An ethnomusicologist’s perspective on (good

and bad) music

“What’s ethnomusicology?” Ethnomusicology
has been defined in many different ways,
Ethnomusicology is the study of music in its
cultural context. Ethnomusicologists
approach music as a social process in
order to understand not only what music is
but why it is: what music means to its
practitioners and audiences, and how those
meanings are conveyed.
Ethnomusicology is highly interdisciplinary.
Individuals working in the field may have
training in music, cultural anthropology,
folklore, performance studies, dance,
cultural studies, gender studies, race or
ethnic studies, area studies, or other fields
in the humanities and social sciences. Yet
all ethnomusicologists share a coherent
foundation in the following approaches and
methods:
1) Taking a global approach to music
(regardless of area of origin, style, or
genre).
2) Understanding music as social practice
3) Engaging in ethnographic fieldwork and
historical research.
Ethnomusicologists are active in a variety of
spheres. As researchers, they study music
from any part of the world and investigate
its connections to all elements of social life.
As educators, they teach courses in musics
of the world, popular music, the cultural
study of music, and a range of more
specialized classes (e.g., sacred music
traditions, music and politics, disciplinary
approaches and methods).
Ethnomusicologists also play a role in
public culture. Partnering with the music
communities that they study,
ethnomusicologists may promote and
document music traditions or participate in
projects that involve cultural policy, conflict
resolution, medicine, arts programming, or
community music. Ethnomusicologists may
work with museums, cultural festivals,
recording labels, and other institutions that
promote the appreciation of the world’s
musics

- What is sound?
Vibrations that travel through the air - or
another medium - and can be heard when they
reach a person’s or an animal’s ear

- What is Music?
Briefly defined, music is the rational
organization of sounds and silences passing
through time Tones must be arranged in some
consistent, logical, and (usually) pleasing way
before we can call these sounds “music”
instead of just noise.
Musics can be defined as those temporally
patterned human activities, individual and
social, that involve the production and
perception of sound and have no evident and
immediate efficacy or fixed consensual
reference.
Musics are cultural particularisations of the
human capacity to form -multiply intentional
representations through integrating
information across different functional domains
of temporally extended or sequenced human
experience and behaviour, generally expressed
in sound.

- Fundamental Universal Properties of Music

on Humans (the three sentences understanding
their meaning) - What is Sounds cape and what
is Biofeedback?
• No specific brain regions for music/sound -
exists all over the brain
• Hearing/Music is closely connected to other
systems (e.g. vestibulocochlear system;
brainstem; central pattern generators; visual
perception)
• Music perception is prewired in our brains
since even before our birth

- The 7 steps of how we hear - You have to

practice on analyzing a musical piece or a
concert or event after you hear it, based on all
the basic information I give you on the slides. I
want examples on the lists and questions I
provide.
1 step: sound waves reach the ear and the
pinna
2 step : sound waves enter the ear canal
through the pinna
3 step : sound waves reach the tympanic
membrane (ear canal)
4 step : ear drum vibrates and moves the three
tiny bones of the inner ear (the malleus, the
incus, the stapes)
5 step : These bones translate the mechanical
forces of the air waves into liquid waves at the
cochlea
6 step : The cochlea translates the liquid waves
into electric current through the hair cells
7 step : electrical information travel to the
brain
-Based on the latter notes of topic 2, you need
to combine the information I gave you in order
to be able to provide a full appreciation of a
piece, a concert, an event. (You have to
practice on different video clips learning how to
analyze the content using my notes and lists).

-Learn the music history eras

❖ Prehistoric Music ❖ Ancient Music ❖
Medieval Music (500-1400) ❖ Renaissance
(1400-1600) ❖ Baroque (1600-1750) ❖
Classical (1750-1830) ❖ Romantic (1830-1900)
❖ 20th Century (1900 – Present Day)

