ethnomusicology
Music-culture academic field
Ethnomusicology is the scholarly study of music in its cultural context, examining how music functions within societies around the world.
Rather than focusing on Western classical traditions or technical composition, ethnomusicologists investigate folk music, indigenous music, and popular forms, exploring how music relates to identity, ritual, and social life: Her ethnomusicology fieldwork took her to West Africa to study drumming traditions.
Sending of information
- repertoireWorks ready to perform
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- variationChange from a norm
- memorizationCommitting information to recall
apprenticeship · griot · bard · storytelling · ballads · lullabies · genealogy · mnemonics
Systematic grouping by traits
- gamelanIndonesian percussive ensemble
- sitarIndian plucked lute
- koraAfrican bridge-harp with twenty-one strings
- didgeridooAustralian Aboriginal wind instrument
Who someone is
- diasporaScattered population sharing origins
- globalizationWorldwide economic and cultural integration
- syncretismFusion of different beliefs
- hybridityMixed-origin quality
acculturation · heritage · preservation · revitalization · authenticity · tradition · modernity · nationalism
Overlapping musical beat patterns
- claveLatin music's rhythmic spine
- meterDevice that measures usage
- cycleRepeating sequence of events
- interlockingEngaging by overlap
drumming · percussion · timeline · entrainment · groove · ostinato · cross-rhythm
Written version of speech
- interviewsFormal evaluative conversations
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
- archivingStoring for long-term keeping
- notationSystem of written symbols
Formal event marking occasions
- shamanismMediation between worlds
- tranceSemiconscious, unresponsive condition
- healingRestoration of health
- worshipReligious reverence and praise
liturgy · chanting · devotional · incantation · rites-of-passage · pilgrimage · divination · meditation
Wholes trump components
- cross-culturalInvolving multiple societies
- advocacyPleading for a cause
- repatriationFormal return to homeland
- decolonizationEnding imperial control
transmission
Sending of information
- repertoireWorks ready to perform
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- variationChange from a norm
memorization · apprenticeship · griot · bard · storytelling · ballads · lullabies · genealogy · mnemonics
classification
Systematic grouping by traits
- gamelanIndonesian percussive ensemble
- sitarIndian plucked lute
- koraAfrican bridge-harp with twenty-one strings
didgeridoo · shamisen · erhu · djembe · tabla · acoustics · iconography
identity
Who someone is
- diasporaScattered population sharing origins
- globalizationWorldwide economic and cultural integration
- syncretismFusion of different beliefs
hybridity · acculturation · heritage · preservation · revitalization · authenticity · tradition · modernity · nationalism · postcolonialism
polyrhythm
Overlapping musical beat patterns
interlocking · drumming · percussion · timeline · entrainment · groove · ostinato · cross-rhythm
transcription
Written version of speech
- interviewsFormal evaluative conversations
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
- archivingStoring for long-term keeping
ceremony
Formal event marking occasions
- shamanismMediation between worlds
- tranceSemiconscious, unresponsive condition
- healingRestoration of health
worship · liturgy · chanting · devotional · incantation · rites-of-passage · pilgrimage · divination · meditation
holism
Wholes trump components
- cross-culturalInvolving multiple societies
- advocacyPleading for a cause
- repatriationFormal return to homeland
- academic fieldsmathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history
- anthropologyanthropology, fieldwork, social anthropology, cultural anthropology, paleoanthropology
- musicologycounterpoint, scholarly articles, comparative analysis, performance history, historiography
- ethnomusicologyfieldwork, folk revival, field recordings, cultural context, oral transmission
- artsartist, creativity, expression, songs, painting
- danceballet, breaking, folk dances, b-boying, folk dance