KS5

KS4 Edexcel GCSE: world music

by Simon Rushby

In this article I approach the Edexcel GCSE World Music set works with a focus on the questions likely to be
Simon Rushby is asked in the listening paper. I have therefore addressed each set work as follows:
director of music at
Reigate Grammar
School in Surrey, and „„ Context – a little of the historical and stylistic background.
was a principal exam- „„ Style/overview – an investigation of the main stylistic features of the work. Detailed listening guides can
iner for A-level Music
for a number of years. be found in Rhinegold’s Edexcel GCSE Music Study Guide (3rd edition), so I won’t be repeating any of that
He is the co-author of information here. However there will be a good look at the characteristics of each piece, and it would be good
Rhinegold’s Edexcel if these sections were read in conjunction with the scores, found in the Edexcel GCSE Anthology of Music.
GCSE Listening Tests
„„ A guide to the types of questions likely to be asked, and the best ways to prepare students for the exam.
(Book 4) and has
written a lot of educa-
tional material for the
Naxos Music Library. Specification requirements

Unit 3 of the new Edexcel GCSE (first examined in the summer of 2011) consists of a 90-minute written
paper, with all the questions relating to 12 set works – three from each of four areas of study.

In preparation for this paper, students need to be able to identify aurally the key musical features in each
of the set works, and know a little about the context in which they were written and how they fit into
their relevant genres. They should also be prepared to answer dictation and notation questions based on
extracts from the works.

There will be two sections in the paper:

Questions in Section A will contain eight listening questions, some requiring detailed knowledge of the set
works, others relying more on the student’s aural perception. The questions will cover any eight of the 12 set
works, and students will have to answer all of them. They might be asked their opinions on the works. In this
article I will be focusing on the knowledge of the set works that students need to demonstrate.

Section B will ask about musical features of any of the set works, from the point of view of the elements of
music. Students may also be asked questions about the background or context of the work. Section B will have
to be answered in prose, and therefore quality of written communication will come into play.

Throughout the The set works in Area of Study 4 are:

article, key words
are in bold the „„ Chuir M’Athair Mise Dhan Taigh Charraideach (Skye Waulking Song) from the album Nàdurra by
first time they ap-
pear. These are Capercaillie
words with which „„ Rag Desh (there are three different performances)
students should „„ Yiri by Koko.
become particu-
larly familiar.

​World music – an introduction

The term ‘world music’ has become common in recent times, and is generally used by those in the western
world to describe indigenous, or perhaps folk music from across the world. This is most commonly so that
indigenous music can be separated from commercial music (such as pop) and western classical music (such
as that covered by Area of Study 1).

It is quite likely that students now on their GCSE courses will have encountered world music during their KS3
music lessons. Music from Africa and Indonesia particularly offers quick and easy accessibility to the student
in the early part of their musical studies, relying as they do on repetition and contrast, simple polyrhythms
and pentatonic scales.

The three examples chosen by Edexcel to represent world music are not necessarily ‘mainstream’ (in world mu-
sic terms) but represent a good cross-section of indigenous music from three very different parts of the world,

1 Music Teacher January 2011

each of which has a very rich musical heritage. In order to make these examples more accessible to students
who may have only had a cursory introduction to music from other cultures, it would be good to start this area
of study with a look at the way in which music from the Celtic, Indian and African traditions has influenced
western music to a great degree.

Please note that the tracks and genres selected for the three examples below are purely to show the way
in which these world music genres have influenced western commercial music – they are not particularly
closely related to the styles of the three set works.

​Celtic music
Irish and Scottish folk songs (the set work is a ‘waulking song’ or a work song from Skye, in the Western Isles
of Scotland) have become a common part of modern popular culture, due in no small part to the incredible suc-
cess of shows such as Riverdance, which combines traditional Irish forms with music from other cultures. Play
your students one of the songs from Riverdance, such as the haunting Lift the Wings, which was composed by
A beautiful version
Bill Whelan as part of the show in the 1990s, but has its roots in traditional Celtic music. Ask your students what
can be found here.
aspects of this song could be considered ‘traditional’. Answers might include:

„„ Use of traditional instruments such as pipes

„„ Use of only a few chords – very slow harmonic rhythm
„„ Repetitive structure, with a refrain
„„ Ornaments in the vocal melody.
We will be finding a number of these characteristics in the first of the world music set works.

