Unit 3 Assignment 1 Listening Guide

The first listening guide piece I chose for this assignment was listening guide 51 “Wheat Song” which is from an Egyptian film song. The second listening guide I chose is listening guide 53 “Samoan Moon” a Hawaiian song. These two pieces are very different from each other. They represent the cultures they are from by the types of instruments used, the types of singing and the cultural traditions they each have. Even though they have many differences these songs are very similar as well which I will explain in more detail later on. The first piece composed by Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wahhab and contains instruments like the piccolo, three large tiran which are frame drums, quanun, six violins, cell, bass, piano, and the Cairo Opera choir. This piece is an example of an Egyptian strophic song with refrains called the ughniyah. It combines traditional instruments from Arab and Western parts of the world. The beginning of the piece starts with an instrumental introduction and the texture is homophonic for its very similar or exact rhythm but slightly different melodies. We first hear the frame drums, which are accenting beat 1,3,5, and 7 in an
Leading up to the entrance of the singers the piccolo and strings go back and forth in a kind of call and response melody. As the piece gets closer to the entrance of the tempo, which was initially determined as a moderate intensity, the instruments accelerates in the refrain, which is set at a duple meter. Krakoviak is the duple meter used in this piece and is also known as double time. What makes this piece strophic can be primarily found in the words the choir sings. The layout of the lyrics goes verse 1, refrain, verse 2 refrain with various phrases mixed into each verse. This strophic layout is very similar to a lot of pop music in the United states. Many times the structure is laid out as verse one, refrain, verse 2 refrain and so