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Favorite Styles and Genres Of the topics discussed in class, my favorite world music culture, Western art musical style, and American musical genre were West Africa, Middle Ages, and secular/popular, respectively. There were many topics discussed in class, but I feel like these topics appealed to me the most, which made them more interesting. It is actually pretty hard to pick a favorite in each style and genre because each one is interesting in its own way. All of these topics were important to discuss in class, but a few made more of an impact on me than others. Firstly, my favorite world music culture we discussed was West African music. Honestly, I was biased when we were beginning this section. Since I grew up in South Africa and Botswana, I was already interested in learning more about West African music because all I had been exposed to Southern African music. I found that this music was far more native and traditional, which is critical in maintaining heritage and culture. The music was orientated towards everyday life unlike most Western music. It was dance, religious, storytelling, and speech based music, which is very different from listening to music in a concert hall. Community is the main focus of West African culture. With that being said, the people prefer everyone to get involved. Polyphonic textures were apparent and used in a few ways. Call and response was a interesting style of music and fairly simple to understand. Listening to music in a different language can be boring at times, but I believe that West African music is better than most because of the percussion. They almost always have some sort of percussion beat in their music, which keeps things interesting. Next, my favorite Western art musical style... ... middle of paper ... ... classics. Learning about all the styles and genres of music was a great experience and I have learned a lot from it. I did have my likes and dislikes; however, it was all relevant and necessary. Works Cited Columbia Encyclopedia. "Sitar." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition (2013). Encyclopedia.com. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. . Cutchey, Peter. "Sitar - About Sitars." Buckingham Music, Inc. (1997). Web. 20 Apr. 2014. < http://www.buckinghammusic.com/sitar/aboutsitar.html>. Myriam Chimènes and Roger Nichols. "Poulenc, Francis." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. . Schwartz, Steve. "Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963)." Classical Net. Classical Net, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .

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