Suggested areas of
inquiry when writing up your recording reviews or event summaries:
1. Value
of the music to the society producing/consuming it
2. Genres
3. Forms
4. Versions
or variations encountered: e.g.,
regional, tribal, local, individual
5. Creativity
allowed or not allowed the musician
6. Compositional
techniques
7. Improvisational
techniques
8. Performance
practice (who performs?)
9. ³Audience²
reaction/interaction
10. Interrelationship
of performing media
11. Age and sex roles
of performers; status of musicians
12. Vocal production
and style
13. Instruments and
instrumental techniques
14. Location of
musical event; indoor or outdoor performance
15. Ceremonial and/or
social event
16. Use of space for
performance
17. Direction of movement
or dance
18. Use of shouts,
cries, imitation of animals as indicators of form or as symbols
19. Relationship of
text to music
20. Number and kinds
of repetitions as indicators of form or as symbols
21. Rhythmic
organization/isorhythm
22. Scale/melodic
contour
23. Dynamics: e.g., adding and subtracting layers of
sound to change volume
24. Origin of the
music: real or
conceptual/ideological
Information on the Recording Summaries
Review an entire recording (cassette, LP, CD, or video) and submit a 4 - 5 page, double-spaced write-up that describes your findings about the particular genre or genres, instruments, and musicians featured in the recording. Refer to class discussions when possible and cite at least two additional reference (liner notes count as one source; Grove New Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Garland Encyclopedia of World Musics, etc.). Graduate students must cite at least four references.
1. Recording Summary: You are required to submit papers discussing the music on an entire recording (vinyl, cassette, CD, video, or film). Don't forget that you must discuss all of the songs on the recording, if briefly. Start with an overview of the contents of the recordings, then discuss the musical similarities and differences between songs, incorporating information about how world view is connected with the songs, if possible.
You may include the kind of information listed below. This requires a good set of liner notes (notes accompanying the recording) on the music you are summarizing. If there are no notes or they are missing, you must still provide as much of the following information as possible, applying some information to each piece. The extra research sources should help.
1. Discography: Start with the title of the recording and the names of performers; identify the cultural group(s). Provide the record company and record number of the recording, and also the music library accession number if you heard the recording there.
2. Discuss the musical instruments; refer to instrument classification system for any unusual instruments or combinations of instruments;
3. Pitch inventory: does this music use many pitches or only a few? If you have a music background can you comment on the range employed and/or any discernable scales?
5. Is there a melody you can hum? Is a speaking style used?
6. Can you describe any notable uses of tone quality (timbre)? Examples: use of mutes, different plucking or strumming techniques, use of "buzzers," different vocal styles.
7. Are there specific cultural terms used to describe musical elements or concepts?
8. How are rhythmic patterns created? percussive, melodic, emphasis of loud or soft tones, with the breath? Is the rhythm free or measured? Is the rhythm regular or irregular? Are different rhythms used at the same time, creating polyrhythm? Linear (use of meter) or cyclic rhythmic organization?
9. Form:
Linear (as in W. music: beginning and end, and internal progression)
strophic (parallel verse form) or
through composed (changes as it goes along)
Cyclic (repeated cycles, such as call and response, improvisation on a
harmonic pattern in jazz)
10. One part music: monophony, unison, octaves
11. Multipart music: polyphony (simplest is melody over drone; simiple canons)
homophony - use of chords
12. Discuss different cultural influences in the music.
Does
syncretism occur? (merging of different
cultural forms)