This week’s listening exercise is a kind of experiment: You will reflect on musical examples by listening to the sounds alone, without having any information or knowledge about the traditions and their context.

To start, review some or all of the tracks on the Spotify playlist titled “Discussion 3 playlist.”  (Links  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5DlZCyT5CBrpcpf4b9Cyat?si=deFlTXqYRLKST1jUsYJq4A .)Pick 2 tracks from the playlist and listen carefully to each several times. Try to choose tracks that are unfamiliar to you, i.e. if you know the style well, choose a different one instead.

Next, write 2 paragraphs that address the following questions:

In the first paragraph, summarize the features of each track that especially stand out. What qualities do you hear as the most important characteristics of each track? How is each one different than the music you are more accustomed to hearing? Your answers may be very different for each of the 2 tracks, and you can discuss any aspect of the music you consider important, including rhythm, melody, harmony, the way you hear it structured over time, or other qualities. But rather than only describing the overall feeling or emotion, you should also try to connect that aspect as best you can to specific sounds and details that you notice through careful listening.

In your second paragraph, compare the 2 tracks you selected. In what ways are they similar, and in what ways are they different? Here again, try to focus on the kinds of sonic details that you are noticing, and how you think they impact the way the music feels.

The tracks with singing may be in languages you cannot understand, but again, you are not expected to seek out lyrics or translations, and should focus your attention on the sounds alone.