World Music

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World Music

World music is basically any type of music from all around the world.

This music is generally noticeable from the other countries, either by

instruments used, or lyrically it is different. These things are what

make it easy to tell the difference between the different countries

and what type of music it is. World music can be anything from

different countries so it may sound different to how we expect music

to sound like, for example gamelan music is mainly a set of tuned

bronze gongs. This is what people from the Indonesian islands of Java

and Bali are used to hearing, whereas Great Britain and most of the

rest of the world are not used to hearing. This is because we are used

to hearing things which have been tuned differently. Gamelan is one

type of world music in which gongs are hit in a pattern. Gamelan music

differs between the islands of Java and Bali. This music is used for

all sorts of occasions from traditional rituals such as a wedding, to

accompaniments to puppet shows dance and poetry. Unlike what western

European people might think, that the players of one of the

instruments is playing as an individual, but instead they play in an

ensemble, as one instrument. This shows great teamwork which must be

hard to keep up.

The word gamelan means to hammer, which reflects the way the gongs are

played. The instruments used to make gamelan music are;

* Ugal

* Jegagog

* Jublag

* Kantil

* Pemade

* Reyong

* Kempli

* Suling

* Trompong

* Kendang

* Ceng-ceng

* Gongs - Kempur

-Kemong

The Ugal is generally known for carrying the me...

... middle of paper ...

... pokok; however, it provides melodic leadership and often ornaments

the pokok. The instrument is played by one player. It shares all tones

with the Reyong and incorporates some Ugal tones.

Gamelan music is learnt by oral tradition which means that it has been

taught by ear and not written down although some of it is written down

by people so that people in other countries can play it. Balinese

gamelan is more rhythmic that Javanese.

Gamelan music is cyclic and develops through repetition wit variation.

The leader gives the signals with a drum to keep everyone in time.

This person is the one who keeps everything in time so is important,

although the players would say that everyone was equally important.

This is only one of the types of world music there are hundreds if not

thousands more which I haven't mentioned.

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