World Music in Context 2

Compare the instruments used in this piece with those of a Javanese dance-opera from Indonesia and a piece of Egyptian folk music.

Instrument                      Japan - Gagaku             Java - Dance-opera        Egypt - Folk ensemble

Mouth Organ                                yes                                  no                                        no

Flute                                              yes                                 yes                                       yes

Oboe                                             no                                   no                                         no

Drums                                           yes                                   yes                                      yes

Multiple Tuned Gongs                  yes                                  yes                                       no

Bowed strings                               no                                    yes                                      yes

Plucked strings                             yes                                   no                                        no

Voice                                            no                                   yes                                       yes



Please excuse the table - I didn't know how to insert one into a blog post! Sorry!!

World Music in Context

Task 1: Compare the tone quality of the Shakuhachi to that of the Turkish Ney.

A Shakuhachi is a vertical flute which is thought to have been brought back from China in the 18th Century. It is made out of thick bamboo and has four finger-holes on the front and a thumb hole at the back (similar to a clarinet).

The Shakuhachi is an aerophone, so the overall sound is very breathy. Unlike a clarinet (as I referred to above), this piece uses no tonguing at all, but at 0:47, they use an overblown note which gives the piece an airy feel.

Comparing this to the Ney (which is also an aerophone), there are hardly any overblown notes, and the majority of the notes played are clear. The only overblown note I heard was at 0:59  which gives the piece a slight breathy feel, but not as strongly as the Shakuhachi.

Task 2: Compare this music with the Egyptian arghul. What similarities/differences are there in terms of tempo, melodic range, use of rests and texture?

The Egyptian arghul was much more upbeat than the other two. The note durations for this piece were a lot shorter than the long, sustained notes we heard in the other two pieces. The melodic range is more varied than the other pieces, but is still quite small and is an easily sing-able tune.

The rests occur after each phrase, which is similar to the Shakuhachi, but different to the Ney as the performer only rests when he needs to breathe.

On the other hand, the texture is a lot more similar to the Ney as the melodies are accompanied by another instrument. The Shakuhachi is a solo piece and has no accompaniment.