Context
Name a modern performing context for Indian ensemble music.
Public concerts, cultural festivals
(Accept any other suitable answer.)
Which are the 2 scale degrees used in the drone layer of Indian ensemble music?
Name the string and wind instrument sometimes added to gamelan music.
Suling (vertically held end-blown bamboo flute)
Dizi (2 points in the answer)
Transverse bamboo flute
6 fingering holes, 1 blowing hole, and another hole with a thin membrane covering it ('dimo')
Tabla (2 points in the answer)
Two drums
Smaller right drum = daya while the larger left drum = bayan
Name 2 traditional performing venues for Chinese Ensemble music.
Tea houses, private residences, neighbourhood recreation centres
(Accept any 2 of the above)
Explain how the pentatonic mode is typically realised in a traditional Chinese ensemble extract. (2 points in the answer.)
Scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 are used as the main melodic tones, while
4 and 7 are used as embellishing tones/ passing notes.
Saron and how it is played (2 points in the answer.)
7 bronze bars placed on top of a resonating frame
Played using a single hard mallet
Guzheng (2 points in the answer)
21-string boxed zither
Left of the instrument's bridge is untuned while the right side is tuned to the pentatonic scale
Sarod (3 points in the answer)
Plucked string instrument
4 playing strings and 21 other strings (drone or sympathetic)
Fretless
Explain how the name of the genre 'Jiangnan Sizhu' came about. (2 points in the answer)
Genre originated from the region of Jiangnan, and consisted of mostly string ('si' = silk strings) and wind ('zhu' = bamboo) instruments.
How do the slendro and pelog tuning systems in Gamelan music differ from each other?
Slendro has 5 tones with intervals equidistant from one another, whereas Pelog is comprised 7 unequal intervals.
Gender and how it is played (2 points in the answer)
12-14 keyed metallophone
Played with 2 disc-type padded mallets
Pipa (3 points in the answer)
Pear-shaped lute
4 strings
30 frets (6 on the neck and 24 on the fingerboard)
Indian Classical Violin (strings and playing position)
Tuned to Tonic ('Sa') and Dominant ('Pa')
Scroll placed on ankle, violin resting on left collarbone
Name 3 traditional performing contexts for Javanese Gamelan music.
Royal courts, wayang kulit (shadow puppetry), and rituals/rites of passage
How is the heterophonic texture in Chinese ensemble music created? (3 sub-points in the answer.)
Plays the stock melody (qupai) simultaneously, while adding various ornaments in a manner that is idiomatic to their instruments.
Bonang and how it is played (4 points in the answer)
10-14 kettle gongs arranged in 2 rows
Suspended over stretched strings in a wooden case
Played with a pair of wooden mallets/beaters with
Yarn wound round the top half of each mallet/beater
Erhu (4 points in the answer)
2-string bowed fiddle
Snake skin mounted on its resonating chamber
Fretless
Bow is trapped in between the strings
Sitar (3 points in the answer)
Plucked string instrument
6-7 main playing strings, 2 drone strings, and 11-13 sympathetic strings
20 movable frets
How might the nature of a traditional Indian ensemble performance differ from that of a Western Classical ensemble today? (2 points in the answer)
Sit on the ground/stage vs. chairs
Improvisation vs. following the music score closely/little improvisation
Learn/play without a music score vs. with a music score
(Accept any 2 of the above.)
Explain 'stratified polyphony' in Gamelan music, with reference to at least 3 different categories of instruments.
Instruments play the same core/skeletal melody (balungan), but at different densities depending on their instrument's register.
Saron/slenthem: balungan
Saron panerus/peking: doubles each beat of the balungan
Gong Ageng: last beat of the gong cycle
Kenong/Kempul: specific beats in the gong cycle
Bonang: embellished version of the balungan
Name 4 instruments that serve to punctuate the gong cycle and how many times they punctuate each cycle.
Gong Ageng (1x per cycle), Kempul/ Kenong (4x per cycle), Kethuk/ Kempyang (every beat)
Sheng and how it is played (4 points in the answer)
Multi-reed mouth organ
Consists of bamboo pipes of varying lengths
Traditional Sheng has lesser pipes (17, 21, or 24) compared to a modern Sheng (36).
Cover air holes (traditional) or press levers (modern)
Sarangi and how it is played (4 points in answer)
Bowed string instrument
3 playing strings and 30-40 sympathetic strings
Left hand presses down on strings using skin above fingernails
Bow hand has palm facing outwards