World Music - Year 9 - In Tune with Music

Chinese Music

Features of traditional Chinese instrumental music:

  1. the use of the pentatonic scale

  2. heterophonic texture - that is, the simultaneous playing of one melody by two or more instruments at least one playing slight variations

  3. the predominance of duple metre

  4. rhythm and tempo used flexibly for expressive purposes; passages are not always played at a steady tempo.

  5. the importance of intonation (the accuracy of pitch in playing or singing) for expressive effects such as pitch bends, sliding between notes and vibrato

  6. the use of traditional instruments

Bowed Strings:

  • Erhu (voice-like mystical)

Plucked Strings:

  • Pipa (banjo-like)

  • Zheng (quiet, twangy harp-like sound)

  • Yangqin (bright, tinny echoing sound)

Winds:

  • Dizi (sweet, slightly nasal recorder-like tone)

Percussion:

  • wood blocks, clappers, drums, chimes, bronze bells, gongs & cymbals

Irish Music:

Features of Irish instrumental music:

  1. dance-based, for example jigs and reels

  2. lively tempos

  3. heterophonic texture

  4. the use of traditional instruments

  5. the use of ornamentation - slides & extra notes - by the melody instruments to ‘decorate’ the melody

  6. simple forms, with repeated sections.

Chordophones:

  • fiddle

  • Celtic harp

  • guitar

  • banjo

Aerophones:

  • tin whistle

  • wooden flute

  • bagpipes

  • concertina

  • accordion

Membranophones:

  • bodhran (hand drum)

Idiophones:

  • bones (rhythm sticks)

Aboriginal Music

Features of Aboriginal music:

  1. A core ensemble of one or two singers, each with a percussion instrument (usually clapsticks) & a didgeridoo player

  2. Use of an Aboriginal language

  3. Short melodic sections, which often descend in pitch, either by step or by sliding.

  4. A regular pulse, either clapped or beaten by the singers on their clapsticks or boomerangs

  5. The underlying drone of the didgeridoo

  6. Thin texture resulting from a single melody line with little instrumental accompaniment.

Caribbean Music:

Features of Caribbean Music:

  1. the importance of rhythm, especially ostinatos

  2. the predominance of idiophones & membranophones

  3. polyrhythms

  4. call-and-response

  5. syncopation

  6. improvisation

  7. the close association between music & dance

Membranophones:

  • Conga drums - deep, hollow sound

  • Timbales - tom-tom sounds, metal rims/shells can be struck.

Idiophones:

  • Cabaza - large round gound strung with beads

  • Chocallo - hollow metal glider containing beads which are shaken

  • Gogo bells - two bellos, different sizers struk with drum stick

  • Steel drums - ping-ponged pans, guitar pans & cellopans, booms.

Polynesian Music:

Features of Polynesian Music:

  1. Primarily vocal music

  2. the chant-like nature of songs

  3. harmony singing

  4. the use of vocal drones

  5. songs accompanied by body percussion (for example, slaps & claps), drums & various idiophones such as rattles and slit-log drums.

  6. Energetic drum rhythms.

Andean Music:

Features of Andean Music:

  1. an ensemble of five or six male musicians

  2. traditional instruments, particularly the aerophones

  3. unison & harmony singing

  4. spanish & native indian songs

  5. syncopated rhythms

  6. repeated percussion accompaniments.

Aerophones:

  • Panpipes - eerie, breathy, flute-like sound

  • Quena - mellow, haunting, recorder-like

Chordophones:

  • Charango - brittle, high-pitched, plucked/strummed.

Membranophone:

  • Bombo - dull, deep thud, played with sticks.

African Music:

Features of African Music:

  1. the importance of rhythm

  2. the use of traditional instruments

  3. the predominance of idiophones and membranophones (except in South Africa)

  4. ostinatos - repeated rhythmic and/or melodic ideas - as a means of structure a piece

  5. polyrhythms - the simultaneous playing or singing of different rhythms by performers who frequent begin at various times.

  6. call-and-response - a structure in which two separate phrases are sung or played by different musicians in successions, the second phrase answering the first

  7. unchanging tempos

  8. singing in tribal languages