Concepts of Music Notes free essay sample

Melodic line and line are often used in a general sense, while specific melodic entities are called melody, theme, or subject, depending upon the point of reference. †¢ In an abstract sense, melody is the repository of subject matter or idea in many world music traditions. Melody is very important as idea in Western music. The Western view of melody is that it means something it is what the music is about. The melodic material of a given piece of music is what the overall piece is based upon and it is this basic idea to which all other elements in a composition relate. HARMONY †¢ Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity and chords, actual or implied, in music. It is sometimes referred to as the vertical aspect of music, with melody being the horizontal aspect. Very often, harmony is a result of counterpoint or polyphony, several melodic lines or motifs being played at once, though harmony may control the counterpoint. Harmony is said to give the effect of depth to a melodic line and forms the accompaniment material to melody in a homophonic texture. †¢ One property of harmony is vertical profile which adds sonic depth to music. The effect of three or more different tones sounding at the same moment in time creates the sense of greater mass and intensity of sound as compared to the effect of the sound of a single note. Chords are constructed from low to high tones. The lowest tone of a chord is known as the root and all other chord tones are built higher in pitch from this tone. Harmony occupies the sonic space below melody. Another property of harmony is harmonic saturation. Minor harmonic saturation occurs when a few chords occur in a passage of music while major harmonic saturation occurs when many chords occur in a musical passage. Low harmonic saturation creates a serene and calm emotional mood while high harmonic saturation creates a sense of great intensity and expectation. †¢ Harmony contributes to the structural design of music. The arrangement of melodic material lends itself to hierarchical design more noticeably than does harmony. This is because repetition of patterned material is more obvious in melody than it is in harmony. †¢ Harmony supports the structural design of musical components by helping to define climatic and cadential points in each phrase. Harmony contributes directly to the structure of strophic songs (songs that repeat melodic material for each stanza of new text) RHYTHM †¢ Rhythm is sonic action in time. More specifically, rhythm is the arrangement of durational sonic patterns or tone lengths that fall on or between the beat. †¢ Rhythm is shaped by meter. Composers arrange rhythms so that count one of the meter gives the point of reference of the rhythm. †¢ Rh ythm is generated by divisions of the beat. When music has a steady beat, the rhythmic patterns that comprise the music are generated by sounding tones on the beat, and between the beat. This is accomplished by dividing each beat into groups of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and sometimes more, divisions. These divisions are called duplets, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets, septuplets, and octuplet divisions, respectively. †¢ Rhythmic patterns are often repeated. Rhythmic patterns most often undergo a process of repetition in music. †¢ Rhythm is articulated by implied dynamic and agogic accents. An agogic accent is a stress of length, whereby a certain note is played longer than other notes within the rhythmic pattern. †¢ Rhythm contributes to the effect of motion in music. Rhythm and rhythmic patterns are a direct contributor to the effect of movement (motion) in music. The repetition of a rhythmic pattern creates a sense of forward motion by the appearance of successive sounds in a continuum of real time. TONALITY/TIMBRE †¢ The harmonic profile or sound quality of a sound source is timbre or tone colour in music. †¢ May also mean to describe the organization of the melodic and harmonic elements to give a feeling of a key centre or a tonic pitch. †¢ Timbre is determined by the harmonic profile of the sound source. Every sound source has an individual quality that is determined by its harmonic profile. Dark or simple timbres coupled with loud dynamics are encountered only occasionally in music and affect moods of starkness and loneliness. The same timbres coupled with soft dynamics affect moods of mystery and terror. †¢ Timbral combinations provide unique possibilities for music. Often composers assign successive segments of melody o r other material to different instruments. Certain orchestral combinations of instruments sound very much like other non-orchestral instruments †¢ Single reed instruments produce a mellow sound quality i. e. clarinets. Flutes produce soft tone qualities. Double reed instruments such as the bassoon and oboe produce a nasal like tone quality. Brass instruments again produce a completely different tone quality to woodwinds. The same will go for other instruments. Electronic instruments will produce a synthesised quality. TEXTURE †¢ In music this is referred to as the layers of sounds within a composition. †¢ There are many informal terms that can describe the texture of a piece of music (thick, thin, bass-heavy, rhythmically complex, and so on), but the formal terms that are used to describe texture all describe the relationships of melodies and harmonies. Monophonic music has only one melodic line, with no harmony or counterpoint. †¢ Homophonic music can also be called homophony. Homophony has one clearly melodic line; its the line that naturally draws your attention. All other parts provide accompaniment or fill in the chords. In most well-written homophony, the parts that are not melody may still have a lot of melodic interest. They may follow many of the rules of well-written counterpoint, and they can sound quite different from the melody and be interesting to listen to by themselves. But when they are sung or played with the melody, it is clear that they are not independent melodic parts, either because they have the same rhythm as the melody (i. e. are not independent) or because their main purpose is to fill in the chords or harmony (i. e. they are not really melodies). †¢ Polyphonic music can also be called polyphony, counterpoint, or contrapuntal music. If more than one independent melody is occurring at the same time, the music is polyphonic. †¢ A heterophonic texture is rare in Western music. In heterophony, there is only one melody, but different variations of it are being sung or played at the same time. TEMPO †¢ Tempo (an Italian word) identifies the rate of speed of the beat of music and is measured by the number of beats per minute. †¢ A beat may be slow or fast. Human perception perceives a range of tempo speed from about 30 to 240 beats per minute. †¢ Tempo is an important ingredient in the mood of any example of music, whether it be aggressive or calming in effect with excitement generally revealed through a fast tempo while solemnity is always revealed through a slow tempo. †¢ In music terminology and notation tempo indications are most often expressed in the Italian language. Terms that are used include, largo: very slow, broad, large lento: slow adagio: slow, comfortable, easy andante: moderately slow, a walking pace moderato: moderate allegro: fast, cheerful, joyful vivace: lively, quick presto: very fast, rapid. †¢ Modifiers of Tempo agitato: agitated (e. g. Allegro agitato) animato: animated (e. g. Allegro animato) appassionato: passionately (e. g . Andante appassionato) assai: very (e. g. Allegro assai) cantabile: singing (e. g. Adagio cantabile) con brio: with spirit (e. g. Allegro con brio) con fuoco: with fire (e. . Allegro con fuoco) con moto: with motion (e. g. Allegro con moto) espressivo: expressively (e. g. Adagio espressivo) grazioso: with grace (e. g. Andante grazioso) ma: but (e. g. Moderato, ma con brio) maestoso: majestically (e. g. Andante maestoso) marcato: marked, stressed (e. g. Andante marcato) molto: very, much (e. g. Molto allegro/Molto adagio) non: not (e. g. Allegro non troppo) non troppo: not too much (e. g. Allegro, ma non troppo) piu: more (e. g. Piu allegro) poco, un poco: little, a little (e. g. Poco adagio or Un poco piu adagio)