-History
Music may have been in existence for at least
55,000 years. The first music may have been
invented in Africa and then evolved to become
a fundamental constituent of human life
-Prehistoric music, once more commonly called
primitive music,
It is probable that the first musical instrument
was the human voice itself, which can make a
vast array of sounds, from singing, humming
and whistling through to clicking, coughing and
yawning
-The ancient music era may also include
contemporary but traditional or folk music,
including Asian music, Persian music, music of
India, Jewish music, Greek music, Roman music,
the music of Mesopotamia, the music of Egypt,
and Muslim music
-While musical life was undoubtedly rich in the
early Medieval era, as attested by artistic
depictions of instruments, writings about
music, and other records, the only repertory of
music which has survived from before 800 to
the present day is the plainsong liturgical music
of the Roman Catholic Church, the largest part
of which is called Gregorian chant
- Music The beginning of the Renaissance in
music is not as clearly marked as the beginning
of the Renaissance in the other arts, and unlike
in the other arts, it did not begin in Italy, but in
northern Europe, specifically in the area
currently comprising central and northern
France, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
-The term Baroque is a word borrowed from
architecture which is used to describe a highly
decorative style of building, found in the
palaces and churches of Germany and Austria
in the 1600s and 1700s.
The Baroque period was a time of contrapuntal
music (tunes or melodies played above or
below each other in harmony). People also
became interested in music and drama which
led to the creation of opera (a play that is
sung).
Five composers from this period are Vivaldi,
Purcell, Bach, Handel and Pachelbel.
Different textures are present such as: •
Homophonic – Music built on chords where all
parts move at the same time. • Polyphonic –
Two or more parts playing independent
melodies and rhythms
-Composers of the classical period established
the symphony, sonata and concerto (for solo
instrument) as the major forms of musical
expression. In the Classical period the music
became less about decoration and
ornamentation, and more about simple, clean
lines of melody.
3 composers of this period are Mozart, Haydn
and Beethoven.
Features of the Classical Period: ❖Larger
orchestra with the woodwind section gaining
importance ❖ Texture of the music is now
mainly homophonic (Baroque texture was
mainly contrapuntal) ❖ Melodies became
more graceful and elegant ❖ Richer variety of
contrasting melodies, rhythms, keys &
dynamics ❖ The piano is invented

-The Symphony The word symphony means

‘sounding together’. It is a large work for the
whole orchestra in four movements. A
movement is a part or section of the whole
work. Movement 1 Fast Movement 2 Slow
Movement 3 Minuet and Trio form
Movement 4 Finale, fast. Usually contains a
coda (a tailpiece to round off the
movement)
The Concerto A large work for the orchestra
and solo instrument. There are three
movements in a concerto. Movement 1 Fast
Movement 2 Slow Movement 3 Fast
-In the Romantic Period composers began to
express emotion through music. The music was
more powerful and the orchestras were much
bigger than before. Three composers of the
Romantic Period are Schumann, Chopin and
Wagner.
Chopin, a Polish composer, wrote for the piano
in a new revolutionary way. He combined
strange, discordant harmonies (notes which
clash) with delicate, decorated melodies. In his
compositions he uses rubato (variations in
speed) to enhance expression.
Listen and watch the following example and
notice the use of rubato
-Composers in the 20th century experimented
with different sounds, instruments and
techniques. New freedoms in harmony and
rhythm enabled composers to put music
together in unusual combinations.
Impressionism was a style of music popular in
1900 in France. The term borrowed from
painters such as Monet, Manet and Renoir who
suggested rather than stated what could be
seen at a glance.
Debussy (1862 – 1918) applied these principles
to music. He used clusters of notes (lots of
notes which are close together) and the whole
tone scale (a scale where every interval is a
whole tone apart) in his compositions. These
techniques painted pictures in sound.
Listen and watch this short film on Debussy’s
life. The music playing is Clair De Lune, one of
Debussy’s most famous piano pieces

-Form in Music Music is written in a pattern

called FORM.
Binary Form A piece of music in Binary form
divides itself into two sections A and B.
Ternary Form A piece of music in Ternary form
divides itself into three sections A B A or A A B
A. (She’s the One, Robbie Williams)
Rondo Form A is the main theme (tune) which
keeps coming round with contrasting sections.
The plan is A B A C A etc.Think of these three
forms as types of sandwich with different
fillings!
Episode (Bridge) A passage of music linking two
musical themes, such as in Rondo Form
Coda A passage at the end of a piece of music
which rounds it of

- Learn how to recognise the sounds and styles

of the Renaissance Music, Baroque, Classical
and Romantic music
-Learn the six basic elements of music
Pitch
Rhythm
Melody
Timbre
Dynamics
Texture

Pitch
Register (high or low); Organization of pitches
with a pattern of intervals between them
creates scales; Words we might use to describe
scales: major/minor, chromatic, gapped, and
pentatonic.
Rhythm
The time element of music. A specific rhythm is
a specific pattern in time; we usually hear these
in relation to a steady pulse, and mentally
organize this pulse or tempo into meter
(sometimes called a "time signature"). Meter
organizes beats into groups, usually of two or
three; beats can be divided into small units
usually 2, 3 or 4 subdivisions

