Music 160: Lecture 1: Terminology & Definitions [Speaker: Keri Mccarthy
Music 160: Lecture 1: Terminology & Definitions [Speaker: Keri McCarthy]
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Slide Title: WSU Online Title Slide
Title: Terminology & Definitions Speaker: Keri McCarthy online.wsu.edu
Audio: [Music] Slide # 2
Slide Title: Music
Music . Definition:
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Slide Title: Music: Definition
Music . Definition: “the rational organization of sounds and silences as they pass through time”
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Slide Title: Music: Description
Music . Develop a definition for yourself that can be modified as we learn about various types of music. Many people feel that music should be “pleasing to the ear”; if this becomes part of your definition, consider whether that “pleasing” quality must be intended by the composer (or is the listener’s value system the only one applied). Can one use the term “music” to describe genres he or she does not find enjoyable? Does the music have to be organized rationally? How can we be sure of the composer’s original intent or design?
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Slide # 5
Slide Title: Rhythm
Rhythm . Rhythm:
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Slide Title: Rhythm: Definition
Rhythm . Rhythm: “the organization of time in music.”
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Slide Title: Rhythm: Description
Rhythm This is a pretty useless definition, but accurate. Rhythm is the changing horizontal element of music – the way music plays over a more steady “beat”. “Melody” is the vertical element of music – how pitches are organized (high or low) to create a longer phrase. The temporal organization of those pitches (how they occur over time) is “rhythm”. Often composers use rhythmic patterns to help give consistency to or organize a phrase or group of phrases.
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Slide Title: Rhythm: Description pt 2
Rhythm
[Video describing rhythm]
Audio: Rhythm, the definition of rhythm is the organization of time in music. But that doesn’t have a lot of meaning for you or for me. So I want to start this session with a little bit of listening to Beethoven Symphony No. 5 the first movement. [music] Hopefully that is familiar to some of you or most of you. In this Beethoven uses both a rhythm and a beat as well as a musical motive. We hear the motive right at the opening. [piano music] And that motive definitely has an associated rhythm with it. That rhythm would be this. [piano music] If we take the pitch element
2 out we have just the basic rhythm of that melody. This is different from a beat. The beat for this would probably be [piano music]. A beat is a steady pulse that runs underneath the melodic line that we are hearing. But the rhythm is the horizontal component or the metric component of that melodic line. So the rhythm itself exists separately from what the beat implies. That we will talk about in just a minute as we move on to beat. That is the rhythm. Slide # 9
Slide Title: Rhythm – Beat
Rhythm . Beat:
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Beat: Definition
Rhythm . Beat: “a consistent pulsing in the music.” Avoid confusing this with “rhythm”. A beat is just the constant pulse.
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Beat: Description
Rhythm
[Video describing beat]
Audio: So the beat is a consistent pulse in the music. This is something that you are familiar with using this term in terms of pop music in terms of techno has a really strong beat to it. I am using Beethoven 5 as a good example of something with a beat. We will hear that the beat is not consistent in the opening. The opening seems to exist in sort of a suspended element of time and then suddenly we have a consistent pulse when the little motor starts. So listen for that here I’ll illustrate it for you as it comes in. [music] Here. And you can hear that regardless of what the melody is doing it is playing over a consistent pulse and that pulse is called the beat. Slide # 12
Slide Title: Rhythm – Tempo
Rhythm . Tempo:
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Tempo: Definition
Rhythm . Tempo: “The speed at which the beats occur.”
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Tempo: Description
Rhythm Tempi can be fast, moderate, or slow, and many terms used at the beginning of a piece are tempo indications, including Andante (Walking), Lento (Gently) and Vivace (Lively).
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Tempo: Description pt 2
Rhythm
[Video describing tempo]
Audio: Tempo is the speed at which the beats occur. So tempo is entirely relative. Composers do use tempo markings that tend over time to have a specific speed associated with them. Like the word andante in Italian means walking speed. So we do have some tempo markings that imply a range of tempi but basically when you are talking about a tempi in terms of this class you will be saying well that movement was a slow movement, this movement was a fast movement. And you can figure out tempo by finding a beat and then determining whether or not that pattern moves more quickly or slowly than other associated tempos. So as an example the first movement of Beethoven 5 once we get past the opening sounds something like this. [music] Compare that with the second movement of the same symphony. [music] This is slightly slower. Not as slow as possible certainly but the first movement feels fast in comparison. This movement is slower. Those are your tempos. Slide # 16
Slide Title: Rhythm – Ritard
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Rhythm . Ritard:
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Ritard: Definition
Rhythm . Ritard: “a gradual slowing down of the tempo.” Often a piece ritards just before its end.
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Accelerando
Rhythm . Accelerando:
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Accelerando: Definition
Rhythm . Accelerando: “a gradual speeding up of the tempo (accelerate).” Accelerandos can add drama to a section of music.
