[meteor_slideshow slideshow=”arp1″]
Elements of Music
Features of music that we hear every day
The most recognizable element of music is melody. We sing to ourselves, hear melodies in our daily lives: on television and in films, at the grocery store, in the doctor’s waiting room. Melody is the organization of sound according to some intelligent, planned out scheme. A melody is not only a human creation, but is also found in nature. Research is showing, for example, that bird “ songs” are learned by the young from their parents and require repetition and correction to get the right note sequence for the specific purpose of a song. To our ears these sound like melodies, though in actuality the bird is learning a language. But it does show an intelligent process being used in sound organization.
Melodic motion is an important aspect of the character of a melody. Melodies consist of movement from one note to the next. This can be conjunct, which is a stepwise motion from one note to the next. An example would be singing a doh-re-mi scale figure, such as the music in “O Canada” with the text “our home and native land”. The other aspect of melodic motion is disjunct motion, in which there are big jumps in the melodic line, such as the very opening of “O Canada”. Most melodies consist of a combination of conjunct and disjunct motion.
For examples of “O Canada”, you can access the site: Canadian Heritage – National Anthem. This is a government site and has examples of instrumental and sung versions of the national anthem. On the same site you can also access a printed version of the music under the heading: The sheet music.
Pitch is used to describe the highness or lowness of sound in comparison with other notes. Using “O Canada”, the first 2 syllables of “Canada” are higher than the opening “O”, while the final syllable of “Canada” is lower than the two previous syllables. Also, this opening of the national anthem is an example of disjunct motion, since the pitches are not in a stepwise motion.
An interval is simply the distance between two pitches. Some intervals are close together, such as in a scale, while others can be quite distant. In “O Canada”, the opening has intervals that can be considered distant, while the next phrase has intervals close to each other. The wider the interval, the more emotional impact there is in the music.
Dynamics are simply the loud and soft of music. This aspect of music can create mood. Listen to the music in films. Does the soft music create a relaxed atmosphere? Or is the soft music presenting a scene of suspense and tension? Dynamic variety also helps give structural shape to the music for the understanding of the listener. The word “piano” indicates music that is soft, while “forte” is loud music. Most of the musical terms being used come from Italian, although there are terms in French and German that are used in those countries.
Rhythm is probably the most fundamental feature of music. It can exist without a melody. Rhythm is part of our physical makeup – our hearts have a rhythm. If you look at other cultures, you find examples of music that is comprised only of rhythmic patterns free of melody.
The beat is the aspect of music that makes you want to tap your toe. The beat in a piece is constant and regularly recurring; the pulse of a piece is the feeling that one of the regularly recurring beats is a little stronger. If you feel a little bit of “swing” as you listen to a piece that is the pulse.
To organize the beats, we have meters that help define the strong beat. Duple meter is organized in 2s so that you feel the strong push of the beat every 2 beats. ONE-two ONE-two.
Triple meter is organized into 3s. ONE-two-three ONE-two-three.
Quadruple meter is in 4s. ONE-two-three-four ONE-two-three-four. In this case there is also a slight feeling of push on the third beat. It is really variant of duple meter.
There is music that has no beat structure, this is called free rhythm. Gregorian chant is an example of music in which there is no regularly recurring rhythm. The music follows the rhythm of the text being sung.
Syncopation occurs when the regular beat of the music has been temporarily displaced. This is a common feature found in jazz. It gives the music its “swing” character.
Tempo is the speed at which a piece is played. A romantic ballad will, usually, have a slow tempo, while a dance piece will have a faster tempo, sometimes referred to as an up-beat tempo.
Harmony
Harmony is the combining of sounds simultaneously. It is an important aspect of the music of European culture. Harmony is a result of the development of tonality, which was evolving during the Renaissance. Medieval music, which did develop multi-voiced music, was composed prior to the advent of tonality and harmony.
Tonality, and therefore harmony, is based on a system of scales, in which there is a dominant note that defines the sound of a piece of music. This note is called the tonic. It is the “doh” note in a scale. This tonic note is referred to as the key of the piece, around which all other tonalities in the piece revolve. It is similar to family and extended members of the family; some are closely related, others are more distantly related. It is beyond the scope of this course to get into technical harmonic discourse about the rules governing the hierarchical structure of key relationships. All I want you to know is that pieces are in keys that define their tonality and give the piece its aural character.