​Indian music
Indian music has been a big influence in Britain over the last 30 years, thanks to the second- and third-genera-
tion British-Asian population whose parents and grandparents emigrated to the UK in the 1960s and 70s. One For more information
of the forms in which this is clearest is bhangra, and you could play your students Husan by Bhangra Knights, on bhangra, see the
article in Classroom
which was famously used for a car advertisement a few years ago.
Music autumn term
1 2008/09.
Activity
Ask your students to complete a table showing how the Indian
and western styles have merged in this track. The result might
include some of the following points in the table below.

Indian elements Western elements

Technological techniques associated with dance
Punjabi language in the chorus
music – such as sampling and using loops
Indian instruments (particularly the drum and Jamaican-style rapping (or ‘toasting’) in the
string sounds) verses
Using a traditional Punjabi song Electronic instruments and effects
Shouts of ‘bhangra’ and ‘hei’ A dance groove – reminiscent of disco

The second set work comes from the very different Indian classical tradition, but the above exercise hope-
fully goes some way to convincing students of the relevance of Indian music in modern western culture. In the
1960s in Britain, some of the foremost pop musicians became influenced by Indian classical music, particularly
that of sitar player Ravi Shankar, who for a while taught Beatles guitarist George Harrison. This resulted in the
sitar appearing on Beatles songs including Norwegian Wood and a track on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
Club Band album called Within You, Without You, which was written by Harrison and used almost exclusively
Indian instruments. The Rolling Stones followed suit, using a sitar on their well-known song Paint It Black.

Music Teacher January 2011 2

 ​African music
African folk music has had an immense influence on western music of the last 50 years, influencing composers
and artists from minimalist Steve Reich to singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel. African singing has been made uni-
versally popular largely thanks to the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo who have toured
the world tirelessly since their collaboration with Paul Simon on the album Graceland in 1986.

African drumming is taught in schools throughout the UK now, since it contains techniques such as repetition,
polyrhythms and cross-rhythms, which make improvised performances quick to put together and impressive
to hear. Even Disney have got on the bandwagon, showcasing a variety of African influences in the film and
musical version of their blockbuster The Lion King which features music by Elton John.
Activity
Possible answers to the above question include:
Show your students the opening song from either the film or
musical version of The Lion King (the former is readily available
„„ The opening contains a cappella chanting/singing reminiscent
on DVD, both can be found on YouTube, or you could download
of African choral singing, including the technique of call and response.
The Circle of Life as an audio track). Ask your students to identify
This is sung by South African singer Lebo M, who was brought in by
how the songwriters/arrangers of The Circle of Life have created
Disney to work on the soundtrack.
an ‘African’ sound.
„„ Underlying the first verse is a repetitive ostinato chant – osti-
nati are common in African music.
„„ The percussion parts are influenced by African instruments such as the djembe and include polyrhythms
and cross-rhythms.
„„ The chorus features more prominent close harmony singing.

The third set work is from Burkina Faso, in west Africa, and features a number of these characteristics.

​ apercaillie: Chuir M’Athair Mise Dhan Taigh

C
Charraideach (Skye Waulking Song)

​Context

A ‘waulking song’ is one sung during the process of

The title translates waulking, or working wool, which was traditionally
as ‘My father sent done by a group of women around a board. They
me to a house of
sorrow’.
would sing songs in the Gaelic language that had
repetitive and rhythmic refrains (sung by the group)
and verses sung by a soloist. This particular song
comes from a collection of folk songs that were
originally collected by the Irish writer and traveler
Alexander Carmichael, who published it in the late
19th century. It is part of a long waulking song (200-plus verses) called Seathan (John), Son of the King of
Ireland, and tells of the sadness of John’s wife who travelled the world with him and witnessed his death.

The waulking women would have sung this song without instruments (a cappella) to help them compete the
arduous task, to give them a sense of togetherness and perhaps to exercise their grievances about their lot
Capercaillie
in life. The waulking song tradition is part of a long tradition of work songs around the world, which included
prison songs, slave songs (such as those sung on American plantations by African slaves) and sea shanties.

