Introduction

In Chapter 1 we learned the tools to understand better the musical styles familiar and unfamiliar to us. In Chapter 2 we will learn tools to analyze and understand musical context. To understand the musical context, in order to understand why the music sounds the way it does, we ask the same questions that journalists do – The five W’s and the H: Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How. We ask these questions about every song we hear so that we understand why the song sounds like it does. In this chapter we study these questions and how their answers help explain the music we are hearing. Together with the musical elements in Chapter 1, these tools form the foundation of the entire book. We will use these tools in every chapter to understand what the musical styles from specific cultures of the world sound like and why they sound like that.

Listen again to the songs “ Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and “ Wade In The Water” from Chapter 1. Then watch the videos below to listen to the songs “Raga Anandi Kalyan” performed by Ravi and Anoushka Shankar, and “Scheherazade” composed by Rimsky-Korsakov performed by the Russian Philharmonic. Take a moment and describe the musical elements that you hear in each. If you need to review the musical elements, a detailed tutorial on the Basic Elements is available online.   In which ways do these four pieces sound similar? In which ways do they sound different?

Ravi and Anoushka Shankar “Raga Anandi Kalyan”

Russian Philharmonic performing “Scheherazade” composed by Rimsky-Korsakov

These works originated in very different cultural contexts, so they sound very different from each other. “Wade In The Water” is a traditional slave spiritual sung traditionally by one or more voices. “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” is a 1980s pop song played with many acoustic and electric instruments. “Raga Anandi Kalyan” Is a type of music that originates in small intimate gatherings in India, while “Scheherazade” was written to be played in a large concert hall in Europe.

To help us understand the sounds and the contexts of unfamiliar music, we borrow the journalists’ tool set of the five W’s and H: what, who, why, where, when, and how. The musical sounds (The ‘what’) of the songs you just heard are very different from each other because the ‘who,’ ‘why,’ ‘where,” ‘when,’ and ‘how’ are different. Below, we explore these tools, and then in the next chapters, we will apply them to explain how musical styles fit into the cultures from which they come.

WHAT: What is the style?  What are the musical sounds?

Musical Style is the overall mix of the musical elements of a musical performance. To understand how and why one song sounds differently than another song, and how and why the music of one country sounds differently than the music of another country, we need to understand each song’s musical style: what each song sounds like specifically.  For this we describe all the musical elements discussed above. The process of describing all of the parts of all of the musical elements in a musical work is the process of gathering the information about the music that will form the foundation of the understanding we seek. This information about musical style is the ‘What.” These sounds connect to, and inform our understanding of, the other W’s and H.

WHO:

This question asks everything about the performer that contributes to how they make music and what it sounds like, including demographics, the social rules governing who gets to make the music, and their training. To fully understand who the performer is, we need to ask many separate individual questions about the culture from which the performers come.

Because social class connects to economics, it can impact musical sound in very practical ways. Classical styles of India and Europe have connections to the upper classes in those countries. Spirituals come from African slaves in America. Mainstream popular music frequently connects to the middle classes. We can hear specific connections to social class in the instruments of each of our performing group examples. The sitars that the Shankars are playing are as expensive to make and purchase as the instruments of a symphony orchestra. The instruments in a pop band cost something but are not expensive, and singing costs nothing.

The social rules associated with demographics connect to the musical sounds because they impact opportunities. Demographics open doors for some musicians and close them for others. In Europe and the United States, gender and race impact who has access to training in different musical styles. Gender and race also influence who is supported on the way up the professional ladder. Watch the performances of both the Russian Philharmonic and the Miami Sound Machine. Both ensembles are overwhelmingly male and racially limited, which impacts the sounds of the music by limiting who can contribute.

Alternatively, sometimes a privileged social class opens doors for a performer, and musical possibilities expand. For example, Ravi Shankar belonged to a rich and privileged family, which opened all doors to him. He had access to the best training available. As a child in a wealthy, artistic family, he traveled widely, often mixing with elite performers not only in India but in Europe and the United States. His early access to Western musical styles enlarged the musical languages he brought to traditional Indian Raga. Because of his own success, his daughter Anoushka was even more privileged. She received extensive training in both Indian raga and western musical styles. Her compositions often feature rich mixtures of Western styles with Hindustani classical music. Normally, gender norms in India limit women’s participation in music to singing. Anoushka Shankar’s elite status as the daughter of a world-famous musician overrode these typical limitations, providing her – and her audiences – with greater musical opportunities.