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Accelerando: Description
Rhythm
[Video describing ritard and accelerando]
Audio: When we get to the romantic period especially composers start being more interested in changing tempos within a given piece of music. Since Beethoven was for many of us the start to the romantic period or at least the person who hinted at what was possible with a lot of things that
5 happened in the romantic period I am going to play for you a little bit of his Sonata Pathetique the first movement, this may sound familiar to you. It is supposed to sound improvised in that the pianist is the only one playing. They can choose to play as quickly or as slowly as possible meaning that recordings of this piece are really interesting to pianists because they can get a wide range of tempi going on at the same time. So you can listen to this and listen for two terms that we will be talking about. One is ritard, when the music seems to slow, and the other one is accelerando, same as accelerate if that helps you remember this term, a gradual speeding up of the tempo. Both of these add drama and a sense of maybe personal engagement with the performer as well. Those were big features of the romantic period but are also interesting to listen to in music from a broad range of time periods. Listen to a little bit of this and listen for ritards, slowing down, and accelerando, speeding up. [music] Ritard there. A bit of accelerando through that. And again you can feel the beat moving around and pulling. Beethoven writes this intentionally the performer intends it and it can be something that adds drama to a piece as a whole. Beethoven was good at adding drama. So a little bit of ritard and accelerando. Frederic Chopin if you are hearing Chopin etudes on piano as well he is a huge user of the ritard and accelerando to create interest within his piece. So those are changes in tempo: accelerando and ritard. Slide # 21
Slide Title: Rhythm – Meter
Rhythm . Meter:
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Meter: Definition
Rhythm . Meter: “the gathering of beats into regular groups.”
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Slide Title: Rhythm – Meter: Description
Rhythm
[Video describing meter]
Audio: Meter is something that I don’t need you to understand for this class but if you can hear it might help you to identify pieces as separate from each other or be able to identify function. Dances for
6 example tend to be in three like a waltz. Marches tend to be in two or four, kind of a more square sense of the music. So if meter resonates with you then fantastic. Use it to identify or talk about the pieces. I just wanted to give you a couple of examples because many times people just haven’t had the opportunity to listen to the beats of music and then identify how they have been grouped. So let’s go through that a couple of times. The first one I want to do is Mozart Symphony No. 40 the first movement. This may sound familiar too. And we’ll listen for the beats first and then try and figure out the beat pattern. Usually things happen on the strongest of the beat pulses and I’ll show you that as we go. [music] So this is in four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Compare that with this clip from Haydn. This is going to be a minuet in trio which means you might be able to imply a dance movement from that. You might guess from that that the meter is going to be three instead of four. [music]
It is again not essential that you be able to determine how many beats are in a measure or how the beats are grouped while you are listening. But these are things that might help you better understand what it is you like about music. So if you can hear meter or you are already familiar with meter then great. If not don’t worry about it. Meter is not a term that you will be asked to define nor will we be using it necessarily unless we are talking about the difference between say something that feels dance-like versus march-like or walking tempo versus something that feels swung. And so that would be the only way in which really we would be talking about meter. So don’t worry about it but if you are interested in learning more about it start listening for the beats and trying to guess how those beat patterns are grouped in the pieces you are listening to. Slide # 24
Slide Title: Rhythm – Meter: Description pt 2
Rhythm Usually western music is grouped in 2, 3, 4, or 6 beats, with one strong “downbeat” for each grouping. Meter can be useful in identifying specific pieces or types of music, so practice listening for meter in our musical examples. Pieces in 3 tend to sound dance-like, whereas meters in 2 or 4 can sound like a march.
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Slide Title: Melody
Melody . Melody:
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Slide Title: Melody: Definition
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Melody . Melody: “a series of notes arranged in order to form a distinctive, recognizable musical unit.”
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Slide Title: Melody: description
Melody A melody is the pitch and rhythmic elements that are recognizable or memorable in a given piece of music. Pieces can have many melodies, and often a composer will develop contrasting melodies to give variety to various sections of a work.
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Slide Title: Melody: Description pt 2
Melody
[Video describing melody]
Audio: So your book defines melody as a series of notes arranged in order to form a distinctive, recognizable musical unit. Which is a fantastic definition but a little bit wordy and complicated. What I would say is the melody is the thing that you leave still in your head after you leave a concert performance. And not all pieces and not all concerts even have melodies that are distinctive and definable. But if you hear something that resonates with you that you can sing afterwards that is probably the melody that we are talking about. The melody for western music is almost always the primary source. We are always listening for something that we can listen to. Melodies sometimes have multiple phrases. A beginning phrase is sometimes called an antecedent phrase. The end phrase is sometimes called a consequent like a question and an answer. Some of the most beautiful melodies come from the classical period, the romantic period. Twentieth century gets a little bit fragmented. And even within the romantic period some pieces like Beethoven 5 are difficult to discern exactly what the melody is. It is not terribly singable or melodic.
