Music 120 The Elements Of Music: A Brief Introduction

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Melody: The Tune

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Melody is a dingle line of notes heard in succession as a coherent unit. A melody has shape, moving up or down in ways that caputer and hold our attention over a span of time. A melody is like a story: it has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

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Rhythm: The Time

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Rhythm is the ordering of music through time. Not all music has a melody, but all music has rhythm. A drum solo, for example, makes its effect primarily through rhythm. Rhythm can operate at many levels, from a repetitive, underlying pulse or beat to rapidly changing patternsof longer and shorter sounds.

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Harmony: Supporting the Melody

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Harmony is the sound created by multiple voices playing or singing together. Harmony enriches the melody by creating a fuller sound than can be produced by a single voice.

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Texture: Thick and Thin

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Texture is based on the nuber and gerneal relationship of musical lines or voices. Every work of music has texture from thick to thin. Sometimes one line or voice is more important; at other times, all the lines or voices are of equal importance.

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Timbre: The Color of Music

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Timbre is the character of a sound. The smae melody sounds very different when performed by a violoin, a clarineta guitar or a human voice. These sources can all produce the smae pitch, but what makes the smae melody sound different is the timber of each one.

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Dynamics: Loud to Soft

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The same musical can be performed at many degrees of volume, form very soft to very loud. Dynamics deteremine the volume of a given work or passage in a work of music.

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Form: The Architecture of Music

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A single melody is usually too short to constitute a complete work of music. Typically, a melody is repreated, varied or contrasted with a different melody. The way in which all these subunits are put together--the structure of the whole--is musical form. Form is based on repitition, variation, contrast and combinations.

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Word-Music Relationships

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If there is a text to be sung, we must consider the relationship of the words to the music. How does the music capture the meaning and spirit of its texts? And even if there is not a text to be sung, many works have titles tha suggest how we might hear them. Some composers have even written detailed descriptions of what a particular work is about in what we call "program music."

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Genre: Great Expectations

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When we listen to a work of music we have expectations. Symphony, Opera and song are all examples of genres. Each one tells us in advance how long it is likely to be, what kids of instruments or voices we weill hear, and what kinds of forms we might hear. Genre also tells us about the function of a work.

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phrase

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a brief musical statement

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cadence

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a point of arrival singaling the end of a musical unit

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melodic motion

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the movement of pitches within a melody up or down, either by step (conjunct motion) or by leap (disjunct motion)

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conjunct motion

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melodic motion of pitches by step

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disjunct motion

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melodic motion of pitches by leap

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scale

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a series of notes that provide the essential pitch building blocks of a melody

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octave

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covers eight notes

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interval

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the distance between each note

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key

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the central note and mode on which a melody or piece is based

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major mode

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a type of scale produced by singing "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do" or by playing the hwite keys of the piano between C and C, in which half steps occur between notes 3 and 4 and notes 7 and 8. The sound of the major mode is often described as "bright" or "happy" in contrastto the minor mode

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minor mode

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a type of scale produced by playing the white keys on the piano between A and A, in which half steps occur between notes 2 and 3 and notes 5 and 6, but often with the seventh note raised so that a half step aslo occurs between notes 7 and 8. The sound of the minor mode is often described as "dark" or "sad" in contrast to the major mode

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meter

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an underlying patter of beats that maintains itself consistently throughout a work

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triple meter

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an underlying pattern of rhythm in which each unit consists of one accented (strong) beat followed by two unaccented (weak) beats

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measure

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a rhythmic unit, indicated by bar lines in notated music, that presents one complete statement of the meter

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duple meter

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an underlying pattern of rhythm in which each unit (measure) consists of one accented (strong) beat followed by one unaccented (weak) beat or soem multiple of two. A unit of four beats per measure, for example, in hwich the first is the strongest and the third is the next strongest, is a type of duple meter

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chord

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three or more notes played or sung at the same moment

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tonic

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the ntoe that establishes a key, based on its distinctive relationship with a particular set of harmonies or other notes in the underlying scale. Also the chord based on the first scale degree

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monophonic

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a musical texture consisting of a single melodic line

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unison

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more than one performer playing or singing the smae pitch or pitches at the same time

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homophonic

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a musical texture in which a melody is performed with a supporting accompainment

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polyphonic

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a musical texture consisting of multiple lines of equal importance