Ronald Cross

Music Cultures of the World

Some musical knowledge needed for this course

Korean komungo

The music of other cultures can be based on different intervals, tonal systems, and concepts of rhythm.  It can have a very different purpose. Western music is only one style of many styles of music.  Each culture has its own concept of tonality, its theory and historical development.  Concepts of popular and commercial music may be alien to many cultures.  An understanding of pentatonic and tetrachordal musical systems is a point of beginning.

The course provides an introduction to the world's great music cultures outside the West: music from North Africa (the Maghrib), the near and Middle East, Greece, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Kashmir, the canonical music of India (Hindustani and Carnatic), Tibet, the khöömii ("throat singing") of Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Indonesian scales and instruments of the gamelan, musical systems and instruments of the Far East (China, Korea, Japan).

Learning about world geography and the culture, history and religion of the world's peoples is essential.  The origins of music is one of the most important aspects from which to gain insight into Comparative Ethnomusicology, the "simple song" and the music of indigenous peoples--music of Australian Aborigines, the Ainu, the Fataleka, the Kanak, and other Pacific areas, the Bunan, Temiar, the Vedda of Asia, the Joik of the Saami, the music sub-Saharan Africa, and other indigenous music of the Gran Chaco of Argentina and Kayopo of Brazil (including the candomblé of Amazonia and the Bahia) as well as the K'antu and San Juan of the Altimara, and the mystic, profound, but powerful spirituality of Inuit and Native American music. Fascinating traces of antiquity are found in the folk music of the Balkans, Italy, Spain, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, the U.S. and Mexico.

Sioux Grass Dance (War Dance) performed at a powwow.  Inuit perfroming Inngerutit                     Nay flute, Tunisia    Oriental Ensemble, Palestinian National Conservatory,  nai, kanun, rebec, ,ūd, dombek,drum                   Taureg on camel  Near Eastern saz, ūd,  kānun, nay, tof              Turkmen & instruments      Azerbaijan ashiq performers          Indonesian gamelan   Other instruments of the gamelan                  Above, various types of bronze drums,  the characteristic instrument of the Dongson Culture (also known in music as the "gong-chime" culture                     Imperial Orchestra of Korea: Pyen Kyang (sixteen slab lithophone), Pyen jeng (sixteen bronze bells), piripiri  (type of oboe), taegeum (flute), kayageum (twelve-string zither)      P'ansori pook and P'ansori performer  Tibetan trumpets    Sitar and tabla                                       Some recent concerts include Celtic Fiddle Festival      Native American Music     Sri Ganesh Kunar, South Indian percussionist            Odissi Dance of India, Indian Dance Theater     Music of the Arab World     Ravi Shankar, sitar Music of Hawaii Musicians from Mali Griot music from Sub-Saharan Africa The Whirling Dervishes of Turkey Qawwali music from Pakistan Buddhist music from Korea Classical Persian Music Music of the Ainu P’ansori, the ancient Korean folk art Music of Afghanistan, with rubab (the national instrument of Afghanistan), dohl and singer Kronos Quartet with Wu Man

Chinese opera The Peony Pavilion (from a recent Lincoln Center production) Above:  " jing" (painted face) role Middle:  Wen Yu Hang as Willow Dream of Plum Below:  Qian Yi as Beautiful Du   A shakuhachi, perhaps the world's most beautiful flute    Japanese koto player.  The best known and most beloved of Japanese instruments by Americans is the koto            Left, Saami (Lapp) womahaving finished singing a joik.  Right, alphorn trio from Romania Instruments unique to the altiplano  Included in the conjunto are k'antu, the ancient Incan panpipe, the Incan harp, a large drum,  usually a guitar cuatro (a small four-string guitar), and possibly a violin and a small drum. Music of the altiplano is usually in the Cuechua language  Andean harp has a large sounding board and an unusual shape characteristic of the Chechua of Peru The Andean panpipe (Kantu)            Left, mbiras from the Shora of Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the best known instruments of the region           A group of Rashaida of Eritrea singing       Vietnamese orchestra       Tuvans playing and singing with khoomii (overtone singing)      Vedda of Sri Lanka    Pashtun of Afghanistan     Tolai Tubuan ceremony, Papua New Guniea    Kanak of New Calidonia     Australian aborigine, didjeridu   Batak of  Sumatra    Music examples Hindustani, sitar and tablā (rāga Behag, Tin tāla) Shah Mast, National Afghan Dance Koto, Sakura (Japanese folk melody) Ich Agh, Berber Rwais The Lover's Hair, Iranian tasnif Puirt a beul (Scottish song)