EVE COHEN/Daily Bruin A gamelan ensemble practices in the ethnomusicology department in preparation for the world music festival.

"This is the oldest ethnomusicology department in the country and the largest. It's the most diverse in terms of faculty specialty," said ethnomusicology professor Tara Browner.

Spreading its wings once a year, the ethnomusicology department presents its free Festival of World Music, a series of concerts in Schoenberg Hall showcasing the various student performance ensembles of music from around the world. The series starts today, and will continue through June 2, culminating in the representation of 11 ethnic groups from five continents. There will be no shows on May 24, 25, 26, or 31. Unlike traditional western ensembles, such as band and orchestra, most other cultures have very different musical aesthetics; some do not even use music notation. Afro-Cuban drumming, for example, is commonly learned through hearing the leader play a rhythm and imitating it, rather than following a written score. While notation may, in some ways, make the learning process easier, it tends to impede the more general understanding of a culture's musical sensibility.

"You learn by ear and repetition and memorization but not notes. The idea behind it is that, in order to really understand the music of a culture, you need to learn it the way those people learn it," said Browner, who specializes in North American Indian music, as well as performs in the Brazilian ensemble.

Some of the cultural music will extend to elements beyond just the cool sounds. The Chinese ensemble (appearing tomorrow) features nearly 100 performers doing lion dances, fan dances, and even a staged performance of a Chinese opera excerpt. Unlike the Afro-Cuban ensemble, the Chinese ensemble uses ancient Chinese musical notation. The concert features percussion, pipa (a Chinese guitar), erhu (a Chinese violin), and the qin (a plucked string instrument which Confucius himself played).

"I believe that this is probably one of the only places outside of China where you can study these instruments. I love it," said Mike Gubman a first-year ethnomusicology student, who plays a qin solo that dates from 1864 for the upcoming concert.

Perhaps most telling of UCLA's rich ethnomusicology tradition is the gamelan collection, which was acquired in 1958, the first to be procured by an American university. Performing on June 1, the Balinese ensemble will play several kebyar, or modern-style gamelan songs. The gamelan is not a single instrument, but is the entire orchestra of 26 instruments as a whole, which covers roughly four octaves of range. The instruments themselves are unique, featuring elaborate designs on a wooden frame which suspends several bronze blocks that are tuned to a pentatonic (or five-note) scale.

"Good quality instruments could be $50,000, the same as a grand piano, but for that you get the whole thing, 26 different instruments," said Nyoma Wenten, the Balinese gamelan director who also teaches gamelan at Cal Arts. While the upcoming performances will display the progress of students learning new instruments over the past year, the level of achievement tends to be high. Some of the ensembles are near-professional level. Former students return year after year to perform. However, any student can join the ensembles, even if one's previous musical experience is non-existent.

"My students have very heavy loads for their own majors and most are not music majors. My goal is that they learn Chinese music while they enjoy it. I don't want to push too hard. The level they achieved in a year, some of them in a quarter, is magnificent," said Chi Li, director of the Chinese ensemble.

The overarching purpose of the ethnomusicology department is to bring other cultures and ways of experiencing art to UCLA students. Unlike many western concerts that require audience silence for music appreciation, many world music performances allow for audience sing-a-long and various response calls that add to the music. For a moment, listeners can be in contact with a world far removed from Westwood.

"It's bringing a piece of Korea or Brazil here," Browner said. "It's bringing a little piece of that culture that the audience can interact with."