3 Music Teacher January 2011

 Capercaillie

Capercaillie are a Scottish Celtic folk band who began recording in the 1980s, led by accordion-player and
keyboardist Donald Shaw. Their lead singer is Karen Matheson and they have enjoyed much success (including
some chart entries) over the past 25 or so years. Their style is to take traditional folk songs and arrange them for
traditional instruments, but fused with modern instruments and production techniques.

On this track we hear a wide variety of instruments, not

all of them associated with Celtic folk music. Shaw plays
the accordion, as well as piano and keyboards, and there
is also a bass guitar and drums. Additionally, you can
clearly hear fiddle, bouzouki and uilleann pipes. The
bouzouki, a plucked string instrument like a mandolin
or lute, is from Greece but has become quite popular
in Celtic folk music in the last 50 years. The uilleann
(or ‘elbow’) pipes are Irish bagpipes played seated and
powered by a bellows situated underneath the right
arm. Their haunting sound characterises much Irish Bodhran, bouzouki and fiddle
traditional music.

​Style and overview

The GCSE Anthology of Music has a score of this song, which has been transcribed, meaning that it has been
assembled from the recording (which was done without printed music) and is intended to be a guide to what
the band actually play.

Two or three playings of this haunting song, followed by a class brainstorm on its main characteristics, should
yield a number of important points and observations. Coupled with a more detailed analysis of the song, ma-
terials for which can be found in the books mentioned earlier, it would be very beneficial to compile with your
students an overview of the song, divided into sections based on musical elements. This will particularly help
preparation for the Section B questions in the exam. There follows a guide to this exercise.

​Melody
„„ The vocal (sung by Karen Matheson) is in the low alto range.
„„ The melody uses a small number of notes and is very repetitive. In fact, like a lot of folk music, it is based on
the five-note pentatonic scale (in this case, G-A-B-D-E).
„„ There are in fact two verse melodies and two refrains. These melodies contrast, particularly in the way that
they descend or ascend.
„„ There is an element of call and response in the refrains heard later in the song.
„„ The instruments often imitate the vocal phrases.

​Word-setting
„„ The words are in Gaelic (in the verses) and use nonsense syllables, or vocables, in the refrains.
„„ The text is set in a syllabic way – there is very little melismatic writing.

​Harmony and tonality

„„ The chords that harmonise this song are different for the verses and refrains. However the overall harmony
is very simple and allows the melody and rhythm to dominate. When chords change, it is very noticeable.
„„ The harmony sounds modal due to the lack of chords with sharpened notes in them (most of the chords are
either G, E minor or C).
„„ Some of the chords are dissonant note-clusters, emphasising the modern twist that Capercaillie have
brought to the song.
„„ The song ends with a series of plagal cadences ­­– again giving a modal feel to the arrangement due to the
lack of a dominant chord.

Music Teacher January 2011 4

 ​Rhythm and metre
12
„„ The overall metre of the song is compound, written in the score as 8 time.
„„ The drummer spends a lot of time playing across this metre, and these cross-rhythms give the arrangement
interest and character.

​Instrumentation and texture

„„ The arrangement is for both traditional and modern instruments, and Capercaillie make a lot of this fusion.
„„ Often the instruments trade phrases in a kind of conversation, with the electric piano and bouzouki featuring
early on.
„„ When the full band enters in the middle of the arrangement the effect on the texture is telling. To emphasise
this, a new chord is played and the drums move to a more regular rhythmic pattern.
„„ Some of the texture is heterophonic, meaning that instruments tend to embellish melodies even when play-
ing in unison with each other.
„„ There is a lot of improvisation around the melody by various instruments.

​Section A questions

In the exam, a short extract from the track lasting between about 30 and 60 seconds will be played five times.
Pick an extract and adapt the following questions to suit it:

1. On what type of scale is the vocal melody based?

2. In what language is the song sung?
3. Complete a very short section of melody (you should give students the rhythm, or alternatively ask them to
notate a simple extract of rhythm only).
4. Name or write out one or two of the chords used in the harmony of the extract.
5. Name an instrument featured playing the melody in the extract.
6. What example from the extract supports the fact that this arrangement is a fusion of traditional and modern
music?

