Vocabulary 1-4

Question	Answer
Semiotics	The study of signs and systems of signs. including in music.
Ethnocentrism	The assumption that one's own cultural patterns and understandings are normative and that those that differ are "strange", "exotic", or "abnormal".
Ethnomusicology	The scholarly study of any music within its contemporary cultural context.
Folklore	The study of orally transmitted folk knowledge and culture.
Comparative Musicology	An early term for the field that became ethnomusicology, when research emphasized comparisons of folk and non- western music with western practices.
Fieldwork	The first-hand study of music in its original context, a technique derived from anthropology.
Timbre	The tone quality or color of a musical sound.
Pitch	A tone's specific frequency level, measured in Hertz (Hz).
Rhythm	The lengths, or durations, of sounds as patterns in time.
Dynamics	The volume of a musical sound.
Aural Color	Terms such as nasal, dark, mellow, strained, rough, soothing, grating, and so on.
Organology	The study of musical instruments.
Sachs-hornbostel system	Standard classification for musical instruments created by Curt Sachs and Erik M. Von Hornbostel.
Aerophone	Instruments that require air to produce sound -- namely, flutes, reeds, trumpets, and bellows-driven instruments.
Chordophone	Four types of stringed instruments: lutes, zithers, harps, lyres.
Fret	A bar or ridge found on chordophones that enables performers to produce different melodic pitches with consistent frequency levels.
Idiophones	Instruments that themselves vibrate to produce sound, such as rattles, bells, and various other kinds of percussion.
Membranophone	Instruments, typically drums, that use a vibrating stretched membrane as the principal means of sound production.
Pitch	A tone's specific frequency level, measured in Hertz (Hz).
Tuning System	All the pitches common to a musical tradition.
Scale	A set of pitches.
Interval	The "distance" between two pitches.
Range	The span of pitches a given instrument or voice is capable of producing.
Melody	An organized succession of pitches forming a musical idea.
Ornamentation	Embellishments or decorations that are applied to a melody, and thus modify the original musical idea.
Text Setting	The rhythmic relationship of words to melody; can syllabic or melismatic.
Melodic Contour	The general shape and direction of a melody.
Drone	A continuous or repeating sound.
Rhythm	The lengths, or durations, of sounds as patterns in time.
Beat	A regular pulsation in sound.
Tempo	The relative rate of speed of the beat.
Accent	An emphasized beat.
Phonic Structure	The relationship between different sounds in a given piece; it can be either monophony or some form of polyphony.
Monophony	Music with a single melodic line.
Polyphony	The juxtaposition of overlapping of multiple lines of music; the three types of polyphony are homophony, independent polyphony, and heterophony.
Homophony	Multiple lines of music expressing the same musical idea in the same meter.
Heterophony	Multiple performers playing simultaneous variations of the same line of music.
Form	The underlying temporal structure of a musical performance.
Etic	The perspective of a cultural outsider.
Emic	The perspective of a cultural insider.
Melanesia	Dark islands.
Micronesia	Small islands.
Polynesia	Many islands.
Aborigines	A generic term for an indigenous population, often used to describe native peoples of Australia.
Animism	Belief systems in which natural phenomena as well as both animate and inanimate objects are considered to possess a spirit.
Dreamtime	A term describing the Australian aboriginal spiritual belief system and concept of creation.
Circular Breathing	A technique used to maintain a continuous exhaled airflow in aerophone performance.
Portamento	A smooth, uninterrupted glide from one pitch to another.
Pahu	A single-headed cylindrical membranophone.
Hula Pahu	Hawaiian dance songs using drum accompaniment.

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	Created by casey soles over 6 years ago