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MUS-Musical Cultures

Uploaded: 4 years ago
Contributor: Tana Anderson
Category: Music Studies
Type: Lecture Notes
Rating: N/A
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Filename:   MUS-Musical Cultures.docx (18.37 kB)
Page Count: 2
Credit Cost: 1
Views: 138
Last Download: N/A
Transcript
General Education 1: Musical Cultures Compared to Western Music Traditions Analyzing pitch in different cultures has broadened my understanding of the traditions and influence that inspire the music we hear today and how it was formed. Learning about the behavioral patterns and contextual factors helps train our listening to determine the pitch and melodic range in Western music. Found in the Native American culture, specifically from a study from Chapter 4B. The Western Pitch System and the Octave and Chapter 2 on powwow celebrations and traditional Arapaho songs from the Great Plains region, the defining feature of this music is the melodic contour and modulation. The pitch is organized through descending melodic phrases, such as that found in ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’. It is discernable through the major key, which Western listeners have been culturally conditioned to have a ‘happy connotation’. On page 55 of Chapter 4C. Common Scales in Western Music, the cultural influences of African music is discussed in blues scales in the key of Bb (B-flat). It is considered a Hexatonic, which contains six main pitches. It also combines African and Western scales to produce the sound of major and minor keys in the same scale. The blues scale can be heard in Etta James’ rendition of “In the Evening”. Another world culture music found Chapter 4D. Pitch and Scales in Non-Western Music, studies is Indonesian Gamelan music, the Indian term for ensemble, many pertaining mostly percussion instruments. It contains two main pitch systems, pelog and slendro. They both contain five notes per octave, but unlike the Western pentatonic scale, they sound ‘out of tune’ to most Western listeners. They have 22 distinct pitches per octave, called Raga, the system melodic motives in seven-tone scales that are found in classical musical traditions of India. Found in the musical traditions of the Middle East discussed in Chapter 12 and Chapter 4D. Pitch and Scales in Non-Western Music, much of Arab traditional music is composed from microtones, systems of tiny intervals. It contains 24 pitches per octave, compared to the traditional Western 12. A key feature of Arab music has special sophisticated decoration of the main melody notes, called ornamentation. This style offers different levels of articulation, staccato, a clipped note, and legato, a sustained note.

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