The types of training musicians receive also connect to sounds. Hindustani (Hindustani music is music from the northern parts or India) and European musicians devote much time and focused effort on one-to-one lessons. They spend long hours of individual isolated practice. Musicians need both lessons and individual practice to learn the necessary skills to make stylistically appropriate music. Both of these types of music can be intensely complicated. We hear the high level of skill resulting from profound formal training in these complex musical styles. Spirituals and pop music do not require formal training. Rather, musicians often best learn through informal and community participation. Highly skilled musicians like the ones we hear above can create wonderfully intricate works in these styles. Musicians with less skill can enjoy making music in simpler styles.

When we connect an audience to sounds, we need to distinguish between the audience listening to the music when and where the music began, and today’s audience. For example, today anyone can hear Hindustani (North India) classical music in large concert halls all over the world and on YouTube. Because the style is complex, not everyone who comes across raga on YouTube understands it or is eager to pay concert-hall prices to hear it. The more knowledge someone has about Indian music the more they can appreciate it. The traditional audience for Raga was small and elite, so they had the training and experience to understand the complex style of Raga. This is why the music flourished to such a degree that it is still important today. Similarly, familiarity and education increase understanding and appreciation of Opera music from Europe. Conversely, the goal of popular music is to appeal to as many people as possible. Songs of many different popular styles share many common, simple musical traits. This means that many audiences coming to songs like “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” will understand – and hopefully enjoy – them immediately. “Wade In The Water” comes from a participatory tradition in which the people making the music were the people listening to it. Everyone was encouraged to sing along. Repetition of text and melody in songs like “Wade In The Water” makes singing along easy even for people who do not know the song.

WHY?

The purpose of the music impacts the musical style greatly. For example, think about the differences between a lullaby and halftime music at a football game. The purpose of a lullaby is to put a child to sleep, so the music is soft, slow and smooth. The purpose of halftime music is to pep up everybody, so the music is faster, louder, and more upbeat.

“Wade in the Water” Is a traditional spiritual originally sung by slaves. Slaves sang spirituals for many different reasons, so they fulfilled many purposes. They can comfort a child or accompany work. Singing together can build and strengthen community. The religious texts of spirituals can serve as worship or send coded messages

Like all spirituals, this song is a single melody without a set accompaniment. People sing this song by itself in monophony or with accompaniment as fits their need. When used as a lullaby, the song can be sung softly by one person. When used as an expression of religious worship , it can be sung by one or more people, with or without instruments – as long as the text takes precedence over the other elements.

Like all spirituals it is participatory, meaning that it is perfect for encouraging everyone present to sing. Both the melody and the text are constructed from repetitions of patterns, which makes it easy to learn and sing even for people who do not know it. These patterns, especially in the text, also serve the function of hiding messages for the underground railroad. The repeated phrase ‘Wade in the water’ tells escaping slaves they should look for- and walk in- a nearby stream or river because it will confuse their tracks. Most of the verses all center around someone dressed in a certain color (for example “See that group all dressed in red…” in one verse and “See that group all dressed in white…” in another). This means that the singers can identify the next person to help the escaping slaves by the color that person is wearing.

People sing spirituals today for many different reasons. The performance referenced above is by Sweet Honey in the Rock, a highly-trained ensemble whose main goals include celebrating African-American music and educating listeners. Their version reflects a high level of musical skill because everyone sings a different line. The way Sweet Honey in the Rock sings this song is only one possibility among many. What musical elements we hear will depend on who is singing the music and on why they are singing it. Sung as a lullaby it will sound very different than sung as a congregational hymn in church.

The purpose underlying a song is not always obvious and is often very culturally specific. “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” appears to be an upbeat party dance/entertainment song. This function connects to its upbeat tempo and rhythmic intensity. This song also has religious roots reaching through Cuba back to Africa. The singers and songwriter, Gloria Estefan is Cuban-American. She wrote this song to honor the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria. Like traditional West African animistic religions, Santeria rituals use rhythm to facilitate religious possession. In Santeria, religious possession happens when a spirit enters a dancer – the dancer is possessed by the spirit. This is a good thing in this religion because it helps people communicate with gods and spirits. There are many different gods and spirits, and each spirit has a specific rhythmic pattern associated with it. The drummers play specific patterns to call specific spirits to enter into the dancers. This function is actually identified in the title of Estefan’s song, because in Santeria rituals the rhythm really does get you. The musical elements that we hear in this pop song include many specific rhythmic patterns, much like the music of Santeria and West Africa. This song serves multiple functions, and all of these functions impact the musical sounds we hear.