​Section B questions

Section B will start with one or two simple, short-answer factual questions about the music or its context – such
as:

„„ How would you describe the style of this music?

„„ Which part of Scotland do Capercaillie come from?
„„ Name one of the band members of Capercaillie.
„„ What is ‘waulking’?

Then there will be a question demanding a longer answer in prose. This will be about one or more of the ele-
ments of music, as described above. Examples could include:

„„ Comment on the use of melody in this piece.

„„ Comment on the structure of this piece.
„„ Give examples of how Capercaillie add a modern aspect to this traditional song.

​Various: Rag Desh

​Context

Rag Desh is a well-known example of Indian classical music, which is quite different from the bhangra men-
tioned earlier. The Indian classical tradition is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world, and its origins
are largely the stuff of legend. What is clear is that Indian culture has been shaped by the development of
this important genre of music, which in turn has been influenced by the rich variety of cultures present in the
subcontinent over the ages.

5 Music Teacher January 2011

Indian classical music can be found in the form of vocal music, instrumental music and dance. There is a great
difference between traditional classical music of northern India (called Hindustani) and southern India (Car-
natic). Rag Desh comes from the northern Hindustani tradition. The melodies are based upon the rag, and the
rhythms are based on the tal.

Rag is a little like the western scale or mode – a line of five or more notes from which the melody is constructed
or improvised. The word comes from the ancient Sanskrit language and means both ‘colour’ and ‘beauty’, sug-
gesting that different rags colour the listener’s mind with different emotions.

A rag has a selection of notes, which are structured in a modal way known to Indian musicians as that. Like a
scale, the rag ascends and descends, and has some notes that are more important than others, like our key
notes. Additionally, a rag can be associated with a time of day (Rag Desh is a night-time rag) and sometimes
a season (Rag Desh is associated with the monsoon season).

The tal (sometimes seen as ‘tala’ or ‘taal’) has no real equivalent in western music, but is a rhythmic cycle
that comprises a number of rhythms based around repeating patterns. The word itself means ‘clap’, and each
section or measure is indicated by a clap or a wave of the hands. These sections (known as vibhag) are like
our bars in that they contain a set number of beats, called matras. The strongest beat is the first beat of the
rhythmic cycle, and is called sam.

The most common and famous instruments associated with Indian classical music are the sitar and the tabla.
The sitar is plucked like a guitar, and has a long neck with over 20 strings, many of which are not plucked but
simply resonate in sympathy with those that are played. The playable strings either provide a drone or play the
melody. The sitar has moveable frets (allowing very fine tuning of the strings) and two bridges that cause a
large number of harmonics to sound as the strings vibrate, giving the sitar its characteristic jangly sound.

The tabla is the most common percussion instrument, found in almost

all Hindustani classical music. It consists of two hand drums of differ-
ent sizes, played by the fingers, palm and heel of the hand to create a
large variety of sounds. The smaller drum (called the dayan or tabla)
is tuned to the most important note of the rag being played, and the The drum heads
larger drum (bayan) has a much deeper, unpitched sound. are made of animal
hide, with a central
Tabla area made from a
kind of paste which
​Structure allows for a wider
variety of timbres.

A typical rag performance can last anything from 40 minutes to a number of hours, and has a structure that
falls into different sections. Overall there is a definite sense of starting slow and free, and getting steadily faster,
more rhythmic and more intense.

The alap section acts as a kind of introduction, where the notes of the rag are played slowly in free rhythm.
Then the rhythm and melody of the rag are gradually introduced in a section called the jor. This is followed by
the gat section, where the tabla player establishes the pulse of the music and the melody is predetermined
(rather than improvised). The final section, the most intense and exciting of all, is often called the jhalla sec-
tion, which is fast, extremely exciting and largely improvised. Both the length and the order of these sections
are quite flexible!

