Audio clip of sacred Gregorian chant.

KS1/2 idea: a good example of unison singing for KS1 and continuous unchanging texture for KS2.

Track 19 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" - notes from Maureen Hanke.

'Rag Megh' is an example of North Indian music featuring the tabla. Tabla are an asymetrical pair of small tuned hand played drums. The smaller treble drum is placed on the right of the two drums and the bass drum is placed on the left.
Listening to traditional performances of North Indian classical music, the tabla mainly keep time in cycles of steady beats and creates increasing elaborate rhythmic patterns around time.

Three main elements of Indian music can be identified in this piece. The drone ( a repeated sound throughout), the tune and the rhythm. The rhythm is played on the tabla, the only skin instrument in the piece. The tune is based on a rag or group of notes and treated with very strict musical rules to create an improvisation that evokes a particular mood. The first part of the improvised melody is without the tabla. The extract starts just before the tabla join in and fades before the piece is completed.

Track 20 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Religions of the World' (1'33") Temple bells and drums at the Kali Temple, Varanasi. This call to prayer from a Hindu temple features bells and drums. The Track Explorer has two learning tracks focusing on instrumentation and voices.

Track 13 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Religions of the World' (2'56") A gospel song. This well known song features a call and response. The learning tracks of the Track Explorer focus on rhythm and tempo and the call and response structure.

Track 9 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Religions of the World' (1''36") Latin Plainchant sung by the monks of Prinknash Abbey. This is a hymn in plainsong style, dating back to the tenth century. The Track Explorer has two learning tracks focusing on structure and the unaccompanied male voices.

Track 28 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Listen to this' for Key Stage 1. Festive music from Sri Lanka, from Saydisc album 'Disappearing World' (2'23") Main features: rhythm, timbre. These two pieces from Sri Lanka are part of religious celebrations, in honour of a god named Kataragama. The Track Explorer has one learning track focusing on both sections of the music.