Read the description of the Polish wedding procession while listening to the accompanying music (“Wedding Procession”) and following the Active Listening guide. List the three important themes from ethnomusicology described in Worlds of Music and tell how each is illustrated in the brief sketch (and music) of this particular ritual event

What will be an ideal response?

• (A) The great diversity of cultural practices found in Europe: musical practices essential to the wedding ritual vary greatly; the music at this particular wedding is "even unlike wedding music in other regions of Poland."
• (B) Cultural context: "Context is essential for understanding the function and meaning of musical sounds." Only when we can place these musical sounds within their particular cultural context through observation of accompanying visual images, text translations, etc., do we understand that the music is "wedding music."
• (C) Music and identity: "Music is an essential way in which people realize and express identities, both personal and collective"; the music with its polyphonic singing and violins playing duple-metered, homophonic music in a string band sounds "European."