Ends of solos and sections are often signaled by a special melodic and rhythmic flourish called a tihai. This is
a short rhythmic phrase that is repeated three times, so that the end of the third repetition coincides with the
strong beat of the tal (sam). There are many examples of tihais in all three performances.

The three performances on the GCSE Anthology CD are all based on Rag Desh, but are very different. Let’s
have a look at them in a little more detail. Remember that full analytical walk-throughs of these performances
can be found in the resources mentioned earlier; my intention here is to provide a useful summary of the key
points of each performance.

Music Teacher January 2011 6

 ​Anoushka Shankar’s performance

Students may be
familiar with the Anoushka Shankar is a sitar player and the daughter of Ravi Shankar. This performance of Rag Desh was recorded
music of her half- at Carnegie Hall in New York in October 2001. Here are the most important characteristics of her performance:
sister Norah Jones,
an American-based
„„ The performance is for sitar and tabla. There is no tambura (a common drone instrument), so Shankar
singer-songwriter.
provides her own drone on the sitar.
„„ The alap section has no fixed metre.
„„ There are a lot of examples of bending the string and therefore the pitch of the notes on the sitar, especially
in the opening alap section of this performance. This technique is called meend.
„„ The tabla does not enter until the second section – the gat section. This section includes a predetermined
composition based on the rag. The tabla plays a ten-beat tal called jhaptal. This section becomes more
intense with more improvisation and decoration from both instruments.
„„ Towards the end of the gat section, the beat changes to a 16-beat tintal – the most common type of tal.
„„ The final part of the performance is the jhalla section, and features a lot of very impressive improvisation by
Shankar. There is a lot of call-and-response between sitar and tabla.
„„ The final jhalla section is very exciting indeed and includes strumming of the drone strings of the sitar.

​Chiranji Lal Tanwar’s performance

Tanwar’s performance takes the form of a devotional Hindu song called a Lord Krishna
bhajan, which uses words written in the 16th century to praise the deity
Lord Krishna. The singer is well known in Indian classical music and has
released a number of albums and performed on television and radio. This
performance dates from 2004.

Tanwar is accompanied by two stringed instruments: a sarod, which is

a smaller, fretless version of the sitar, and a sarangi, which is a bowed
string instrument often used with singers as it can imitate the voice. Ad-
ditionally there are tabla, some small cymbals and a large double-headed
drum called a pakhawaj. The two heads of this drum have different pitch-
es, which can be clearly heard in this recording.

„„ This performance also begins with an alap, featuring sarangi and voice outlining the notes of Rag Desh.
„„ Again, the tabla joins in the bhajan section, which is the equivalent of the gat section in instrumental music
(another word for a vocal ‘gat’ is a bandish).
„„ Soon after the entry of the tabla, the song falls into a verse-refrain structure, with instrumental interludes
featuring the sarod and the sarangi. The tabla plays an eight-beat tal called keherwa tal.
„„ The vocal part uses a lot of ornaments, fast scales and melismas.

​Benjy Wertheimer and Steve Gorn’s performance

Also recorded in 2004, this third performance is given by two American specialists in Indian performance.
Gorn plays an Indian bamboo flute called a bansuri which has fingerholes a little like a recorder, and is ca-
pable of the smallest variations in pitch, using microtones (intervals smaller than a semitone). Wertheimer
plays a bowed string instrument called the esraj, which has frets and a large number of strings – a sort of cross
between a sitar and a sarangi.

Later in the performance, Wertheimer switches instruments and takes up the tabla.

„„ The first section (alap) outlines the notes of the rag at a very slow tempo, accompanied by a drone created
either by a synthesiser or a kind of electronic accordion called a shruti box. The bansuri and esraj improvise
in dialogue with each other.
„„ The second section (gat – and on a separate CD track) starts with a bansuri solo, while Wertheimer takes
up the tabla. Later in this section the tabla begins to improvise patterns based on a seven-beat tal called
rupak tal.
„„ This is followed by the fixed composition and more rhythmically exciting music. The bansuri repeats short
phrases, before taking over with the improvisation. There are several clear examples of tihai in this section.

7 Music Teacher January 2011

„„ The final section (the third CD track) is another gat section based on a 12-beat cycle called ektal. This excit-
ing section finishes with three successive tihais – known as chakradar tihai.