Listen to this though. This is Haydn’s Emperor string quartet. It starts with this beautiful it’s a theme in variations on a beautiful melodic fragment that actually became the German national anthem so if you are familiar with that you may hear Deutschland Deutschland uber alles in the beginning of this as well. So listen for this melody being played by a string quartet. [music] So that melody is really identifiable. The harmony or the instruments that aren’t playing the melody are clearly just supporting that melody. They are not in any way intending to compete with it.
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That could be something we would call counterpoint. This melody is primary and then throughout this piece we hear a theme in variations so you will hear that melody come back in various forms throughout the piece. But the melody is always the thing that your ear is being drawn to. In opera, in vocal pieces, what the vocalist is singing is almost always that melodic component and so it is easy in vocal music to hear a melody because if it is singable and therefore the vocalist is singing it you too can remember it as being the melody. With instrumental pieces sometimes it gets a little bit more complicated but we are always listening as western listeners for a melody and so I think melody shouldn’t be so difficult for you to remember. Think about it just as a musical tune. Slide # 29
Slide Title: Melody - Motive
Melody . Motive:
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Slide Title: Melody – Motive: Definition
Melody . Motive: “a short distinctive melodic figure.”
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Slide Title: Melody – Motive: Description
Melody Motives are identifiable (think of the first four notes of Beethoven Symphony No. 5), but aren’t long or complete enough to be considered a melody. Often melodies are constructed from sequencing shorter motives together to create a longer phrase.
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Slide Title: Melody – Phrase
Melody . Phrase:
Audio:
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- Slide # 33
Slide Title: Melody – Phrase: Definition
Melody . Phrase: “a musical sentence” Melodies can be comprised of two or more phases.
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Slide Title: Melody – Phrase: Definition pt 2
Melody
[Video describing motive]
Audio: A motive is a subsection usually of a melody. It is a little unit of melody that is often put together and sequenced to make a melody more interesting or more engaging. Certain composers like Beethoven and Haydn and Mozart to a certain extent use little motives to created longer phrases. The word motive is not as useful as the world melody for you probably but is something that I thought you might want to be aware of. The opening of Beethoven 5 is a classic example of what a motive is. We hear this three note bum, bum, bum, bum, ba-ba-ba-bum. That is a motive that is already being sequenced from one pitch level and then down a pitch level and we hear it throughout the entire piece of music which is really interesting. It is everywhere in that first movement in particular. So listen for it here. I mean if you raised your hand every time you heard the motive you would be constantly waving. It is just so obvious here. What is the melody here? It is a longer phrase consisting of these little motivic passages but frankly when we listen to Beethoven 5 I’m not sure that after the opening a lot of it is very singable or memorable in that sense so in this piece I think that the motive is stronger than the melody at least in the first movement as in the opening. So go ahead and give a listen and listen to the motive being developed here in the beginning of Beethoven 5. [music] It’s a catchy motive right? And you hear it maybe fifteen times in the first five seconds of the piece. So he is really driving home he really wants you to remember that motive. And he wants you to pay attention later in the piece to how he has developed it. He is crafting a careful small little piece of something that he creates into a much larger musical phrasing and possible various themes throughout the pieces the motive comes back and sort of conflicts with itself. In this case we are not talking about a singable melody or something that is memorable for being tuneful. We are talking about something that is sort of a strategic unit that he is using to develop music memorable. A short, distinctive melodic figure would be just fine in terms of defining what a motive is. Slide # 35
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Pitch
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Building Blocks of Music . Pitch:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Pitch: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Pitch: “The relative position (high or low) of a given sound.” When strung together, various pitches can create a “melody”. Certain instruments play higher pitches (piccolo) in relation to other instruments (tuba) or voice types (soprano vs. bass).
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Pitch: Description
Building Blocks of Music
[Video describing pitch]
Audio: Pitch is a term that is useful in describing elements of the melody. A pitch is any of these keys on the piano play a given distinctive pitch. [notes played on piano] Those are all pitches and they all are relative high or low. So you can hear a high pitch on piccolo and a very low pitch on tuba. Sometimes it is useful in talking about pitches you might be wanting to talk about a piece that is electronically created and talking about whether the intervals being used are wide or small. How close those pitches reside to each other. So consider something as simple as Are You Sleeping. [notes played on piano] So we hear the pitch ascend and then jump back down. Ascend and then jump back down. [notes played on piano] We are hearing that three note ascending motive being developed and again ascending. And so [notes played on piano] a descending figure with a little bit of a leap at the end. These are all talking about... and if you’d like me to finish out the piece [notes played on piano]… wide interval again descending lower. So this piece uses a range of about an octave. You don’t need to know that. The pitches ascend and descend. This is a very singable piece so the pitches are fairly close together. The largest space that we get or the largest interval we have [notes played on piano] is at the end there. That is a perfect fourth and not too bad on the voice. When we get into some twentieth century music we’ll hear stuff that starts at the top and ends at the bottom of the piano. Hardly considered singable, not considered very tuneful. So in those pieces talking about pitch might be particularly useful for you. So that is pitch. Slide # 38
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Interval
Building Blocks of Music . Interval:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Interval: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Interval: “the distance between two pitches.”
