What's covered
Key facts
Fusion of Western and non-Western traditions
A fusion combines two or more musical styles or traditions.
Set work: Afro Celt Sound System: Release
It is a fusion of different cultural traditions.
Set work: Esperanza Spalding: Samba Em Prelúdio
The performing forces are female voice, acoustic guitar and acoustic bass guitar; Esperanza Spalding sings and plays the bass.
Fusion of Western and non-Western traditions
A fusion combines elements of two or more musical styles or cultural traditions, often blending non-Western instruments and scales with Western pop, jazz or electronic production.
Set work: Afro Celt Sound System: Release
In 'Release' the uilleann pipes start the solo section, joined by the whistle an octave higher playing mainly running semiquavers.
Set work: Esperanza Spalding: Samba Em Prelúdio
'Samba Em Prelúdio' is in B minor and does not modulate; many bossa novas use minor keys.
Fusion of Western and non-Western traditions
Well-known fusions include Bhangra (Punjabi folk with Western pop/dance), Afro-Celt (West African with Celtic), and Latin jazz (samba/bossa nova with jazz).
Set work: Afro Celt Sound System: Release
'Release' has a distinct verse form: an intro, three verses, solos, breaks and an outro, with no choruses.
Set work: Esperanza Spalding: Samba Em Prelúdio
It blends Latin American dance rhythms with jazz harmony.
Fusion of Western and non-Western traditions
It blends traditional instruments such as the kora (a West African harp) with electronic sounds.
Practice questions with answers
A taste of the 23 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
The kora, sometimes heard in fusion music, is a harp-lute from which region?
- •East Asia
- •Northern Europe
- •South America
- ✓West Africa
Afro Celt Sound System's 'Release' fuses Celtic music with?
- •American country and western
- •Baroque opera and plainchant
- •Classical sonata-form writing
- ✓West African folk and electronic
Esperanza Spalding's set work fuses jazz with which Brazilian style?
- •English folk song
- •German chorale
- •Punjabi bhangra
- ✓Samba and bossa nova
What is a fusion in music?
- ✓A blend of two or more musical styles or traditions
- •A piece written for a single unaccompanied instrument
- •A random collection of unrelated sound effects
- •A strict copy of one pure traditional style
Which West African instrument features in 'Release'?
- •The bagpipes
- •The harpsichord
- ✓The kora (a harp)
- •The timpani
Which instruments feature in Esperanza Spalding's 'Samba Em Prelúdio'?
- •Kora, dhol drum and a synthesiser
- •Piano, trumpet and a full drum kit
- •Sitar, tabla and a harmonium
- ✓Voice, acoustic bass guitar and acoustic guitar
Three minutes a day. Knowledge that sticks.
Practise all 23 Area of Study 4: Fusions questions with spaced repetition, so what you revise today is still there in the exam. Free to use, no card needed.