Transcript Elements of Music continued

Elements of Music
continued
harmony, texture, and form
Harmony
• In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous
pitches (tones, notes), or chords.
• Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical"
aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic
line, or the "horizontal" aspect.
• However harmony can also be implied by a
melody that outlines a harmonic structure.
Harmony
• Interval and Chord
– The relationship between two pitches is referred
to as an interval.
• Example: C-G, A-D, E-F, etc.
– A larger structure involving more than two pitches
is called a chord.
• Triads
• Example: C chord—C, E, G
Harmony
• Scales and Modes
• Notes can be arranged into different scales
and modes.
• Western music theory generally divides the
octave into a series of 12 notes that might be
included in a piece of music.
– This series of twelve notes is called a chromatic
scale.
– major-minor tonality
Texture
• In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and
harmonic materials are combined in a composition
(Benward & Saker 2003, 131), thus determining the overall
quality of sound of a piece.
• Texture is often described in regards to the density, or
thickness, and range, or width between lowest and highest
pitches, in relative terms as well as more specifically
distinguished according to the number of voices, or parts,
and the relationship between these voices (Benward &
Saker 2003, 131).
• A piece's texture may be affected by the number and
character of parts playing at once, the timbre of the
instruments or voices playing these parts and the harmony,
tempo, and rhythms used.
Different types of Texture
• Monophonic
– Monophonic texture includes a single melodic line
with no accompaniment
• Example: "Pop Goes the Weasel" melody (Kliewer 1975, p.270-301).
Different Types of Textures
• Polyphonic
– Multiple melodic voices which are to a
considerable extent independent from or in
imitation with one another. Characteristic texture
of the Renaissance music, also prevalent during
the Baroque period (Benward & Saker
2003,1999,199,158,137,
136,129,110,90,59,35,11,9,0).
– Polyphonic textures may contain several melodies
Polyphony
• A bar from J.S. Bach's "Fugue No.17 in A flat", BWV 862, from
Das Wohltemperirte Clavier (Part I), a famous example of
contrapuntal polyphony
Homophonic
• The most common texture in Western music: melody
and accompaniment.
• Multiple voices of which one, the melody, stands out
prominently and the others form a background of
harmonic accompaniment.
• If all the parts have much the same rhythm, the
homophonic texture can also be described as
homorhythmic.
• Characteristic texture of the Classical period and
continued to predominate in Romantic music while in
the 20th century, "popular music is nearly all
homophonic,” (Benward & Saker 2003, 136).
Homophonic
• Homophony in Tallis' "If ye love me," composed in 1549. The voices move
together using the same rhythm, and the relationship between them
creates chords: the excerpt begins and ends with an F major triad.
Musical Form
• The term musical form is often loosely used to
refer to particular musical genres or styles,
which may be determined by factors such as
harmonic language, typical rhythms, types of
musical instrument used as well as historical
and geographical origins.
• It also has a more extended meaning,
referring to the type of "architectural"
structure on which the music is built.
Musical Forms—Level of Organization
• The smallest level of construction concerns the
way musical phrases are organized into musical
"sentences" and "paragraphs" such as the verse
of a song. This may be compared to, and is often
decided by, the verse-form or meter of the words
or the steps of a dance.
• In the analysis of musical form, sections, units,
etc. that can be defined on the time axis are
conventionally designated by letters, as is the
case in discussing poetic form.
Single Forms
• Strophic Form
– (AAAA...) indefinitely - the "unrelieved repetition"
that is one extreme of the spectrum of musical
form.
• Medley, or Chain form: this is the opposite
extreme of "unrelieved variation": it is simply
an indefinite sequence of self-contained
sections (ABCD...), sometimes with repeats
(AABBCCDD...).
Binary Form
• Using two sections (AB...); each section is often repeated
(AABB...). In 18th-century western classical music simple
binary form was often used for dances and carried with it
the convention that the two sections should be in different
musical keys but maintain the same rhythm, duration and
tone. The alternation of two tunes gives enough variety to
permit a dance to be extended for as long as may be
required.
• For example, the following verse:
– Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!
– verse composed of two differently-rhymed couplets (AABB): its
organization is binary.
Ternary Form
Three parts. In Western classical music a simple ternary form
has a third section that is a recapitulation of the first
(ABA). Often the first section is repeated (AABA)
In this example:
There once was a fellow from Leeds
Who swallowed a packet of seeds.
In less than an hour he burst into flower
And he died trying to pull up the weeds.
There is a rhyme repeated in the second line, but in the third
we find a variant, two half-lines sharing a new rhyme,
followed by a final return to the first arrangement in the
last line, giving the four lines the form AABA. This "samedifferent-same" form in music is called ternary.
Rondo Form
• Has a recurring theme alternating with
different (usually contrasting) sections called
episodes. It may be asymmetrical
(ABACADAEA) or symmetrical (ABACABA). A
recurring section, especially the main theme,
is sometimes more thoroughly varied, or else
one episode may be a development of it.
Theme and Variations
• A theme, which in itself can be of any shorter
form (binary, ternary, etc.), forms the only
"section" and is repeated indefinitely (as in
strophic form) but is varied each time
(AA1A2A3A4A5A6), so as to make a sort of
sectional chain form.
Sonata Form
• Almost always cast in a greater ternary form
having the nominal subdivisions of Exposition,
Development and Recapitulation. Usually, but
not always, the "A" parts (Exposition and
Recapitulation, respectively) may be
subdivided into two or three themes or theme
groups which are taken asunder and
recombined to form the "B" part (the
Development)
Orchestral Instruments
• An orchestra is a sizable instrumental
ensemble that contains sections of string,
brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments.
– A smaller-sized orchestra for this time period (of
about fifty players or fewer) is called a chamber
orchestra.
– A full-size orchestra (about 100 players) may
sometimes be called a "symphony orchestra" or
"philharmonic orchestra"
Instrumentation
• The typical symphony orchestra consists of four
proportionate groups of similar musical
instruments called the woodwinds, brass,
percussion, and strings.
• The orchestra, depending on the size, contains
almost all of the standard instruments in each
group. In the history of the orchestra, its
instrumentation has been expanded over time,
often agreed to have been standardized by the
classical period and Beethoven's influence on the
classical model.
Instrumentation
• Woodwinds
– Piccolo
– Flutes
– Oboes
– English Horn
– Clarinets in B-flat Bass Clarinet (and/or Clarinet in
E-flat) (Saxophone)
– Bassoons, Contrabassoon
Instrumentation
• Brass
– French Horns
– Trumpets
– Trombones
(2 Tenor, 1 Bass)
– Tuba
Instrumentation
• Percussion
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
(Varies heavily according to composer's needs)
Timpani
Snare Drum
Tenor drum
Bass Drum
Cymbals
Triangle
Wood block Tambourine
Xylophone
Vibraphone
Chimes
Marimba
• Xylophone
Vibraphone
Marimba
Instrumentation
• Keyboards
– Celesta
– Piano
– Organ
• Strings
– Harp
– Violins I
– Violins II
– Violas
– Violoncellos
– Double basses