Musical Terms
India
Music in Native American Communities
Egypt
World Religions
100
The aspects of a genre that make it good according to listeners of that genre or the community around it.
What are aesthetics?
100
The people singing the soundtracks of Bollywood films... Asha Bhosle, for example.
Who are playback singers?
100
The first part of an intertribal powwow.
What is the Grand Entry?
100
The notes "between the notes" on the piano used in Arab art music.
What are quarter tones?
100
This monotheistic religion started when the Prophet Muhammad got a clarifying message about following the "straight path."
What is Islam?
200
The texture in which all melody players are playing the same basic melody but ornamenting it differently.
What is heterophony?
200
The very beginning section of the performance of a rag, where the melody instrument is playing without accompaniment, in an non-metric way.
What is the alap section?
200
These are semi-autonomous areas in the US meant to house Native Americans, mostly established by (usually exploitative) treaties in the 19th century.
What are reservations?
200
The large ensemble adopted in the mid-20th century in Egypt, one that had a whole, large violin section.
What is a firqa?
200
In Hopi tradition, these spirits help bring rain, and sometimes become the rain.
What are katsina-s?
300
The modes used in Hindustani classical music.
What are rag-s?
300
A master teacher of Hindustani classical music.
What is a guru or ustad?
300
A form of entertainment that, while presenting Native Americans in a negative light, nevertheless contributed to the preservation of some song and dance styles that were otherwise criminalized in the 19th century.
What are Wild West shows?
300
The name of this instrument.
What is an 'ud?
300
Krishna, a manifestation of the divine in this religion, is often pictured playing a shepherd's flute.
What is Hinduism?
400
The tambourine instrument used in Arab Art music.
What is the riqq?
400
The relationship between the three main characters in this movie, who are in the movie's title.
What is brothers?
400
The band heard here sings about racial profiling and water rights in Northern Arizona using a reggae framework.
Who are Tha 'Yoties?
400
Shababi, for example this song by Nancy Ajram.
What is a genre of international Arab popular music?
400
Changing Woman is one of the creation spirits in the traditional religious practice of this community, one that has also been matriarchal historically.
Who are the Diné or Navajo?
500
Sound quality, or the aspect of sound that makes trumpets sound brassy and flutes sound breathy.
What is timbre?
500
The name of this section of a rag performance, characterized by improvisations based on a short tune.
What is the gat?
500
This song, while humorous, can play a role in this ceremony, historically practiced by Diné folks in order to restore balance or hózhóó to someone who has been around a lot of death from outside the community.
What is the Enemyway ceremony?
500
The name of this singer, sometimes known as the voice of Egypt, who excelled in the art of varied repetition.
Who is Umm Kulthum?
500
This sonic practice happens five times a day, letting Muslims know that it is time for the next in the series of five daily prayers.
What is the azan or call to prayer?