Music of Africa and Asia Listening Test

• Southern Africa
• Mbira (thumb piano)
• Karimba - later development of mbira
• Bira ceremonies (singing, dancing, handclapping)
• Shona people
• All night ceremony
• Call to ancestral spirits for guidance and intervention

Examples

African Zimbabwe Mbira Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdw5IoqUOhs&index=1&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

Mbira Music Materpiece Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKbfUEhjuH4&index=2&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• Central Africa, equatorial rainforest 
• "Pygmies"
• Polyphonic singing
• Typically minor pentatonic scale
• Improvisational
• Hunting ceremonies

Examples

Human Planet - BaAka Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX8YPAXebyc&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp&index=4

• Agbekor ensemble 
• Agbe - life, Kor - clear
• Originally played as a war dance
• Also played at funerals
• Ewe people - Ghana + Togo
• Pulse/timeline/rhythm/metre
• Notated using TUBS - Time Limit Box System
• African peoples have no term for rhythm 
• Gankogui - cow bell-like instrument
• Axatse - wooden maraca-like round with beads/shells 
• Kaganu - narrow drum

Examples

Jason Aryeh Research Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NUjDKOiyas&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp&index=5

Agbekor Ewe Music and Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOlgMgZkAQQ&index=6&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• Mali, Guinea + Gambia
• Kora - 21 strings, cross between harp and lute
• Bala - wooden xylophone
• Mande culture
• Griot/Jeli is a west African musician/story teller
• Weddings, baptisms, funerals

Examples

Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko 1999 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTDuahaXwg&index=8&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• Mali
• Popular since 1970s
• Kamalengoni - 6 stringed 'youth' harp
• Masked dance performances 
• Mostly female singers - Oumou Sangare

Examples

Ambience de Wassoulou https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_93yqU13ABA

• Lila ritual
• Islamic
• M'allem - male musical leader
• Jinn spirit possesion
• Trance - jadba - state
• Qraqab - metal castanets
• Gimbri - 3 string lute

Examples

Moroccon Gnawa Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlLwDnls4rM&index=10&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• North west Asia
• Islamic "mysticism"
• Sema ritual as part of Dhikr ritual
• Repeating prayers to remember Allah 
• Uses music to reach the ultimate goal of experiencing the absolute reality of Allah
• Trance music
• Excitational trance - psycological disturbances through much physical exhaustion 
• Much like meditation
• Ney (flute)
• Kemence (bowed fiddle)
• Kudum (drum)
• Tanbur (fretted plucked lute)

Examples

Sema Ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S45OJnQp6mI&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp&index=11

Mevlana Sufi Music and Sema Ritual https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlkt2vD1L9k&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp&index=12

• Mugham - musical concept denoting specific modes, motifs + improvisation
• Performed by trio led by voice
• Can be solo/instrumental
• Daf (drum)
• Tar (stringed plucked lute)
• Kamancha (4 stringed fiddle)
• Can include nagara (drums)
• Alim Qasimov - foremost mugham singer 
• Played in folk performances/settings

Examples

Azerbaijani Mugham Concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOV1K1HvJLw&index=13&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• Hindustani Rag
• Sarangi (bowed, short necked string instrument)
• Tabla (membranaphone percussion instrument)
• Sitar (plucked string instrument)
• Sarod (4 stringed lute)
• Raga - complex tonal framework for composition and improvisation
• Played at social occasions
• Spiritual music
• In praise to hindu gods

Examples

Sarod and Table Instrumental https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=163ZNz_5coE&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp&index=14

Anoushka Shankar Classical Rag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wra4p4zARw&index=15&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• Pakistan, North India, parts of Bangladesh
• Sufism, Islam
• Played in shrines, religious music
• Also in popular music
• Massive Attack remixed the song Mustt Mustt by Nusrat Fateh 
• 15-30 mins long
• Harmonium/pump organ

Examples 

Tum Ek Gorakh Dhanda Ho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alMEZfaAYq4&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp&index=16

• Bali - gong kebyar 
• Polyphonic
• Inner melody
• Sudan, West Java - gamelan degung
• Polyphonic
• Heterophonic
• Played at celebrations, theatres, alongside poetry
• Metallophones
• Kendhang (two headed drum)

Examples

Indonesian Gamelan Medley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZTfu4jWcI&index=17&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• Ca Tru - chamber music
• Originates in northern Vietnam
• Played in villages and communal houses
• Rituals and feasts
• Competitions
• Banquets + opium smoking houses
• 5 kho phases 
• Dan day (3 stringed lute)
• Chan van - ritual music 
• Spiritual posession/medium rituals 
• Evoking spirits

Examples 

Ca Tru Vietnam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMGWe74__KA

• Phi Phat ensemble 
• Classical music of Thailand 
• Large gong circles + xylophones
• Polyphonic
• Melodies - groups of 4 pitches marked by patterns on the ching (hand cymbals)
• Used for the interpretation of Thai classical repetoire of the buddhist Sathukan 
• Also for accompanying shadow puppet performances and classical dance 

Examples

Phiphat Ensemble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Z5HAYjCcs

• Noh is a type of drama where music and dance are very important aspects
• Uti is the music
• 5 types of noh plays
• 2 main characters ***** + Waki
• Fully established in the 17th century
• Fue (flute)
• Kotsuzumi (shoulder drum)
• Otsuzumi (hip drum)
• Taiko (stick drum)
• All four instruments known as shibyoshi 
• Must musicians from an established family

Examples

Japanese Noh Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Oi3C4G1WI&index=21&list=PLYXvKJt7j1q6bBRkGRj2sc5_foVkDnMXp

• Sanjo - scattered melodies
• Channgu (hourglass shaped double headed drum)
• Kayagum (12 stringed instrument)
• Consists of a series of movements
• Evolved from folksongs and shaman music

Examples 

Ancient Korean Sanjo Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFe8nHQottI

• Kaluli people
• Papua New Guinea
• Songs of humans in relation to rainforest sounds
• In ceremony or spirit medium seances 
• Vocal

Examples

Mount Hagen Cultural Festival, Papua New Guinea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFL0f6knC3Q

• Indegenous Australian
• Genre of traditional music and ceremony
• Funerals, interaction between living and dead ancestors
• Draws together the worlds of the living and dead
• Alternation of vocal and instrumental sections
• Digeridoo 

Examples

Wangga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI0dy61aGsw

• 2 parts of the music 'bound in friendship'
• Equiheptatonic scale
• Solomon Islands
• Complex panpipe music
• Handmade wooden tubes banged against rocks 

Examples

'Are 'Are Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOTe4S_leSE