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Introduction World Music Listening Assignment 1: "Sarasiruha" The song, "Sarasihura," included no vocals and was, in its entirety, instrumental. The instruments used for this song consisted of chordophones and vibraphones. This combination resulted in a polyrhythmic structure. The chordophone and the beats of the vibraphone, coming in midway during the song, exhibit the polyphonic texture of homophony. The main chordophone serves as the dominant melody of the piece while the vibraphone serves as the background drone of the piece. However, later in the song, the vibraphone becomes more than a background drone. During this instant in the song, the vibraphone is the dominant beat being heard, almost making the song resemble a solo. The chordophone is introduced again as the dominant melody in the last few seconds of the song, placing the vibraphone as the background drone again. Another thing to be noticed is a second chordophone in the background that resounds like an echo after almost every phrase played on the main chordophone. This "echo" reminded me of a period ending a sentence only in musical format. The meter of this song gave me the impression of a metric rhythm most of the time, but there were a few times during the song where I felt I could not follow the rhythm as easily. These instances usually followed and preceded the in changes the melody of the song. The tempo of the song also seemed to quicken about three minutes into the song, which not only created a change to the rhythm but also gave the song a more vibrant feel. Earlier in the song, there seemed to be instances of ornamentation with the melody, but as the tempo got faster there was less room for ornamentation. Ostinati seemed to occur within different
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melodies and towards the end of the piece when the chordophone is reintroduced into the song. This last part of the song appeared to imitate the style of the initial phrases of the song. The pitches throughout the song were generally lower with a few fluctuations, but the high pitches were generally made by the second chordophone. The timbre of these pitches was clear and resounding and sounded lasting. After listening to the song, "Sarasiruha," for the first time, I found the song to be very relaxing and calming to the spirit. It struck me as something I would want to listen to after a long day. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the various melodic pitches being used throughout the song, and felt as if the song were divided into different movements, as is common in a Western classical piece. After really listening closely to this piece a couple of times, I was content to discover all the new elements I was able to pick out that I missed the first time around.