STUDY GUIDE
INTRODUCTION: STUDYING MUSIC OF THE WORLD’S CULTURES
Ethnomusicology – the study of music as an aspect of culture; also, the comparative study of the
music of the world.
Understanding Music as a Cultural Phenomenon
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Music is diverse and we cannot expect to fit everything into a Western view.
A relativistic stance sees that each society has a musical system that suits its culture in
that each culture creates the kind of music it needs to reflect its values
We can make musical comparisons on the basis of structure and function, but we cannot
make musical comparisons on the basis of qualitative judgments.
The world of music consists of a group of musics, like languages, in that each music is a
theoretical system unto itself.
We cannot examine musical sound alone, but must also examine the society’s ideas about
music and the events in which music plays a part.
Music is universal in that all societies have something that is musical, but music itself is
not a universal language, in that understanding one means you understand another.
There has not been a musical evolution, as there have been evolutions of life species:
musics do not uniformly change from simple to complex (with Western music being the
pinnacle, as many behold), but musics change to satisfy social needs.
Oral traditions of music do not inevitably lead to musical change, nor does music
notation automatically cause the music to be fixed.
In societies where men and women have extremely different social roles, the genders
have separate repertoires and different ways of using their voice
In many political societies, what people may not say in words may be said be musicians
in music.
Musical talent is not hereditary. With enough effort, anyone can become proficient in any
musical system.
Universals of Music
 What are the five Universals of Music outlined in the textbook?
 What is Merriam’s Three-Part Model?
The Classification of Musical Instruments
 What are the different classifications of musical instruments? What are some examples
of each?
Musical Change, Transmission, and History
 How is music transmitted? How do they change over time?
 How has the spread of Western music in the 20th century affected local music cultures?
o What are three factors that have affected that?
Deeper Understanding
 How can culture affect music?
 How can music affect culture?
 How is music considered as a behavior?
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What types of expectations do audiences have when hearing music from their own
culture?
How does disdain for another culture’s music reflect disdain for the culture?
How can we be more open-minded when listening to music of another culture?
How can we better understand different musics when we compare them to languages?
Since there are many similarities in musical instruments throughout the world, could
there have been patterns of cultural diffusion and how might they have operated?