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Interval: Description
Building Blocks of Music Intervals can be wide or small (step-wise), and can help identify the time period of a given piece of music. For example, music from the classical period tends to use small, step-wise (singable) intervals, whereas twentieth-century music often uses large intervallic leaps to add drama.
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Interval: Description pt 2
Building Blocks of Music
[Video describing interval]
Audio: Intervals we mostly just covered with the term pitch but I’ll cover them again a bit with another tune Happy Birthday which seems very tuneful, is fairly singable until you realize that your entire party has pitched it up too high for you to be able to reach the large leap in the middle of it. Listen to that here. [notes played on piano] Stepwise, there is a leap. Here is a bigger leap. And then here is the leap that catches everybody by surprise when you are singing it. That is an octave and that is not a small leap for anyone’s voice so yes if you are at somebody’s birthday party and your voice cracks in that top interval right there that is a wide interval and you shouldn’t feel embarrassed about that. That is a large interval. Intervals are useful in talking about styles of music. For example really beautiful lyric melodies, things written in the classical period by people like Mozart and Haydn are always very lyric and often use a lot of stepwise
12 close together intervals. Those are the easiest on the voice, they are the easiest to sing, and a lot of times they are the most tuneful.
And as I mentioned in the segment about pitch as we reach towards the twentieth century we start to see these larger leaps. Composers are interested in using wider ranges. Instrument ranges are developed. So we start to hear pieces where we have really desperate pitches being used back and forth very large intervals. So it might be useful to say that piece starts with a very large leap, a very large intervallic leap. I can hear that the interval there is small. If those things are helpful for you in terms of recognizing a piece of music that is great. They may also help you recognize a style or a time period in which the piece was written and so they can be useful for that as well. So that is an interval. Slide # 42
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Scale
Building Blocks of Music . Scale:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Scale: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Scale: “An arrangement of step-wise pitches that ascends and descends in a specific order.”
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Scale: Description
Building Blocks of Music Western music uses scales of 8 pitches, and are most often either in major (happy sounding) or minor (sad). For this course it is useful to recognize major and minor scales as they can help you identify a given piece or section of a piece.
Audio:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Scale: Description pt 2
Building Blocks of Music
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[Video describing scale]
Audio: A scale is a … actually scale means ladder. A musical scale or a musical ladder. It is a set of pitches that are used to develop a melody. Usually the melody stays within the notes of that particular scale. Within an octave on the piano we have twelve notes. Our normal scales, either major or minor, use eight of those. Major is a scale that sounds happy [notes played on piano]. In comparison with minor which tends to sound a little bit deflated or sad [notes played on piano]. And you may be able to hear things as being played either, I hope, in major or in minor. And that may be useful for you. Especially composers in the romantic period liked to mess around with major and minor. So you will hear something being stated at first in a major key and then being developed in a minor. That may help you to recognize sections in terms of the music as well. For now I don’t need you to be able to identify a given scale but it may be useful to recognize that music is written or composed created based on scale.
The scales of western music are very different from those of other countries. In India for example we have Raga which are different elements of scales. There instruments have far more interesting intervals than just only twelve within an octave. Some countries have a scale that runs forty-four within what we cover in only twelve pitches. So in those countries listening to music becomes more interesting pitch wise. Trying to hear differentiations between those forty- four smaller steps. For us basically what you’ll hear is it happy or is it sad. We use basically two scales, major and minor.
So the piece that I wanted to use to show you what a scale sounds like is Are You Sleeping because it uses mostly stepwise motion through [notes played on piano] a major scale. You can hear that here. [notes played on piano] We talked about that wide leap at the bottom at the end of the piece before. But this upward motion really shows represents what a scale sounds like. So you may be able to hear motion being scalar. Often times in terms of scales we are talking about harmony. Do you hear it as being major or minor and we will talk about that in a little bit. So scales. Again you don’t need to be able to identify specific scales but scales may be useful in talking about a piece of music or what you are hearing. Slide # 46
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Harmony
Building Blocks of Music . Harmony:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Harmony: Definition
Building Blocks of Music
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. Harmony: “The sounds that provide the accompaniment and enrichment of the melody.”
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Harmony: Description
Building Blocks of Music Usually harmony is created using two or more simultaneous sounding pitches (often “chords”), which provide either “consonance” or “dissonance” for the background of the melodies. Our western ears generally appreciate music that begins with some sense of consonance or a “home key”, then builds in dissonance or tension through the middle of the work, until the music returns to the home key near the end of the piece, resolving the tension.
