Chapter 85: Contemporary Composers Look to World Music
Study Plan
Key Points
- Composer John Cage invented the prepared piano to simulate the sound of the Javanese gamelan orchestra.
- The gamelan is an ensemble of metallic percussion instruments played in Indonesia (on the islands of Java and Bali, in particular).
- Inspired by the complexity of African drumming and of gamelan music, the Hungarian composer György Ligeti experimented with rhythm (additive meters and polyrhythm) in his piano études.
- The royal court music of Uganda featured tuned drums that played pentatonic melodies within a dense polyrhythmic framework.
- The music of Chinese-American composer Bright Sheng merges Eastern and Western sound material and concepts.
- The Moon Reflected on the Second Springs is a traditional Chinese piece for the two-string fiddle (erhu).
- Improvisation, where the performer takes a role in the compositional process, is common not only in jazz but also in the solo genres of various Asian countries, including China, India, and Iran (CP 22).
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