​Section A questions

Again, feel free to pick a short extract from one of these performances and adapt some of the questions sug-
gested below to fit it:

1. What are the characteristics of the alap section?

2. What is the name given to the section that includes a fixed composition?
3. Describe some common ways in which a sitar is played.
4. Explain the following terms found in these performances: drone, meend, tal.
5. What is a rag?
6. What are the specific characteristics of Rag Desh?
7. Name one of the instruments heard in this extract.
8. Which type of tal is heard in this extract?

​Section B questions

Short-answer questions found in Section B may ask students to identify aspects of the Indian classical tradi-
tion, such as knowing the term ‘Hindustani’ or identifying the part of India most associated with this music. The
long-answer question will again address the music from the point of view of one or more of the elements of
music – some suggested questions appear below:

„„ How do the treatments of Rag Desh differ in the three performances?

„„ Compare the structure of two of the performances of Rag Desh.
„„ What different types of tal are used in the three performances?
„„ How do the three performances differ in terms of the instruments and the parts that they play?

This track is avail-

​Koko: Yiri able to buy from
iTunes and is part of
the album Burkina
Faso – Balafons
​Context and African Drums
which is available
on iTunes and Ama-
Burkina Faso is situated in west Africa, landlocked by Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger. It was
zon, among other
given its current name in 1984, having formerly been called Upper Volta. It is a republic with a population of sites.
about 16 million, many living in poverty, and its capital is Ouagadougou.

Like many African countries, there is a large number of different cultures and traditions in Burkina Faso, making
it difficult to pinpoint any one particular musical style that could be called ‘typical’ of the country. Furthermore,
Burkina has imported a lot of music from its larger neighbours as well as Europe and the USA.

Many of the most popular home-grown musical groups in Burkina are balafon bands, featuring this well-known If you subscribe to
xylophone-like instrument accompanied by drums such as the equally famous djembe. Burkina has a thriving the Naxos Music
Library, there is a
manufacturing industry of these instruments, based in the second-largest city of Bobo Dioulasso. Koko is a lot of information on
balafon band with great popularity in the country, and is led by balafon player and singer Madou Kone. Koko sub-Saharan African
also has a second balafon player and four other percussionists who play instruments such as the djembe, talk- music in the study
area on this site,
ing drum and maracas. A number of these instrumentalists are also singers.
including links to
tracks and listening
The track is intended by Edexcel to be representative of the wider sub-Saharan African style, and it would exercises.
be good to spend some time exposing your students to other music from this huge area. Particular focus on YouTube has a
singing, drumming, the mbira (or thumb-piano) and the kora (a type of guitar-harp hybrid) would be very ben- number of excellent
eficial, though sadly there is not room in this article to go into all of this. videos of mbira and
kora players, such as
the legendary Tou-
mani Diabate, who
can be found here.

Music Teacher January 2011 8

 If you have time to do this, focus the listening on identifying the common characteristics of African instrumental
music:

„„ Repetition „„ Rhythmic patterns and cycles, often with cross-

„„ Call and response rhythms
„„ Polyphonic texture (and polyrhythms) „„ An oral tradition – none of the music is likely to
„„ Improvisation and dialogue be written down.
„„ Pentatonic and heptatonic melody

​Style and overview

‘Yiri’ translates roughly as ‘wood’ and features a chorus, solo vocal sections, solo balafon sections and some
very exciting drumming. Like all the other pieces in this area of study, the score published in the GCSE Anthol-
ogy is a transcription of this live performance, which would have been played without any notation. The tran-
scriber has done an excellent job in trying to capture the detail of what the musicians play, but it is important
that students focus on what they hear more than what they see on the page, which is intended as little more
than a guide.

Yiri begins with a free introduction on the balafon, in which the seven-note (heptatonic) scale on which this
piece is based is introduced. Note how the notes are played in a tremolo fashion, to help sustain the sound.
After this introduction, the two balafons establish a simple four-in-a-bar pulse, playing in 5ths and octaves with
a repeating phrase.