Audio: - Slide # 49
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Harmony: Description pt 2
Building Blocks of Music
[Video describing harmony]
Audio: Harmony is defined by your book as the sounds that provide the accompaniment and enrichment of the melody. Harmonies are usually based on the same scales that the melodies are based on and they are interconnective. We don’t have harmony for a little while so when we start with music history we will be talking about Gregorian chant. It is all chanted in unison. There is no accompanying figure. In renaissance music there is so much dense polyphony that a lot of times harmony isn’t really considered. And it is only really in the Baroque and especially in the classical and the romantic and twentieth century that we hear harmony as being a valuable resource for composers. We have as western listeners really started to rely on harmony as something that is more important in western music than in many musics outside of Europe and the United States certainly.
We talked about a scale pattern. [notes played on the piano] And harmony is based on that same scale pattern. Major or minor. These are chords. They are three note figures in case you are interested. Usually they run underneath a melody. So we can have predictable harmonies [notes played on the piano] or we can have unpredictable harmonies. For all harmony in the western sense we have grown up with this idea that we should have some sort of stasis or comfort built in right at the start of a piece of music. And then we have some sort of tension build-up. It can come here which we hear very badly wanting to resolve back there. It can go someplace a little bit unexpected and where that resolution is still expected but not quite as demanded in the music.
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In the twentieth century composers start playing with this notion and even Rickard [Vargrament] the end of the romantic period really plays with this notion of harmony. Harmony I think is really hardwired into what types of music you listen to as a child. So if you are used to typical western harmony you have expectorations for how a piece is going to start, what is going to happen in the middle in terms of creating tension. Some of those tensions are really pleasurable because they are unexpected tensions or the music moves in a way you don’t expect it to move. But we always want it to come back to that nice home key or that stasis at the end. [notes played on the piano] That is something that composers later start to play with. Audience expectations, do we have to have harmonies that are expected in order for people to appreciate or enjoy the music. Or can we create other elements of music that are as fundamental as harmony. Again for you harmony is probably either major or minor. There are some modal harmonies that maybe we will talk about in relation to music from the renaissance period. Before those major and minor were established so nicely in the Baroque period. But mostly I think that you’ll hear major and minor and I think that is just fine. The harmony is that supporting element of music often created by notes being played at the same time and usually in some sort of organized pattern than you can recognize as being either contributing to a feeling of comfort or a feeling of discomfort, dissonance, that requires some sort of return back to that consonance again. So that is harmony in a nutshell. Slide # 50
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Consonant
Building Blocks of Music . Consonant
Audio: - Slide # 51
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Consonant: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Consonant: “pitches sounding agreeable and stable.”
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Consonant: Description
Building Blocks of Music This concept is quite subjective, as we each have individual thresholds of comfort for consonant and dissonant sounds. This term is good for describing sections or harmonies in music you might describe as comfortable or stable.
Audio:
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- Slide # 53
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Dissonant
Building Blocks of Music . Dissonant:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Dissonant: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Dissonant: “pitches creating tension or instability.”
Audio: - Slide # 55
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Dissonant: Description
Building Blocks of Music This concept is quite subjective, as we each have individual thresholds of comfort for consonant and dissonant sounds. This term is good for describing sections or harmonies in music you might describe as tense or unstable.
Audio: - Slide # 56
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Dissonant: Description pt 2
Building Blocks of Music
[Video describing consonant and dissonant]
Audio: I want to talk a little bit about two terms that might be useful in describing what you are hearing either mostly with harmony. With the way that the melody and harmony relate to each other or the way the two pitches relate to each other. Those terms are consonance and dissonance or consonant and dissonant. The first set are nouns, the second set is it is consonant sounding it is dissonant sounding. Those are adjectives for the same concepts. Your definition for consonant is pitches sounding agreeable and stable. Pitches creating tension or instability is the term for the definition for dissonant. Really these are subjective terms because whether they create stability
17 or instability or tension or release for you is fairly subjective. So I wanted to play a couple of pieces in which this would be readily identifiable and that I think most people would agree you feel consonance in one and tension in the other. So let’s start with this is the opening of the 1812 Overture and it’s really lovely. I think it is fairly consonant. Even within this opening you could make the argument that some of the harmony causes tension or sort of drives the music forward. And so if you want to make the argument that the piece starts with consonance and then very quickly moves into dissonance or a more dissonant quality of sound you can absolutely do that. Let’s give a listen to the opening of the 1812. [music] Dissonance, maybe. Consonance. Mostly though for most of you the level of tension for this would be fairly low. In comparison to something from the early twentieth century by composer Arnold Schoenberg. Take a listen to a little bit of his Pierrot Lunaire. [music] So in addition to them using to Schoenberg choosing instruments that usually aren’t put together and a vocal style that kind of uses a spoken and sung element to it. The pitches themselves create a sense of tension that seems to suspend through most of the piece in my opinion. And so I would term this piece as being fairly dissonant and so that might be a good way for you to consider these terms.