WHEN? and WHERE?

Return to the comparison above between a lullaby and halftime music at a football game. Not only is the “why” very different for these two types of music, but the where and when is, as well. In the United States, most commonly a child’s bedtime would be nighttime or naptime, inside a bedroom, inside a house. Because of the intimacy and purpose of this setting, the sounds should be comforting rather than raucous. Performed live, a lullaby is sung likely by just one voice softly, slowly, and smoothly.

Compare this to the time and place of music at a football game. A single soft voice at a football game would not be heard; a half-time marching band would not fit in a child’s bedroom. A football game is played in a large outdoor stadium. Marching bands include many brass, wind and percussion instruments that are loud enough to carry to the back of the bleachers without amplification. Even if the marching band were to play the same song that a parent might sing as a lullaby, the texture, timbre, and dynamics would always be different simply because of the requirements of the time and place.

The videos of “Raga Anandi Kalyan” and “Scheherazade” referenced above both show formal concerts on stages in auditoriums in front of large audiences. The “where”, “when” and “why” appear to be similar, while the musical sounds are very different. The differences in the sounds, however, connect more to their past than their present. The type of music played by Ravi and Anoushka Shankar is called Raga. Raga has a long, illustrious history in India as sacred Hindu music for individual worship as well as art music performed in small, intimate settings. “Scheherazade” played by the Russian Philharmonic belongs to the long, illustrious history of Europe Symphony, and has always been music for large audiences.

In Hinduism, worship is normally very individual, Raga’s origins are in personal or small-group worship. Different specific ragas are dedicated to different Hindu gods, and are often associated with times of day and/or seasons. When a raga was performed outside of this religious function, it was played by, and for, small household gatherings. Because the music was traditionally created only for small intimate settings, it is only played by a few musicians sung, or played on quiet instruments. The music of raga has one melody at a time, sometimes with the soft percussion of one drummer. In the middle of the 20th century, European and American audiences began enjoying musical styles from around the world. As Indian performers began playing raga in Europe and America concert halls, however, the style remained traditional and connected to the intimacy of the original settings with one melody and soft percussion.

Symphonies have always been played by large ensembles, where multiple instruments play each part. During the 18th century as a sizable middle class developed in Europe, the symphonies in public concert halls became popular. The timing of concerts were designed for the convenience of the audience members – at the end of the day when work was done. During the 19th century composers began to explore the expressive possibilities of the different instruments so orchestras became larger. Symphonies have rich textures, often with many melodies playing simultaneously, by a variety of instruments in a variety of timbres.

How?

How the performer makes the sound on an instrument determines other parts of the sound, especially articulation: a stringed instrument will sound differently when the strings are played with a bow than when they are plucked. In musical traditions in which performers receive extensive training, such as classical European music and classical Indian music, much of the training focuses on advanced techniques for making specific sounds, which in turn tell us much about the musical values of these cultures. In classical European music the instruments are manufactured by one set of highly trained specialists, and played by another set of highly trained specialists to produce uniform timbres, scales, and pitches. This uniformity is highly valued, and performances are judged closely on these consistencies; sounds falling outside these norms are excluded from their music. On the other hand, Indigenous musicians in North America rely on less manufactured instruments for much of their traditional music making. In the Plains Indian Flute traditions, for example, individuals often make their own instruments. Unless the performers wish to play their flutes with ensembles of standard classical or commercial instruments, no consideration needs to be given to uniform pitches and scales.

Instrument construction determines tone quality because the materials, size and structure of an instrument creates specific sound wave shapes, which determines timbre. Frequently the construction of an instrument reflects particular musical values. For example many West African Djembes include metal rattles affixed to their sides because the timbre of the metal rattle is valued together with the deep boom of the drum. Indian music (such as raga) involves many melodic ornaments and sliding pitches. In music from India, the artists do not just hit a note, but rather they move around the note and slide between notes. (These types of figures are not possible on the piano, but are possible on the violin where you can literally slide your finger from one note to the next and hear all the notes in between). Sitars are constructed specifically to allow the performers various ways of sliding between notes.

How listeners have accessed and consumed music has changed greatly in the last two centuries and has strongly impacted how it sounds. For example, commercial popular songs are usually between three and four minutes long because the technology used to package and sell popular songs in the first half of the 20th century (78 rpm and 45 rpm records with only one song on each side) limited song length. The method of consumption of this music (listening to records) completely determined the length of songs.