Melody
or musical line, is a combination of pitch and
rhythm (some say "duration"). Sometimes a
melody is considered to be the theme of a
composition. A motif (or motive) is either a very
short melody or a distinctive part of a longer
melody
Timbre
Sound quality or tone color; timbre is the
characteristic that allows us to distinguish
between one instrument and another, and the
difference between vowel sounds (for example,
long "a" or "ee"). Terms we might use to
describe timbre: bright, dark, brassy, reedy,
harsh, noisy, thin, buzzy, pure, raspy, shrill,
mellow, strained.
Dynamics
loud or soft. A composition that has extremely
soft passages as well as extremely loud
passages is said to have a large or wide
dynamic range. Dynamics can change suddenly
or gradually (crescendo, getting louder, or
decrescendo, getting softer.)
Texture
• monophonic (one voice or line),
• polyphonic (many voices, usually similar, as
in Renaissance or Baroque counterpoint),
• homophonic (1. a melody with simple
accompaniment; 2. chords moving in the same

rhythm (homorhythmic))
• heterophony (“mixed” or multiple similar
versions of a melody performed simultaneously
(rare in European music; possibly used in
Ancient Greece)
• collage (juxtaposition & superimposition of
extremely different textures or sounds)
- Learn how to recognise the beats and the
notes in the notation topic…what is a whole
note, a half note etc and how they look like.
- Be able to solve note exercises as the one
shown on slides
-. Learn how to recognise all the basic parts of
the lyrics in a music piece: verse, chorus, intro,
bridge, hook etc.
What are Introductions (Intros)?
The introduction establishes melodic,
harmonic, and/or rhythmic material related to
the main body of a piece they establish the
basics of what the song's about to make a
connection to the listener. After hearing the
intro the listener will decide if they want to
listen to the rest of your song. Usually song
introductions build anticipation for the listener
so that when the main section of your music
floods through (or drops...like it's hot), it
creates a small "shock" to the system.

What is a Verse of a Song?

Regardless of the size and number of verses in
your song, verses are still used to take the
listener on a journey. You can have each verse
of your song tell a part of your story, or have
each verse tell a different short story, all tied
together by your chorus. The verse is the main
part of a song. In popular music a verse roughly
corresponds with a poetic stanza. When two or
more sections of the song have basically
identical music and different lyrics, each section
is considered one verse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVTfszppJl
8 For example, in Toby Turner’s song, he sings
about one of the misadventures of Tim Tim, a
fictional boy. Toby sets the story for his song in
a short pre-verse, leading right into his chorus.
The story then continues with the next verse,
until it reaches a quick climax during his bridge.
And what's so remarkable is the entire song is
only 1:30 seconds, but STILL entertaining as
heck!

What is a Chorus?
A chorus is the most repeated section of your
song structure, so it's the easiest remembered.
Because of this, I believe the chorus is the part
of your song listeners will judge first as to
whether it's something they like
What's a Refrain?
a refrain is ANY line that repeats in your song
lyric, while a chorus is any group of lines that
repeats.
What is a Song Hook?
A hook is an entertaining musical element or
clever lyrical phrase that repeats multiple times
throughout your song to tug at your audience's
memory. It's a mnemonic tool that catches a
listener's attention to help them remember a
certain refrain, beat and/or melody
What is a Bridge (Middle 8)?
Lyrically, the bridge is the section of your song
that (a) gives your audience time to reflect on
your story, or (b) gives them the "climax" or
conclusion of the story you just shared through
your verses and chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=play
er_detailpage&v=vTnWFT3DvVA#t=152 a
bridge acts as your micro-diary or journal
where if you weren't clear about your emotions
throughout your song, you're free to tell your
listener exactly what you're feeling. In the
example below, at 2:32 of her song, "See You
Again", Carrie Underwood directly sings that
she feels like her heart is breaking but that
she'll hold on knowing (she'll see whomever
again)...
Musical Bridge (Middle 8) Bridges are also
called "middle 8's" because they usually occur
in the middle of common pop songs and often
take up 8 bars (i.e. eight counts of 4 beats)

- Practise the above following my notes on the

slides and using any youtube video pop song