These are really useful terms for you to be able to use. I hear consonance, I hear dissonance. Or that piece is very consonant to me but this piece this section is really dissonant. Whether you enjoy having a certain amount of tension is kind of like spicy food. How much of it do you like? You can figure that out for yourself but I think that that idea of with harmony static and then tension and then a return back to something familiar is one important feature of music. But I also think the consonance and dissonance, the way that the composer chooses to sculpt the level of tension throughout the piece is going to be something for you that you will find is highly personal and probably dictates the type of music that you choose to listen to on a regular basis. So these terms are something that would be really useful for you to be able to use when you are talking about or writing about the music that you listen to. So consonance and dissonance. Slide # 57
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Tone Color/Timbre
Building Blocks of Music . Tone Color/Timbre:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Tone Color/Timbre: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Tone Color/Timbre: “the character of a musical tone as determined by its harmonics, attack and decay.”
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Tone Color/Timbre: Description
Building Blocks of Music Timbre is the characteristic sound of an instrument or voice. For example, Bob Dylan’s voice is fairly raspy – this term describes his vocal timbre. Tone color is important in being able to identify how an instrument sounds, and explain why you appreciate certain families of instruments, or specific singers. Practice using adjectives to describe the tone colors in the music you hear.
Audio: - Slide # 60
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Tone Color/Timbre: Description pt 2
Building Blocks of Music
[Video describing tone color/timbre]
Audio: So the timbre or tone color of something is defined in your book as the character of a musical tone as determined by its harmonics, attack and decay. Which is a terrible definition for anything. But basically what it is is the sound quality that you are hearing. You have plenty of experience I’m sure describing music to your friends and that is what I am asking you to be able to do here. Sometimes with classical music it is harder or instruments you are unfamiliar with to listen across but I just wanted to give you an idea of some adjectives you can use using some western music and some non-western music to sort of give you ideas of how to describe instruments. You can certainly go through it on YouTube or within our course space and listen to music that is being played by individual instruments or a given orchestra even or a vocalist and talk about the way you think that their voice sounds and that would be talking about tone color or timbre. So just try to get comfortable using various terms that are maybe non-musical to describe how something sounds. So I wanted to give you three examples here. This is an oboe, the instrument I play. [music] Oboe is sometimes described as being nasal though I don’t think so. Maybe when your fourth grader brings it home they are pretty nasal. I would say woody or resonant, warm. Could use the term muted if you felt that way. I’m trying to think of terms that describe the sound itself so I would stay away from things that were like tuneful or soulful, musical. And try and focus instead on the sound quality of the instrument itself. Things like woody or resonant.
Other sounds that might listen for now I’m going to play you a Thai tradition bamboo flute. It would be a wooden flute. [music] So this sounds a lot to me more hollow, it has a lighter tone. Some sense there it sounded a little bit muted, softer. In terms of dynamics it is softer. Airy, airy would be another good word. There are many, many good words. There is no right or wrong adjectives to use as long as you try to describe the sound that you are hearing. Maybe the finger symbols would sound bright or pingy or percussive would be another way to talk about the
19 symbols going on in the background. And then let’s give a little bit of consideration to Ravi Shankar, north Indian Hindu style musician who was pretty influential on a number of musicians including the Beetles. [music] This is sitar. This instrument is using those multiple scales or those scales with much smaller intervals that I was talking about when we were talking about scales. Buzzy, certainly tell it is a string instrument. It has so much ability to slide within those notes but that doesn’t really describe the color of the sound itself. Again I might say buzzy. A little bit bright. Brittle, maybe twangy is another good term. Nice for country music as well if you are listening to banjo as well.
Try and think of adjectives that are used for different types of music. As you are becoming familiar with new instruments try and be able to describe how to differentiate their sound from other instruments that people might be familiar with. So you already know what a trumpet sounds. Try and describe what a tuba sounds in comparison to that. Try and sound what an orchestra sounds like in comparison to a string quartet or wind quintet, those types of things. Timbre is also really useful just in describing or identifying a piece of music. So you’ll probably use words for adjectives for timbre quite a bit. And again these aren’t value judgments necessarily. You can use them as value judgments but more comparisons across and there are no right or wrong adjectives to describe a piece of music. This is entirely individual and feel free to embrace really interesting adjectives to talk about the way the music itself sounds or the tone color of an instrument sounds. Slide # 61
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Dynamics
Building Blocks of Music . Dynamics:
Audio: - Slide # 62
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Dynamics: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Dynamics: “the various levels of volume (loud and soft) of a musical composition.”
Audio: - Slide # 63
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Crescendo
Building Blocks of Music . Crescendo:
Audio:
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- Slide # 64
Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Crescendo: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Crescendo: “a gradual increase in the volume of sound.”
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music - Decrescendo
Building Blocks of Music . Decrescendo:
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Slide Title: Building Blocks of Music – Decrescendo: Definition
Building Blocks of Music . Decrescendo: “a gradual decrease in the volume of sound.”
Audio: - Slide # 67
Slide Title: Musical Textures – Texture
Musical Textures . Texture:
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Slide Title: Musical Textures – Texture: Definition
Musical Textures . Texture: “the density of the musical lines that make up a composition.”
