Music 407
Chapter 1:
What is world music?
A Point of Departure:
Five Propositions for Exploring World Music
1. The basic property of all music is SOUND * Tone – the duration (length), frequency (pitch), amplitude (loudness), timbre (quality of sound). * All sounds have the potential to be tones
2. The sounds (and silences) that comprise a musical work organized in some way * Music is a form of organized sound * Listening: CD 1:1 (Beethoven’s Symphony #9) & CD 1:2 (Japanese gagaku) 3. Sounds are organized into music by people thus; music is a form of humanly organized sound * Music is a human phenomenon * Human creation vs. sounds found in nature
4. Music is a product of human intention and perception
* Listening: Traditional Blues * Delta Blues CD 1:17 * Modern Blues CD 1:18 * A blend of the blues and khoomeii (CD 1:5)

Chapter 3: How Music Works
The Four Basic Properties of Tones * Duration = Rhythm; how long or how short a tone is * Frequency = Pitch; how low or high a tone is * Amplitude = Dynamics; how loud or how soft a tone is * Timbre = Tone color, sound quality; what they sound like Rhythm * How the silence and sounds of music are organized in time * Note * Rest * Figure 3.1, p.33
Beat
* Underlying pulse known as the beat * Can be marked out or implied
Subdivision
* More than one note per beat in a piece of music * Duple subdivision of the beat * Example: The Alphabet Song * Triple subdivision of the beat * Example: Row, Row, Row your boat
Meter
* Beats grouped in a systematic way. (Tells you how to organize the time.) * Measure or Bar * Each group of beats * Meter * Number of beats in a bar * Duple – Egyptian dance rhythm CD 1:11 * Triple – “Celito Lindo” CD 1:21 * Back beat – “A funny way of asking” by Charles Atkins CD 1:19 * Odd number groupings in meter – Romanian brass band CD1:22 * Seven fast beats per measure (2+2+3) * Metrical Cycle *