The Javanese Gamelan Ensemble exhibited in the video below uses colotomic meter. Colotomic meter means that one or more instruments in the ensemble, usually the pitched gongs, are assigned the musical role of keeping the tempo. Since the low gongs are in charge of keeping the tempo, the higher instruments must listen careful and play according to the beat given to them. In Western European Music, musicians are so often taught  to master their own individual part to a specific tempo. Listening to others and playing together as an ensemble are not always stressed skills. In the Javanese Gamelan Ensemble, without listening to others and playing together, the piece would not be successful.

Singa Nebah (The Pouncing Lion) by Pelog Barang

Northern Illinois University  School of Music

Indonesia

Javanese Gamelan Ensemble

The Study of Ethnomusicology and World Music Pedagogy

In The Harmless Drudge: Defining Ethnomusicology, Nettl defines ethnomusicology as the following: "Ethnomusicology is the study of music in a culture...[and] all the musical manifestations of a society...from a comparative and realistic perspective...using fieldwork." With this definition, it is easily shown that ethnomusicology is directly related to world music pedagogy. As discussed in Thinking About Music (Wade) and  The Contextual Dimension of Music Experience (Reimer), people must study the music of other cultures in order to correctly represent them in another culture's classroom. If we do not study the music in its originally culture, we cannot accurately portray or replicate the work. For example, the video below is a performance of Funga Alafia by Nana Malaya. Without the study of the African culture, we would not know this is a welcoming song, because we would not understand the language. We would not know the origin of the dance or dress of the African women with the scarf on their fingers. Without this information, provided by ethnomusicologists, we would not be able to accurately replicate the song in our own culture's classroom.

Funga Alafia

Performers: Nana Malaya and unnamed drummers

Culture of Origin: African often attributed to the Hausa tribes of Nigeria

Instrumentation: Voice

References:

Nettl, Bruno. “The Harmless Drudge: Defining Ethnomusicology.” The Musics of the World, 2005, pp. 3–15.

Reimer, Bennett. A Philosophy of Music Education: Advancing the Vision. Prentice Hall, 2012.

Wade, Bonnie C. Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford University Press, 2013.