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Slide # 69
Slide Title: Musical Textures: Definition
Musical Textures The overlaying of multiple lines in a composition. Texture assumes that more than one line is participating in a piece of music, and specific types of texture are used during various periods. For example, simple unison singing is most common in the Middle Ages, but by the Renaissance, dense polyphony is widespread.
Audio: - Slide # 70
Slide Title: Musical Textures – Unison
Musical Textures . Unison:
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Slide Title: Musical Textures – Unison
Musical Textures . Unison: “a single melodic line.” All voices/instruments singing the exact same melody (pitches and rhythms) at the same time.
Audio: - Slide # 72
Slide Title: Musical Textures – Unison: Description
Musical Textures
[Video describing unison texture]
Audio: Unison texture is probably the simplest texture that we have assuming that a texture means that there are at least two instruments or voices that are working to produce a piece of music together. In unison both instruments or voices are saying the identical, the exact same pitches at the exact same time. This is the earliest form of texture that we have and it extends back into the medieval period. [music] We hear a monk initially start the chant so that they have a pitch level at which everybody else will know where to sing together. If you listen to your CD set of Gregorian chant
22 you will notice that it is difficult to tell how many voices are singing or in some cases even that it is more than one because they are singing so completely together. And that is an example of unison. It is a unison texture, unison singing. Slide # 73
Slide Title: Musical Textures – A capella
Musical Textures . A capella:
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Slide Title: Musical Textures – A capella: Definition
Musical Textures . A capella: “adjective describing music that is sung only (no instrumental accompaniment)”
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Slide Title: Musical Textures – Polyphony
Musical Textures . Polyphony:
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Slide Title: Musical Textures – Polyphony: Definition
Musical Textures . Polyphony: “a texture involving two or more simultaneously sounding independent lines.”
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Slide Title: Musical Textures – Polyphony: Description
Musical Textures
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[Video describing polyphony]
Audio: Polyphony is when we have two or more voices within a texture that are both competing for primacy within a melodic line. So we will have two or more melodic lines going simultaneously. It draws attention or gives something more interesting to listen to for your ear. It developed shortly after music notation interestingly. By the time that they figured out how to notate rhythm this polyphonic music flourished. So in the renaissance period we have a ton of really beautiful polyphonic music. Here is an example of one from [Josken]. It starts out with a simple round or a canon, you’ll hear that. Because that melody is entering at different intervals and then competing with itself this is considered polyphony. [music] Unison, polyphony. Then it starts over again. This is very simple polyphony. By the Baroque period we get into some really more complicated polyphony and that is called counterpoint. That is when a composer intends two different melodic segments to move at a certain rate of speed and they are taking a lot of care to preserve harmonic components or that vertical component of the music as well and I’ll give you an example of that as well shortly. Polyphony is any two voices who are not singing an identical thing or competing for which ever melody is stronger. A fight to the finish. That is polyphony, two melodic lines being played simultaneously. Slide # 78
Slide Title: Musical Textures – Counterpoint
Musical Textures . Counterpoint:
Audio: - Slide # 79
Slide Title: Musical Textures – Counterpoint: Definition
Musical Textures . Counterpoint: “the harmonious opposition of two or more independent musical lines.”
Audio: - Slide # 80
Slide Title: Musical Textures – Counterpoint: Description
Musical Textures We will use this term as we enter into the Baroque period. “Polyphony” involves two independent musical lines played simultaneously. “Counterpoint” expands on this texture. When writing counterpoint, the composer is concerned about the various consonances and dissonances that result from these two intersecting lines, and may carefully compose each line to
24 avoid or create tension. Therefore counterpoint is a type of polyphony.
Audio: - Slide # 81
Slide Title: Musical Textures – Counterpoint: Description pt 2
Musical Textures
[Video describing counterpoint]
Audio: Counterpoint and polyphony are very linked to each other. All counterpoint is polyphony. Not all polyphony is counterpoint. This is not an important distinction for you to remember but I did want to present it to you right at the beginning of the class so here it is. Counterpoint, as I discussed a little bit in our polyphony definition, counterpoint is a more intentional form of polyphony in which you are considering how those two lines rub up against or interact with each other. You can’t think of a better person to talk about with counterpoint probably than with Johann Sebastian Bach and particularly a form called a fugue. And so I’m going to let you listen to a little bit of his organ fugue and you’ll hear how tightly controlled the melodic lines are within this piece. This is considered counterpoint or contrapuntal music. So go ahead and give this a listen. [music] So the lower voice is playing the same melody that opened. The upper voice has a line that runs next to it that is also melodic in nature but Bach wrote that second line to accommodate that first line that he had written that is now being played in that lower voice. Now we have three voices all going at the same time. All melodic competing for primacy. He had to be careful with each of these voices to make certain that the lines competed in a way that made sense harmonically to the listeners here. And that is called counterpoint.
