practiced by Mevlevi Whirling Dervishes to shed the worldly ego), increasingly exhibited for cultural tourism.

Fairuz

A globally renowned Lebanese singer famous for pioneering modern Arab vocal music alongside the Rahbani brothers, blending traditional maqam forms with Western orchestration on songs like 'Kifak Inta' and 'Nassam Alayna al-Hawa'.

Monophony to Polyphony transition (Middle Ages)

The historical musical progression from single-line, unaccompanied liturgical plainchant (Gregorian chant) toward multi-voice, independent contrapuntal settings such as organum and motets.

Vielle

A primary bowed string instrument of the European Middle Ages, featuring five strings, a flat back, and front-facing tuning pegs, widely utilized by troubadours and minstrels.

Hildegard von Bingen

A 12th-century German Benedictine abbess, mystic, and composer who authored expressive, wide-ranging sacred monophonic chants and the liturgical morality drama 'Ordo Virtutum'.

Guido d'Arezzo

An 11th-century Italian Benedictine monk and music theorist credited with standardizing modern four-line staff notation and inventing solmization (ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la) using the Guidonian hand mnemonic.

Characteristics of the Renaissance in arts and culture

A revival marked by humanism, classical antiquity, linear perspective and naturalism in visual arts, and balanced, smooth polyphonic vocal textures centered around thirds, sixths, and triadic harmony in music.

Word Painting

A Renaissance compositional technique where melodic shapes, rhythms, and textures literally reflect the specific textual imagery of the lyrics (such as ascending notes for climbing or rapid passages for running).

Point of Imitation

A polyphonic compositional device in Renaissance music where each vocal voice enters consecutively at staggered intervals singing the same initial melodic motive before developing freely.