Then the drums come in with an equally simple, repetitive

rhythm, and a moderate tempo is established. All of the
phrases heard here are repeated as ostinati and grow in
complexity with devices such as syncopation beginning
to appear. This builds the tension up nicely, ready for the
start of the singing.

The singers begin with a pentatonic chorus (or refrain),

and the balafon imitates the ends of the phrases, before
embarking on a solo that includes syncopated rhythms African drummer
and descending melodic phrases. After this solo, the cho-
rus returns, followed by another balafon solo. All these sections have a clear tonal centre, or key note.

We are now about two minutes into the piece, and a singer performs a lengthy solo at this point (often with the
word ‘Yiri’). Despite the fact he begins with a long note, most of the vocal solo consists of short descending
ideas, just like the previous balafon solo. The two balafons play repetitive patterns to accompany, and towards
the end of each section of the solo the other voices respond to the soloist’s ‘call’. As the solo progresses, the
balafon rhythms become more syncopated, using cross-rhythms. This section has a tonal centre a 4th higher
than the previous one.

Another balafon solo takes the music to a higher tessitura, and another contrast follows with the entry of the
chorus, now modified to resemble the previous solo, and repeated after a short section for instruments only.
Then we hear the most complex balafon solo of all, where the most showy playing has been reserved for the
climactic point of the piece. The balafon ends by playing the chorus melody, and the singers hear this signal
and join in, before leaving the balafon to another, showy solo.

Finally, we reach a coda section where the balafons explore a new repeating pattern.

We can be fairly sure that the balafon solos have been shared between the two players, and it is clear to see
that these solos, punctuated by the chorus, form the structure of the piece. There is a lot of repetition, usually
of short phrases or groups of notes, and the piece has a constant tempo and dynamic level, meaning that
contrast has to be achieved through rhythm and texture.

9 Music Teacher January 2011

 ​Make your own Section A questions

Choosing any 40–60-second extract from Yiri (try to select a specific section, such as one of the balafon solos), The total number of
you can use the generic questions below to make your own practice question for Section A. marks for Section
A is 10, and the ex-
tract will be played
„„ Name the instrument playing the melody. five times.
„„ Name one of the types of drum playing the rhythm.
„„ Describe the texture of this extract (this could be monophonic, heterophonic or polyphonic depending on
the extract).
„„ The following terms describe aspects of the music in this section: ostinato, syncopation, cross-rhythm. De-
fine these terms.
„„ Ask the students to complete a small (four- or five-note) section of one of the repeating phrases.

​Section B questions

The opening short-answer questions might ask from where in Africa this music comes, or perhaps the name of the
leader of Yiri, or another short-answer context question. The long-answer question (worth 10 marks) will ask how
different elements of music are treated in Yiri. The following notes should help plan and answer this question.

​Melody
„„ Melodies are short and repetitive – more phrases than full-blown melodies
„„ Melodies use a seven-note or five-note scale
„„ Melodies are often centered around one or two notes
„„ Vocal melodies are sometimes treated in call-and-response fashion
„„ Melodies often descend in pitch
„„ New melodic material appears in the coda section of the piece.

​Harmony
„„ Some of the repeating melodic patterns are harmonised in 5ths or octaves
„„ Much of the music is performed in octaves or unison
„„ The piece has a clear tonal centre most of the time.

​Rhythm
„„ The drum rhythms are simple but interlock, creating polyrhythms and cross-rhythms
„„ The rhythmic patterns are repetitive
„„ There is a clear quadruple pulse, though this is sometimes altered for effect
„„ There is much syncopation
„„ Towards the end the rhythms become increasingly fast and complex.

​Texture
„„ The opening section has a monophonic texture
„„ Much of the texture of the piece is polyphonic
„„ There are sections of heterophonic texture, where one balafon outlines the melody of the other
„„ Koko vary the texture of the piece for dramatic effect.

​Instruments/voices
„„ The piece is performed on two balafons and a variety of drums (see above for detail)
„„ There is a solo voice and a group of unison voices, who sing a refrain
„„ There are extensive solos for the balafons and the solo voice, with much scope for improvisation and virtu- Much more could
osity. be said about the
contribution of each
of the parts to the
piece.

Music Teacher January 2011 10