To me it makes no difference whether you use the term polyphony to describe this as well. Polyphony is probably a more useful term for you or polyphonic than counterpoint or contrapuntal music is. And so go ahead and just call things polyphony if you can hear that there are two or more melodies going on at the same time. But if you are familiar with polyphony and you want to take it up a notch and talk about counterpoint most composers from Bach forward, from the Baroque period forward, are using counterpoint in some sense. There is beautiful counterpoint in the music of Mozart, in the music of Beethoven. And in later composers too like Arnold Schoenberg who was really interested in what it was that Bach was doing with his music as well. So counterpoint and polyphony but this is just an example of taking polyphony to the next step basically and composers did this from Baroque period forward. Slide # 82
Slide Title: Musical Forms – Form
Musical Forms . Form:
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Audio: - Slide # 83
Slide Title: Musical Forms – Form: Definition
Musical Forms . Form: “the purposeful organization of the composition, often perceivable by the listener.”
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Form: Description
Musical Forms Form is the consideration of the large-scale elements of a piece, including the organization of a single movement, as well as several movements comprising a piece. Listening for form may allow you to enjoy a work more thoroughly or better pace yourself when listening to a longer piece in a concert.
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Movement
Musical Forms . Movement:
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Movement: Definition
Musical Forms . Movement: “a large independent section of an instrumental work.” Usually a movement is unified by a prevailing tempo, key area, etc. Genres including sonatas, concertos, and symphonies usually involve 3-4 separate movements to create a larger cohesive form.
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Canon
Musical Forms . Canon:
Audio: - Slide # 88
Slide Title: Musical Forms – Canon: Definition
Musical Forms . Canon: “a musical form in which each entering voice states the same melody as the previous voice.” Row, Row, Row your Boat is a form of canon.
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Strophic
Musical Forms . Strophic:
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Strophic: Definition
Musical Forms . Strophic: “a musical form in which the music is repeated for each successive verse.” Hymn tunes and carols follow this simple form (AAAA).
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Theme and Variations
Musical Forms . Theme and Variations:
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Slide # 92
Slide Title: Musical Forms – Theme and Variations: Definition
Musical Forms . Theme and Variations: “a musical form with a melodic figure that is introduced and then varied throughout the course of the piece (AA’A”, etc.).” Listen to Mozart’s Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star from our Introduction to Listening CD.
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Slide Title: Musical Forms - Binary
Musical Forms . Binary:
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Binary: Definition
Musical Forms . Binary: “a musical form with two contrasting sections (AB).”
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Ternary/ABA
Musical Forms . Ternary/ABA:
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Ternary/ABA: Definition
Musical Forms . Ternary/ABA: “a musical form in which the opening section is contrasted with a middle section and returns at the piece’s conclusion (ABA).”
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Audio: - Slide # 97
Slide Title: Musical Forms – Rondo
Musical Forms . Rondo:
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Slide Title: Musical Forms – Rondo: Definition
Musical Forms . Rondo: “a musical form with a recognizable melody or refrain that returns between contrasting sections (ABACADA).” Listen to Mozart’s Horn Concerto mvt. III for a Rondo form.
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Genre
Musical Genres . Genre:
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Genre: Definition
Musical Genres . Genre: “a type of music (Classical, Pop, Country), but also a type of music with an identifiable style, form, ensemble, and place of performance.”
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Sonata
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Musical Genres . Sonata:
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Sonata: Definition
Musical Genres . Sonata: “a piece for soloist and accompaniment (often piano or harpsichord). Usually in three movements (Fast, Slow, Fast).”
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Concerto
Musical Genres . Concerto:
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Concerto: Definition
Musical Genres . Concerto: “a piece for soloist and orchestra. Usually in three movements (Fast, Slow, Fast).”
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Symphony
Musical Genres . Symphony:
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Symphony: Definition
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Musical Genres . Symphony: “a piece for orchestra. Usually in four movements (Fast, Slow, Dance (in 3/triple meter), Fast).” Note: this term can also imply an ensemble- the symphony orchestra.
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Opera
Musical Genres . Opera:
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Opera: Definition
Musical Genres . Opera: “a dramatic work in which the actors sing some or all of their parts, often with elaborate stage sets and costumes.” Notice that there is almost no difference between “opera” and “Broadway Musical”. Style of singing often is the deciding factor here (or composer’s intent).
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Style
Musical Genres . Style:
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Slide Title: Musical Genres – Style: Definition
Musical Genres . Style: “the general sound produced by the interaction of the elements of music: rhythm, melody, harmony, color, texture and form.”
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Audio: - Slide # 111
Slide Title: Musical Genres – Style: Description
Musical Genres We will discuss how these various elements of music interact starting in the Middle Ages and progressing through modern styles. Understanding how each of these features functions during a given period in history can help you identify when a piece was written, or the composer of the piece. If you are interested in comparing and contrasting features of given style periods or reviewing the style features of a given period, please review the Checklist of Musical Styles tab provided on the Cengage Coursemate website.
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