Dictionary of Music - Birding America

156 gagliardacalled ryūteki, a sho (mouth organ; see underSHENG), and various drums. For concert presentationsKOTO (zither) and BIWA (lute) are sometimesadded (they are omitted when there are dancers).The individual instrumental lines are heard separately,as in chamber music, rather than merged as inthe Western orchestra. The old gagaku repertory hasbeen preserved in partbooks that give instrument fingeringsand some other details but not precisepitches. Moreover, the rhythms often are not a seriesof regular beats, as in most Western music, but aremore like human inhaling and exhaling, so that theperformers must listen carefully to one another inorder to coordinate the ensemble.gagliarda (gä lyär′dä).LIARD.gaillarde (gī yArd′).LIARD.The Italian word for GAL-The French word for GAL-gallant style Also, French, style galant (stēl gAläN′). The light, graceful, elaborately ornamentedstyle of some eighteenth-century music, especiallyharpsichord music, as distinct from the solid contrapuntalstyle of the German baroque composers. Thechief composers associated with the gallant style,which is sometimes called “rococo” after its counterpartin the visual arts, are François Couperin andDomenico Scarlatti, and it was adopted by some oftheir German contemporaries, notably Telemann andBach’s sons, Karl Philipp Emanuel and JohannChristian. To some extent the gallant style is considereda bridge between the baroque and the classicstyle of Haydn and Mozart. See also PRECLASSIC.galliard (gal′yərd). A lively dance popular in thesixteenth century. Usually in triple meter (any meterin which there are three basic beats per measure,such as 3/4 or 3/8) and frequently using HEMIOLA,the galliard often was preceded by a slow statelydance, at first usually a pavane and later a passamezzo.A very similar fast dance paired with aslow dance was the SALTARELLO. In the seventeenthcentury the galliard often appeared in suites, and bythe end of the century it was often quite slow intempo.galop (English gə lop′; French gA lō′). A popularnineteenth-century ballroom dance in very fasttempo and 2/4 meter. The galop was a round dance(the dancers were placed in a circle), and it was performedwith hopping steps, not unlike a horse’s gallop.The famous “Dance of the Hours” inPonchielli’s opera La Gioconda is a galop.galoubet (gA loo — bā′) French. See under TAM-BOURIN.gamba (gäm′bä) Italian.DA GAMBA.A shortening of VIOLAgambang (gom′bong) Javanese. A wooden xylophoneused in GAMELAN ensembles. It is playedwith two mallets in very fast tempos and provides agentle rippling sound.gamelan (gom′ə lon′′) Javanese. A general namefor a classical Indonesian orchestra, of which thereare many different kinds, as well as for its music.Indeed, a gamelan may be unique, made up not justof certain kinds of instrument but of specific instrumentsthat have been played together for manyyears; such a group is often given a proper name,just as a person is. Some of the gamelan still used inJava today are a thousand years old. Javanese musicuses two kinds of scale system, a five-tone systemcalled sléndro and a seven-tone system called pelóg.Within each system are different tunings, and agamelan can often be distinguished by its own particularcombination of tunings. A complete gamelanconsists of two sets of instruments, one set of pelógand another of sléndro. All together there may be asmany as eighty instruments, played by about thirtyperformers. The most important are the percussioninstruments, consisting of gongs, drums, xylophones,and kettles. The texture of gamelan music isextremely dense, with a main melody, countermelodies,punctuations, and rhythms occurringsimultaneously. The central melodic theme is playedby sarons, which are metal xylophones, and the unitsof time are marked by gongs. There are two leaderswithin the ensemble, one who plays the largest drumand determines tempo changes, and another concernedwith melodic variations, who generally plays