A scale is the systematic organization of pitches in sequence. All major scales follow the same pattern, no matter what pitch the scale begins on. The descending version of a major scale is simply the pitches of the sequence in reverse order. A major scale, which is the most common one used, has a feeling of happiness, joy, cheerfulness. “Happy Birthday” is an example of a piece written in a major scale, hence in major tonality.
The minor scale on the other hand makes use of a different sequential pattern of pitches. The minor scale sounds more sombre, serious, possibly, tragic. Funeral marches tend to be written in minor keys, hence in minor tonalities. The same idea of a related key system applies also to pieces written in minor keys.
The pentatonic scale, or scale consisting of 5 notes, is a structure found in many cultures around the world. The most commonly used example of a pentatonic scale is the black note arrangement found on a keyboard instrument. Probably the most well-known example of music written in a pentatonic scale is the music of the Far East.
Listen to an example of Chinese music that features the erhu, the Chinese 2-string violin, a very beautiful sounding instrument. There is a full Chinese orchestra, and you will also get to hear some dizhi, the Chinese flute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFAu54G_Ys (Opens new window)
Chords are 3 or more notes that sound together. These notes can form a pleasant sound, called consonant; or they can form a sound that is tense in sound, possibly less pleasant, called dissonant. Dissonant sounds are used to create emotional intensity. You will find there is quite a lot of dissonance in medieval music because of the method of composition. During the Renaissance, this dissonance began to disappear and consonance became the norm.
Cadences are like punctuation in grammar. Cadences help define phrases, which are smaller musical ideas that make up a complete musical thought. The idea of cadences developed along with the concept of tonality and harmony.
Unlike music of today, medieval music, as well as music of other cultures, and music into the Renaissance was written in modes. Modes can be found today the various cultural regions of Europe, such as Bulgarian traditional music, or folk music of Britain.
The modes of the medieval period are unlike the scales of the later periods. They do not indicate a specific, or “absolute”, pitch like the major and minor scales do. They are the sequence of intervals that comprise a stated mode. So while a key, for example D major, will always have the same specific pitches, a mode, such as the Dorian, can start on any pitch and be considered the Dorian mode as long as the intervallic relationships are the same as defined by the criteria for the Dorian mode. There are 8 medieval church modes, but you will not be expected to commit them to memory. The modes are divided into authentic modes and plagal modes. The 4 authentic modes are: Dorian, Phyrgian, Lydian, and Mixolydian. The 4 plagal modes are related to these and are called: Hypodorian, Hypophyrgian, Hypolydian, and Hypomixolydian. The difference is that the plagal modes begin on a note 4 pitches below the authentic mode, but follow the same pattern of pitches as their corresponding authentic mode.
Texture
Texture refers to the way in which musical sounds are combined. It is similar to the idea of texture of fabric. A light summer shirt has a different texture than a heavey woollen sweater. In music we have three textures.
Monophonic texture occurs when there is only one line of music and no other tonal accompaniments. Monophonic music is purely melodic. This is the most common texture in music around the world. A piece in monophonic texture can have a drum supplying a rhythmic feature to the music, but the texture is still considered monophonic because it only has one line of music supplying a melodic element. In the music of India, the sitar, which is playing the melodic line of music, has a drum and another instrument (the tambura) supplying a repeated pattern of sounds called a drone, but the texture is still considered monophonic, as the other instruments are not adding a harmonic element to the music.
An example of an Indian raga can found at the following address. It is a performance by the sitarist Ravi Shankar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JctKjVHmo2g (Opens new window)
Homophonic is a texture in which there is a predominant melodic line that is the focus of interest, with secondary tonal sounds – the harmony – accompanying the melody. This is the most common type of texture today. It is prevalent in popular culture music and became the dominant texture during the late 18th century Classical period of music. Songs are in homophonic texture with a singer being accompanied by instruments; orchestral music can be homophonic with the focus on a melodic line accompanied by the other instruments.
An example of contemporary homophony would be Tom Cochrane “Life is a Highway”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3sMjm9Eloo (Opens new window).
Polyphonic texture, also called polyphony, occurs when 2 or more melodically interesting lines of music are performed simultaneously. Music in this texture requires the most effort in understanding the structure of the music because there is so much going on at the same time. This is the texture that, once it became established in the late medieval period, would prevail until the end of the Baroque period.
[meteor_slideshow slideshow=”arp2″]
A-Research-Paper.com is committed to deliver a custom paper/essay which is 100% original and deliver it within the deadline. Place your custom order with us and experience the different; You are guaranteed; value for your money and a premium paper which meets your expectations, 24/7 customer support and communication with your writer. Order Now
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]