In some contexts today, how the music is heard still directly impacts the way the music is produced. For example drums used in Inter-tribal Native American powwows are the size and shape they are so that their low-pitched tones can be heard in large outdoor spaces accompanying dancing, singing, and socializing; A direct ancestor of powwow drums is the bass drum of European and American marching band. Again these drums are the size and shape necessary to create low-pitched sounds that carry over large distances outside.

Behaviors and activities of performers and audience members also impact sound. If the music is intended for dance, then the beats and speed need to facilitate dance. For social dancing, the music has to have an audible pulse to keep people moving together, and it cannot be either so slow or so fast as to get in the way of the dancing. Many social dances are connected to specific meters, for example a waltz is in triple, and the charleston is in duple. Rituals also need to fit the music and the music needs to fit them. Many African rituals are participatory, and the length of the ritual depends on how many people are participating. The music needs to be flexible enough in length to accommodate a few people or many people. Much West African music is cyclical in structure, which means the musicians can easily stop the music or keep going depending on need.

Activities and behaviors also include rules of etiquette: which behaviors are expected, and which behaviors are discouraged. For example, audience members at a symphony will sit very quietly in their seats throughout the entire performance, moving only at times designated for that purpose, such as the intermission. Quiet, still, behavior is expected, and noisy behavior is discouraged. On the other hand people going to a more contemporary concert might never sit in their seat, choosing to socialize and/ or dance instead. Musical elements connect to etiquette. European classical music frequently includes passages so soft they can only be heard when the audience is completely silent. Music at a rock concert needs to be loud enough to be heard over the audience’s dancing and socializing.

In Conclusion

The journalists’ toolbox of the 5 W’s (what, who, why, where, when and how) help us understand the complete context of music, which in turn helps us understand why the music sounds as it does. We will use these tools throughout the textbook, asking about and then identifying the cultural traits that make the music what it is.
To that end, here are these tools and easy-to-use list format for future reference.

This is a link to a downloadable checklist in pdf format: The Five Ws checklist [pdf file].

The Five W’s of Music (and the H): What, Who, Why, Where, When and How

WHAT: What is the style? What are the musical sounds?

• • Melody: contour, character, range, phrasing, motives
  • Texture: number of layers, function of layers, speed of layers, timbres of layers, call and response, panning
  • Time: meter, rhythm in each layer, tempo, swing, syncopation, motives
  • Miscellaneous: harmonic character, dynamics, articulation, timbre, text

Who: Who are the people involved in this music as performers, contributors, and audience members

• Who are the performers?

  • What social group do they come from?
  • What restrictions on the performers are there?
  • What are the rules that we don’t see that impact who gets to be a performer?
  • How are the performers trained:

• How are musicians trained?

  • Who trains them and how much time is spent in training?
  • Is the training given by one elite instructor to select individuals, or does everyone participate?
  • How much money does it take to get trained?

• Audience

  • Is the music created for an audience separate from the performers or is it fully participatory?
  • Who is the Intended audience today? Is this different than the audience of the music’s origin? Is there a traditional audience versus a modern audience?
  • Is this music being played for a select community or is this music created for anybody who wants to listen?
  • Can the music be understood by everyone? Do you need to have familiarity with music in order to understand and appreciate it?

Why: Why is this music being made?

• • Why is this music being made ?
  • Why is this music important?
  • Is it religious music? Does it fulfill any spiritual beliefs? Does it accompany ritual?
  • Is it entertainment?
  • Does the music pull a community together through participation?
  • Does the music have a message?
  • Is the purpose of this song today the same as it was when it was first performed?

When: When is the music being made?

• • Is the music associated with specific hours or specific time frames like daytime or night time?
  • Is the music associated with specific months? specific dates? Specific seasons?

Where: Where is the music being made?

• • Is the music performed inside or outside of a building?
  • How large of a space does the sound need to cover?
  • What are the acoustical properties of the traditional location?
  • Is the music being made in its original country or origin and in its original context or is the music being made in a new place and context?

How: How is the music being made and consumed? How do people involved behave? How do they move?

• • How is the music being made? On which instruments?
  • How is it consumed? With what objects (if any)?
  • How do the performers and audience members behave? Is participation expected or allowed or forbidden?
  • How does movement accompany the music? Is movement allowed? Is it expected?
  • How do people move with the music?